2014 Lidgard Sails Evans Bay Regatta – The Preview
by Rowdy Leatham on 31 Mar 2014
Javelin - Doug Roberts - 2014 Lidgard Sails Evans Bay Regatta Evans Bay Website
This weekend sees the 2014 Lidgard Sails Regatta taking place at the Evans Bay Yacht and Motor Boat Club in Wellington.
With the regatta incorporating the Wellington Trailer Yacht Championships, the Javelin North Islands and the Hartley 16 Traveller Series a big turn out is expected for racing on the waters of Evans Bay.
The Lidgard Sails Regatta is the last in a series of events hosted by Evans Bay over the past couple months including the Flying Dutchman Nationals, the Javelin Nationals, the Lower North Island Secondary Schools Teams Racing Champs, the 420 Nationals and Youth Worlds Selection Trials, as well as the annual East West Dash!
Division One of the Wellington Trailer Yacht Championships is expected to be dominated by Elliott boats, with a strong group of 5.9s expected to make the trip down from Plimmerton and even the potential of two travelling from New Plymouth. There are also rumours that local Elliott 780 Erazer may even make an appearance following many years terrorising the Wellington Keelboat fleet and a small break in Auckland for cruising.
Division Two will see the local fleet of Gazelles lead by multiple National Champion Daryl McGee on Black Mamba taking on the Club Vice Commodore Mike Dunlop in his Williams 7 Liquid Asset and the local Nolex 25 fleet including Big Brumus and Challenger. A posse of Nolex 22s are also expected to be travelling from Plimmerton, so a strong and very competitive division is expected to be on the starting line.
The Division Three favourite is local Farr 6000 Farrouche skippered by Colin Lee, however the remaining podium places are wide open with only 2 points separating the rest of the club fleet for their season championship the racing will be tight.
The Javelin fleet is expected to be heavily packed by local boats with Thirty Something sailed by Wade McGee and Damien Dixon looking like favourites to take out the regatta. The Javelin fleet has been through a resurgence at Evans Bay recently so it will be great to see the fleet out competing in the annual regatta.
The Hartley 16 fleet is expected to include at least a dozen boats and will see some fierce one design racing where not an inch will be given either on the water or on the way to the bar.
With boats travelling from as far away as Napier and New Plymouth, local boat Bender with Paul Davies on the helm will have his work cut out! Expect to see a Holdt on one of the podium steps in this fleet, if not on all three steps.
Other fleets expected to be strong this weekend include the Paper Tigers, while this regatta is not part of their traveller series they are still hoping for between 15 and 20 boats to be on the start line. Racing will be highly competitive with 8 of the fleet being past or present New Zealand Paper Tiger Team members.
The fleet will also include two NZ Women’s National Champions, both the current and immediate past champion. Mike Hood and Peter Robins are favourites and will be hard to separate after finishing only one point apart at the Nationals.
For anyone interested in racing this weekend, entries are still open! Registration is from 8.30 to 9.30 Saturday morning with the Race One start scheduled for 1100hrs.
Racing is expected to take place within the confines of Evans Bay, which will allow for fantastic spectator viewing from Evans Bay Parade. So get out there and check out what is happening.
Further details of the 2014 Lidgard Sails Evans Bay Regatta can be found on the club website at www.ebymbc.org.nz. Results will also be posted as they become available.
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