Nuplex win 12 Foot Skiff Interdominions

by Shaun Sheldrake on 5 Jan 2008
Alex Vallings and Jeremy Smith (Nuplex - NZL) have wrapped up the 12 Foot Skiff Interdominions Silasec Trophy for individual honours with a day and two races to spare.

Vallings said there was no single aspect to his and Smiths campaign that led to their dominance of this year’s regatta, but a culmination of a number. 'We sailed using simple tactics, had no breakages and were fortunate to make the right rig calls. Over the winter I made some changes to the boat (a bit wider under the water) which has made us faster and given us a ‘low and fast’ option. Jeremy also spent time in the gym bulking up (now 98kg), that extra power combined with the changes to the boat has really helped our pace.'

New Zealand has also sewn up the John Brooke Memorial trophy for another year. With 126 possible points available in for the winning team in any race New Zealand’s 837 to 510 lead is now unassailable.

New Zealand team captain Steve Hogg put the victory down to technology. 'The development of technologies that have filtered through the Kiwi team is well ahead of what I see on the Australian skiffs, which has given us a real edge and a depth to our team the Australians haven’t been able to match.'

The real interest in tomorrow’s final two races will be determining the minor placings with a real interest on fifth to ninth where the five skiffs (Gizmo, Dimension Polyant, MGS, Inspire Group and Romulus) are only separated by five points.

Overall
Sailed:8, Discards:1, To count:7, Entries:25, Scoring system:My scoring system
Rank	Fleet	Boat	Nat	Helm	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Total	Nett
1st	NZL	Nuplex	NZL	Alex Vallings	Jeremy Smith	-4	1	1	1	1	1	3	1	13	9
2nd	AUS	Garde	AUS	Brett Hobson	Alex Johnson	2	4	-9	2	2	7	2	2	30	21
3rd	NZL	Martin Hughes	NZL	Chris Skinner	David Healey	1	2	-11	7	11	2	1	6	41	30
4th	AUS	Gobsmacked Dwarves(POM)	AUS	Paul O'Malley Jones	Richard Billet	5	-11	6	3	3	3	11	7	49	38
5th	NZL	Dimension Polyant (NZ)	NZL	Simon Ganley	Rod Chave	-14	5	4	6	8	8	9	5	59	45
6th	AUS	Gizmo	AUS	Michael Bochner	Tim Barraclough	-17	13	3	8	9	4	5	4	63	46
7th	NZL	MGS	NZL	Russel Davis	Tim Christenson	-15	9	8	4	5	5	7	8	61	46
8th	NZL	Inspire Group	NZL	Shaun Sheldrake	Craig Anderson	3	-12	7	11	12	9	4	3	61	49
9th	NZL	Romulus	NZL	Stephen Hogg	Roger Barnes	10	8	2	5	7	6	12	-18	68	50
10th	NZL	Nice Action Too	NZL	Hamish Hey	Mike Candy	8	3	10	-15	4	14	10	14	78	63
11th	NZL	As Good As it Gets	NZL	Glen Armstrong	Tim Faulkner	9	7	5	-16	10	12	14	10	83	67
12th	AUS	Thistle Hill Wines	AUS	Matthew Killoran	Richard Jones	12	-16	13	9	6	11	15	13	95	79
13th		Design Source NZ (K&M)	NZL	Paul Macintosh	Ken Fyfe	11	14	15	17	(26.0 DNF)	10	6	9	108	82
14th	NZL	Carbon Sequestration	NZL	Te Guru	Dan Leach	7	6	16	10	(26.0 DNF)	26.0 DNC	8	12	111	85
15th		The Diamond	NZL	Jason Parkin	Mel Hargreaves	6	17	12	12	(26.0 DNF)	15	13	11	112	86
16th	AUS	Maersk Line	AUS	Edward Cox	Peter Bevis	16	10	(26.0 DNF)	13	14	17	16	16	128	102
17th	AUS	Dipolar Software	AUS	Ed Blackman	Paul Carpenter	13	15	(26.0 DNF)	26.0 DNF	13	13	18	15	139	113
18th	AUS	AtCall Powered by Bainbridge Internation	AUS	Andrew Stevenson	Brad Greenrod	18	18	14	14	(26.0 DNF)	16	17	17	140	114
19th		AMI	NZL	James Gordon	Julian Payne	19	21	19	(26.0 DNF)	26.0 DNF	26.0 DNF	19	23	179	153
20th	AUS	Pink Bits	AUS	Nicholas Bernard	Andrew Obrien	20	20	(26.0 DNF)	26.0 DNF	26.0 DNF	19	21	21	179	153
21st		Design Source UK	GBR	Bob Clements	Alan Atterbury	22	(26.0 DNF)	17	26.0 DNF	26.0 DNS	26.0 DNF	20	20	183	157
22nd		Bulley Hayes	NZL	Dan Falter	Stuart Tinner	(26.0 DNF)	19	18	26.0 DNF	26.0 DNS	18	26.0 DNS	26.0 DNS	185	159
23rd		This Way Up	NZL	Graham Roberts	Josh Bahlman	(26.0 DNS)	26.0 DNF	20	26.0 DNF	26.0 DNS	20	22	22	188	162
24th		CRC / Lost in Supermarket	NZL	Billy Wright	William Wright	21	22	(26.0 DNF)	26.0 DNF	26.0 DNS	26.0 DNF	24	19	190	164
25th	AUS	The Wing man	AUS	James Fleming	Daniel Hayes	23	(26.0 DNF)	26.0 DNC	26.0 DNF	26.0 DNS	26.0 DNS	23	26.0 DNS	202	176
Scoring codes used
Code	Description	Points
DNC	Did not come to the starting area	26
DNF	Started but did not finish	26
DNS	Came to the start area but did not start	26

The 12 Foot Skiff is a high performance skiff sailed in New Zealand and Australia with an emerging fleet in England.

The major regatta is the Interdominion Championships which alternates between Australia and New Zealand. Previous regattas have been close and tightly fought contests with last year’s regatta having seven different winners over the eight races sailed.

There are minimal hull measurement rules basically restricting length, width and weight giving freedom for people to design and build their own boats. Hulls are made from carbon fibre and foam sandwich to achieve the minimum weight of only 45kgs.

The majority of skiffs have two or three carbon masts to choose from with a combination of sails giving up to five rig combinations. This allows the skiffs to race in 5 - 35 knots of wind.