YACHT RACING

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 8, 11 January 1939, Page 6

YACHT RACING

NATIONAL TITLES

FOUR CONTESTS AHEAD

Four national yachting championships are to be contested within the next few days. The New Zealand Idle Along championship contest begins at Nelson tomorrow, the Cornwell Cup contest for Z class boats begins at Plimmerton on Saturday, and is to be followed immediately by the New Zealand Monotype championship race, and the Sanders Cup contest is to begin at Bluff on Thursday of next week.

Wellington holds the Idle Along championship, the Evans Bay boat Vampire having won it at Picton last year. Wellington's defenders this year are C. Stutter, H. Stutter, and E. Gibson in the Heretaunga Boating Club's Tornado, and the other competing provinces are Nelson (Mayfair), Marlborough (Vagabond), Canterbury (Marita), and Bay of Plenty (Rose Marie). The contest -will be decided on the points system evolved by the Wellington Provincial Yacht and Motorboat Association,; which fostered the Idle Along class and the contest. Five races should decide the destination of the cup but six may be necessary. The tw Stutters and Mr. A. Johnson, the manager, left for Nelson last night. Gibson and the boat- went earlier.

The Cornwell Cup will be sailed,for by crews representing Plimmerton (the defenders), Wellington, Paremata, Wanganui, Dunedin, Tauranga, Manukau, and Auckland. Unlike the Sanders and Idle Along Cup contests, the Cornwell Cup series is sailed by representatives of ports, not provinces. Racing is to start at Plimmerton on Saturday and continue on Monday and daily thereafter until one crew has won three races and thus the cup. Plimmerton have won it the last two years and their representatives, T. Casey and J. Mullen, are anxious to complete the treble. , ,

After the Cornwell Ci^, contest one race will be sailed for the New Zealand Monotype championship, which was won at Plimmerton last year by S. Mason, of Auckland. He is not expected to be competing this year. The race is sailed by one man using mainsail only in a Takapuna boat. Wellington holds the Sanders Cup and its 1939 representatives, Messrs. J. Coleman, J. Nolan, J. Elliott, and P. Hollis, in the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club yacht Vanguard, will, like Plimmerton's crew in the Cornwell Cup, strive to complete the yachting "hattrick," as Wellington has won the cup for the last two years.. The other competing provinces are Auckland (Marjorie), Canterbury (Huia), Otago (Lynette), Southland (Vorena), and Stewart Island (Rona). The contest begins on Thursday week and continues until one crew has won three races.

Wellington's crew and their manager, Mr. C. D. A. Highet, as well as the boat, are to leave for Bluff by the Maunganui on Saturday afternoon.