AURORA SAILING CLUB

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 28 November 1938, Page 2

AURORA SAILING CLUB

SATURDAY'S RACING I MAYFAIR WINS IDLE ALONG CLASS VALKYRIE ALL THE WAY AMONG OPEN CLASS Saturday's races of the Aurora Sailing Club were sailed in a fresh sea breeze. The Idle-Along flotilla was a little bashful and took half a minute to make up its mind to cross the line when Tainui took the lead and held it ] for most of the first round but was ' passed by Mayfair after a smart piece [ of tide dodging near the power house. ! Tainui was giving a clever imitation , of a submarine when she came down . the harbour for the second run but steady work on the bailer later brought t her to the surface and she finished the ■ race after a hard struggle, in third 1 place, to get enough points to lie even with Mayfair. Damp Ann celebrated her second race of the season by capsizing in the , j first round. Slipper went to the rescue ! but was able to go on with the race and came in fourth. Curlew sailed her • best race of the season to finish* only twenty seconds behind Mayfair on ■ corrected times. ; It is still noticeable that all the Idle- ‘ Alongs, except Mayfair, do a fair ‘ amount of jib flapping in stays, while j the dance of the spinnakers (which ’ j should be a steady glide) has developed ! into a noticeable feature. Apparently ' few of the forward hands have worked | out a definite technique for handling I their sails and centreboards. Nearly all , { appear to be afraid of their spinnakers r i and get them down too soon. They also l get them up too late and lose time on ■ both operations. A good forward hand • I is essential to boat racing and nothing but deliberate planning and practice j can make even the best of nature's . sailors into an expert. The results, with handicaps and times ) were as follows: l t Mayfair <scr), lllmin 25sec 1 - Tainui (2min), 120 min 25sec ...... 2 . Slipper (Bmin), 137 min 45sec 3 ? Curlew (Bmin), 119 min 45sec 4 : Damp Ann (9min), withdrew’. OPEN CLASS RACE The open class, not wishing to appear as forward as the Idle-Along class took • a full minute to cross the line. After this Scandal started pumping and as J far as could be seen from the wharf continued pumping for the rest of the race, even preferring this pastime to setting a spinnaker. Valkyrie, first to I cross the line, wearing a new set of sails, was a little faster than usual, and because of Scandal’s poor showing, t appeared a great deal faster. Though starting to windward Scandal was not able to hold the position for long, Valkyrie going ahead and gaining the whole way. Manunu, with the President on board, sailed a good honest race and arrived in time to be second on alio wance. Popeye has a very foul botr tom apparently, as she seemed to be sluggish, and was not, perhaps, sailed in quite so free a manner as was expected. Had Popeye been allowed to go a little further off the wind the time would have been better. As it was her crew are to be congratulated on finishing, j When the new sails arrive no doubt j I opeye will finish in the first flight. I' The result, with handicaps and times, was as follows: Valkyrie (12min), 79inin 35sec 1 I.lanunu (16min), 99min 25sec 2 Scandal (scr), 93min 15sec 3 Popeye (16min), 126 min 4 The Aurora Cup was won by Scandal with two wins out of three races, the points being: Scandal 16, Manunu 9, Valkyrie 6, Popeye 8. A PROTEST A protest was lodged by a Tauranga class boat, Liza Jane, cn account of a foul by Curlew and this will be discussed at the next committee meeting. Slipper also applied for a re-sail of the Idle-Along race on account of her standing by the capsized Damp Ann. This will be settled also by the committee. A small field of Tauranga's raced for the entrance fees. Racing is arranged for next Saturday ct the usual times: Idle-Along class for a series of races for the Kitchingman Cup, unless it is decided to re-sail the last race, now under protest; handicap class for a single prize of the entrance fees, and Tauranga Class the same. NEW CLUBHOUSE The new clubhouse is comp.eted and will be taken over by the club this week. Much remains to be done with the furnishing and equipment and a si b-committee consisting of the president, commodore and treasurer has been given full power to deal with this.