YACHTING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18985, 3 February 1930, Page 5

YACHTING.

COMBINED RACE IS HELD BY CHRISTCHURCH CLUB.

The Christchurch Sailing and Power Boat Club held a combined yacht race for the Life Members’ and Seamew Class Cups on Saturday afternoon. F'rst places went to E. Morsison’s Fidget and A. T. Round's Seamew respectively. The sailing directions were:—Start in the middle channel opposite the club’s jetty, to the tripod buoy, round a buoy off Skylark Island, to the tripod, round the Avon buoy, to the tripod, to Skylark Island and return, finishing opposite the launch Seabird. There was a light east to north-east breeze, which fell away very much at times, and a flooding tide —a combination which made the race a slow one. The day was all in favour of the small yachts, two of which were second and fourth home. Seamew class vachts were first and third to finish. A. T. Round sailed a great race in Seamew. starting last but getting away all the time on windward work and coming home with nearly three minutes to spare from Fidget, which C. Morrison had kept in the lead during the first half of the race. Secret (F. Morrison), after getting a bad start, quickly went into fifth place and sailed very consistently, keeping that position to the finish. Gazelle (V. Etheridge) hit the bank turning the tripod buoy the first time, and went to the back of the fleet. Thereafter she was well handled and crept up to finish eighth. The start was at 3.30 p.m. The fleet was well behind the line when the gun went. They sailed up in two bunches. As the first bunch came up to the line there was a good deal of luffing and fighting for position. Several yachts up to windward were forced on to the bank and had to fall back. Naomi took advantage of the jockeying to slip past to leeward, and crossed the line first at a great clip. Te Arai and Secret led a bunch of seven with barely a couple of lengths among them. Seamew was last. Going up the middle channel with the tide Naomi increased her advantage. Seagull came up fr6m the rear to leeward, Secret was blanketed and fell back, and Winsome hit the bank, going into last, place. Fidget came up to windward and drew level with Seamew.

Soon after getting into the main channel most of the yachts took a short board to port to counteract the tide. Fidget improved her position a good deal, passing Naomi, and Alerte passed Seagull and Te Arai. Several lost way through cutting things too fine across the spit into the main channel and touching. The order rounding the tripod was: Fidget, Naomi. Alerte, Seagull, Te Arai and Seamew. Gazelle went into shallow water and dropped back a good deal.

Running up the Heathcote channel all the leaders except Alerte set spinnakers. Te Arai shot ahead and was soon second. Near Skylark Island the. narrow channel hampered the larger yachts a great deal, Te Arai suffering most. Seamew made the most of the beat back against the tide and. approaching the main channel, was almost level with Fidget. Alerte was in third place about three minutes back, with Sea Imp another minute away and Secret next. Secret lost time by changing to a leading jib, which was not. a great deal of benefit. Then, in a bunch, came Joyette, Gadfly. Naomi and Seagull, with Ngaire, Te Arai, Gazelle and Winsome at intervals in that order. Making to the tripod the positions of the leaders were unchanged. Naomi and Gadfly were passed by Seagull, and Te Arai and Gazelle passed Ngaire. The order at the tripod was: Fidget 4hr Gin, Seamew 4hr 7min 30sec. Alerte 4hr Smin, Sea Imp 4hr Smin 45see, Secret 4hr 9min SOsec, Joyette, Seagull, Gadfly, Naomi, Te Arai, Gazelle, Ngaire, Winsome. Naomi was carried on to the buoy by the tide, touched it and retired. Leading up to the Avon buoy Seamew passed Fidget into first place and Sea Imp passed Alerte. Reaching back to the tripod Te Arai came up from tenth to sixth and Gazelle from eleventh to eighth. The order rounding the tripod was: Seamew 4hr 19min 25see, Fidget 4hr 21min 25sec, Sea Imp 4hr 22min 3Ssec, Alerte 4hr 22min 53sec, Secret 4hr 23min 23sec, Te Arai 4hr 24min 55sec, Joyette, Gazelle. Another fast run was made up the Heathcote channel. Beating back Seamew increased her lead by over half a minute, Fidget opened up an equal distance from Sea Imp and Secret fell back somewhat. The order of the finish was: Seamew, Fidget. Sea Imp, Alerte, Secret, Gadfly, Seagull, Gazelle, Joyette, Te Arai, Winsome, Ngaire. Results:— Life Members* Cup. Fidget fE. Morrison), 3 6imin, 4hr 55min 21sec 1 Seamew (A. T. Round), ISJmin, 41ir 52min 3nsec 2 Alerte (R. G. Hampton), ISmin, 4hr 57min 35sec, 3 Sea Imp (F. Glanville), 17min, 4hr 57min 23sec Ngaire (W. Gray), 26min, shr llmin 26sec Winsome (M. Cousins), 23min, 51ir TOmin 53see . Joyette (O. White), 20min, shr Gmin 3 2 sec , . Seagull (W. Ayling), 183 min, shr Smin SOsec Gadfly (R. Beveridge). 17$min, ohr 4min 49sec Secret (F. Morrison). lOmin, shr lmin 18seo Gazelle (V. Etheridge), llmin, ohr 6min ssec Te Arai (G. Cotton), 12min, shr 6min 19sec Naomi (R. W. Gormaek), 16min, d.n.f. Seamew Class Cup. Seamew 3 Sea Imp !.. ! . 2 Seagull 3 REPRESENTATIVE CREW HAVE NOW BEEN PICKED. The final trial for the selection of a Lyttelton representative crew for the Cornwell Cup contest, to be held at Dunedin this month, was sailed on Saturday afternoon. The race resulted in an easy win for Zita, with B. Tissaman at the helm. Up to Saturday Tissaman was second equal with Ivan Newton, with 11 points each. R. Priddv held the leading position with 12 points', while G. Tyro, who did not compete in one of the races, had S points. Tissaman and L. Scott will represent Lyttelton at the contest. The draw of the boats cn Saturday resulted:—

