Milner and Leech Win Leander ... Again

by Sutter Schumacher on 6 Feb 2008
It was nearly the day that wasn’t. Had it been up to Chris Skinner, it would have certainly been the day that didn’t. Luckily for Sean Milner, winner of the 2008 R Class National Championships, it was the day that was.

Skinner and crew Chris Holland had led the entire 2008 R Class National Championships on Lyttelton Harbour, and going into the last day of racing, they needed only to finish ahead of defending champions Milner and Dan Leech on L3 in the remaining races to take the Leander Trophy back to Auckland.

With that in mind, the fleet hit the water on Tuesday in a dying southerly for the first of two remaining scheduled races. Naval Point Club Race Officer Ross May got the start off, but abandoned the race just as the leaders reached the top mark and the seven-knot breeze diminished to nothing. That was lucky for Skinner and Holland on Martin Hughes, as they thought they’d been over early at the start and, after re-crossing it, found themselves in a miserable 10th place. Meanwhile, Milner and Leech were battling for first with Paul MacIntosh and Kenny Fyfe on DesignSource.

The conditions seemed unlikely to change after the fleet returned to land for a lunch break. After nearly two hours ashore, there was talk of ending the series at just seven races – the sailing instructions said five races constituted a regatta. Clearly, Skinner and Holland would have been pleased as punch for that call to be made. But no sooner had a doubtful Race Officer May told the sailors he’d give the breeze until 4:30 to fill in, that the ever-predictable easterly started to make its way down the harbour. And with that, the boats were back on the race course.

Two races later, in a building easterly that peaked at 14 knots, Milner and Leech had sailed two flawless races, resulting in two bullets and the overall win. Skinner and Holland, meanwhile, floundered to fourth in race eight and managed a third in race nine. Those were their worst finishes of the regatta, breaking what had been until then a near-perfect 1-2-1-2-2-2-1 record. Milner and Leech won their second Leander Trophy together by more than 52 points over second-place Skinner and Holland.

Adding icing to Milner and Leech’s cake, three L3 hulls placed 1-2-3 in race eight. Until then, it had looked to the two L3 pioneers (Leech designed the L3, and Milner built the first one) as though the tried-and-true Woofs might dominate the top spots in this year’s event, particularly with Simon Ganly and Rod Chave’s consistent third-place performance on their Woof Dimension Polyant.

But after less than a season of attempting to master L3, the pieces came together for class legends MacIntosh and Fyfe on DesignSource, and Tim Bartlett and Dave Healy on Carbon Sequestration, who finished second and third respectively in the penultimate race with their new boats. For their part, Milner and Leech won that race by nearly an entire leg. “I think today’s performance shows that the L3s really are the leading edge of this development class,” Leech said.

As for Bartlett, a 40-year veteran of skiff sailing, he had plenty of love to show for the R Class. “I love coming to the Leander,” he told his fellow competitors at the prize-giving dinner. “You always come away having learned something new.”

The R Class, meanwhile, had plenty of love to show for the dedicated race committee. “This is one of the best-run regattas I’ve ever been to,” claimed Skinner, speaking for all 30 sailors in this year’s race. The Naval Point Club race committee was led by May, with support from his talented crew: Ken Camp, Robert Norris, Keith May, Burt Thurlow, Wayne Keen, Brendan Leech, Graeme Adams and Peter Withell.

The 2008 Leander Trophy would also not have been possible without the generous support of gold-level sponsor Pub Charity and silver sponsor Brent Cowan Plumbers. The R Class also wish to thank bronze sponsors ASB, International Rope Braid, Lyttelton Port Company, Ian Franklin Boatbuilders, Muffin Break, Ocean Blue Marine, P.J. Hobbs Industries, Subway, The Virtual and Pacifica Shipping.

The final event for the 2008 Nationals is Wednesday’s Super Cup Sprint Series. Watch for pictures from the photogenic event on the R Class website: www.rclass.org.

Final Results (nine races, no drops, high-point scoring):
1) L3 (R603), Sean Milner/Dan Leech (Canterbury) - 796.364 points
2) Martin Hughes (R602), Chris Skinner/Chris Holland (Auckland) - 743.810
3) Dimension Polyant Sailcloth (R587), Simon Ganly/Rod Chave (Auckland) - 567.912
4) Carbon Sequestration (R608 ), Tim Bartlett/Dave Healy (Auckland) - 521.905
5) Design Source (R610), Paul MacIntosh/Kenny Fyfe (Auckland) - 416.263
6) Merde (R589), Dave Pairman/Tim Allan (Canterbury) - 404.596
7) Bully Hayes (R594), Danny Folter/Paul MacGibbon (Canterbury) - 388.586
8) More FM (R565), Steve MacIntosh/Tony Park (Canterbury) - 276.902
9) The Diamond (RTD), Jason Parkin/Mel Hargreaves (Wellington) - 262.161
10) Chemical Weapon (R582), James Collett/Michael Collett (Canterbury) - 226.951
11) AMI Insurance (R573), James Gordon/Julian Payne (Auckland) - 200.350
12) Liquid (R593), Michael Rhodes/Aaron Jeffries (Canterbury) - 194.291
13) Massive Attack (R609), Kevin Holland/Doug Gale (Cantebury) - 193.015
14) TheVirtual (R607), Paul Roe/Jess Hix (Canterbury) - 175.434
15) Line 7/CRC (CRC), Billy Wright/William Wright (Auckland) - 95.317