This years Sanders Cup was held in Taupo. It has been 16 years since the Nationals & Sanders Cup have been sailed at different times & venue. This year it was decided to hold it in conjunction with the Mighty River Power Regatta. This was to Show case the Sanders Cup & the Javelin class to a bigger sailing audience.

An extra day was added to the regatta for the Javelins.

Friday morning was a perfect day for everything except sailing. The AP was flown for an hour, until a 7 knot breeze came in for the Kingham Trophy. Ross & Colin Shanks were a bit slow off the start, but managed to over take the Flying Circus on the first windward beat, & then lead the fleet across the finish line, only a few boat lengths behind was Flying Circus & Absolute Marine.

The Sanders Cup started 40 minutes later.

There were 7 entries from Wellington, Taranaki, East Coast, B.O.P, King Country, Auckland and Northland.

Race 1 started in 7 knots with a small cop on the water, this proved to be ideal conditions for the 4 ‘Lee Boats’, half way around the track there was only 20 meters between them. Taranaki crossed the line first followed by East Coast & Auckland.

Conditions improved for the second race, getting up to 10knts .This suited EC who went on to win over Taranaki & Auckland.

The wind had dropped to7 kn0ts  The race officer decided to run one more race, much to the delight of “Don’t blow too hard” Brown & disgust of Shanksy .But a turn of form saw EC win over Taranaki.

The next day The Javelins had to share the water with the other regatta boats.

Auckland had a turn of speed that no one could match, but for a navigational error, dropping their gennaker at the wrong mark let East Coast go on to win. Auckland seeing their mistake managed to keep Taranaki out for 2nd place.

In the next 2 races the lead changed several times, with “the improvers” Wellington having their time showing the way. Veteran Baxy B O P had moments of glory & Greame Roberts (2007 National champ) sailing with Grunta Northland couldn't find the groove. King Country ,who missed the first 3 races ,were not far off the pace.

By the end of the 2nd day & 6 races East Coast had all but won the Sanders Cup. The only thing that could prevent this was a disqualification for bad sportsmanship on the last race, so to prevent this ,the Rum bottle & Gisborne Gold was shared evenly around all Javelin sailors. With the help of the “Brothers” from B O P & Northland, Shanksy was guided around the establishments of Taupo. Race 7 was a real effort for East Coast.

Results

Javelin Sanders Cup 23-25th March 2007

Mighty River Power Regatta 24-25th March 2007