R CLASS YACHTING Brothers In Clear Lead

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31315, 10 March 1967, Page 15

R CLASS YACHTING Brothers In Clear Lead

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. After a forced withdrawal from the first race in the national R class yachting championships yesterday morning, the Northland pair, R. and G. Knightly, led the field home in the afternoon race at Evans Bay.

The brothers sailed their yacht Mislead to the line 18sec ahead of defending national champion yacht, Unique.

But after the race Unique’s crew, G. J. and C. J. Cooke, lodged a protest against the winners.

This afternoon’s race was the second in the five-race series for the R class championship and the Leander Cup. It began in moderate winds but occasional heavy gusts made conditions hazardous.

One gust splintered the mast of the winner of the morning’s race, Frenzy, sailed by D. Harrison and B. Watson, of Canterbury, and the mast of Torrent, K. Hart and A. Moore. It was the second time Torrent had lost its mast in two days’ sailing.

With two seconds, Unique held a clear lead, with 160 points out of a possible 200. Tied in second place are Frenzy and Mislead—both winners of one race and with withdrawals from the other—with 101 points. Canterbury yachtsmen dominated the morning race, filling the first three places, with Frenzy, the winning yacht in 1958, 1963 and 1965, leading Unique across the line by 38 seconds. Mislead withdrew from the morning race with a broken boom. Results:

First Race.—Frenzy (D. Harrison and B. Watson, Canterbury) 1 Unique (G. and C. Cook, Canterbury) 2, Radiant (A. Shields and B. Taylor, Canterbury) 3, Repeat (D. Davies and R. Walker, Wellington) 4, Reprimand (W. Hammond and D. Smith, Wellington) 5.

Second Race.—Mislead (R. and G. Knightly, Northland) 1. Unique 2, Cosmos (E. Dodds and W. Lounden, Wellington) 3, Heather (B. Kernot and B. Strahan, Auckland) 4, Reprimand 5.