“AFTER YOU, 51R..." No Chances Taken In Final Race

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30578, 22 October 1964, Page 24

“AFTER YOU, 51R..." No Chances Taken In Final Race

(Special Cormpondent NJtJ’.A.) TOKYO, October 21. H. O. L. Pedersen and E. L. Wells struck gold for New Zealand on the choppy water of Sagami Bay today. Their fourth placing in the final race of the Flying Dutchman contest gave them a decisive win. The Auckland friends, Pedersen, a 34-year-old building contractor, and Wells, a 30-year-old engineer, made a wonderful fighting recovery after a bad start to the series that is one of the major talking points among the world’s best yachtsmen at Enoshima.

One of the first to congratulate them when they returned to the harbour was P. G. Mander, the Finn class representative and the only other New Zealander to have won an Olympic gold medal for yachting.

His success cam" in the two-man Sharpie class ait Melbourne in 1956. Mander finished fourth in the Finn class after a disappointing twentieth place in the final race—easily his worst performance of the series. Second, Time

This is only the second time that the Flying Dutchman class has been included in the Olympic programme. The winner four years ago in Rome was Norway, and the New Zealand crew from Auckland, R. J. Watson and M. R. Rae, finished eighth. The New Zealanders sailed a tactical race, keeping a close watch on their main rivals, the British and American boats. They knew they could win the gold medal so long as they did not finish more than one place behind the British, and they could

afford to finish as far back as seventh if the British and American boats were behind them. As the race developed it became obvious that the British and American competitors were not sailing up to their best form, and the New Zealanders, after having the lead briefly at one stage, were content to drop back and finish fourth. America was tenth and Britain eleventh. 699 Margin Pedersen and Wells finished with 6255 points, giving them a winning margin of 699 over Britain, which took the silver medal with a total of 5556. In third place., on 5158, were the Americans. The worst performance by the New Zealanders was their withdrawal from the second race after hitting a marker, for which they received only 101 points—this they were able to discard. Their placings that counted were three firsts, a third, a fourth and the poor sixteenth that they had in the opening race of the series. There was no doubt that Pedersen and Wells, who have crewed together for the past three years, were the best in their class in the prevailing conditions. They were not especially impressive in the first two races when con-

ditions were light, but when the wind came in force and the sea lost its flatness the New Zealanders really performed well. Led Briefly Pedersen and Wells were thirteenth across the starting line in today’s race but they soon had Pandora tearing through the water at the speed that earned them three wins in the previous four races. They held second place behind Russia at the first and second marks, and then took the lead briefly. At this stage America was eleventh and Great Britain thirteenth, and the New Zealanders were dearly in a position to dictate their own terms. They took absolutely no risks and were passed by Russia and Austria on the next leg, and on the final beat dropped back into fourth place when the Dutch boat came through to finish second. It seemed that Pedersen could have taken third from the Austrians if he had tried on the finishing line but he was not prepared to be in volved in any dispute, and kept well dear of the other boats. As Pedersen said afterwards, it was a case of saying: “After you, sir."