Stoke Beer 12 & 18ft Skiff Auckland Champs.. This weekend!

by Auckland Sailing Club on 12 Dec 2013
The Auckland Sailing Club is hosting the 12 foot skiff and 18 foot Skiff Stoke Beer Auckland Champs this weekend. Racing starts at 1pm on both days with two short sprint races planned, followed by a long harbour race. Bastion Point and North Head will make for great viewing of the racing!

The Stoke Beer Auckland Champs is turning into an important built up regatta for both the 12s and the 18s with both fleets having major contests over the New Year’s period.

For the 12s this regatta caps off a solid build up to the Australia vs. New Zealand Inter-dominion championships to be held in Wellington. Hot favourite C-tech (Chris Reid and Andrew Clarke) and Russell ‘the love mussel’ Davis on Absolute CNC who have shown good form this season will both miss Saturday’s racing and so leaving the championship wide open.

The fleet hopefully will welcome back 1&in (Ben De Fluiter and Matt Kelway) and 12-Guage (Leon) to the race course after both boats on Sunday decided to have an impromptu picnic under the Okahu Bay wharf half way through their race, which coincidentally occurred a couple of minutes after the 30 knot Westerly hit!

This weekend also marks the first big regatta of the season for the 18s in home waters after a wild time in San Francisco for the Nespresso Mark Foy Regatta held during the America’s Cup. This regatta is going to be crucial for the build up for the Stoke Beer 18Ft Skiff NZ International Invitation Championship being held over the New Year’s period.

Yamaha (Dave McDiarmid, Andrew Archibald & Mark Overington) will be looking to get one back over C-tech (Alex Vailings, Chris Kitchen & Josh McCormack) who took the Mark Foy trophy from their grasp on count back after both boats dominated the international fleet. This weekend will also be the first regatta for yet to be christened Knight Frank (Riley Dean, Matt Coutts & John Little), the newest boat to the NZ fleet. It will be a tough first regatta for the Knight Frank team with their large rig yet to be fitted let alone tested.

This is the first regatta for Auckland Sailing Clubs new sponsor Stoke Beer, who is proudly backing the club on and off the water. Stoke Beer not only has a fantastic range of beers to quench the thirst after a tough day on the water but also make a refreshing non-alcoholic ginger beer and Lemon Lime & bitters. If you get the chance come down to Okahu Bay after racing around 4pm for a drink and a rundown of the days play.