Kiwis are Jive Talkin’ at Hamilton Island

by Rob Kothe on 24 Aug 2009
The Brits win cricket, the Kiwi’s win Rugby and often the Melbourne Cup and now the Kiwi sailors are at it again at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.

One of New Zealand’s top offshore sailors 65 year old Ray Haslar the 2006 New Zealand Sailor of the Year, and his crew of Bay of Islands and Auckland sailors, sailed Haslar’s Davidson 35 Jive Talkin’ from Keri Keri on the Bay of Islands for the 2009 Audi Hamilton Island Race.

He sailed at Hamilton Island Race Week in 2007 on Richard Hudson’s Corel 45 Pretty Woman, then last year with Rob Bassett’s www.bakewell-white.com!Bakewell-White designed 52fter Wired.

Haslar and his crew sailed from North Cape to Sydney, on one tack, in good conditions. They sailed 'the ditch' in seven days and seven hours to Sydney and on then sailed on up the coast to Mackay (Queensland) in May-June 2009.

Jive Talkin’ is a 2000 launched Davidson 35 and Haslar’s instructions to Laurie Davidson were to design her as the fastest 35 footer he could, concentrate on speed and ignore the handicap rules.

After today’s race, Jive Talkin is leading the Performance Racing division with a fourth in the first race, followed by two wins.

Dockside Haslar commented today ‘We are happy with the week so far; our two wins is going to hurt our handicap. But we’ve played our cards and it will get harder now.

‘The weather for the last three days is not what we expected. We have brought some brand new heavy weather sails that look like they might not see daylight.

‘But we don’t mind the conditions; we do a lot of light weather sailing in the Bay of Islands in the winter and I guess this is winter too.

‘There has been a lot of concentration, we have a good crew and a very slippery little boat. Today was hard, we were jammed between two bigger boats at the start, but we wriggled forward and got clear.

‘We led towards the top mark but the shifts caught us out, but we did well on the run. We had to work hard to find the wind, the last 100 metres to the Pine Island finish was painful.’

Haslar, the Vice chairman of the New Zealand Keel Boat committee, enjoys sailing in Australia. He commented today ‘New Zealand builds great offshore boats, but the Aussie offshore and regatta scene is much more active.

'Back home our Bay of Islands Sailing Week is coming up for its eighth year, with 100 boats, it is the regatta to win. We are taking a leaf out of Hamilton Island, looking after the cruising fleets particularly.

'Overall Australians travel more to regattas and of course there are great things ahead, like the Around Australia Ocean Race and Rally.

'Rob Bassett, who is sailing with me this week, is planning to enter Unwired and I am sure I’ll do legs of that. So looking ahead we are all planning to see more of Australia.'

Performance Racing Div 1

Series Results [PHS Div1] up to Race 3 (Drops = 0) Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Skipper Sers Score Race 3 Race 2 Race 1

1 NZL8800 JIVE TALKIN' Ray Haslar 6.0 1.0 1.0 4.0
2 YC477 ISHTAR Edward Earl 10.0 5.0 2.0 3.0
3 2.0S 6999 WILLPOWER Mark Willson 16.0 2.0 12.0 2.0
4 3.0S AUS6151 CLEOPATRA Robert Davis 16.0 3.0 3.0 10.0
5 826 DREAM LOVER Rick Morgan 16.0 6.0 5.0 5.0
6 6164 RYA John Sullivan 17.0 10.0 6.0 1.0
7 AUS3093 GOA Colin Loel 22.0 12.0 4.0 6.0
8 4.0S 6111 NEVER A DULL MOMENT Colin & Deni Wilson 23.0 4.0 10.0 9.0
9 6146 KIONI Jonathon Brogan 23.0 7.0 9.0 7.0
10 8336 2XCESS Peter Woodhead 27.0 8.0 11.0 8.0
11 7407 WHALEWATCHING SYDNEY Ian Ford 28.0 9.0 7.0 12.0
12 6689 COPERNICUS Greg Zyner 34.0 13.0 8.0 13.0
13 P1 PANDORA Brook Adcock 35.0 11.0 13.0 11.0
14 G8789 PARTY TICKET Roy Nicholson 45.0 15.0C 15.0C 15.0C