2013 Harken Young 88 Nationals
FLASH GORDAN, Mike Sanderson wins 2013 Harken Young 88 National Championships.
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Sunday 14 April 2013; Flash Gordon helmed by Volvo skipper Mike Sanderson and his crew have had a tough regatta but they have won the 2013 Harken Young 88 National Championships. Consistency was the key and the well experienced crew of David Duff, Stuart Molloy, Richard Bouzaid, Shaun Mason, Phil Robertson and youngest crew member in the regatta Jonathan Nicholas, kept it cool to win with two seconds, a third, two fourths and a sixth equal to be first with only 21.5 points.
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Dangerzone was next on 40 points. Lincoln Fraser helmed his yacht with another gun crew of Simon Baker, Geoff Wooley, Hayden Whitburn, Geoff England, Rodger Eaton and Guy Pilate. A DSQ proved their downfall with a massive 22 points following the Black Flag start in which Dangerzone and nine others were over the line. On a Black Flag start boats that are over at the start are immediately disqualified from the race.
The fleet was its usual close and nerve-wracking Young 88 self as on the starts they fought to get over the line. No one competitor has dominated the racing and the lead was shared amongst the top competitors. It has been a regatta of General Recalls with the use of all the starting rules up to the black flag disqualification.
With the breeze constantly flicking across the water with 40 to 60 degree shifts and a dying breeze on Sunday afternoon the regatta has been frustrating for all involved.
More photos of the event can be found here.
The general feeling...
The general feeling following day one was of missed opportunities and that the crews needed to improve to be sure of their placing’s. Day two was a tougher day with every competitor feeling they had a chance to win.
The Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme crew of Helm Chris Steele, with coach Guy Pilkington, Dave Hazard, Scott Barnes, Callum Conroy, Jay Prestt, and Charlotte Moss were disappointed not to have done better. Said
Coach Guy Pilkington on day one “Yesterday we had a tough first race, we got caught and had to go deep, so that wasn’t a great start but we redeemed ourselves in the second race.”
Speaking with Chris Steele at Prizegiving the feeling was one of disappointment at their lack of performance on day two. However as usual the Lion Foundation crew members and graduates who sailed in a majority of the boats this weekend have excelled and represented their club well.
The Harken Young 88 National Championships is a fantastic mix of old and young with Young Magic having the oldest skipper Mason Pepper at 70 and Jonathan Nicholas the youngest on Flash Gordon at 12 years of age. Plenty of competition throughout the fleet ensures all competitors bring their best game to the table.
Photo Courtesy of Suellen - LiveSailDie.com |
Results - Top 10 – Line
1st Mike Sanderson, Flash Gordon - 22.5 pts
2nd Lincoln Fraser, Danger Zone - 40 pts
3rd Bill Dalbeth, Waka Huia – 47 pts
4th Vaughn Clark, Sweeney Todd – 47 pts
5th Ross Masters, Outrageous - 47.5 pts
6th Ed Massey, Undercover - 53 pts
7th Zane Gifford, Abracadabra - 54.5
8th Andrew Fraser, Panama Jack - 55
9th Chris Steele, Sister Moonshine - 56
10th Nathan Williams, Slipstream III - 59
Results - Top 3 – Handicap
1st Vaughn Clark, Sweeney Todd - 22.5 pts
2nd Zane Gifford, Abracadabra - 40 pts
3rd Mason Pepper, Young Magic – 47 pts
By Mel Benton
2013 Harken Young 88 Nationals
Emirates Team New Zealand's Title Challenge Foiled!
The calibre of the owner drivers in the 2013 Young 88 fleet is enough to put the heat on the most seasoned professionals. Members of Emirates Team New Zealand have entered several times and prevailed over the last few years but this year the cat is amongst the pigeons and their desire for a serious one design competition has been foiled by other commitments.
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There is still a very strong representation of some of New Zealand and the world’s most talented sailors including “Volvo driver” Mike Sanderson skippering the contingent from Doyle Sails on Flash Gordon, international match racing crew Waka Racing (2nd in 2012 in World Match Race Tour) split between boats, with skipper Phil Robertson calling tactics on Flash Gordon and the rest of the Waka crew on board Undercover with ex Melges and new Y88 owner/driver Ed Massey. Youth match racing champion Chris Steele will be skippering the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Lion Foundation Youth Training Programme contingent on Sister Moonshine.
In amongst a myriad of sub plots we have the challenge of the generations with Chris Steele the youngest Y88 skipper up against seventy plus “silver sailor” Mason Pepper and three generations and four members of the Pepper family aboard Young Magic including sons Michael and Hamish, a NZ Olympian and America's Cup sailor, and grandson Mahia.
