Invitation race to Olliff

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 42

Invitation race to Olliff

(By

JOHN COFFEY)

Barry Olliff, of A tick-] land, returned an excel-] lent trial run for the: New Zealand Moth I class national yachting] championship when he swept away fjrom iris rivals in the invitation race at Lyttelton yesterday. However, Olliff’s form could not be compared with that of the pre-contest favourite, Paul Page (Auckland), who decided to delay

| his first competitive appeariance on the harbour until [the opening heat of the. ■championship proper this! ; morning. i But it was c'ear from : Olliff's dominance that Page ■ will not have an easy task in winning his third consecutive title if the easterly wind continues to blow with the freshness that carried Olliff, especially, and the J other leaders along at a crisp pace yesterday. I

i There was never any] [doubt as to the outcome of ' the invitation event once | 'Olliff had rounded the top, [mark Imin 30sec tn front of 'Rob Harvey (Hamilton). When Olliff reached that buoy for a second time the margin had been extended to 3min and he had 4min 20sec to spare at the finish. GAP OPENED Capsizes caused frequent changes of position behind Olliff, and Harvey dropped back through the fleet. It was left to Keith Henderson (Canterbury) and his former Stewart's Gully club-mate,

'Robert Smith (now of West f port), to dispute the runnerup placing. I Smith kept in front of! i Henderson throughout the' triangle section of the course, but Henderson slipped through on the second beat, opened a comfortable gap on the lead and was 44sec to the good off Smith at the line. John! Drummond (Hamilton) gavel promise that he could be the' I top junior helmsman in the 1

title series when he was fourth — the next most prominent of the younger skippers was Kelly Martin (Hamilton), who was eighth. The championship will consist of two races today and tomorrow and the final heat on Monday morning. Results:

Invititation race (15 started): B. Olliff (Auckland). Ihr Bmin, 1; K. Henderson (Canterbury), 1:12.20, 2; R. L. Smith (Westport), 1:13.4, 3: J. Drummond (Hamilton), 1:]5.31, 4; D. Barber (Auckland) 5; G, A. Church (Canterbury) 6; B. Wright (Canterbury). 7; K. Martin (Hamilton) 8.

TRIAL SERIES After having experienced some setbacks in recent weeks, Bret de fhier regained his ranking as the leading Finn skipper in Canterbury when he won the first heat of the South Island trial series, sailed off Purau. Phi! Folter and Dick Wells trailed de Thier home and boosted their chances of 'being among the three

southern yachtsmen to be added to the New Zealand squad for the world Finn Gold Cup contest at Brisbane in January. The opening event was! disappointing for the top two place-getters in the ■ recently-completed provincial championship. Dave Eastmond was only eighth of the 18 starters, and Freerk Kempkers fell to twelfth — but both have the compensation of being able to drop the worst of their six performances. Bryan Treleaven, who has already qualified to represent New Zealand, was sixth. In contrast, the favoured candidates to gain Canterbury’s nominations to take part in the national youth trials returned the results expected of them. Edward Snowden and Paul Mclntosh earned line honours ahead of Steve Mander and Tim Simmance among the seven J. I C. crews and Peter Maynard I won the individual Laser! section from Peter McLeayi and Colin Roberts.