The following stories by Mark Van Wyk appeared in the Gisborne Herald during
the event.
Event Preview
This summer is promising to be a very busy
season for many local sailors with a number of major events being hosted by
the Gisborne Yacht Club. The first of these events is a weekend of coaching
sessions by notable Yachting New Zealand Coaching Coordinator, Julie Worth
of Auckland. The weekend is broken up into four different categories
relating to individual sailor’s abilities including juniors, adult novices
and experienced sailors. All interested sailors whether members of the yacht
club or otherwise are invited to attend one of the sessions. Topics covered
will be basic rules, safety, seamanship tips, tactics and starting tips. The
event is being held over the 13th and 14th of
November. There will be a small fee to offset the costs. People interested
should contact the Yacht Club to find out more information.
The main event on this season’s calendar is an International Regatta being held in mid January 2005. Held every two years the hosting of the South Pacific Javelin Championships is a major coup for the Gisborne Yacht Club and will only happen because of the significant contribution by local company Bulmer Harvest. Usually regattas of this standing are held in cities like Auckland, Sidney or Perth. Competitors will be coming from as far away as Perth and Melbourne to compete in this prestigious event. Local Javelin sailor Colin Shanks traveled to Australia to compete in the regatta two years ago and was able to convince the class that Gisborne had the water and expertise to host a successful event. The defending champion Rob Fordyce of Auckland has confirmed that he will be coming to defend his title.
Two weeks later the local club will be again hosting a round of the Jennian Homes Hobie 16 Super Series. This competition is for all Hobie 16 sailors in New Zealand although last year there were a number of international sailors that managed to compete in some of the regattas. The Gisborne leg last year proved to be very successful with plenty of exciting racing and only two points separating the top three boats. This year we are expecting the numbers to increase. The local fleet has increased by two this year and twenty two new boats have come into the country over recent months this is something that has not happened for more than a decade.
In addition to these events the local club is holding their regular exchanges with the Wairoa Yacht Club with a regatta in the Wairoa river next month and the annual Mahia regatta in March next year.
Somehow the sailors will also manage to fit in the regular Sunday afternoon club sailing which leads up to the Poverty Bay Championships which are held mid march next year.
Event Preview 2
This weekend Javelin Sailors from as far away
as Perth will be converging on Gisborne for a week of top level competition.
The first three days of racing is for the Sanders Cup and is an
interprovincial competition with only one boat from each of New Zealand’s
Provinces eligible to race. First competed for in 1921, the Sanders Cup is
the oldest New Zealand Sailing Trophy still competed for in its original
format and is the only senior interprovincial trophy. Last year’s winner
Phillip McNeill representing Northland is one of 10 confirmed entries for
this year. The Gisborne Yacht Club will have two boats in the regatta.
Father and son duo Colin and Ross Shanks will be representing East Coast and
Richard Peck and Luke Porter will be representing Poverty Bay. The Shanks
team knows that with their current boat, local knowledge and their
experience they have the ability to win this regatta. This will be the 16th
time that Shanks senior has represented the East Coast and the 5th
time with his son. The younger member of the team is no stranger to
competition either, with a history of representing the region in the P Class
at the Tanner Cup and in the Starling Class. Ross will be the helmsman as
this has been his position since his first Sanders Cup Regatta when he was
only 14 years old.
The Poverty Bay team of Peck and Porter has also competed in a number of Sanders Cup Regattas and combined with local knowledge they also should do well. This team has two boats at their disposal to choose from since usually they are competing against each other. Each boat has subtle design differences which depending on the wind and sea conditions will enhance the boats performance. Once the duo chooses their boat they will not be allowed to change for the duration of the competition.
The Javelin is a light weight high performance two man dingy with three sails. The hull is only 70 kg and with a combined sail area of up to 35m2 these boats are likely to reach speeds up to 25knots (approximately 45km/hr) out on Poverty Bay if conditions are suitable. Javelins were first produced in 1961 and since then notable yacht designers such as Bruce Farr have designed and raced them.
Racing starts Saturday afternoon and
can be viewed from the Yacht club or on Kaiti Hill. For more information on
Javelins see www.javelins.org .
Story Two:
Sailing enthusiasts will be able to witness some first class international sailing out on Poverty Bay over the next week as Javelin Sailors compete for a number of national and international titles. The first three days sailing is for the Sanders Cup, an interprovincial competition, then immediately following is the Bulmer Harvest South Pacific Javelin Championships. This major international regatta is held every two years and is open to all Javelin Sailors in the World. First sailed in 1968 the regatta has developed into a Trans Tasman test series with New Zealand winning the event eleven times and Australia six times. New Zealand sailors will be attempting to make it three in a row this regatta .This year the event will also be doubling as the National Championships.
Two years ago the Regatta was held in Perth and local Sailor Colin Shanks made the trip over to compete with a fellow New Zealander. Whilst there, Shanks was able to convince the Javelin Association that Gisborne had the venue and the infrastructure to successfully host an event which in the past has been held only in major cities such as Auckland, Melbourne and Wellington. The hosting of this event is a major coup for the small local yacht club, but they are confident that all is ready. “All we are relying on now are the good racing conditions that consistently occur at this time of the year out in the Bay” said local yacht club spokesman.
