P Class alive and well at Sir Peter Blake Regatta

by John Jennings on 7 Dec 2011
In a showing that surely would have appealed to Sir Peter Blake one of the largest fleets of P Class in recent times, outside a Nationals, converged at the Sir Peter Blake Regatta 3-4 Dec to contest the P Class North island Championship.

A high calibre fleet of young sailors from all around the North island and the two time Sir Peter Blake Cup winner Jayvee Buchanan from Christchurch duked it out over six races for the honour of being the North Island Champion.

Saturday presented the sailors with a steady NE breeze of around 12kts but a relatively confused sea state that meant boat handling both up and down wind was critical to maintaining good boat speed. Over the three races on Saturday a large blanket was all that was required to cover the main protagonists.

It was clear that around a dozen sailors would be taking it in turns to contest the podium finishes in each race but it was Nick Egnot-Johnson in Supertramp that was showing the way with two bullets and a fourth to set the early pace with Tim Adair (Mirage) and Jayvee keeping Nick very honest.

Sunday’s forecast promised some extreme sailing but it didn’t quite eventuate. Wet and miserable it certainly was, and that was just being on a support boat, but the promised breeze didn’t quite reach expectations except for the final race of the day. Again the large (wet) blanket could be thrown over the first 12 boats most of the time. The final race of the day saw a fair bit of action on the downwinds as the breeze picked up to the high teens and the sea state made for some tricky conditions so even the front runners were having plenty of moments. Nick didn’t have it all his own way and the final race went to Eliza Wilkinson to provide a bit of gender balance to proceedings.

Nevertheless with a 1, 2 and 3 on Day 2 Nick saw off Tim by 3 points to take out the title of P Class North Island Champion for 2011. In fact it seems if North Island is in the title then Nick is your man, having taken out the Opti North Island in October – rumour has it Mum and Dad are lining up a Starling for Starling North Islands at Auckland Anniversary weekend (not really)!

Aside from the action at the front there were some great duels all the way down through the fleet and great to see the enthusiasm with which all the boats were being sailed.

The regatta was a great prelude to P Nationals (Tanner and Tauranga Cup) being held at Murrays Bay Sailing Club 11-16 January when we hope to see 50 plus Ps hitting the water. There’s plenty of life left in this iconic little boat particularly when they are being sailed by many of New Zealand’s finest young sailing talent.