Inaugural ANZAC 200 miler gets underway in light airs

by Josh Tucker on 23 Apr 2015 A fleet of 28 boats set off at 5:30pm on Thursday to compete in the first addition of the SSANZ (Shorthanded Sailing Association of NZ) ANZAC weekend shorthanded races.

The race takes the fleet up around the Poor Knights for the big boats, Sail Rock for the smaller boats, with both divisions rounding the Mokohinau Islands before finishing at Nagles Cove on Great Barrier Island. Weather has cooperated giving the boats a light beat off the start line and a 15-20kt SE for a nice spinnaker ride North. Very little moonlight and a strong incoming tide will make the first half of the race a real challenge.

The fleet is very diverse in both size and speed, boats as large and powerful as the Elliott 50 Canting keeler ‘Ran Tan II’ which new owner Brian Petersen has recently brought back into the Auckland racing scene. The cookson 50 ‘Akatea’ and Class 40 ‘Hupane’ will no doubt be in hot pursuit.

Also gunning for line honours are the 2 smaller high performance monhulls Wayne Woods Elliott 35 Canting keeler ‘Bushido’ and the Debut shorthanded event for AJ Reid’s brand new YD37 ‘ANARCHY’. Division 1 is not all high tech modern race boats with seasoned campaigners on the Farr 38 Coppelia, 2 young 11s, and a mix of well setup 40-50ft racers and cruisers.

At the smaller end of the scale in B division there will be an intense battle for line honours between the sports style boats and the more traditional heavier displacement yachts, the first half perhaps suiting the lighter boats and the last half suiting the bigger heavier boats.

Will it be a sports boat or a displacement boat who takes the gun? Can the little Giant Slaying SR26 ‘Motorboat’ follow on from there SSANZ Triple series line honours win?

There is a new initiative prize of a demountable Alloy Excel Anchor from the events sponsors Chains Ropes and Anchors for the first boat on handicap under 10.2m and built last century. This seems to have encouraged a good fleet of eligible boats to enter the race and there is a healthy fleet of mid sized boats competing for this prize.

Not all the boats are Auckland based, 2 boats from Tauranga have come up for the event and the Class 950 Crewless has a wellington crew member.

Port Fitzroy Boat Club has kindly put on a buffet dinner for the crews and with a generous amount of money from SSANZ behind the bar for a ‘Happy hour or 3’ its sure looks to be a good night at the club.