In Memoriam: Peter Hay

Up until we went back into Covid lockdown, winter racing at the club was going very well and saw the biggest fleet for our Doyle Sails Winter Series in over five years. The racing was intense and it was great to have plenty of variety with the wind strength and wind direction.

Some stand-out performances include Simon Manning and Andy Robertson’s modified Farr 36 Kaizen in B division, who stepped up their performance after a major refit and were dominating on line, PHS and PHRF Handicaps.

Past Commodore Steve Mair was also having a great series with his Melges 40 Clockwork, leading the 40R division on line and PHRF and close in second on PHS to John Medocroft’s Carrera.

The other hotly contested division with 15 series entries was the ‘non spinnaker’ E division. This season, things were going the way of John Faire’s Terminator, leading on both line and PHS Handicap over last year’s winner Mike Malcolm’s Bird on the Wing.

All up there are 11 Divisions with a total of 102 series entries and another 22 casual entries. It’s been fantastic to see 124 yachts on the water. That’s approximately 750 sailors.

Looking to the summer, the CBRE Club Championships are stepping up this season with each divisional winner being invited to race in the MRX Club Championships Final. The winning team receives a $10,000 grant to represent the RNZYS at an international event in 2022. The current RNZYS skippers leading the CBRE Club Championships are:

A Division Brian Petersen

B Division Angie Crafer 40R John Meadowcroft

C Division Tony Smith

F Division Marguerite Delbet

Stewart 34s Paul Groom

Sports Boats Cliff Gordon MRX Matt Bouzaid

E Division John Faire

Yet to start their CBRE Club Championships series are the Ladies, Etchells and Young 88s. For most divisions, the Club Championships is comprised of the Doyle Sails Winter Series, Doyle Sails Wednesday Night Series and the 36 Degrees Commodores Cup.

A new event this year is the Three Kings Race. Starting on the 18th November, this is a 500 nautical mile race beginning in Auckland, rounding the Three Kings Islands, which are 30 nautical miles north of the top of New Zealand, and back to Auckland. This will be one of the longer distance races that the RNZYS has run in a while. More than 35 boats are expected to compete.

In the Sailing Office, we are looking forward to another packed summer of racing.

Laurie Jury, Sailing Director

The new Dehler 30 One-Design competing in the Doyle Sails Winter Series. Andrew Delves Photo