Final Results

Day 1, Saturday 15th January 2005. Racing is very close at the top of the fleet with the top 5 boats being very even in speed. Conditions are excellent with 5-14 knot North Easterly winds and clear skies and hot.

Day 2, Sunday 16th Januray 2005.

Race 4 - Mornings racing was delayed for 1.5 hours due to lack of wind, and eventually started just before lunchtime. Auckland, and Bay of Plenty were over the line at the start, Auckland returned, as did North Harbour who mistakenly thought they were over. Bay of Plenty did not return and were scored OCS. The race stayed tight with a bunch of Auckland, Taranaki, Waikato, and East Coast really close together. Northland and North Harbour was a hundred meters off the bunch at the top mark, with North Harbour even further back. Northland fought through the bunch with impressive downwind speed to take the gun, with the tight bunch led by Taranaki, with Auckland following, North Harbour just catching onto the end of the bunch at the finish line.

Race 5 - Auckland lead to the topmark, followed closely by Waikato and North Harbour. North harbour decided to gybe early out of 3rd and go into the bay for a hope of increased pressure as no ground was being made on the leading boats. Unfortunately this didnt pay off and Northland also slipped through to take 2nd from Waikato with North Harbour loosing a place into 4th. Auckland held a good few hundred meter lead at the finish with good downwind speed.

Race 6 - A good start by most of the fleet, with the front bunch as always sailing nice and tightly together. North Harbour tried some new tactics of footing a bit more, but a lack of height saw them brushing sterns after the first tack with Auckland leading. At the bottom, Auckland was leading, with 3 boats brushing for 2nd place. Positions held constant for the next few laps, with Auckland taking the race from North Harbour.

Race 7 - Race management decided to hold the final race following race 6 rather than leave it until Monday morning as programmed. The wind had picked up a couple of knots but the overall strategy remained the same as the earlier races - sail to the left side of the course as the wind comes down off the hills. Downhill was also the same, bear away hoist, sail to the corner and gybe once if you call the correct layline. Those that don't get the layline correct either ended up sailing low and slow at the mark or had to putin an exta two gybes. With the increase in wind it was easy to get it wrong. Course one was nominated by race management, two windward/leewards with a beat to the finish rather than the three windward leewards sailed in all of the previous races.

North Harbour started well at the pin end of the line, spitting out Auckland who it appears had switched off, as they were certain that they had already won the contest and didn't need to sail the last race. Northland sailed well around the track to be second behind North Harbour for most of the race only to be on the wrong side of a shift at the finish allowing Taranaki and Waikato to sneak into second and third, respectively. Northland dropped back to fourth with Auckland fifth. These boats had consistantly held the front positions throughout the contest. Auckland's additions proved correct as they dropped their fifth position to win the contest by one point from North Harbour.

Conditions in this race were generally agreed to be poop, with two fighting wind directions and a confused sea making it difficult to get any momentum and causing a number of skippers to be mumbling expletives under their breath.