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(by Phil Williams) The wonderful sunny little fishing town snuggled in the heart of the extinct volcano of Banks Peninsula, complete with strong French influence from whaling days and plans of French colonisation, became the host venue for the 2011 Zephyr National championship. Sounds idyllic.
Overcast, rain and muggy conditions made for sometimes warm sailing and sometimes cold. We don’t know how lucky we are at Worser Bay with clean, non silty launching areas, and club and fine beach so close to the racing area.
Team Worser Bay : James McDowell “kereru” 514, Tony Crew “Zimer”516, Richard Dreverman “Sparkles”46, Nigel Lloyd “Sixth Sense”6, Phil Williams “Dances with Waves”502.
Well, Day 1 was in fact sunny and a lovely southerly breeze perfect for test sailing against a few of the potential opposition. We found that boat for boat against some of the “rated” “Aucklanders” we had every chance of doing OK. Performing the processes and using the top 2 inches would be the deciding factor.
Very soon after Nigel and Phil had got changed in the tiny changeroom, ready for the practice sail, an elderly lady lost control of her car and crashed it over the bank above the club, across the road, and into the changeroom. Whew that was close ! Luckily no major injuries, the lady apparently was taken to hospital for a check.
Team Worser Bay stood up well at the registration and measuring. The measurers had a few moments of “ahhh what”, trying to understand sparkling Ozzie logic with regard to hull weight minimum. Consultation with the rule book and all was sorted.
Really all the days merged into a bunch of races in sort of 8 to 15knot NE winds with what some might call random 30deg wind shifts coming from one side of the bay or the other in the murky misty and showery conditions.
Eventually we worked out the similarity to a Worser Bay southerly, sailing to the patches of pressure and toward the dark side where rain was falling or cloud was darkest. Tim Sneddon and Grant Beck sorted it quick being first or second in most races. Phil’s performance improved throughout to catch a 3rd place overall despite the disappointment of a third place being recorded as OCS and becoming the drop.
Great performances came in race 4 and 6 from “Zimer”, TC scoring a 11th and 9th but a slightly more consistent run from James put “Kereru” one place ahead of TC at 21st and just making the top half of the fleet.
Jamie certainly proved to be the fastest when at 6am one morning the earth shook. Earthquake! No one knows where he was going. Down to the sea to rescue the boat from the possible tsunami, up the hill to escape from the tsunami, climbing a tree or make a cup of tea, or a rum. But he was the fastest, easily. TC Laughed, the Ozzie moved his feet to escape the TV possibly falling on him and Phil rolled over and went back to sleep.
Back to the sailing, Chris Hargreaves Wellingtonian at heart at least, sailing “Tamati” also scored some goodies pulling in a 16th place overall. He might be back in Welly sometime later in the year.
“Sparkles” complete with sparkling Aussie stars (on the deck and on the helm, ambiguity intended) set a cracking pace especially in the pits. Day one saw the re-rigging of the mast and repositioning the gooseneck before the race, and after it some poor ol bugger holding his boat in the surging swell on the muddy silty beach while he went to get a large persuading instrument to remove the rudder so that sparkles could be brought ashore. All bull aside “Sparkles” is a sight to behold and could be put in the furniture display beside Sixth Sense. Nice job Richard.
Now there is a sight to behold ! Beautiful she is… “Sixth Sense”. But really Nigel needs another boat for nationals. It is only now that we have seen the very gentlemanly British heritage that Nigel holds. So polite at the rounding marks and starts it was like he was holding the door open for the ladies. “You go first and DON’T touch my boat”. Making way for 5 or so places at each rounding did not make for a high score overall, but he had fun sailing the most beautiful boat, ever. Imagine if he was sailing “Tui Rocket” things would be different, very different.
There are some great photos, follow the link on the Mount pleasant yacht club site. http://www.mpyc.org.nz/
So there it is. Akaroa a story of fun and French frivolity and a two pub, two rum, pub crawl and great food. Meeting up with some old buggers haven’t seen for over forty years when we sailed P class in the 60’s. Team Worser Bay standing out complete with team shirts. Some disbelief about Phil’s age after receiving the Trophy for 60+ and hiking like a 30 year old. Earthquake drill. Having coffees under the French flag and staying on Rue Jolie. Jolly good time, mon ami.