NZ 12 Ft Skiffs to compete in Sydney
by Graham Catley on 6 Dec 2010
ASCC 2 Graham Catley
The Maersk NZ 12 ft skiff team to compete in the 51st Interdominion Championship was selected last weekend in a series run out of the Auckland Sailing Club. The regatta is being held in Sydney at the Lane Cove Skiff Club from 7-15 January with 8 boats from NZ being shipped over to compete against an Australian fleet which has been reinvigorated since they won the last years event in Auckland.
Clearly the form NZ skiff is C-Tech crewed by Chris Reid (Reido) and Ben DeFluiter. Reido showed good form with his newly developed 1 rig in last years event winning several heats and over the winter he has developed a new 2 rig which is showing very good speed against the other local boats.
The other NZ boats which will be highly competitive are Frankenskiff, Tim Bartlett/Adam Miller, Alex Vallings in Nuplex and ASCC, Nick Catley and Josh McCormack.
After winning the event in Auckland last year the Australian fleet has continued to grow. They built 6 new hulls in Auckland over the winter and are investing a signficant amount of effort to try and regain the dominance in the class that has resided in NZ for 10-15 years.
The wild card in the regatta for the Kiwis this year is the venue. The event is being run by the Lane Cove Skiff Club in their water which is up the Parramatta River. Local knowledge will clearly be an advantage so the NZ crews will have to sail particularly well to bring the individual and team trophies home.
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