Weather forecast fails to spook yachties
A good number of boats turned out despite the bad forecast for the North Canterbury Regatta organised by the Waimakariri Sailing Club at the weekend.
The weather looked bad, but undaunted, over 30 boats turned up and met an easterly wind on day one around 5 to 6kts and day two averaging 8kts gusting to 15kts. Wind conditions were ideal for competitive sailing along the Waimakariri River, club spokesman Stan Price said, for the three junior and two senior classes.
The Canterbury Sunburst Championship featured the Kaiapoi crew of Heather and Murray Walls, recently back from the Nationals at Wakatere in Auckland where they were second on handicap and first husband and wife combination.
The couple looked set to to battle Pleasant Point’s Rhys O’Cain and Sebastian Berliou- Barboza, who also competed in the Nationals, but it was not to be.
The Mount Pleasant boat, Moonbeam 2, crewed by Matt Neale and his daughter Holly, took wins in four of the six races to take out the Championship.
Eagle crew O’Cain, with Berlioux-Barboza on day one and then Amelia Collins on day two, from Pleasant Point, were second with the Walls settling for third.
Waimakariri Sailing Club’s Tom Arthur took the win in the Firebug Championship ahead of Nathan Harbutt (Timaru Boys) in second and another Waimakariri sailor, Bill Howard, finished third.
Mt Pleasant Yacht Club’s Diego Weffens took out the Optimist Championship. Waimakariri’s Flynn Johnson won the P Class Championship, with Fletcher Johnson third.
Blake Grindley-Jones added another win for the hosts in the Starling Championship.