Takapuna Boating Club, October 22 -24
Report by Steve McDowell
Labour weekend saw the second regatta of the OK Dinghy summer series with a fleet of 14 turning up to race in the Takapuna Labour weekend regatta. Know doubt this number will be bettered at the Turangi International Open in two weeks, and then at the official home of the OK, Worser Bay’s Hurricane classic!
Saturday saw 3 races with winds of 12-18knots for the first two and 5-10knots for the last race of the day, the shifts were large and he who could sail to the right hand corner the quickest won! Phill Rzepecky showed some early form winning for most of the first race before Mark Perrow and Ben Morrison came through to finish 1st and 2nd respectively for races one and two.
The third race of the day started in lighter conditions and after the first beat really turned into a one way track, Steve McDowell got a small jump up the first beat and extended this out to win the race from Ben Morrison and Greg Wilcox.
Sunday saw more sun and lighter winds, the pressure really went on the boys to perform when NZ’s Olympic gold medallist hopeful, Dan Slater turned out at the start! Conditions were good over the day with Greg Wilcox winning race 4, Dan Slater winning races 5 and 6 and Steve McDowell winning the last race of the day (race 7).
Monday was always going to be tough with the points very close at the top of the leader board between Morrison, Perrow, Wilcox and McDowell, someone was likely to crack, and it seemed to all fall apart for team Wakatere when they couldn’t make the start.
This left Team Worser bay sailors Wilcox and McDowell to fight it out for overall honours, McDowell lead for all of race 8 but was piped on the line by Wilcox , race 9 saw another intense battle between Wilcox and McDowell, Dan Slater won the race but it was another close finish between Wilcox and McDowell with Wilcox again edging out McDowell for second and wrapping up the series.
Overall a very good weekends racing, made even better by having a sailor the calibre of Dan Slater to race against.
| Plc | Boat Name | Sail No | Helm | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 522 | Greg Wilcox | Worser Bay BC | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 22 | |
| 2 | 519 | Steve McDowell | Worser Bay BC | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 26 | |
| 3 | Hurricane | 511 | Ben Morrison | Wakatere BC | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 2 | DNC | DNC | 36 |
| 4 | 521 | Mark Perrow | Wakatere BC | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 3 | DNC | DNC | 42 | |
| 5 | 516 | Dan Slater | DNS | DNS | DNS | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 44 | ||
| 6 | Bliss | 472 | Alistair Deaves | Wakatere BC | 6 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 5 | 48 |
| 7 | Ya Damn Skippy | 518 | Grant Pedersen | Wakatere BC | 8 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 57 |
| 8 | 490 | Trent Pryce | Napier SC | 9 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 13 | 13 | 8 | 4 | 60 | |
| 9 | General Lee | 520 | Russell Wood | Wakatere BC | 4 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 11 | DNC | DNC | 60 |
| 10 | 498 | Darren Hunt | Napier SC | 11 | 11 | 9 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 71 | |
| 11 | 504 | Adrian Manning | Napier SC | DNS | DNS | DNS | 12 | 4 | 12 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 75 | |
| 12 | 508 | 10 | 5 | 6 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 10 | DNC | DNC | 77 | |||
| 13 | Bootleg | 500 | Philip Rzepecky | Wakatere BC | 5 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 12 | 7 | 12 | DNC | DNC | 80 |