Leander Trophy - R-Class National Championships 2003
Leander Trophy
R-Class National Championships 2003
From the 6-9th March, Naval Point Club hosted the countries best skiff sailors for the Leander Trophy. The R-Class is a two-person, twin trapeze development dinghy, or skiff class. What does this mean? Very few rules, a restriction on the waterline length, maximum sail area and little else (no minimum weight). The class is over 53 years old, yet is one of the fastest and most advanced boats you see on the water. Developments in technology and concepts have lead to a lightweight (40-50kg rigged and ready to sail) fast planning boat reaching 25-30 knots downwind, 15 knots upwind.
This year has seen a few new innovations and experimentation in the class. Dan Leech (Naval Point Club) has developed adjustable horizontal wings on his rudder. That and a new hull design for this season has seen Dan and Steve (Liquid) unbeaten in local competition. Alex Vallings and Chris Burgess in Nuplex Composites (Auckland) were sailing a radical new hull design, very narrow on the water coming to chines and a large flare to the deck. They teamed this with a rotating carbon wing mast, which was used with success to win the Leander two years ago. A lot of development has gone into the rigs and sails in recent years. This has been lead by Alex, and sailmaker Ken Fyfe, who is the defending champion from last year. He is sailing with 9 time Leander winner Paul MacIntosh in Design Source. Going their own way in sail development, Steve Hogg and Neil Wood in Stagecoach (Wellington) have developed a new mainsail, and were on the seventh recut before they were happy.
Despite the new designs seen this year, once on the water there was some of the closest and best skiff racing seen for years. The top eight or so boats were very even in speed. Boat-handling and tactics were crucial for the bunched mark roundings, any mistakes were badly punished. The invitation race was full of excitement, no-one quite sure how they stacked up against the competition. Liquid and Nuplex showing the best speed off the line, Liquid getting the better of the fickle SW breeze for a win. It was another Canterbury boat, Chemical Weapon (Sean Milner & Steve MacIntosh) who had the best of the afternoon races, a first and thrid putting them in the lead overnight, followed by Design Source and Liquid. The second day was a different story, the fresh NE breeze suiting the Wellington boat of Stagecoach with two afternoon wins giving them the overnight lead, again over Design Source and Liquid. The third day was dominated by another boat, "The Guru" Tim Bartlett and Simon Ganley in Dimension Polyant Sailcloth. They found another gear overnight, and destroyed the fleet in the first race, won comfortably in the second, and sailed right through the fleet in the third race of the day for second place. Crucially Stagecoach won that last race, which gave them enough of a buffer to hold onto the lead. Dimension moved into second, Liquid passing Design Source into third. The last scheduled race on Sunday morning was cancelled due to no wind, giving Stagecoach the coveted trophy.
Of the local boats, Liquid (Dan Leech, Steve Fortune) were third, Chemical Weapon (Sean Milner & Steve MacIntosh) were 6th, Montana bakery (Dan Foulter & Paul McGibbon) were 9th, Subwoofer (Paul Roe & Ashton Smith) were 10th, Meridian Energy (Tim Allan & Dave Pairman) were 12th, 92 MoreFM (Rick Chapman & Grant Nelson) were 13th, Dirty Dancing (Mitch Dean and Tony Parks) were 16th, Buster Bloodvessel (Glen Taylor & Asti Royds) were 18th, Thunderbird IV (Murray Bain & Doug Gale) were 19th, the old wooden boats still going strong with Witchdoctor (James Collett & Shannon Gilmore) finishing 20th, Salty Dog (Richard Bridson & Jackie Gibson) finishing 21st.
On the Sunday afternoon was the excitement of the Supercup Sprint Series. If you missed it, you'd be kicking yourself, because this is the most exciting form of yacht racing to watch bar none. Designed for spectators along the foreshore, it consists of many short races, very close to shore. Two upwind and downwind legs, gates in the middle, lots of action, lots of chaos, all nice and close. A couple of hundred people watched on the foreshore, all expertly commentated by Rick Chapman, who unlike some yachting commentators actually knows what he is talking about. This series was won by the local lads on Liquid who promptly spent the prizemoney at the bar.
If you watched the action and have video footage or good still shots, we are putting together a DVD package and would like to see what you have. Contact Us