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HEART, The official Rum of the
Black Heart 78th Sanders Memorial Cup and
Black Heart 2002 Javelin Nationals
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Black Heart - Sanders Cup
Eight provinces fought it out in this years inter provincial yachting championships, each vying to put their name on the coverted trophy. This was the 78th competition and one where all competing provinces can be proud of their respective entrant. This year, we saw entries from Otago, Canterbury, East Coast, Taranaki, Bay of Plenty, Auckland, North Harbour, and Northland.
Racing was extremely close, in the largely light airs which stayed throughout the Sanders Cup contest, with a mere 2 minute spread in finish times being recorded across the entire fleet in several of the races. Over the seven race series, places were being swapped in each leg, with mistakes costing dearly. The top three boats were all still in contention for top honours going into the last day of racing, with the Bay of Plenty finally taking out the Sanders Cup, but only on count back, shearing equal points with North Harbour.
Congratulations must go to deserving winners Nathan Bax, sailing with his father Ben Bax in “The Unknown” sailing for their home province, the Bay of Plenty. Rob Fordyce, and Craig Gilberd were close, but not close enough to lift the title, on equal points sailing for North Harbour… maybe next time guys! Third place not to far away Alex Vailings, and Hamish Hey sailing for Auckland. As a measure of how the fleet has improved, it is interesting to note that last years winner, Phil McNeil finished in 4th place ahead of Canterbury 5th, with Taranaki 6th, East Coast 7th, and Otago 8th.
In almost in a return to the traditions of old, next years Sanders Memorial Cup will be contested in the home waters of this year’s champion, in the port of Tauranga.
Black Heart - Kingham Trophy
My apologies to all, but it was not until I was updating the list of winners that I realised this was the 50th time the Kingham Trophy has been awarded. The Kingham Trophy is awarded to the winner of the invitation race to the Sanders Cup competition, and is the single open race sailed for at the inter provincial champs. This Trophy was first presented at the Otago contest in 1952, where it was won by the X class “Elusive”. 1970 was the last year an X class (“Charade”, X 81 sailed by Hugh Poole) won this trophy, ever since; it has been the Javelin class, which has stamped its name on the impressive looking trophy.
Unlike the original concept, when the Sanders Cup was contested at a separate contest to the nationals, this years “Invitation Race” was held at the end of the Sanders Cup, to allow more boats to compete, this has been a recent trend.
To mark the special nature of the race, we sailed a “Harbour course” around the fixed marks in Auckland harbour, as opposed to the laid courses over the Nationals / Sanders Cup. This proved especially challenging, as it was held in 15 – 20 knots, with the course covering the area where all the cruising boats were departing for their Easter holiday. Needless to say this created a washing machine effect on the water, quite unlike what we had seen over the relatively quite Sanders Cup period.
The course proved a little confusing for some, as we finished just beyond the wing mark on the last triangle. Had Alex / Hamish realised, they would now have the trophy. They didn’t so Rob & Craig sailing Bungholio went on to win. Congratulations guys… No doubt you have now cleared some space on your TV.
Black Heart - Javelin Nationals
This years nationals followed the Sanders Cup, as it has done during the more recent contests. Twenty one Javelins turned up, a really good effort, it is nice to see a fleet of this size lined up on the start line, something many classes in New Zealand cannot match especially the double handed boats.
The nationals themselves were sailed over the Easter break, for a change, we did not use the lay day, and as a result we finished early, and had the prize giving on the Sunday night. For those still there on Monday, I think you would agree it was the right move, as we would not have been sailing on the last day, as the wind was well up, and weather conditions across the country were not good.
Friday, the first day of racing, was sailed in around 20 knots, with several boats retiring with gear failure. After the first day, Nathan and Ben Bax were in the lead looking set for a follow up win to their Sanders Cup success. Some of the more notable damage:
Flying Circus- Cracking around the mast gate / side deck area. – Reglassed that night.
Cedar Beast- Broken Rudder / stock. – This was repaired each night!
Alex Hinton- Sank! All four buoyancy compartments full! –Retired from contest.
Thirty Something- Broken Mast – Ginge repaired over night. (Easter rates too!)
Saturday had us facing 18 – 25 knot North Westerly winds which again proved challenging. Defending champions Alex Vailings and Hamish Hey sailing Freckle Deckle relished the fresh conditions jumping to a lead of two points over Bungholio by the end of the days racing. Most impressive performance had to go to Ross and Colin Shanks who finished the day in 4th spot overall, and they were leading the race for the prized DFL trophy, as gear breakages etc had meant that all places below them had now dropped at least one race. Nathan and Ben Bax retired from the series part way through the days sailing, with technical difficulties. As did the crew of Flying Circus, whose ankle was strained in an impressive wipe out on one of the kite rides. With forecast winds of 35 knots for Sunday, I enlisted the services of 60 kilo Steve formally Alex Hintons crew, to replace my injured crew. This turned out to be slightly controversial, as instead of the 35 knots, we got none… well 5 - 10 knots anyway.
A big effort from our new
German friends who moved to New Zealand to race Javelins (I am sure there
was no other reason) saw them first to the top mark in the first race of the
day, well done! Antje and Jochen were sailing their boat Zenith, an Elder
design, with the other Elder designed Desperado taking out line honours
sailed by Martin Winter and Richard Peck.
Bungholio showed some impressive light wind performance to claim the
outright title, narrowly missing out on the DFL which this year went to 2nd
place, Freckle Deckle, after both Ross & Colin Shanks, then Phil McNeil
and Bob Vernon took them selves out of the running retiring with rudder
problems.
Congratulations Rob Fordyce for your first win of the title, and crew Craig Gilberd for your 4th. Well done guys, a great effort.