Tauranga Boys College win Sec Schools Teams Racing

by Event Media on 4 May 2008
The Secondary Schools teams sailing nationals were held at Parua Bay in Northland from 28 April to 2 May.

This year’s expanded format saw 23 NZ schools and 1 team from the Cook Islands compete. An initial round robin was held to divide the schools into gold and silver fleets.

Light winds on the first few days created a few unexpected results with all the favoured schools making it into gold fleet. Westlake Girls being the only all girls school to make the top fleet.

More wind later in the week challenged all the teams with exciting speed sailing on the reaches creating the usual spills and broken gear – apart from a few bent masts and gel coat repairs the event proceeded smoothly.

The next gold fleet round robin was used to select the 4 top schools for the finals. Westlake Boys qualified top followed by Tauranga Boys, Mahurangi and MacLeans for the finals.

For finals, three round robins were held between these schools – Tauranga Boys dominated the first round unbeaten, with Mahurangi dominating the second round, making the third round all-important. After an hour’s delay waiting for the wind to drop and reefing the sails, the third round was held. Tauranga Boys College won all the remaining matches to retain the Secondary School Teams racing title they won for the first time last year 97 wins from 9 races in finals). Mahurangi were second for the third year in a row with 6 wins, MacLeans were third with 4 wins and Westlake Boys 4th with 1 win.

These top 3 schools will compete in the Interdominions against the top 3 Australian schools later in the year.

Napier Girls College won the top girls school while Mahurangi College were again the top Co-ed school.

Teams

Tauranga Boys College – Skippers ... Peter Burling (missed first day while travelling back from Europe due to his Olympic program), Jason Saunders, Thomas Saunders, Luke Stevenson and crews Nicholls Gunn, Ben Caundle, Jeremy Grundy, Oliver Brown.

Mahurangi College - Rachel Basevi, Mark Noyer, Bene Butler, Donna Hamilton, David Hazard, Callum Jones, Grant Hamilton, Paul Hazard

Macleans College - Luke Deegan, Hayden Cockburn, Lexie Langley, Michael Rodgers, Tyler Hogan, Mathew Spray, Mathew Deegan, Clark Hempworth

Westlake Boys High School - Chris Steele, Russell Hopper, Scott Barns, Sean Stirling, Jono Spurdle, Nick Croft, Tom Rutter, Mat Knox