YACHTING NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 19, 24 January 1938, Page 17

YACHTING NOTES

THE GREY CUP RACE

WIN FOR THE IMPUDENCE

The main event on the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club's programme on Saturday, January 15, was the race for the Grey Cup. This race is a general handicap for centreboarders under 18' feet, and'it attracted sixteen starters, amongst which were most of the star centreboarders of Wellington. , The disadvantage of the long northerly starting line was again, apparent. Those boats up. at the weather, end of the line could not see the starting flags and nad to judge the start by the leeward boats nearer Clyde Quay Wharf. The dub would be well advised to arrange for the starter to occupy King's Wharf in a northerly, C. D, A. Highet's Impudence again showed its superiority in light weather by leading all the way to win by six minutes from the Vanguard and the Kitty, thus again -proving itself a worthy representative of the club and Wellington Province at Hobart in" February. ' : Wellington's Sanders Cup representative, the Kitty, fought out a closelycontested race with ithe Vanguard. They sailed board for board all the way and the Vanguard went well to beat the Kitty by 35 seconds. The Kitty, however, probably was not at her best as-she was experimenting and trying out new ideas for the Sanders Cup contest next week. - The Jean also sailed a good face to finish fourth and if Cliff Hollis continues with his good work he will be well to the fore in future races. The Jean was placed second on handicap. One of the outstanding performances was that of the Dominion Idle long champion, the Vampire, which sailed very well to finish fifth, well in front of many 'fourteens."1 She was unfortunate, however, jn being disqualified for disembarking a man after the, flags were up. The Advance was disappointing and should have\done better under the conditions that prevailed. She was undoubtedly handicapped by her four man crew and could not finish better than ninth. The Southern Maid, June, Wellesley, and Te Ruru did not seem to like the light weather and would probably give a better account of themselves tn a "blow" The Lonesome, Dorothy, and Rebel had their usual private race, and the Lonesome had a slight advantage on account of her two-man cre^v. The Whoopee was the only second-class cen-tre-boarder to. start.and pluckily finished to gain her championship points. It was unfortunate that the weather upset ,-the handicapper.. It was declared moderate, attd appropriate handicaps were allotted. However, the race was sailed in light weather and this caused the boat" to be wrongly handicapped. . The other event on the programme was a combined keelers' handicap and this drew eight starters. The race resolved itself into a struggle between the scratch' boat, the Ailsa, and, W, Mellor's new Bermudian cutter Astral, which was sailing in its first race in Wellington. When approaching the finishing line these two yachts had drawn well aWay from therest of the fleet, but there was still, very little between them. In a great finish the Astral crossed the line a few seconds ahead of the Ailsa. The Astral luffed the; Ailsa up to the weather end oi the line allowing the -Viola to ■ gain on these two, and she finished a fairly close third, being placed ' second on handicap. - ' ; The Astral is to be' congratulated on her performance, as she is withoutan-v in the way, of sails,' When she gets these she will be a dangerous contender for first-class keeler honours