Melville wins inaugural BMW NZ Sailing Cup

by Sail-World.com and RNZYS media on 6 Mar 2008
John Melville and crew from the Farr 40 Bobby's Girl won the inaugural BMW NZ Sailing Cup contested in the outer Waitemata Harbour on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The winner of the inaugural BMW Sailing Cup was announced last night at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. The winning crew of Bobby’s Girl, will now travel to Dubai in April to represent New Zealand and the BMW Sailing Cup World Final.

Ten crews contested the New Zealand BMW Sailing Cup, earning a place in the final after leading their respective divisions in the BMW Auckland Regatta, held last weekend.

Racing in the BMW Sailing Cup consisted of a series of windward leeward races in MRX class yachts over two days. Each team of five crew members consisted purely of amateur sailors.

Chairman of the race organising committee, Ross Markwick said the standard of competition was very high.

“Conditions on Wednesday were particularly challenging for the teams in more than 20 knot winds and a short steep chop,” he said.

BMW Group Managing Director, Mark Gilbert said the regatta had exceeded all expectations and would no doubt become a landmark event on the New Zealand sporting calendar.

“Sailing is part of our lifeblood at BMW, from BMW ORACLE Racing where we can bring our knowledge of high performance car-building to the boat design process, through to amateur regattas such as the BMW Sailing Cup,” said Mr Gilbert.

“Based on the success of this inaugural regatta we’re certain that this event will grow in size and popularity,” he said.

The BMW Sailing Cup is an international amateur regatta series, now in its second year with the winners of national regattas progressing to the international final. The 2007 BMW Sailing Cup International World Final was held in Valencia where the top 35 amateur sailors from seven countries competed ahead of the Louis Vuitton Cup. A total of 1,400 participants took part in the inaugural event, which saw qualifying national regattas being held in Spain, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Austria, Malta and Denmark.

The BMW Sailing Cup is modelled on the BMW Golf Cup, the world’s largest and longest running international amateur golf tournament.

2008 New Zealand BMW Sailing Cup Results:

1st Bobby’s Girl (winner of the Yanmar Engineering Services L Division under IRC)
Skippered by John Melville
Team: Jack Melville, Jono Rankine, Michael Naulls, Alastair Gair

2nd Pussy Galore (winner of the Systems Commercial A Division under IRC)
Skippered by Anatole Masfen
Team: Matt Davies, Jon Andrews, Jayson Herbert, Matt Kelway

3rd Panama Jack (winner of the North Sails Young 88 Division)
Skippered by Steffan Goldwater
Team: Scott Morrison, Garth Ellingham, William Tiller, Phil Robertson

Final Overall Results NZ BMW Sailing Cup - March 2008

Races this series: 11 Series completed, no discards.
Low Point scoring system, ISAF Rule A9 applies
Race 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Points Place
Fleet race, 10 entries
10 John Melville 1 2 2 1 3 4 2 3 3 3 2 26 1
6 Anatole Masfen 2 3 1 5 2 3 1 4 4 ocs 1 35 2
1 Steffan Goldwater 3 1 4 2 1 1 7 1 5 2 ocs 36 3
8 Cameron Thorpe 6 6 8 3 4 2 8 2 2 4 6 51 4
4 Gary Kirkland-Smith 4 4 6 4 6 6 4 6 1 ocs 4 54 5
9 Maurice Cross 8 9 7 7 8 5 6 5 6 5 5 71 6
3 John Meadowcroft 5 5 5 6 9 8 5 8 7 6 7 71 7
2 Brent Linnell 9 10 10 9 10 7 9 9 8 1 3 85 8
7 Garry Lock 7 7 3 8 5 9 dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc 94 9
5 Tom Browne dnf 8 9 10 7 10 3 7 dnf dnc dnc 97 10