Big seas for Day 1 of the 2015 Jollyboat National Championship
by Matt Hall-Smith on 21 Mar 2015
Jollyboat 2015 National Championships at Manly - Image by Matt Hall-Smith Matt Hall-Smith
The Jollyboat class have convened at Manly for the second year running. This year, in contrast to last, to be greeted by a brisk Easterly and mountainous seas.
In a class that can be sailed single or double handed, it's been the turn of the big boys and the double handers to rise to the top of the results table.
Day 1 - three races were sailed on a triangle/ windward leeward course. Rob and Dan Neeley scored two wins to top the table at the end of the day, followed by Roger Hall and Matt Hall-Smith, who won the first race. Richard Bicknell got submariner of the day after some gear failure and multiple capsizes. Sadly Bill Hewitt from Maraetai also had to retire with a broken gooseneck.
Day 2 - a tad more breeze and an even larger sea state, and with the arrival of the Zephyrs (doing their Auckland Champs) saw the course swap to a trapezoidal course to keep the fleets separated. Under the excellent officiation of PRO Kim Admore and the Manly team, the Jollys sailed another 3 races and the Zephyrs 4. Rob and Dan won the first race and narrowly lead the regatta at the end of day two after a stand out performance from Graham Fleury who won two races.
One of these in spite of having to do a penalty turn at the top mark. Day two also saw double handers Andrew and Cam Brown claw their way into 3rd spot with two seconds and a third. Breakages of the day were Alan Longmire with a broken tiller and Phil Clark with a broken boom.
The Zephyr and Jollyboat classes are sitting down for a BBQ tonight and hoping for lighter conditions tomorrow as there are some sore bodies in both fleets.
Final results will follow.
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