A keen fleet of 21 boats fronted for the first race of the Manukau Regatta, staged on Auckland's Manukau Harbour over Easter, with teams from the host club Weymouth, and the defenders French Bay YC. The largest fleet was from Taikata SC, who were not eligible for the Manukau Shield, and instead were racing for their inaugural Frostbite Travellers trophy.
Like the practice day on Saturday, yesterday, the weather gods smiled on the sailors, with near perfect conditions - hot and sunny, with a nice 10 knot breeze straight from the Tasman sea. Unlike the previous day's shifty stuff, tho', Saturday's breeze was relatively consistent.
A large olympic course of a triangle and two windward leewards was the order of the day, and OOD Murray Gallagher, from Clarks Beach YC, with Kim Admore from Yachting NZ, had the fleets away nicely.
The visiting Jollyboat sailed by Rene' Vanderboert from French bay set a blistering pace, and lead Murray Boucher, from the home club, also in a Jollyboat. These two were being keenly chased by Jim Quinn sailing a Laser radial, also from FBYC. Next in the mix was a jumble of boats I couldn't keep track of from the safety boat. The lead frostbites were right up there too, enjoying the conditions, as was the Moth.
In the junior fleet, Codie McMaster (WYC) was just ahead of Max Gruebner (FBYC) both in Starlings. Next was the scout cutter, Helmed by Simon Tidbury (WYC), and several sunbursts.
Unfortunately for Murray, he had a slip-up at the final turning mark, and got overtaken by Jim, giving French Bay the top two senior placings. The Junior honours were shared between clubs, with Codie getting the better of Max.
 | Manukau Regatta, Easter 2012 - |
In the Frostbite fleet, Brent Jeffries took this race, followed by Keith Sharp.
The second race was pretty similar, except that the breeze had built slightly, which allowed the Paper Tiger catamaran of Pete Hagglund to get the lead shortly after the start. Sadly for him, the breeze lightened off after a while, and the monohull dinghies got back in front.
Rob's moth had suffered undetected damage during Saturdays racing, and took on a lot of water, so he decided to sit this race out. Codie was feeling too cold to go back for the second race, so also stayed ashore.
After the racing, the results were worked out for all the divisions, and the prizes were awarded as follows:
Senior fleet - Rene Vanderboert, Jim Quinn, Brent jeffries equal first in an unprecedented three way tie.
Junior fleet - Max Gruebner 1, Simon Tidbury 2, Locquahn Tukerangi 3.
Frostbite Travelers Trophy - Keith Sharp 1, Brent Jeffries 2, Adam Fincher 3.
Manukau Shield winning club - Weymouth Yacht Club.
The entire event was sponsored by South Auckland Glass Services.
by Aaron Lowe
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11:39 PM Thu 12 Apr 2012GMT
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