Knight Frank Young 88 South Island Champs

[Island Time 1,252]

Knight Frank Young 88 South Island Champs

The Knight Frank Young 88 South Island Championship was sailed for the first time on the waters of Queen Charlotte Sound at the weekend.  The traditional home of the event has been either Lyttelton or Akaroa with the move north prompted by strong Young 88 fleet racing in Wellington.  While the event did not live up to expected numbers it more than made up for this in exciting racing.

The Waikawa Boating Club hosted the event which was sailed on Saturday 6 February in a solid south-east breeze.  The first two races in 12-18 knots had the genoas flying before the smaller headsails come out for races 3 and 4 as the breeze built to 20-25 knots putting a bit of pressure on boat handling.  This was all in a day’s work for the Wellington crews who were just getting warmed up before the final race was abandoned with the wind at 30 knots.

There was no shortage of excitement in the pre starts either with a short line putting a bit of pressure on helm’s time on distance judgement.  In the small fleet it was akin to match race starting with plenty of tactical manoeuvring to secure dominance off the line.  Naval Point Club Lyttelton entry Flying Machine (Craig Edwards) managed to get away to lead at each mark in a consistent all round performance.  

The South Island Young 88 Championship title was retained by Flying Machine with 4 wins followed by Wellington boats Whistler III (Mike West) second and 88%Proof (Herve le Goff) third.  A recalculation of finish times by Race Officer Peter Vause gave the Racetrack handicap win Whistler III and the victory on “NCEA Handicap” to 88%Proof.

A big thanks to the race management team of Peter and Karen Vause, Dave and Anna Roberts, Viki Moore and Nicci Blain for a great event.