Mitre10 NZ Laser Nationals Day 1& 2: A bit more breeze

Mitre 10 NZ Laser Nationals - New Plymouth - January 17, 2020 - Andrew Child enjoying the sea breeze in Race 3 © NZ Int Laser Class Assoc

Another blue sky day with a sea breeze again provided great racing for all fleets on Day 2 of the Mitre 10 NZ Laser Nationals in New Plymouth.

The sea breeze came in earlier and built more that yesterday, so while it was only around a 8 knots for race 3 it freshened to a great hiking breeze for Race 4 and nice lumpy seas which provided good downwind surfing conditions for those skilled enough to take advantage, although a few also managed a quick dip after misjudging the waves. The course was positioned a bit further to the East today and the tide did not cause the same problems for the starts so racing progressed on schedule all day. Results in the first race pretty much followed yesterdays form but the extra breeze for race 4 saw some new faces at or near the front of some fleets and a bit of a shake up of placing throughout.

In the Standards Luke Cashmore was a model of consistency with a 1st and 2nd today to open up a healthy 12 point gap on the field at the half way point of the contest. Harrison Baker and two of our overseas visitors, Korean Jin Lee and French student Yves Beaufils, who is in New Zealand for the year to study, all had consistent days to lie second, third and fourth overall. In the fresher conditions in the second race Pupuke Grand Master Rohan Lord had a blinder, leading pretty much from start to finish to tighten up the top of the masters fleet leaderboard. He is 7 points adrift of World Apprentice Masters champion Dave Ridley and tied with Master Andrew Dellabarca so the race for masters title remains close.

It was generally a similar story in the Radials, with form in the days first race following pretty closely yesterdays results but overnight leader Caleb Armit suffered a DSQ after a protest, which has really opened up the contest. The top of the leader board was given a further shake up in the second race when World Masters Radial Champion Scott Leith found the conditions much more to his liking, winning from top women's sailor Sara Winther and Thomas Mulcahy (Y), who scored two thirds today move him well up the leaderboard.

Leading the contest at the half way point is Courtney Reynolds-Smith, who had another impressively strong day with a first and fourth. She is followed by Scott and Thomas who are tied points 4 behind Courtney. Emily Overend found the windier conditions in the second race tougher but still has a great lead in the Youth Womens division, although Josephine Siemann (YW) managed to just get the better of her in race 3.

In the Masters Radial Phil Wild (AM) continued his impressive domination of fleet with another two bullets. The battle behind him was close with both defending champ Master Ed Tam and GM Roger Winton adding 5 points for the day and lie second and third overall. Scott McDougall (GM) struggled to repeat his form of yesterday to slip to 4th overall. Jeff Booth continues to lead the GGM's, although Muritai club mate GGM Garth Cheyne kept him honest and clearly enjoyed the extra breeze in the second race in spite of sailing with a broken tiller extension.

So while New Plymouth gave us just a hint of its windy reputation today the forecast for the remaining two days continues to look settled, which will hopefully allow all races to be completed on schedule and everyone to further improve their suntans at the same time. The discard comes into play after tomorrows races so we can expect to see a bit of a shakeup in some of the standings, particularly in the Radial fleet.

Full results on nzlaser.org

Mitre 10 NZ Laser Nationals Day 1 - A benign start

New Plymouth was on its best behaviour today for the first day of the 2020 Mitre 10 NZ Laser Nationals. As forecast, beautiful blue skies greeted the sailors and the mornings fresh easterly died out as the fleet were on their way to the start line and after about 45 minutes a light 5-8 knot SW sea breeze established itself and stabilised enough for racing to get underway.

The breeze held for the afternoon, with wind against tide creating a small chop and there was just enough of a ground swell to remind us that we are on the open ocean. With the tide under the fleet for the starts there were several general recalls and a few unfortunately fell foul of the dreaded black flag. However in the end 2 excellent races were completed for all fleets, although PRO Jamie Sutherland clearly decided that he would not let us off too easily and set an extra length challenge for the second race!

In the Standards the conditions clearly suited the younger sailors, with U21Luke Cashmere from Wakatere moving up from winning the Youth Radials last year to lead the fleet after a perfect 2 bullets, to establish a handy early advantage over Worser Bays Albert Stanley (U21). He is followed by Korean visitor Jin Hwan Lee, who is tied on points with Torbay's Harrison Baker (U21). First of the masters in the combined Standard fleet is World Apprentice Masters champion Dave Ridley (AM) from Pupuke in 6th. He is closely followed by GM Rohan Lord and past Masters champion Andrew Dellabarca (M). Master Greg Wilshire was the talk of the boat park as he managed to sail, and sail well, with a massive bruised posterior after an accident when loading the boat on the trailer in Auckland for the trip down!

In the Radial fleet Murrays Bay's Caleb Armit (Y) also showed real class in the conditions to dominate with two race wins. Second overall is leading womens contender Courtney Reynolds-Smith who was really consistent with a third and a forth to lead Lachlan Dillon from Tauranga, who is tied with this years Corston clan rep Harry, by 3 points. Leading the youth girls is Emily Overend from Queen Charlotte in 8th overall. She has to be super pleased with her day as she is just 2 points behind our top womens sailor from the last Olympic cycle, Sara Winther, who has come back into the fleet for this contest.

In the Radial Masters fleet Phil Wild (AM) from Manly completed the triple for the fleet leaders with two firsts but is closely followed by defending champion, Worser Bays Ed Tam (M) who has a one point lead over Hamilton's Scott McDougall (GM). Leading the Women's Masters is Lucia Chagas in 8th overall. Muritai's Jeff Booth is the leading GGM and it was inspirational to see 80 year old Sandy Grigg on the start line for yet another year.

Conditions for tomorrow are forecast to be similar to today's so it will be interesting to see if todays fleet leaders, all of whom were dominant in their respective fleets today, can continue their run of success tomorrow.