29er Nationals - Australians get in amongst the Kiwis

by David Gunn on 7 Jun 2016 The 2016 29er Nationals were sailed over the last four days at Murrays Bay Sailing Club with a fleet of 26 boats on the start line including three from Australia.

With the current Australian National Champ the third ranked Australian team and the New Zealand helm from the last Youth Worlds in attendance the competition was always going to a tough one to win.

But two of the three Australian crews finished in the top four overall.

Kayrouz and Gunn (NZL) sailed consistently throughout the regatta in some tough sailing conditions to take the title followed by Seb Lardies and Scot McKenzie from Kohimarama (NZL) with Natasha Byrant and Annie Wilmot from Australia in third.

The team of Crystal Sun and Zelda Ladefoged came in as the first New Zealand Girls team. It was awesome to see six Girls teams in the competition and one combined team.

The first three days of the regatta saw the breeze predominately out of the south east with clear blue sky’s and four to five knots. The final day saw a lift in wind strength to around 12 to 14kts and a shift to the east. Overall a predominantly light wind regatta following the past two weekends that saw training races with over 30kt gusts.

A big thank you to Stave Pyatt as Race Officer and his Race Management team. To get the full series of 15 races through was fantastic. It was good fair racing and with only one General Recall and a couple of U Flags the fleet was very well disciplined.

This year also saw the first running a new Interdominion event with a trophy awarded to the top sailor in attendance at the Australian and New Zealand Nationals. This year the trophy was won by Natasha Byrant and Annie Wilmot from Sydney Australia following their third place in both the Australian and New Zealand Nationals.

We see the Trans Tasman competition as important for the class to boost fleet numbers and provide close completion for when our teams from both sides of the Tasman attend the International regattas. At this point we have a team of six boats confirmed to attend the Australian Nationals in January with the aim to bring the Trophy back to New Zealand.

The 29er class has grown considerably over the last few years from a team of two boats attending the Worlds in Denmark and Canada to five boats in Wales last year. This year a team of nine boats will be attending the Worlds to be sailed in Medemblik Netherlands in late July.

Young sailors throughout the country have seen the appeal of the high speed and close racing of the 29er class as well as the friendships and camaraderie within the group. We are looking forward to further growth in the class with some of the senior Opti sailors looking to join. If anyone is interested in joining the class contact details are on the class website or go to the class facebook page.

For more information visit website.