South Island Championships sailed at Port Chalmers Dunedin November 12th 13th 2005


Twenty-two yachts from Christchurch, Timaru, Queenstown,Central Otago, Owaka
and Dunedin entered for the six races run in good southerly breezes but
miserable rain and cold cold temperatures.

Fortunately the wind was steady  at 7 -13 knots, 180 -210 degrees which
meant that course setting delays did not exacerbate the cold. Four of the
races were run on the Saturday with the last one shortened to the clubhouse
end - a move appreciated by all. The courses set all seemed to run fairly
with good spinnaker runs both sides although on some legs more pressure was
apparent to one side when the breeze lightened.

 Richard Hawkins in his freshly revamped Cannonball along with crew Ian
Dixon and Jason Ross scored six line honours wins each a distance clear of
the fleet to take the championship. In fact Cannonball was beaten on only
one course leg of the regatta and that by the old master Ray Shearer in
Symphony who in one race got a fortuitous port end shift off the start line
to be first to Mark 1 - the lead was short lived. However competition for
the minor placings was stiff between Laurie Chandler's Lyric , Alex Bruce in
Charade and Ken Camp in Double Dark with 14, 19 and 21 points respectively.
On the face of it Laurie seemed to be getting closer to the lead each race
and he agreed that with another couple he might have done it !
A worthy winner for the silver division was found in Dragos Blaga in
Rangitahi under the protocol  set in advance.

A surprising number of boats fronted with no spinnaker numbers which makes
life difficult for the recorders on off-wind finishes. It is to be hoped
that the point is noted for January

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