New crew for top R yacht

Press, 17 November 1976, Page 44

New crew for top R yacht

By JOHN COFFEY

A yacht that has left all other R-class designs behind it in the last two seasons, but with a new crew aboard, is again expected to be prominent when the South Island championship is decided at Lyttelton on Saturday and Sunday. The boat is Pagan, which was sailed by John Rountree and Peter Townsend to victory in the Canterbury, I South Island and New Zealand contests in 1974-75. They retained the first two titles last summer, but the national series had to be declared a no-contest when only two races were able to be completed at Worser Bay, Wellington. Whether Pagan continues to enhance its illustrious reputation in this prestigious class will depend on Graham Parratt and Grant Nelson, two young men who were the runners-up in the New Zealand J.C. class championship in their final year in that intermediate division. Parratt and Nelson have i taken the rise to open yacht- ■ ing in their stride, and, even iin the opinion of some of i their strongest rivals, have ' done sufficient to earn, I favouritism for next week-1 ! end’s event. The sequence of four pro-| vincial and two island titles! fashioned by Rountree and Townsend has been inter • rupted by a period of in I activity. Rountree is building a new hull with similarities I to Pagan and Relent, the! craft which started him and his for’ard hand along the path of Canterbury success, but it will be some weeks before it ia ready for competition.

lan and Neil Jackson, who pushed Richard Ineson and Don Le Page and Rountree and Townsend back into the minor placings in the 1974 island series, have impressive claims for a repeat victory. They were partners in Unique on the occasion of their previous win, but will be crewing in Chela this time.

About 10 entrants from! Timaru and Dunedin are expected to challenge the Canterbury domination which has been broken only twice — and then when Dennis Lindsay travelled down from Wellington — in the last decade or so. If the championship is to be taken from the local squadron, the most likely recipients would be either the Timaru light-weather specialist, Ray Smith, or the very experienced Dunedin helmsman, Jim Mears, whose yacht, Heather, still remains competitive after many years of excellent service. All placings will count on the over-all points table, with the heats scheduled for Saturday morning and afternoon and Sunday morning.