Knight Frank South Island Young 88's end in dramatic style

by Sam Jones on 9 Mar 2015 A bottom mark collision between Flying Machine (Craig Edwards) and Legacy II (Colin Lock) was a dramatic end to an exciting final day’s racing in the Knight Frank South Island Young 88 Championship.

With a strong south west on Lyttelton Harbour, gusting up to 38 knots, racing was soon abandoned for the day. The port starboard gybe incident left Flying Machine crippled with a broken backstay, suspected rig damage and a protest flag flying. Meanwhile the Humphrey Rolston owned Shibbeen, helmed by Shane Smith, took the gun in the fifth and final race followed by Full Circle (Phil Folter) and Flying Machine in third.

On Saturday four races in lighter north east conditions provided some great Young 88 Class racing for the small but competitive fleet. Flying Machine, recently returned from a Young 88 class win at the Sovereign Port Nicholson Regatta in Wellington, proved too quick taking four wins from four starts. With the event reduced to five races this proved enough to secure Flying Machine the regatta win and they retain their title from last year.

In Race 1 Shibbeen took second place followed by Full Circle third. Despite a forecast of 30-40 knots conditions remained light for the next two races. Shibbeen took second followed by Legacy II in Race two with Legacy taking second place ahead of Shibbeen in Race three. In the final race on Saturday the breeze build to a more moderate 12-18 knots. Flying Machine again took the gun followed by Legacy II and Shibbeen.

Of Sunday’s incident Flying Machine skipper Edwards said it is always disappointing to have damage like this in racing. 'The conditions were certainly right at the limit, probably a bit above, for this sort of racing. We had a fantastic kite ride though' he said. Edwards also praised the standard of competition in the class in Canterbury where the South Island championships have been hosted annually since 2005.



The conditions on Sunday prevented the other events being hosted at Naval Point Club, Lyttelton from sailing. The Canterbury Trailer Yacht, South Island 420s, South Island Laser, Canterbury Zephyr and the Naval Point Club Dinghy Championship fleets were all kept ashore.