messing ST' about boats

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32210, 31 January 1970, Page 9

messing ST' about boats

j. o. corrro

(By

popular Win ' fTHE energetic ' Flying x Dutchman ' skipper, H. L. England, gained one of > the.jnbst unexpected victories in his extensive career when he received the winner’s gun during the Lyttelton regatta on Bunday morning,

England and G„ S. Shapland sailed Trekka across the finishing line several minutes behind the. South Island title-holders, G. S. Mander and D. R. Nixon,and certainly did not expect to hear the shot-gun blast accorded the first yacht home in each class.

It was not until after the race that England learned that Mander and Nixon had been disqualified for passing through the startfinish line at the end of the first lap, thus contravening the regatta racing rules. A former New Zealand Idle Along (Moffat Cup) and Javelin champion, England has been most active in fostering yachting amongst P Class and Junior Cherub competitors in addition to holding administrative positions with the Christchurch club and the Canterbury association. . - Ills sons, Neville and Gary provided a rich return for his work in the junior and intermediate classes by winning the New Zealand Junior Cherub championship at Charteris Bay earlier this month.

Island Series A lack of transport facilities appears certain to prevent B. G. de Thier, the -•'highest-placed nonAuckland O.K Dinghy skipper in the recent national championship, from taking his place amongst the fleet to contest the South Island title at Lake Mahinapua, near Hokitika, next week-end. Another Canterbury representative at the NewZealand series, P. Whitmore, has had his plans seriously disrupted by a recent motor accident However, preliminary estimates -indicate that about 12 Canterbury yachtsmen will be travelling to the West Coast to challenge local competitors and visitors from as. far south as Invercargill. Surprise Two 17-year-old Javelin class yachtsmen, L. Kennedy and S. Washington, travelled from Picton to Wellington last week-end and caused much embarrassment among members of the more experienced local fleet Sailing Fugitive, Kennedy and Washington finished a promising second behind Banzai (B. Chatfield, Heretaunga) in the first race before establishing their superiority in the next three races of the series on Saturday and Sunday. In each succeeding heat their margin of victory was lengthened and they returned home . in an unbeatable position with the final race this week-end able to change the minor placings only. Earlier this season Kennedy and Washington were put out of contention for South Island championship honours at Lyttelton through a-series of gear breakages and unsuitable conditions. Their margin of victory at Wellington—--366.66 points, with M. Sleeth and K. Clarke, 226, and B. Coleman and P. Kearney, 222.66, well behind next—must bring them into national title calculations at Auckland at Easter.