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Mason said “I have owned Young Magic for six years and really enjoy the fun you get from a well-controlled one design fleet with close and competitive racing against a bunch of like-minded sailors. The boats are already very even in performance and the new crew weight rule will make them even closer.”
In the battle of the sail makers North Sails have put their resources behind their customers including Jeff Hopper’s summer sprints champion boat Raging Hormones, Auckland regatta and previous Nationals winning boat Lincoln Fraser’s Danger Zone and Bill Dalbeth’s top performing boat Waka Huia. The rapidly improving Sailor Moon skippered by Jacko van Deventer will be flying the flag for Beacon Sails and is a real threat to the podium, Norths and Doyles.
The success of the Young 88 is down to Jim Young’s fantastic design offering a fast and safe cruiser racer that was
well ahead of its time. This coupled with Roger Land’s innovative marketing has seen more than one hundred
and fifty boats built since the 1980s and many exported. A strong owners’ association perpetuates this success,
managing an annual program of racing and social events and a tightly controlled set of one design rules. This keeps
the boats on the same playing field, affordable and safe.
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Owners’ association president Grant Crawford welcomed the enthusiast registrations for the event. “We are very pleased to see entries in our grand prix event increasing at a time when these types of regattas are struggling globally. We will continue to work to ensure existing, new and potential owners have an affordable fleet of boats that can be raced competitively one week and then easily converted for cruising with the family on the weekend.”
The 2013 regatta will once again be run by an internationally qualified race management team from the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron including on the water umpires to keep this very competitive fleet on the right side of the race rules.
Racing will be held on the former Americas Cup waters north of Auckland’s extinct volcano Rangitoto Island and will start at 1000am on Saturday and Sunday 13-14 April, with a prize giving to be held at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron on Sunday evening.
Follow the racing online on the RNZYS web site here including individual boats on PredictWind’s Smart Phone GPS Race Tracker tool, the event page here, class news on the Y88 Association web site and the Young 88 Facebook page
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Entrants in the 2013 Harken Young 88 Nationals include:
Abracadabra - Zane Gifford
Dangerzone - Lincoln Fraser
Flash Gordon - Mike Sanderson
Heartlight - Nigel Garland
Legless - Grant Crawford
Medium Dry - Philip Rzepecky
Men @ Work - Frans de Court
Outrageous - Ross Masters
Panama Jack - Andrew Fraser
Raging Hormones - Jeff Hopper
Sailor Moon - Jacko van Deventer
Simple Minds - Bruce Scott
Sister Moonshine - Chris Steele
Skitzo - Rick Hackett
Slipstream III - Nathan Williams
Sweeny Todd - Vaughn Clark
Undercover - Edward Massey
Voodoo - Leigh Miller
Waka Huia - Bill Dalbeth
War Machine - Paul McWilliams
Young Magic - Mason Pepper
Young 88 Pittwater Champs
Competitive fleet outgunned by Pistol Dawn
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On April 6th & 7th, Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club hosted the Pittwater Young 88 Championships. A combination of three Saturday windward-leewards races and a Sunday course race saw 3 different race winners, highlighting the competitive nature of the fleet.
The race committee managed to get all three races away on a Saturday that saw almost all racing on Sydney Harbour abandoned due to lack of breeze.
Race One saw two of the fleet of six yachts over the line early, allowing Young Obsession(Paul Stubbs) to get away and lead from start to finish. Young N Old and Pistol Dawn finished second and third respectively after fighting through the fleet after restarting.
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Race Two saw the podium places shuffled with Pistol Dawn (Andrew Spencer) winning fromYoung Obsession and Young N Old.
Race Three was a drifter with the course being shortened to a single beat. Quicksticks (Bill Warren) mastered the fluky conditions to lead home Andiamo and Mind Over Matter. At the finish, the fleet was spread over only 150m, but there was 19 minutes between 1st and 6th – a battle of concentration!
At the conclusion of day 1, the championship was wide open with Pistol Dawn and Young Obsession tied on 8, a single point ahead of Quicksticks.
The Sunday course race started after a delay in light 5kn breeze from the North. Once again, the elastic nature of the fleet saw the placings change many times over the race course. With no Pittwater based Y88s in the race, there was very little local knowledge as each crew tried to identify the YA marks around Pittwater. One highlight being the Y88s rounding a YA mark to starboard whilst the local non-spinnaker fleet rounded the same mark to port at the same time.
