Rotorua Yacht Club Sprint Sprints Series

by Chris Mitchell on 20 Oct 2015 The 2015 Rotorua Sprints was the first event of the 3.7 Class Grand Prix Series for the 2015-16 Season.

Racing was held Oct 17/18 at Lake Rotorua. Mark O'Brien First, Derek Snow Second, Hamish Hall-Smith third. The first race day it was pretty windy ~25knots gusting around Ngongotaha. We had only one race of the scheduled 6 and then it was cancelled for the day with boats strewn about the place, cold water and all safety boats occupied.

More than one sensible 3.7 sailor stayed ashore. Meanwhile Craig Fausett destroyed a new rudder box. Then later in the afternoon the wind eased racing was restarted, but then it blew dogs of chains again and so that was it for Saturday. Sunday started off with a win in the rugby and relatively light winds, that soon built from fresh to frightening.

A number of people retired after the second or third races and Paul C had his forestay lashing part and the rig fell back at a race start. Racing continued piling on 8 races in our class alone for Sunday.

It was still early in the season and hypothermia a risk. But everyone made it back; after some pretty epic bursts of speed followed by a hot shower.

There were 12 boats in 3.7 Class. 1 race Saturday, 8 races Sunday. In separate news construction of new boats in the UK continues with the first composite boat underway, photo attached.

http://www.3-7class.org.nz/