Fun and Sun for Europe Dinghies in Napier

by Antje Muller on 8 Jun 2011
Plenty of wind was promised for the first day of the Monkeysfist Yachting Brass Monkey regatta held at the Napier Sailing Club. This year, it was the first time that the Europe Dinghies started in a separate fleet.

On Saturday, the six Europes went out together with a fleet of about 20 OK Dinghies and 5 Paper Tigers for a 10.30am start. The wind was light going out but came up to about 12-15 knots - still short of the predicted stong winds.

Susie, David and Antje came off the start line close together, but the Marten could not pace the Winner boats. By the top mark Antje had played her weight advantage and lead the fleet around the course. It was Lucy's first regatta after learning to sail with Monkeysfist Yachting this summer, and she successfully managed the start and the first lap. Wendy showed good speed up wind, but slowed down a little around the corners. Gill was getting used to racing a Finessa and especially on the downwind worked her way closer to David and Susie. David and Susie battled over second place, and David was all gentleman following the lady across the line.

In the second race, Susie nailed the pin end start while Antje tried to park David on her shoulder and missed out on a good start herself. For the only man it did not go that well, but he managed to just claw back Gill by the finish because she had a bad tack on the last beat to windward. Wendy stayed in touch with the fleet finishing fifth and then decided to call it a day. Antje managed to win this race again, so it was decided her boat was going to well. For the next race David and her swapped.

This completely confused Susie who thought she could sneak in to windward of David's boat, not realising who was in it. That slowed both of them down a little to start with and David lead the race around the whole course, finishing even before the other two fleets. Antje hung on to second while Susie managed to stay ahead of Gill.

For the last race the wind dropped slightly, which made the swell, waves and chop even more challenging to deal with. Antje chose the right and came to the top together with David, but he collected the mark and had to take a turn. As the group was close together, that put him in last place for the triangle. Gill went quite far to windward on the second reach and overtook Susie. Up the second beat, Gill went right and made good some ground on Antje, but David picked the shifts very well and collected both Gill and Susie. On the downwind, he shifted up another gear and obliterated Antje and took that win to the finish. Gill was pleased with her third place and everyone was glad to go home after a fun but long day on the water.

The warm showers were very welcome, and then the sore limbs were smoothed over with help from the bar. An awesome barbeque (included in the entry fee) rounded off this fantastic winter sailing day.

Gale was forecast for Sunday, but we awoke to blue skies and light winds, while the rest of the country was getting pummeled with storms. The Northerly wind direction made for a very warm air, and it could hardly have been a more pleasant winter sailing day.

In the fifth race, Lucy showed what she had learned in the stronger breeze the day before and scored a fabulous fourth place in front of David and Wendy. Gill finished third, but her good downwind performance was not quite enough to beat Susie across the finish line.

David decided he preferred the stiffer mast and sailed the Winner boat, but because of a nice private puff on the second reach Antje got away from him to win race six. Susie and Gill were hot on David's heels but could not get past him. Wendy struggled to adjust her trim to the lighter wind but managed to get around the course nonetheless with Lucy just in front of her.

Big windshifts made it difficult for the Committee to set the course for the last race, and the breeze stayed fickle. Even so, and although the fleet had split across the whole course on the first beat, the four remaining boats came to the top mark closely together. Antje had a small lead, which she managed to extend substantially with a lucky shift at the bottom mark that the rest of the fleet missed because they were still on the reach. David defended his second place in a very close finish with Susie.

The prize giving dinner was sponsored by the Gin Trap who put on a great feast for the sailors.

To find out more about Monkeysfist Yachting and the classes they promote please visit www.monkeysfist.co.nz