Dominance of racing on the last day just wasn’t enough to claim victory falling short by 4 points - but we gave it a nudge!
Three Australian’s (Sean Wallis, Doug Allen & Lindsay Walker) headed across the Tasman to compete in the IOM New Zealand National Championship held at Wattle Farm, Auckland over three days 27-29 September.
Having left the warmer Australian weather it was ‘shock horror’ arriving to a cold, wet and windy Auckland where the practice day saw it too damn cold to sail with a few of the Kiwi’s banging about with their C rigs on. Adjourning to the heated accommodation was a much better idea and we waited until day one of racing.
Day one the breeze had abated somewhat although it was still cold but we got away with top of the A rigs for a good part of the morning until a rain squall came through giving us a good drenching making it feel even colder, but the breeze was up and blowing straight down the lake providing an excellent course and by early afternoon the B rigs came out.
Graham Cross with his V8 was quick off the blocks with a win in races 1 & 2 and a 5,2,1 in the next three races and he became a strong contender for the title although Ian Vickers didn’t take long to get going either and by the end of the day had 6 wins, two 2nds and a 3rd to take the day one overnight lead 8 points ahead of Cross and 10 points ahead of Australian Sean Wallis. Lindsay Walker had also placed well in the middle of the top 10 with results consistently in the top 10 while Doug Allen struggled a bit finding some visits to B fleet.
Day two and the sun shone but it was still chilly, but again the breeze was blowing straight down the lake and it looked to be a bit of a replica of the first day although the breeze didn’t strengthen as much. While Vickers held a good lead it wasn’t out of reach for Wallis to overcome and a shootout began with both trading firsts and seconds for much of the day but Wallis got caught up with the fleet in the final two races and tripped back to B fleet to see the Vickers lead out to 15 at close. Dougy settled well into B fleet becoming a ‘solid’ B fleeter mainly due to the fact that he was too lazy to fix a broken side stay and struggled with a B rig in top A conditions. After some gentle persuasion the A rig re-appeared for a race but with an inadequate repair the B rig was seen on again and places in B fleet continued until an overnight repair was carried out. Lindsay maintained his consistency and found his way into the top five as we turned the corner to the final day.
The final day saw the breeze wafting around the NW direction which blew across the lake and with that short courses were required. The fleet was split into three and the first heats of the day were sailed in extremely light and shifty conditions with Wallis emerging from B fleet and then winning the A fleet race 20 after which the breeze settled in a more westerly direction, increased and made for more excellent sailing up and down the lake.
Lindsay had a tough start to the day but improved race by race with a second place the best of the day but comfortably placed him into fifth overall for the championship. Dougy battled through the fleets spending a bit more time in A, but was only able to improve one position from his overnight place to finish 14th overall.
After winning race 20, Wallis dominated the racing winning all remaining five races of the day and closing down the Vickers lead race by race reducing the deficit by 11 points in 6 races but it just wasn’t enough to overhaul the large lead with the NZL champion defending his title with the Australian falling short by four points in the end.
Video of the final race AUS171 Sean Wallis, NZL 71 Ian Vickers