Roe and Leech foil their way to Leander victory

by Sutter Schumacher on 17 Feb 2010
The final day of regular racing in the 2010 Leander for the R Class national championship gave folks plenty to talk about. For one, it was a relatively ancient Macca hull with traditional foils and even more-ancient sailors that won the last two races of the regular series.

But the strong performance on Saturday by multiple-time R Class champion Steve MacIntosh and 60-something crew Tony Park on More FM could not steal the thunder of Paul Roe and Dan Leech who, sailing Roe's hydrofoiling L3 TheVirtual, won the 60th Leander by a solid margin. In doing so, Roe, in his early 40s, became the oldest first-time winner of the venerable trophy.

More to the point, Roe and Leech sailed every race with hydrofoils – even the 5-race, separately scored, short-course sprint series on Sunday, which they also won in convincing style – and lent considerable weight to the argument that hydrofoiling is the way of the future for the R Class.

Canterbury R Class Squadron Commodore James Collett provides a blow-by-blow account of the final two days:

Day 3

After some excitement on shore – a gust lifted one boat off the ground and through the window of a car near the launching area, missing by mere millimetres the head of its owner (in the driver's seat and about to move the car away from the area) – and a postponement while southerly front passed through, we got on the water for a 1p.m. start in a gusty southerly.

Race 7
The wind seemed to drop off somewhat once everyone launched and got to the start line, leaving a shifty, patchy selection of gusts across the harbour. The testing conditions proved very trying for many crews. There was some close racing up to the top mark with More FM rounding first, followed by Chemical Weapon. More FM managed to hold onto their lead, coming away with a solid first place.

Race 8
The start of the final race for the day and the Leander saw the wind fill in and build again. Racing was once again very close in the middle of the fleet, with the Woof hulls being able to hang onto the pack of L3s for the first part of the race. More FM once again put in a solid effort coming away with another first. International Rope Braid showed some good speed downwind and looked pretty strong until an unfortunate incident involving Chemical Weapon's trapeze wires resulted in a swim.

Day 4

Sprint Series
The Sprint Series came with a 1 p.m. start, which allowed everyone a much appreciated sleep-in after three days of intense racing, as well as extra time to rig. Following a quick briefing and some discussion about what the rules should be, everyone hit the water. Nine boats started the first race. As always with sprint racing, the course was short and simple, and nice and close to shore.

Starting off the line on starboard meant you got about 30 seconds of sailing in before having to tack to avoid hitting the shore. This always involved some energetic right-of-way calls, sometimes accompanied by various levels of encouragement according to some of the spectators on shore.

Five races were held back-to-back, each one lasting about 10 minutes. Merde and TheVirtual opted to don the foils for the auspicious occasion, putting on a fine display of speed and aerial prowess for the spectators ashore. The speed difference between TheVirtual and the rest of the fleet was both noted by the crowd and enabled a nearly clean string of first-place finishes.

The rest of the fleet was engaged in some very close (literally) and full-on racing. Positions were swapped thick and fast during races as people had swims, botched kite hoists, kite drops, gybes and tacks. Overall every boat had a good day's racing and the spectators enjoyed the spectacle.

Thanks to everyone who came along to the event. The Canterbury R Class Squadron looks to be in a position for growth, with a number of new, young sailors getting into the class. Thanks to Ross May and his team at Naval Point for hosting the event and putting on some good racing. Finally, thanks to our major sponsor, Pub Charities, for their contribution, as well as Barkers and Whitakers for supplying spot prizes.

Check out www.rclass.org for video, additional photos, and series results.