Venue

Howick Sailing Club, Auckland, New Zealand.

Dates  

8th -12th April 2004

Sponsors

Racing

The event looked like being in jeopardy a week out, with a shipping delay putting in doubt the arrival date of the container carrying the Australian boats. However, some tremendous efforts by the main sponsor, Chief Container Service (shipping), Ultimate Transport Solutions (trucking) as well as Customs, saw it all fall into place. The container eventually arrived at the site by 3pm on the day before the event, leaving a few hours of daylight in which to reassemble the dismantled boats. However, this left the sailors no time to go for a sail prior to the series, something most of them had been keen to do, as they hadn't seen their boats since they loaded them into the container three weeks earlier.

The first scheduled day of racing was Good Friday, with three races scheduled. A strong sense of enthusiasm pervaded the fleet as the time approached when they would be able to go head to head against a group of sailors they rarely have the chance to race against. There was a strong and cold SW breeze blowing across the course area as the boats headed out. The wind continued to build to the point of being over the class limit. After hanging around the start area for some time, the race committee eventually abandoned the race and sent the boats ashore. However, this was not before a number of boats experienced gear failures and capsizes. Some hours later, when it became obvious that the winds weren't going to abate, racing was cancelled for the day. A number of the younger sailors hastily organised a trip to a nearby go-kart complex, where they got to pit their skills against each other. This was eventually won by Bryan Anderson.

Four races were planned for the Saturday in an attempt to regain some of the ones lost the previous day. The SW breeze continued to blow throughout the day and, interestingly, always its strongest around the time of the start of each race. It averaged around 18 knots with much stronger gusts. It was also still quite cold. The Australians looked very dominant for the first half of the first race, with six of them at the front. However, some Kiwis improved through the rest of the race. Eventually, it was Bryan Anderson (AUS) who won, from Mark Wiggins (AUS) and then Grant Allen (NZL). In the teams competition, the Australians won convincingly on 92 points to New Zealand's 118.

The second race was sailed back-to-back after the first in very similar breeze. Bryan Anderson continued to show his class and won the race from Kiwi veteran Terry Valder. In third was Glenn Syman, another Kiwi, but not a team member. The Australian team again came out on top in this race, but by a much narrower margin, with 102 points to NZ's 109.

The breeze continued to blow strongly for the third race, held after lunch. Once again Bryan Anderson dominated, crossing first for his third win from three starts. Mark Wiggins returned to form in this race, capturing another second placing., with Terry Valder rounding out the top three. However, this time the Kiwi team performed much better, convincingly taking this race on 93 to Australia's 117.

The fourth race was sailed straight after the third, with continued strong winds. This time it was Tasmanian Bruce Rose who put together an excellent race to win, with Mark Wiggins once again second. Third place went to the New Zealand National Champion, Bob Preston, who was starting to show his potential after a disappointing start to the series. Bryan Anderson struggled through the fleet after a poor first beat to finish seventh. In the team competition, this race had the closest results, with the Kiwis coming just edging out the Australians 104 to 106. At the end of the first day's racing, the team event was certainly looking tight, with Australia leading narrowly on 417 to New Zealand's 424.

The very tired sailors that night devoured a Hangi, a traditional Maori feast. However, fairly soon after the meal, most of them retired for the night in order to recuperate for the planned three races the following day.

On the third day, conditions looked very similar to the first two, with the strong and cold SW breeze again blowing across the course. It turned out to be a great day for the Kiwis though. Bryan Anderson had a very tight race with Kiwi Peter Robins, a hearing impaired sailor from Wellington who relishes the stronger conditions. Eventually, Robins was too fast upwind for Anderson and crossed for the sole Kiwi race win of the series. Anderson returned to shore to find he had scored an OCS, after what he thought had been a fairly poor start! That gave second place to Michael MacDonald (AUS), who had been battling continually in the front bunch throughout the series. In third place was Bill Thomson (NZL), a non-team member.

The breeze had continued to build and was now over the limit, with more forecast, so the sailors were sent ashore. Eventually, the racing was once again cancelled for the day. That night, the Kiwis celebrated not only Peter Robins' race win, but also a very convincing team victory, with the biggest team winning margin of all the heats, a whopping 52 points (NZL 82 to AUS 134). This put the Kiwis in front in the teams event, with 506 points to Australia's 551. It was decided to schedule three races for the following day, which was the final day of racing.

Yet again the SW breeze was blowing as the sailors rigged for the final time. The series was still quite open, but there was doubt as to how many races would be sailed due to further forecasts of very strong winds. Bryan Anderson was determined not to be caught OCS again and planned a port tack start, which he executed perfectly, crossing the entire fleet and was never headed again. The breeze actually dropped to its lightest for the series, around 12 knots for a number of legs, but then built to around 25 knots for the final beat. Anderson crossed for his fourth win of the series. In second was Terry Valder (NZL), with Michael MacDonald (AUS) in third. Once again, the Kiwi team put in a solid performance, scoring 103 points to the Australians' 107.

Following the finish of the race, the breeze continued to build and eventually the race committee sent the fleet home. After a couple of hours ashore waiting for the wind to abate, no change became apparent, so the racing was cancelled, having completed just six of the programmed nine races.

This left Bryan Anderson as the overall winner, giving him consecutive titles. The runner up was a consistent Mark Wiggins, with Bruce Rose in third, giving Australia the top three positions. The first Kiwi was Terry Valder, in fourth. However, the very solid performance by the whole Kiwi team helped them to their first team win since 1998, with a total of 449 points to Australia's 486.

Results

Download the Overall Results

Team Results:

1. New Zealand - 449pts
2. Australia - 486pts

Top Ten Gear

Download the list of the gear used by the top ten sailors at the event