messing about in boats

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30880, 13 October 1965, Page 17

messing about in boats

Benmore The Otematata Yacht Club now has eight boats on its books, although only two of them entered the water on opening day last month. The rest have since followed and the first full season on Lake Benmore is well under way. The club’s vice-commo-dore, Mr N. Newcombe, has been transferred to Nelson and is taking his . Flying Dutchman type Finn keeler Volante with him. The club will hold its only regatta of the season on November 27 and 28 at a time which the committee thinks will be fairly slack at other clubs. Sailing, power boat and water ski sections of the club will combine next Sunday for novelty events, races and displays. There will be a balloon race, a Le Mans start race, a yachting demonstration, a water skiing display (water temperature permitting) and perhaps a kayak race. Waimakariri The Waimakariri Club, which held its opening race on Sunday afternoon in near calm and rain-squall conditions, shows improvement An extended rigging area protected by rock dumped along the north bank of the river at Kairaki, and the concrete slipway three times the width it used to be, make the surroundings much more attractive and practical. Put in hand last season, the works have already drawn crews who used to avoid the “Mak” because of its notorious congestion ashore. The next improvement will be a surplus 20ft by 30ft classroom given the club by the Rangiora High School. Club members will make the shift themselves. The building, sited o’- the former car park, will be used for boat storage. Burglar Last year’s Tauranga Cup representative skipper from the Waimakariri, 14-year-old B. J. McEwen, is continuing his winning run. He won honours on Sunday afternoon in a drifter at Kairaki, but it was not his first success this season. The week be-

fore, in a gale, he won the Commodore’s Trophy race at the Christchurch club

opening, repeating his burglaries of the previous year. McEwen, a fourth former at Rangiora High School, has a new boat this season. In the Tauranga Cup event at Auckland last summer he finished fourteenth in a fleet of 57 boats. Odd Man Out Only a small fleet—eight boats —turned out for P Class racing at Charteris Bay during the week-end. J. Boanas had only one race in the junior section. After showing excellent form on Saturday he was promoted to the senior division. The seniors, however, did not distinguish themselves on Sunday. Four out of the five of them sailed the wrong course and were disqualified. The odd man out, and winner of the race, was M. R. Prestney, who kept his wits about him. This more than made up for Saturday when he finished last after experienced new-boat troubles. Close Times Predictably, the best competition at Charteris Bay on Saturday was among the Olympic Finns, the first four boats coming home within 50 seconds. The 1964 Olympic trialist B. E. Treleaven made it a bare six seconds ahead of J. S. Wearn who has been

sailing consistently well. Both these Christchurch club skippers were ahead of the top Charteris Bay helmsmen, D. Eastmond and P. F. Pritchett. Eastmond’s ghastly purple hull was 32 seconds astern of Wearn’s boat and seven ahead of Pritchett’s Loafin’ Too.