102nd Sanders Memorial Cup 2026 and Kingham Trophy
by David Brown 25 Feb 09:34 GMT
Our 2026 Interprovincial Championships for Javelins was hosted by the Sandspit Yacht Club Centreboard Division at Algies Bay, Auckland over the weekend.
Kingham Trophy: Is awarded to the winner of our invitation race. The wind was offshore, fairly light and "variable". Our racecourse was set up a little differently to our more recent editions with our start line in the middle of a windward leeward course providing an upwind finish. Our first beat to windward was also fairly short meaning the fleet arrived at the top mark in fairly close order and were bunched on the downwind. A truly epic light wind tussle saw every boat in the fleet leading the race at times. Two laps were completed there were some big holes and 30 degree wind shifts. All tacticians looked like hero's at times picking some great shifts and popping out in front of the fleet. Wellington lead around the first mark, North Harbour led around the final gate. The Important finish was won by Auckland, with Manawatu 2nd and North Harbour in 3rd. Congratulations to Aucklands Craig Gilberd, and Robyn Fordyce for their win to take out our very large trophy.
Sanders Cup: Each region can send just one entry with a residency clause restricting who is able to compete. This trophy was first competed for in 1921, with this marking the 102nd time this has been sailed for. The previous year's winners, Counties Manukau (Andrew Brown and Hamish Hey) get the opportunity to defend the trophy in their home waters and elected to defend the title in Algies Bay.
We need to send out a big thank you to Colin Ingham our race officer who was amazing throughout the regatta, from opening up the club to laying the marks, he still found time to be our on the water photographer.
The conditions were still shifty as the Sanders cup got under way but the wind was slowly building. Race 1 was a two lap race which saw Wellington leading around mark 1. Auckland managed to retain their form from the invitation race and received the first win. The wind was now allowing us to trapeze so the race officer rightly moved us to three lap races. Our first beat was short making calling the start line hard, with a slight port hand bias but starting at the pin meant you potentially had to wait for the fleet to tack on the lay line. Again this led to very close racing with the fleet bunched at the top mark. Auckland were just in front of Manawatu going into the final gate, Manawatu had to roll into the gybe while starting to drop the gennaker, and straight away tack on the mark. This allowed them through to take a win. The final race on Saturday was again close. An unfortunate moment on Counties Manukau saw the gennaker halyard break at the end of the second lap. Others in the fleet first thought they had not counted the laps correctly, as Auckland and Manawatu continued fighting.
Sunday, we woke to no wind first thing thinking we were in for a long delay. Colin could see a ketch sailing in the distance and gave us the nod to launch. We did manage to get out there with a patchy wind again offshore and shifty. The wind did build and we completed a two lap race to get us stated with Counties Manukau taking their first win of the series. The wind was building over the day with the last three races all pushed out to three lap races and the trapeze in full use again! The starts were fairly aggressive with good tight racing. The shifts and fingers of wind certainly played a big part in the day with you needing to gybe to stay in the pressure on the downwind legs.
After the final gun and end of racing the fleet normally knows who to congratulate as we normally have it worked out ourselves. This time we were not quite sure, so all sailed home to await the results. The scores were even passed around several supporters to check the math's and scoring.
Auckland and Counties Manukau were tied on 10 points each at the end of the series. Both had three wins, both had two seconds, and both had a third in their final tally. This meant the decider had to go to the final race placing, and Counties Manukau had won the Sanders Cup. Big congratulations to Phil McNeil and Hamish Hey!
Algies Bay has been a great venue with a great host club, and awesome race officer. Thank you Colin.
The next outing for the Javelins will be the New Zealand Championships to be held March 14-15 at Motuoapa, on Lake Taupo. Looking forward to seeing the fleet back out on the water.