Pauline—l. Newton and N. Odey. Wee May—G. Tyro and C. Kay. Wet-U—R. Priddy and L. M’Ginty. Zita—B. Tissaman and L. Scott. The course selected was a windward a £d leeward one. starting from a buoy °ff the bend of Gladstone Pier to a buov moored off Officers' Point, thence to the Pile Light and back to the starting mark, three times round. The conditions at the commencement of the race were ideal. The sea was calm, with a steady, fresh nor’-east breeze blowing. About an hour after the commencement of the race the wind died away to an almost dead calm, but freshened again in a few minutes. The race started at 3 p.m., before a fairlj' large attendance of onlookers. Panline crossed the starting line first, closely followed by Wet-U, Wee May and Zita. On the beat up to the buoy off Officers’ Point, Pauline, Wet-U and Zita made short boards, standing in towards the shore. Wee May (G. Tyro) made the mistake of keeping towards the centre of the harbour, where a lot of time was lost in the rip of the tide. Zita, which was last away at the start, by some nice manoeuvring, weathered Wet-U and a few minutes later weathered Pauline, and led by about three lengths. At the Officers’ Point buoy Zita held a lSsec lead from Wet-U. A smart run down to the Pile Light under spinnakers followed. Rounding the Pile Zita, Wet-U and Pauline stood on the starboard tack until nearing the moles. Pauline was the first to alter her course. The beat up to Officers’ Point was made by short boards, the helmsmen deciding to hug the north shore to dodge the rip of the making tide. The boats crossed the finishing line at the end of the first round as follows: Zita., Shr 42min lOsec. Wet-U, Shr 44min SOsec. Pauline, Shr 47min. Wee May, 3hr 4Smin. Similar tactics were employed on the second round. The wind died down as Zita completed her second round and left her standing almost on the line. Wet-U, in the meantime, was moving along nicely and shortened her distance from the leader. The breeze came away again fresh and Zita got away at a good pace. A heavy gust nearly capsized her. She increased her lead on the run down to the Pile, Wet-U being about 2min behind at the turn, with Pauline a similar distance back. The boats completed the second round as follows: Zita, 4hr 12min losec. Wet-U, 4hr 15min 35sec. Pauline, 41ir ISmin 35sec. Wee May, 4hr 19min lOsec. The finishing times were:— Zita, 4hr 33min 40sec ...... 1 Wet-U. 4hr 36m!n SOsec .... 2 Pauline, 4hr 40min 14sec . . Wee May, 4hr 43min ........ 4