Nicholas brothers hold 470 lead

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 3

Nicholas brothers hold 470 lead

With four races sailed in the Mahan Marine 2001 wet suit 470 class National Championship, at Lyttelton, Terry and Peter Nicholas, of Auckland, are leading Mark Milbum and Simon Mander, of Canterbury, by eight points, with three races to sail. The third race of the series was sailed in light conditions, with the Nicholas brothers leading out the 19-strong fleet. The weather suited the Auckland pair who won the race comfortably from Leslie and Jenny Egnot, of Canterbury. In the fourth race, Milbum and Maiider showed their domination in the shifting wind conditions, and won by five seconds from Jon Bilger and P. McNeil, of Auckland.

In the third race, Nicholas sailed off to a good start, and by the top mark opened up a 10s lead over Egnot with lan Stewart and Craig Watson (Auckland) in third place.

Nicholas led the fleet round the wing mark, but Egnot closed within 5s by the bottom mark, and passed Nicholas on the beat up to windward on the windward-leeward leg.

By the end of the leg Nicholas had regained the lead, and went on to take the fleet round the triangle closely followed by Egnot.

Nicholas then went on to win the race, by 15s from Egnot, with Bilger a further 25s back in third place.

With a wind shift for the fourth race, and a course alteration, the fleet got off to a good start. Milburn showed out early, and led Bilger round the top mark by 30s, with Stewart a further 5s back. Milburn increased his lead at the wing mark to 60s over Bilger, but by the bottom mark, Bilger had chopped Milbum’s lead down to 455. Nicholas was a further 34s back in third. On the windward-leeward leg, the wind dropped away on the run to the windward

mark. Bilger caught Milburn in the light conditions.

As the wind then increased Milbum caught Bilger napping, and opened up an 8s lead rounding the mark.

In the run down to the leeward mark, Bilger and Milburn raced neck and neck, with Milburn pulling out the stops, as the wind strengthened, leading round the mark by 355. Milburn increased his lead to 45s over Bilger at the top mark for the second time, and went further ahead at the wing mark to lead Bilger on the final beat by 60s. Bilger fought back valiantly on the final beat, taking an outward course, but Milburn won narrowly, crossing the line 5s ahead. Nicholas finished third 2min 12s back. Results.—

Race three (19 boats): T. and P. Nicholas (Auckland), 1; L. and J. Egnot (Canterbury), 2; J. Bilger and P. McNeil (Auckland), 3; I. Stewart and C. Watson (Auckland), 4; M. Milburn and S. Mander (Canterbury), 5; D. Stevens and S. Oram (Auckland), 6. Race four: Milburn 1, Bilger 2, Nicholas 3, Stevens 4, Egnot 5, Stewart 6. Results over all after race four: Nicholas 8.7 points, 1; Milbum 16.7, 2; Bilger 17.4, 3; Egnot 29.0, 4.