Big entry already for 50th Hartley 16 Nationals in New Plymouth

by Wayne Holdt on 8 Jan 2016 Thirty Hartley 16s are now entered for the 50th nationals to be held in New Plymouth 13-16 January 2016. This is a great entry number with boats coming from around the North Island.

This regatta will be the closest yet with Manukau’ s defending champion “Shaking Laundry” Robin Williams trying to make it three in a row while there are plenty of candidates with a real opportunity to win the regatta including last year’s runner up “Simply Red” Jason Holdt from New Plymouth, and current North Island champion “Veloce” Paul Davies from Wellington, there are also several past winners in the fleet as well that could come through to take the title.

While some small modifications have been made to the cabins being lowered and the transoms being brought out to the full length measurement allowable under the class rules, it’s still as close as you get to one design racing. Most of the competing boats will have been built in the 1970s when trailer yachting was in its boom years, but while lots of other classes have had their numbers drop off the good old Hartley has seen a resurge in recent years.

The reason for this is one design class racing that is affordable to be competitive, only needing two people to sail it, no outboard needed, only needing a small vehicle to tow it, and probably the best aftermatch functions of any class around thanks to the continued support of the class sponsor Black Heart, Carlsberg, Wild Buck, Independent Liquor and North Sails..

Not having a spinnaker doesn’t concern them, with the racing as close as it is there is a lot of ground to be made downhill.

It’s also hard to get the Hartley class to sail more than three races a day at their nationals, very few race officers have succeeded. Age doesn’t seem to be a barrier to boat speed with the age spread from 20s to 80s, also plenty of female sailors owning boats now as well. The class has even banned compasses, with the availability of electronic memory function equipment it was decided to stay with the old seat of the pants method of picking shifts.

There are still a lot of boats around waiting to be reconditioned, and plenty of help available from the sailors to get you up to speed. The Hartley 16 class is very much about helping each other out and enjoying some great racing and comradery. If you are a past Hartley sailor you are most welcome to come along to the Nationals in New Plymouth, I’m sure there are still some sailors in the fleet from your era whenever it was.