Jack Tar Regatta- V5 takes Day 1 honours in Division A

by RNZYS Media on 21 Mar 2015 The 2015 Jack Tar Auckland Regatta got off to a boisterous start with powerful tides making for lumpy conditions as 68 yachts in nine divisions competed for the honours in the city’s biggest keelboat event.

Sprinkled across the highly competitive fleet were several notable ‘rock stars’ including Peter Burling, multiple 49er world champion, and America’s Cup winner Brad Butterworth.

Both were sailing in Division A comprising mainly TP52 yachts, which are forming a growing presence in the New Zealand racing scene.

By Gentlemen's Agreement within the Division, the yachts are principally owner-driven, but the addition of such stellar competitors underscores the calibre of racing in the regatta, which is jointly run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Bucklands Beach Yacht Club.

Racing conditions were testing, with powerful tides and opposing NNE winds making for confused seas.

After six races in Division A, the opening day honours belonged to V5 owned by David Nathan, with Connel McLaren’s Viento II only 1pt behind in second and Harry Dodson’s Mayhem third.

In B Division, considerable interest centred on the newly-launched Anarchy, a new design by Brett Bakewell-White for Andrew Reid. The boat was built in record time at Yachting Developments with this regatta set as the deadline for its racing debut.

On its first outing, the boat was far from race-optimised but showed glimpses of its potential. The leaderboard was topped by Lawless, being raced by members of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Lion Foundation Youth Programme. They posted a convincing run of four firsts and a second, with Mojo (Angie Crafer) second and Icebreaker (Steve Purton) third.

In the Open Multihull Division, an early casualty was the well-known Team Vodafone Sailing which retired after detecting equipment issues. The day belonged to Shane Bellingham’s Charleston, who posted three first place finishes on his scorecard, followed by John Kensington’s foiling catamaran, Foiled.

The Farr 1020 and the 8.5 multihulls are using the Jack Tar Auckland Regatta as their nationals. In the Farr 1020s, Rainbow IV, owned by Alan Smith, is holding top slot, followed by Shokran (Joe Brownlee) and Rawhide (Craig Anderson).

In the 8.5 Class, Dean Williamson’s trimaran Hurts Like Heaven is leading the pack, followed by Ken Ormandy’s Voom and Adrian Percival’s Freedom.

Racing resumes tomorrow.

For further results see the event website, www.aucklandregatta.co.nz.