December 4.-5.
Well the roadshow moved to New Plymouth for the last regatta of 2004. This is the home of the seriously big waves and we were not disapointed.
Saturday morning arrived with not much wind but a 4 to 5 metre swell making it a little difficult to concentrate after a few rums the night before. However the sun was shining and all 14 sailors were hoping the breeze would come up a bit. The first race was led from start to finish by Greg Wilcox followed by David (the golfing finn sailor) Hoogenboom. Everyone was pretty close in the end and the second race was similar.
Mark Perrow had a handy lead with Adrian Mannering an easy second. Ben and Joe managed to park up right on the finish to let Greg slip through for third.
The third race saw Steve win on the finish line from Dave, Mark, Joe and Ben with all of them recorded as having five seconds between them . The rest were back a bit and a little more spread out. The last race of the day was held in a dying breeze and Grant(the lightweight) showed good speed to take it out followed by Dave then Joe. It was then off to the bar for some jugs of rum and a good meal and more rum.
Sunday brought more wind. 35knts in fact and it was just enough for Russell to take off. Ben sailed well for 2nd then Steve,Greg and Grant. Trent and Darren hung in there to finish as well and it was getting a bit extreme by then so the rest of the races were abandoned. This left Steve the well deserving winner from Grant and Greg.
The next regatta is the famous New Year event in Napier.(home of the sea breeze) It is good to see so many guys willing to move around a bit and enjoy the social aspects of these regattas as well as the close and competitive racing.
| Pos | Name | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | tot | tot-1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve Mcdowell | 5 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 20 | 13 |
| 2 | Grant Pederson | 3 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 26 | 15 |
| 3 | Greg Wilcox | 1 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 24 | 16 |
| 4 | David Hoogenboom | 2 | 10 | 2 | 2 | dnf | 31 | 16 |
| 5 | Ben Morrison | 9 | 4 | 5 | dnf | 2 | 35 | 20 |
| 6 | Joe Porebski | 11 | 5 | 4 | 3 | dnf | 38 | 23 |
| 7 | Mark Perrow | 4 | 1 | 3 | dnf | dnf | 38 | 23 |
| 8 | Ade Mannering | 10 | 2 | 7 | 5 | dnf | 39 | 24 |
| 9 | Trent Pryce | 5 | 8 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 36 | 25 |
| 10 | Russell Wood | 7 | 12 | 14 | dnf | 1 | 49 | 34 |
| 11 | Mike Wilde | 8 | 6 | 13 | 7 | dnf | 49 | 34 |
| 12 | Darren Hunt | 13 | 13 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 53 | 40 |
| 13 | Alistair Deaves | 14 | 9 | 12 | 9 | dnf | 59 | 44 |
| 14 | Phil Rzepecky | 12 | 14 | 9 | dnf | dnf | 65 | 50 |