North Sails Young 88 Owners Champs – The Perfect Regatta?

by Mike Leyland on 26 Oct 2015 Auckland Harbour is not the Caribbean, so it wasn’t the location. We weren’t in T shirts and shorts so it wasn’t the weather. The All Blacks did play a sublime game of Rugby to beat the French on Sunday morning but it wasn’t the final.

But in the North Sails Young 88 Owner Championships, sailed last weekend, the real perfection was Zane Gifford’s winning tally on Raging Hormones with a scorecard of seven guns and a second = 7/7 with the discard.

Zane even used the word himself after the regatta “A very well run regatta in near perfect racing conditions”

Enough about perfection, it was also a competitive, fun, friendly and relaxed one design regatta professionally run by Bucklands Beach Yacht Club.

Although we lost a few boats to crew clashes vs The Coastal Classic commitments it was great to see the familiar faces and welcome some newcomers including Brad Aspin on Mindbender in the restricted fleet and Julian Bishop and his Wellington rock stars finishing a very creditable 4th in the open fleet on Abracadabra.

Last Saturday dawned overcast but dry with the forecast westerly 15-25 kts proving to be bang on. The conditions put the open fleet through their paces with many crews having to blow away cobwebs from an idle winter. There were some very average starts from the fleet, a mid run halyard recovery and too many bottom mark roundings with sheets to the breeze.

Andrew Wills and Matt Steven from North Sails pointed out the learning opportunities in the “Dockside Debrief” including the rather obvious equation of speed lost by a tidy early drop more than offsets a slow, sideways, flappy bottom mark rounding. This debrief session was one of the highlights with crews taking the opportunity to ask the pros a few questions whilst sipping on Mount Gay’s new Black Barrel Rum from one of the Young 88’s other main sponsors.

Saturday night saw a session from Y88 Sheriff Rick Hackett ably assisted by his deputy Chris Marsh. The draw for the two significant North Sails vouchers went to Blondie and Skitzo, followed by Boat Spray Propspeed vouchers and a pile of less than serious trophies. The usual informal debrief complete with hand action simulations continued into the night.

Sunday started with a thirty-minute delay for the open fleet to allow time to watch the big game in the club. Conditions were more benign for the addition of the Restricted Fleet (no spinnakers) with a steady 10-15 knots again from the west with accompanying sunshine.

Conversations at prize giving were very positive towards the club, the format and the conduct of the fleet, even the 720 turns were executed with good grace.

“Had a great Sunday, crew enjoyed the day and the Saturday eve festivities!” – Russell Field – Crowded House

Congratulations to all the winners. In the open fleet Zane Gifford – Raging Hormones for first on line. Ed Massey – Undercover for first on handicap. Mike Leyland – War Machine for first Corinthian (no pros aboard) and in the restricted fleet Russell Field – Crowded House first on line and Peter Stretton first handicap.

Thanks to the event sponsor North Sails, all the competitors for overcoming the challenge of getting crew at such a busy time, Vaughn Clark from Primero Profiles for the stylish plasma cut trophies, the club and volunteers especially Race Officer “Pistol” Pete Stewart, and kitten herder extraordinaire Chris “Marshy” Marsh.

The Young 88 is a great value all-purpose cruiser racer with active fleets throughout New Zealand.