Tamarau takes 85th Lipton Cup

by Janet Watkins on 19 Mar 2006 The 85th Lipton Cup was sailed on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour on Saturday.

The race marked 85 years of racing for the 22 foot mullet boats over harbour courses - a tradition which makes this event the oldest one design class racing in New Zealand.

The Lipton Cup trophy, is from the same silversmith as produced the Americas Cup. It was presented to the Ponsonby Cruising Club by Sir Thomas Lipton and is proudly displayed in the Club's trophy cabinet.

After a delay of 45 minutes, while the fleet waited for wind, racing got underway in a very gentle ENE breeze and an ebbing tide. Tamarau (Jim McKay) got away to a flier of a start and was never challenged - although she was a little concerned and even had the anchor ready when the breeze all but faded at No. 3 buoy. The breeze returned and she was off to take line honours!

The course, in accordance with the Lipton Cup rules was approximately 20 miles long starting and finishing at Westhaven and a written copy is given to all skippers at the briefing.

The start is always on the wind to a laid mark and there after round nominated fixed marks and yesterday's course was a good mix of windward beats and spinnaker runs which gave plenty of opportunity for gains and losses amongst the minor places.

Tamarau is the newest of the fleet at six years old and is the current holder. At seventy something, winning skipper Jim McKay is one of the veterans of the small boat sailing and boatbuilding scene, and has been sailing competitively for over sixty years.

Taotane (L-38) with her original gaff rig won the Cup for her first time in 1940.

Second placegetter was Scullet, a fibre glass boat, was the winner in 2004, Third overall was Girlie who won the event in 1998 and 1990.

One of the oldest boats sailing was Komuri (L7 ) who was the winner in 1934.

Honey had a win in 1975 when she was sailed by Jim Davern. Jim and crew were back yesterday sailing Honey, contributing to a very traditional event with a great history.

The final results:
LINE: 1 L61Tamarau, 2 L56 Scullet, 3 L58 Girlie.
HANDICAP: 1 L46 Kanae Ra, L38 Taotane, 3 L61 Tamarau.