The 2015 Sunburst Canterbury Championships were held over the weekend of 28th and 29th March on the Avon-Heathcote Estuary in Christchurch, hosted by the Pleasant Point Yacht Club.
13 boats representing 5 clubs took part across both spinnaker (7) and non-spinnaker (6) fleets, with some very close and competitive racing across the fleet. All 6 races were sailed, and with all 6 to count (no dropped races), sailing consistently well was rewarded, and any mistakes were cruelly punished! Saturday saw 4 races away in a nice 12-15 knot north-easterly breeze, Sunday saw the final 2 races away in a 7-10kt NE sea breeze, following a brief postponement whilst the breeze settled. The non-spinnaker fleet was sailed on the same course and off the same start as the main fleet, but with a shorter windward mark, this worked really well, with both fleets able to sail quite independent races. In the non-spinnaker fleet, Rhys O'Cain and Alice Barrett (PPYC) sailing the PPYC club boat (# 1621) took out all 6 races, with Richard Ineson & crew (CYC) ending up 2nd, and Scott Lancaster & C. Barrett (PPYC) on "Gremlin" (# 1365) picking up 3rd. The spinnaker fleet saw some close racing all the way to the finish, with Matt & Emmeline Neale (MPYC) on "Sunbird" (# 1668) taking the overall win, followed by Daniel Smith & Hannes Hille (NPCL) on "Bad News" (# 1563) in 2nd, Murray Walls & Charlotte James (WSPBC) on "Fun" (# 1632) finished the regatta in 3rd. It was great to see representation from virtually all the local clubs, the racing throughout the fleet was very close (the average winning margin was just 18 seconds), the overall standard of sailing was very high. It's been said time and again, it doesn't really matter which end of the fleet you're at in a Sunburst, there are always boats you're consistently racing with, and it's always close, competitive, friendly and enjoyable. Pleasant Point YC put on a very well run regatta, with RO Alison Rutherford handling some tricky initial conditions on Sunday with ease, resulting in very enjoyable racing for all. Final Standings Spinnaker Fleet 1st 1668 Sunbird (M. & E. Neale) MPYC 10 pts 2nd 1563 Bad News (D. Smith & H. Hille) NPCL 12 pts 3rd 1632 Fun (M. Walls & C. James) WSPBC 18 pts 4th 413 Meindad (C. Tomlinson & J. Palleson) PPYC 22 pts 5th 1576 Soothsayer (M. & J. James) WSPBC 30 pts 6th 1059 Solar Flair (P. & C. Shanks) WSPBC 34 pts 7th 1603 Sunburnt (D. & A. O'Sullivan) PPYC 43 pts Non-spinnaker Fleet 1st 1621 (R. O'Cain & A. Barrett) PPYC 6 pts 2nd 1683 (R. Ineson) CYC 24 pts 3rd 1365 Gremlin (S. Lancaster & C. Barrett) PPYC 25 pts 4th 1655 (B. De Thier) CYC 28 pts 5th 1656 Passing Wind (I. Bamford) CYC 32 pts 6th 1656 (P. Leighs) CYC 33 pts |
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