Jack Tar Regatta- Mayhem plays catch up on Day 2

by RNZYS Media on 22 Mar 2015 Auckland turned on champagne sailing conditions today for the conclusion of the 2015 Jack Tar Auckland regatta, which saw 68 yachts racing in nine divisions and across four courses on the Waitemata Harbour.

The regatta, jointly organised by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Bucklands Beach Yacht Club, is the city’s biggest keelboat event and has drawn a high quality field, with some of the country’s top sailors involved.

Much attention focused on the big boat division, which was totally dominated today by Harry Dodson and Tony Bosnyak’s TP52 Mayhem.

Mayhem lived up to its name yesterday with a couple of uncharacteristic mistakes costing them dearly on the results sheet. “We trawled a spinnaker in one race and came last and hit the start mark in another race and ended up third in that one,” said Dodson.

That meant Mayhem came into today’s racing trailing Viento II (Connel McLaren) by two points. “We had a good day today,” remarked Dodson, which was reflected with a scoresheet showing a clean run of first place finishes on line.
When their results were processed, they translated into a clean sweep of wins for the series on line, general handicap and PHRF. Viento II was second in all classifications.

“We were getting everything right today,” said Dodson. “We had no issues. Everything went like clockwork, which meant we broke free of the fleet while the others were mixing it up. Once you get out in front with these boats, it is easy to sail away.”

Yesterday’s racing was marked by quite rough conditions as powerful tides mixed with opposing shifty NNE winds. Today was smoother sailing all round.

“It was champagne sailing,” commented Dodson. “Warm and nice – couldn’t be better.”

A similarly convincing result was achieved in Division B, with Lawless, sailed by members of the RNZYS Lion Foundation Youth Programme defending their title from last year and posting a series scoresheet with seven first place finishes, a second and a third.

Two Divisions in the fleet were also competing for their national titles. In the Farr 1020 class, Craig Anderson and his crew stepped up their performance from yesterday and strung together three first place finishes and a second today to clinch the national title, followed by Rainbow IV (Alan Smith) and Shokran (Joe Brownlee).

In the 8.5 multihull fleet, catamarans took first and third with Dean Williamson’s trimaran Hurts Like Heaven sandwiched in second place. The national title was won by Dirty Deeds with Tigre third (Greer Houston and Bob Fisher), Voom was first on handicap.

For further results see the event website, www.aucklandregatta.co.nz.