Action aplenty at North Sails Pied Piper Nationals Championships

by Kate Gilbert on 4 May 2010
The 2010 North Sails Pied Piper Nationals were held by Buckland's Beach Yacht Club on the second and third of May, 2010. 14 boats entered the regatta which took place in the waters off St Heliers Beach.

Saturday conditions dawned light with a soft breeze of around eight knots from the South-West. As scheduled the first race took off at 10am but a big shift in the pre-start, due to a front sweeping down the harbour, saw the race postponed until the breeze settled down. After this the breeze built and produced a great day for sailing with a steady 15-20knots for the rest of the day.

Team Yosemite Sam, skippered by Ben Lowe, with Francisco Lardies on trim, James Harper on mast and pit and Kate Gilbert on bow, dominated the day with four guns and a third. Rat Attack, skippered by Josh Impey, showed impressive improvement, finishing the day in second place with a string of seconds and a sixth. Motamouse, helmed by Thomas Kearney was placed third with a first place on the scorecard, but also carrying an OCS.

Race 4 was a highlight, with the breeze continuing to build, a decent squall tested everyone's boat handling. On the last leg the squall hit, and with the rain came gusts of up to 30 knots, causing a number of ripped kites and a few broaches. This almost mirrored race 2 where the North Sails crew aboard Red Label were looking forward to a solid podium finish before wiping out meters from the finish line, resulting in a fourth place.

Sunday conditions were much calmer. Again, the racing was postponed until the breeze settled. The first race had to be shortened at the second top mark because of the dying breeze, where Team Yosemite Sam did well to protect their lead. The wait for the wind to fill in gave all of the teams a chance have a few beverages and enjoy a great autumn day.

After a delay of nearly an hour two more races were sailed in a light southerly breeze. The breeze never got above 10 knots and the top third of the course only saw around half that. Picking which side the breeze would fill in from was just as crucial as keeping the boat moving through the continuous supply of wakes generated by other harbour users.

Money Shot had a blinder in the second race of the day, picking the shifts and creeping out in front of the fleet for a convincing first place finish.

Going into the last race, Team Yosemite Sam had already won, but there was a real battle on for second. After being able to drop her OCS, Motamouse, was ahead of Rat Attack by one point after a disappointing sixth for Rat Attack in Race 7. Yosemite Sam and Rat Attack battled it out around the course, after Motamouse was left buried at the start.

Yosemite Sam looked to have done enough to win the race, but when they crossed the line no hooter sounded, as they had been judged OCS. This left the win to Rat Attack and then the anxious wait to see where Motamouse would come in. After their bad start Motamouse fought back to finish third, but even this wasn't good enough to stay ahead of Rat Attack.

The final results saw Team Yosemite Sam retain the National Championships trophy for their third successive victory. Rat Attack finished in second place and was the recipient of 'The Musketeer Cup' for first on handicap. This was a one-two finish for the boats representing the Glendowie Boating Club. Motamouse finished third for the third year in a row. However Panic Mouse was the winner of the major spot prize, a very generous North Sails voucher.

The association would like to thank North Sails, Tasti and CRC for their support in sponsoring the event. Also, a big thank you to BBYC for another well organised regatta.

Fleet race, 14 entries Points Place
5738 Yosemite Sam 1 1 3 1 1 1 3 (ocs) 11 1
3440 Rat Attack 2 (6) 2 2 2 3 6 1 18 2
4731 Motamouse 4 3 1 4 (ocs) 2 2 3 19 3
4191 Moneyshot (9) 5 8 3 6 4 1 2 29 4
2999 Red Label 5 4 5 (6) 3 5 4 5 31 5
2328 Party Piedy 6 2 4 5 4 9 7 (ocs) 37 6
5475 Infatuation 7 (9) 6 7 9 7 8 6 50 7
3898 Danger Mouse (10) 8 9 9 8 6 5 7 52 8
3569 Panic Mouse 8 (10) 10 10 7 8 ocs 4 57 9
624 Loose Unit 3 7 7 8 5 (dnc) dnc dnc 60 10
3008 Tantara dnf dnf (dnc) dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc 100 11
3735 Triumph 11 (dnc) dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc 101 12
2201 Jasper (dnc) dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc 105 13 =
2483 One Xtreme (dnc) dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc dnc 105 13 =