Broken mast costs Auck. crew dearly

Press, 8 February 1979, Page 30

Broken mast costs Auck. crew dearly

By

JOHN COFFEY

A broken mast in the second of two spectacular capsizes cost Mark Paterson and Murray Ross (Auckland) dearly when the fourth heat of the national Sanders Cup Javelin class yachting series was sailed at Lyttelton yesterday. Instead of the comfortable over-all lead which the 1976 Olympic Games representatives had been expected to enjoy, their double disaster left them only just managing to hold third position in the aggregate points table.

If their fortunes were not so bad when worst performances were deducted — they would then be equal first with Garth Cheyne and Murray Gibbons (Wellington) — Paterson and Ross will have the handicap of using an unfamiliar mast for the four races which remain in the series.

The Sanders Cup competition has developed into a far more tense event than predicted. Paterson and Ross had confirmed their favouritism with line honours in the opening heat on Monday but the titleholders, Doug Mcßeath and David Zorn (Hawke’s Bay), beat the Auckland crew yesterday morning and Cheyne and Gibbons decisively won the afternoon race. At one stage the fourth heat (actually the third to be completed because of an earlier postponement) provided the intriguing possibility of a triple tie on the progress points chart. But the enforced withdrawal of Paterson and Ross and the inability of Mcßeath and Zorn to recapture second placing dispelled such speculation.

Cheyne and Gibbons, the runners-up in the 1977 cup series and third last summer, have conceded 11 points in the Olympic lowscoring system. Mcßeath and Zorn are next with 13.7, ahead of Paterson and Ross (18) and Pete Milliken and Brent Cowan (Canterbury 18.7). The other four provincial partnerships are well behind.

It was perhaps an omen of disappointments to follow that Paterson and Ross should have one of the worst beginnings when the second heat started in light, flukey, but gradually freshening easterly conditions yesterday morning. They were a modest fifth

■at the top mark, by which stage Mcßeath and Zorn had already slipped nearly 2min clear of Allan Todd and Jim Monson (Otago). The skill of the Auckland pair enabled them to overcome much of the deficit although they were still 2min 4s in arrears of Mcßeath and Zorn at the finish.

The winds blew just as unkindly for Milliken and Cowan, who also looked in vain for a lift along the Diamond Harbour shore on the first beat. Fifth was all they could recover as the easterly strengthened in force over the last few legs of the course.

Cheyne and Gibbons wasted no time in making their intentions obvious in the fourth heat and they had a more than useful margin over Paterson and Ross at the first buoy. Milliken and Cowan and Mcßeath and Zorn, who were to engage in a keen duel throughout, were next to raise their spinnakers. The world of Paterson and Ross began to go all wrong when they went into the tide on the second lead, pushing them back to fifth. They had regained fourth from Paul and Kevin Heads (Southland) before their bigger calamity forced them to quit early in the second-to-last leg. The Heads brothers also came home under tow.

One glimmer of consolation for Paterson and Ross had been the dismissal of a protest concerning their class registration. But they will be seeking more pleasing platings when the series resumes with the resail of the postponed first heat this morning. Results: —

Race three. —Fleet Scribble! ID. Mcßeath and D Zorn, Hawke’s Bavl, 2:11.22. 1; Dancing Queen iM. Patterson and M. Ross. Auckland!. 2:13.26. 2; Snuffle Up A Gust (A. Todd and J. Monson, Otagoi, 2:14.49. 3; Touche |G. Cheyne and M. Gib bons Wellington! 4. Marmalade iP Milliken and B. Cowan, Can terbury) 3, Jim Beam (R. Armstrong and R. Holdershaw. South Auckland! 6 Komotion (P and K. Heads. Southland, 7, Mil Bojangles (M. Clark and It. 'Ullman, Manawatu) 8. Raee four—Wellington. 1:22.18. 1: Marmalade. 1:26.1, 2: Fleet Scribbler. 1:26.11. 3: Otago 4. Manawatu 5. South Auckland <> Auckland and Southland did not finish.

Aggregate points.—Wellington, 11. 1; Hawke’s Bay. 13.7. 2: Auck land 18. 3; Canterbury. 18.7 4: Otago. 28.7. 5; South Auckland, 33.4. 6; Manawatu. 39, 7; South land. 43. 8.