Shanks has confirmed entries for twenty boats including three from Perth that will be arriving in a shipping container. Defending champions Rob Fordyce and Craig Gilbert of Auckland will be here to defend their South Pacific title along with the current National title holders, father and son duo Ben and Nathan Bax and current Interprovincial champion, Phillip McNeill of Northland. The Gisborne Yacht Club expects to have three local entries, the most competitive of them likely to be Shanks and his son Ross. Both men are experienced sailors at representative level and with local knowledge and their current good boat, they should do well.
The racing will be over four days with up to three races held each day. Competitors will be able to discard their worst result after a certain number of races have been sailed. For more information on South Pacific Javelin Championships see www.javelins.org .
Gisborne Herald
This weekend sees the Gisborne Yacht Club holding the first of a number of majorevents in what promises to be a very busy season. Yachting New Zealand’s coaching co coordinator; Julie Worth of Auckland will be here for Saturday and Sunday taking sail coaching sessions. The weekend is open to all people interested in sailing, from youth to novice adults and seasoned competitors who would like to extend their seamanship and sailing knowledge. There will be a small fee to offset the cost of having Ms Worth here. People interested can contact the Yacht Club.
The Vernons
Competing together in the Bulmer Harvest South Pacific Javelin Championships
are brothers Bob and Peter Vernon. Known affectionately as the Legends, the
Vernons started racing Javelins before most of their competition was born
and according to younger brother Peter who is fifty nine years old, they
have won more titles between them than they can remember. Together they
first won the Interprovincial trophy, the Sanders Cup in 1977 and they won
the South pacific Championships “sometime in the late eighties.”
Although Bob is the elder at sixty one years old and is the skipper he is
quite happy to be ordered around by his younger sibling. When the duo was
asked if there was much arguing on board, Peter was quick to state that
disagreements were rare but there was a fair amount of shouting. “Bob is a
bit deaf so I have to keep yelling at him so he knows what we are doing.”
The duo are sailing on a boat that Bob built himself in 1983 and named it Blunderbus. “I gave it the name because it sails like a bus and it was a blunder to build it.” After five races in the series the Vernons are currently seventh out of the eighteen boats competing.
Leading after a convincing display of sailing yesterday are the Auckland / Raglan team Nick Taylor and Reece Brailey. Three consecutive firsts in the afternoon sailing has given them a five point lead over nearest rivals, defending champions Rob Fordyce and Craig Gilberd. “Conditions out there just suited the boat and our style of sailing plus we had great starts” said Taylor. The duo have been sailing together for eight years and are former National Champions in the Olympic 470 class.
The best of the local boats are father and son team Colin and Ross Shanks who are currently in ninth place but expect them to move up the fleet when they discard their worst result which was a “DNF – did not finish” in race one. The other local boat being sailed by Luke Porter and Mark van Wyk is in thirteenth place.
There is a rest day today and still
five races to be sailed in the series which finishes on Saturday.
South Pacifics Completed
Defending champions Rob Fordyce and Craig Gilberd of North Harbour, sailing
on Bungholio, came so very close to successfully defending their title at
the Bulmer Harvest South Pacific Javelin Championships held in Gisborne last
week. The regatta is held every two years and the duo knew that they needed
to finish first in the last two races on Saturday, which they did, and then
rely on the current leaders, Nick Taylor from Auckland and Reece
Brailey,from Raglan, sailing on Freckle Deckle to finish back in the
placings. It all came down to the last leg of the last race. The Taylor /
Brailey team had started the race poorly so they rounded the top mark for
the last time back in the middle of the fleet. But the duo that have totally
dominated the regatta by being the fastest boat down wind, called on their
experience to pick up a number of places to finish in fifth place. The
result was enough to have them tied on points with Fordyce and Gilberd but
to win on a count back of first placings, four to three. This was the first
time that duo have won this title and they were quick to praise many of
their fellow competitors who had helped to build their boat and rigging, and
had lent them sails earlier in the regatta when they had ripped theirs. As a
team they have been sailing for eight years and have competed
internationally on numerous occasions. Together they are former New Zealand
Champions in the Olympic 470 Class.
Third
place went to Perth sailor's Brian Hennessay and Steve Watts, sailing on Fat
Boys Swim. Two years ago this
team needed only to finish fourth or better in the last race to take the
trophy from Fordyce and Gilberd but failed to do so. The result has given
New Zealand its third consecutive victory over Australia and the twelfth
since the competition's conception.
Local
sailors Colin and Ross Shanks, sailing on Riders on the Storm, finished a
creditable seventh place. "We are happy with that result because we
know that every boat that finished ahead of us has had a National title in
the last three years" said Shanks senior. Meanwhile the other Gisborne
entry, Wild Fire, sailed by Luke Porter and Mark van Wyk finished thirteenth
and managed to win the C Division trophy. "I'm rapt with the result
because I know that my entire boat is worth less than the rudder on the new
ones" said Porter.
Earlier
in the week the prestigious Interprovincial Trophy, the Sanders Cup was won
by Aucklanders Peter Precey and John Thorman, sailing on WWW.Javelins.ORG.
The Sanders Cup was first competed for in 1921 and is the oldest New Zealand
Yachting Trophy. Precey and a new crew, Graham Roberts finished one place
ahead of the Shanks' duo in the South Pacific Championships and also
received the Kingham Trophy for winning the Invitational race at the start
of the regatta.