Nuplex wins 2007 Leander Trophy

by Rclass.org on 13 Mar 2007 The 57th R Class National Championship was held at Auckland Sailing Club, Orakei on Auckland Harbour from 8 - 11th March 2007.

Another great contest, well run by Phil Airey, Maxine Bartlett, Russell and Chris Skinner under sometimes very variable conditions. For the entire series the weather was fine and hot without a drop of rain. The usual Auckland hazards were present, the shore, ferries and pleasure craft.

Sean Milner and Dan Leech in Nuplex were deserving winners in their self designed and built L3 hull. After being close runners up last year, they finally had the bugs ironed out of the L3 rocketship. This was Leech's first win and Milners second. Previous winners Paul MacIntosh and Kenny Fyfe sailed well for second, but the pace of the L3 ultimately won out with Nuplex winning several of the races by large margins. Simon Ganley and Rod Chave (Dimension Polyant), always quick in the breeze, are now quick in all conditions and sailed consistently earning third place.

There was good racing throughout the fleet and everyone seemed to come away from the contest inspired having thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The outright speed of the two L3's present generated a good deal of interest and it looks like there may well be a few more on the water next season. Now that the L3 has shown it really is a step ahead, some of the design oriented sailors may well be going back to the drawing board to work on some new innovations. There's always more speed out there and its definitely all looking good for the future.

Race Reports:

Invitation Race
Light and Flukey. NW course. Nuplex (Sean Milner and Dan Leech) cleared out with Martyn Hughes (Paul MacIntosh and Kenny Fyfe) clearly ahead of everyone else. David Pairman and Tim Allan sailing Merde rounded out the top 3. Paul Roe and Jess Hix in TheVirtual showed impressive speed up the last beat gaining 3 places up the final beat finishing fourth in the shortenend course. Steve MacIntosh and Tony Park in Apple stole fifth from Dimension Polyant Sailcloth (Simon Ganley and Rod Chave) on the line. Marty Douglas and Geoffrey Wilding sailed the oldest boat in the fleet, R550 MRB, to an excellent seventh.


Race 1
Slightly more breeze and gusty and flukey. Course moved down to Bean Rock into Tamaki (SW). Nice breeze to start the series with. Pretty much the same result as the invitation race, but Dimension moved up to 4th.

Race 2

SW breeze built nicely. Nuplex lead round the course again followed by the ever present Martyn Hughes. Apple finished third with dimension fourth. Only things of note reported from the spectator launch were TheVirtual sailing upwind for 5 mins with a jammed kite halyard and Marty and Geoff on MRB sailing with a wineglass most of the way down the last run.

Day 2
Sailed out on Friday morning into nothing, half the fleet only got just off Oraki Wharf before morning racing was abandoned.

After lunch we sailed out for 3 back to back races.

Race 3
Sailed between Bean Rock and Orakei wharf. Nuplex lead for the first lap before swamping up the second beat. Handing the lead to Apple with Merde in close pursuit. TheVirtual managed to pass Martyn Hughes down the run to finish second in the shortened race. Apple had been over the line at the start and were disqualified.

Race 4
Course change again across to between North Head and Rangitoto. Good breeze with a slightly confused seas. Martyn Hughes lead round the course with Dimension second. TheVirtual managed a spectacular mine just after the top mark and was subsequenly passed by the fleet. Merde were third and Dave Andrews and Bevan Mark in Dave-O fourth. Several boats hit the bottom off North Head with Bulley Hayes managing a boat crunching cartwheel which bought bikini clad rescuers from the shore. They hit the bottom, ruptured the centercase, stood the boat on the prod and popped the mast off the mast post and throught the foredeck. Not a bad effort.

Race 5
Slightly more breeze. After a bad start Nuplex had good speed up the first beat, tacking just in time to avoid hitting the bottom at North Head, TheVirtual and Esky both went just too far, and went straight to the back of the fleet. Nuplex was first back followed by the ever consistent Martyn Hughes. Dimension Polyant sailed well for third, Merde held on to fourth Dave and Stretch were a clear sixth and Jess and Paul managed to haul themselves back to sixth. Apple had their worst race finishing 8th after swimming at the bottom mark.

Day 3
Race 6
Northerly course. 1 minute to go and the start was abandoned, evidently they'd temporarily lost the general recall flag. Normality was rapidly resumed with pretty much the same stuff up the front, apart from Dave Andrews and Bevan Mark on Dave-o sailing well for third. Dimension were again fourth and Merde fifth, with Apple sixth.

Race 7
Slightly Stronger Northerly, with Dave-o sailing extremely well to another third on Daves 71st birthday. Nuplex were first with Martyn Hughes second. Simon Ganley and Rod Chave sailed another consistent race for 4th, with Dave and Tim on Merde fifth and TheVirtual recovering to 6th after tangling badly with HiRev on the startline. MRB and CRC both lost their rigs and were towed back.

So its all poised closely for the final race.

Day 4
Race 8
At last a harbour course. Moderate breeze slowly building. Nuplex won convincingly from Dimension Polyant, with Merde again third and Martyn Hughes fourth. Nuplex were unbeatable in these conditions even with their second kite. Dave Andrews and Stretch finished fifth, cementing their fifth position overall.

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