Yachting partners now rivals

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 20

Yachting partners now rivals

A Christchurch yachtsman, Marton Sinclair, has good memories of the last time Charteris Bay held the national Flying Fifteen championships. Eight years ago Sinclair and Mike McPhail took the title, but when this year’s contest opens with the invitation race at Charteris Bay tomorrow the pair will be rivals. Sinclair will sail with Chris Davis, and McPhail, who won the championship in 1985, will have John Taylor as

crew. The fleet will include the title-holder, the Aucklander Alan Ballentine with his crew, Roger Davies, and Napier’s Barry Finlayson, who won the world contest in 1982. Finlayson will have Graeme Robinson as crew. Dunedin’s Flying Fifteen fleet will be represented by Leatham and Anne Edmond, while Jeff Morrison, wha is enjoying a good season, will be Timaru’s main hope. As far as Canterbury crews go, the honours this

season have been spread fairly evenly between Sinclair, the experienced Paul Pritchett (who will be sailing with Glen Cowan) and the husband-and-wife team of Hec and Leigh Dawson. At national level the Flying Fifteens, while not commanding the numbers of the Olympic classes, are attracting growing fleets. They are strong in Auckland, Napier and Wellington as well as Canterbury. Part of the reason for their popularity is in their versatility and the

challenge they offer. “I think they suit a particular type of person,” Sinclair said. “They offer the mobility of a small keel boat and yet you are not being tied down, having to bother about marinas,” he said. The Flying Fifteen has some of the attributes of a dinghy as well. In Sinclair’s words, there was also “some tolerance” within the measuring system which had allowed some variation with the hull specifications. However, that

was beginning to be tightened up, he said. It appears that a design brought back from the 1986 world championships in Hong Kong was gaining popularity and providing the fastest hull shape at present. Several of the Flying Fifteens at this contest have been built on those lines. The championship will be sailed over seven races, starting with the first race proper on Monday, and ending on Friday. JANE DAVIDSON