New Canadian yacht first monohull to finish Auckland Tauranga Race

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.Com on 10 Apr 2009
The new Reichel-Pugh design Vela Veloce (Richard Oland) , the newest yacht in the fleet was the first monohull home in the 2009 International Paints Auckland Tauranga race

Sailing under the burgee of the just completed 52’ Vela Veloce sailing under the flag of the Royal Kennebeccasis Yacht Club (Saint John, New Brunswick, east coast of Canada ), the 52fter finished just before 2200hrs on Friday evening.

Destined for competition in Northern hemisphere races Vela Veloce is fitted with a fixed keel and a cruising interior. She is to be shipped to USA shortly after arriving in Tauranga.

Sundreamer (Phil Hart) was second multihull and third finisher at 2210hrs. The vintage David Barker design, beautifully maintained, and still one of the most striking yachts on the Auckland harbour, finished well outside her race record of just under ten hours. She would have had to finish before 1955hrs Friday to have created a new record.

Second monohull home was another 52fter V5 (Simon Hull) which crossed the line in Tauranga about 10 minutes later. She was followed by the Bakewell-White 52, Wired (Rob Bassett) another 10 minutes in arrears, with the Cookson 50 Pussy Galore (Anatole masfen) crossing at 2231hrs.

All 50fters had been in these places for the duration of the race.