Skippers to show sailing skills

Press, 29 January 1988, Page 18

Skippers to show sailing skills

By

BRYCE SIMS

Young Optimist skippers will have the chance to prove their sailing skills at the South Island age group regatta at Charteris Bay tomorrow and Sunday. The regatta comprises four different classes. Optimist and P class skippers will sail in four different age categories while the. Starlings and Flying Ants will compete separately with no age restriction. The . Optimist class, which is going from strength to strength, has attracted many eager skippers and the races should produce some clase competition. In the 10 to 11 years group, Justin Julian will be keen to keep up his reputation as a good allround weather sailor. He recently notched up a third place in the Estuary Pennants ahead of more fancied helmsmen. His main competition should come from Mark Payne of Timaru, and Michael Simpson of the Christchurch Yacht Club. The 12 to 13 group should produce close racing between James Mason and Aaron Goodmanson who are the two most improved sailors in the Optimist class. Mason, who is sailing on his home waters, turned in good performances earlier in the season with wins in the Canterbury age group regatta and the Charteris Bay Yacht Club’s junior marathon

and a second place in the opening race of the Estuary Pennants. Goodmanson has been scoring good wins at club level and will quckly capitalise on any mistakes that Mason might make. The P class 10 to 11 age group is expected to be keenly fought between Simon Irvine, Greg Sinclair, and Daniel Folter. Irvine, from the Charteris Bay Club, is in his first season in the class and won the Allen Cup for P class skippers, but was unfortunately disqualified at the Canterbury age group regatta after leading for not rounding a mark correctly. Folter, from the Pleasant Point Yacht Club,

should find the conditions to his liking. He is the most improved skipper in his age group. Mathew Stechman should have no difficulty in winning the 12 to 13 group after finishing fourth in the Tanner Cup and fifteenth in the Tauranga Cup. In the 14 to 15 year group, two old rivals, Alister Rowlands, and Neil Briggs, will again clash in the P class with neither skipper prepared to give ground on the water. Their main threat should come from Milton Bloomfield and three Timaru skippers, Glen Baker, Michael Coombe and lan Baker, who was the South Canterbury

Tanner Cup representative. Griff Simpson will start as favourite in the Starling class and his superior experience should be enough to wrest him the title. His main challenge will come from Richard May, who finished fourteenth at the nationals, two places behind Simp-

son, in a field of 65 boats. The Flying Ants will be hotly contested by Joanne Irvine and Mark Hollows, the combination which won the Canterbury age group regatta in the class, and Brent Hawes and Logan Townsend. Both crews shared the honours in the two Estuary Pennant races.