2007 Auckland Championship : Maraetai Sailing Club

With a large high pressure system covering the country the weather was set fair for this year's champs sailed at Maraetai on 17th-18th November 2007.

Competitors included Ilan, Gordon and Alex from Waiheke, Ray from Manukau and Matt, Fergus and Paddy from French Bay joined the locals for what ended up being a 5 race series, curtailed by light airs on Sunday.

Under the capable hands of Roger Hall as OoD Saturday's racing kicked off in a South East breeze full of shifts and holes. Sailing Roger's skiff course with a close and broad reach in it together with a leeward gate there was plenty to think about.

Alex Stone, sailing Ehoa (on loan from Steve Newcombe), who was spotted polishing its foils all morning as the breeze filled in, saw the results of his effort pay off and took an early command of this race going on to win convincingly. He was followed over the line by Colin Brocas and Steve Tennent.

Race two saw a course reset as the wind swang further East, but with it came amazing instability. 30 seconds after the start gun, half the fleet were hiking and half we dead in the water as a hole materialised at the pin end. With a never say die attitude Steve Tennent managed to pull out of the hole, almost a leg back from the leader at the time and work his way through the minefield from last to first, winning the race from Gordon and Colin. Zero to Hero !

The second beat of race two was characterised by a further shift to the East and race three saw a marked change in conditions as the breeze filled in solidly from this direction in the later afternoon for the start of race 3. A morning of frustration was made up for on board Snorter as Matt and Hamish Hall-Smith clinched this race as the balance in power to weight ratio swang just enough in favour of the two handers. They were followed home by Gordon and Alex. Fair to say that the reaches were the highlight of the weekend for those that got around without tipping in.

In the last race on Saturday, it was getting a bit nippy out there as most crews were dressed for sunshine and light airs and only seven boats started. Alex once again put pedal to the metal and took out the race out from Matt and Hamish followed by Mark Winters in Weapon.

Mark and Shirley put on an awesome dinner that night as the over 40's recovered from a long day, popping vertebrae back into place and patching up cut knees. It was to be an eventful night for the Waihikians as they returned by chase boat to their secret island hideout only to have a female member of their party who shall remain nameless embibe a little too much, and 'misplace' the car keys. The following morning panic phonecalls starting beaming in "We've seriously lost our keys" ... "and the boat's parked behind the car ...". Racing was delayed until they hove into sight slightly worse for wear and tear after a high speed bone jarring ride across the straight.

Only one race was completed on Sunday, again in shifty breezes that saw a come from behind win for Mark Winters. The rum from the Winter Series obviously providing the right medicine. Alex Stone placed second to secure his 1st place overall with Steve Tennent second, securing his place in 2nd spot overall.

During the weekend the fleet was joined by new boat owners Paddy Charles and James Barker and a welcome guest appearance by Ilan who is now talking about joining the fleet.

Our thanks to the organisers and caterers at Maraetai for another very well run event and to all those that travelled to race over the two days. Well done Roger on introducing the reaching/gated course ... let's try this a Waiheke in March.

Results : Single handed
	1st	Alex Stone in Ehoa
	2nd	Steve Tennent in Bartman
	3rd	Gordon Dyer in Plan B
Results : Crewed
	1st	Matt & Hamish Hall-Smith in Snorter
	2nd	Fergus & Meg Thompson in Dry Reach
	3rd	James & Ava in Cheerio

Special mention for the I put my foot in it award goes to Fergus who, after having accepted the them vs us trophy in the shape of a bottle of Captain Morgan, promptly kicked it over covering the boatshed floor in rum.