Murray Rountree Report and Final Results

2018 Murray Rowntree Regatta Race Officer’s Report.

This year saw the regatta held at a new venue. The Kapiti club has established this gem at Otaki where the river has been used as a gravel quarry and is now to be developed as a water recreation park. Whilst the surroundings are in a rough state at the moment with the surface underfoot being very difficult to walk on, the potential is amazing and we were lucky enough to have two lovely mid-winter days with light breezes never above 6 knots. Nine entrants from Gulf Harbour, North Shore, Tauranga, Kapiti and Wellington clubs were entered for this event with two from the Wellington club sailing in the Commodore’s Challenge event held as part of this regatta to encourage new members into larger events.

Fifteen races were run on Saturday with the last race ending just before the wind died completely. The early leader was Ian Vickers who seemed to lead at the top mark for most races, or if not, then in second or third place before picking the correct side for the second beat and being first over the line at the finish. That is not to say he could not be beaten, only that to do so you had to be on your game and make no mistakes.

Sunday’s conditions could not have been better for sailing with a three to five knot breeze straight down the lake allowing all entrants to use their A rigs for the whole regatta and for me to conduct a further ten races before a finish at 1350 to have the prizegiving at 1400 and allow those heading directly back to the Auckland region to get on their way.

The standard of sportsmanship, courtesy, and helmsmanship throughout the fleet was acceptable after I had a word to curtail a few niggles. The light conditions made starts a bit tense and some aggressiveness was evident until skippers settled into the conditions. Understandable but unacceptable on my skippers’ bank. My compliments to all entrants.

With having such excellent sailing conditions for the regatta, the general feeling was that the venue was most suitable for any number of events. My thanks to Chris Harmer and all the members of the Kapiti club who assisted me and the Wellington club members together to run a successful event and my thanks go to Ed Schmidt and John McPherson for their organization.

Ian Hull- Brown 20/08/2018