In the end, Pistol Dawn managed to edge out Young N Old by a few boat lengths to claim Race 4 and the title. Quicksticks 3rd place was enough to tie with Young Obsession for overall second place. Andiamo (Morcome/Allen) showed glimpses of form in their first Y88 regatta. Class secretary and sponsor Julian Todd skippering Mind Over Matter also had moments of brilliance but battled setup issues with new sails.
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The social nature of Y88 racing kicked off following racing with prizes thanks to Backvintage Wines and Gemmell Sailmakers. RPAYC provided fantastic club and berthing facilities coupled with first rate race management.
Whilst the one-design ethos of the class is maintained, the skippers collectively have relaxed some of the NZ class rules (such as sail cloth) to help build numbers in the racing fleet. Young 88 owners are encouraged to contact Julian Todd (jtodd@backvintage.com.au) for more information.
Young 88 Bulletin
Click here to view or download the Young 88 Bulletin from April 2013
Click here to view or download the Young 88 Bulletin from March 2013
North Sails Sprints Close with a Bang not a Whimper.
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The 27 race series closed last night with 17 boats lining up in perfect conditions; 10-15 knots from 030, blue skies and a warm breeze.
Congratulations to Russell Hopper - Raging Hormones well ahead in 1st place on 51.5 points, Nathan Williams - Slipstream 2nd on 131.5 points and Zane Gifford - Abracadabra 3rd on 164.5.
Racing was as tight as ever with little room for error. Overall the fleet was better behaved with RNZYS providing a team of international umpires to observe and "advise". Next season the association will support more observers and encourage use of red flags and protests to ensure even more compliance.
Big thanks to our sponsor North Sails and the RNZYS race committee and crew.
Stephen C Racing editor from http://www.crew.org was out last night taking photos some of which can be found at the link below. They will also be available for free download off http://young88.org.nz/Photos.html once the broadband upload has done its thing.
Auckland Regatta here we come!"
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Knight Frank South Island Young 88 Champs
Defending champ Milton Bloomfield wins again
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Defending champion Milton Bloomfield dominated at the Knight Frank Young 88 South Island Championship sailed on Lyttelton Harbour on 2nd and 3rd of March. Bloomfield, sailing Akaroa yacht Shibbeen (Humphrey Rolleston), won 4 of the 6 races to take the title for the third successive year. Richard Hawkins and his crew aboard Dunedin yacht Meltdown took second place, improving on their third placing in Akaroa last year. Flying Machine (Craig Edwards) was third in the contest - the ninth South Island event for the Young 88 Class.
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Calm conditions faced Race Officer Glenda Anderson on Saturday morning but a light north easterly breeze filled in and racing got underway about 11.30am. A strong outgoing tide and light airs created some challenges on the start line with recalls in every race. Shibbeen struck early with a win in race 1 followed by Meltdown and Flying Machine. The Dunedin boat came back to win the second race but both Meltdown and Flying Machine were OCS in Race 3. That gave Shibbeen the third race and a handy lead going into day 2.
A 14-18 knot South Westerly breeze on Sunday provided great conditions for 2 windward leeward races in the morning. Shibbeen continued her dominant form winning both races followed in each by Flying Machine and Meltdown. Shibbeen’s choice of a No3 headsail appeared to be a gamble with the rest of the fleet flying the bigger headsails but it paid off and they were able to maintain speed in the lulls. The breeze was beginning to fade as the final race got under way. The longer harbour course became a test of nerves as the south west died away to nothing, a light easterly tried (but failed) to fill in and eventually the south west returned. Full Circle (Phil Folter) had a plan and headed hard left. It worked and they were the first to pick up the new breeze and secured the win in the final race.
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This year the event was sailed in conjunction with the Presidents Cup Canterbury Keelboat Championship. Shibbeen also collected this title and the Bully Hayes Cup for best performing Akaroa yacht. Full Circle came in second, collecting the Rick Prebble trophy for best performing Lyttelton boat with Meltdown third.
It was a busy time at Naval Point who also hosted the 420 South Island Champs, the Finn South Island Champs, the A Class Catamaran Canterbury Championship and the Naval Point Regatta for all classes at the weekend. A total of 80 yachts were involved in racing at the club organised over three separate race areas on Lyttelton Harbour. This is thought to be a biggest fleet of racing yachts on the water in recent times. Since the devastation and disruption of the earthquakes Naval Point Club has rebounded. Club membership is also growing steadily with memberships now at a record level exceeding membership pre quake.
The inaugural South Island Young 88 Championship was sailed in Lyttelton in 2005. Slipstream (Alan Reay) won the event and held onto the title for a further 3 years. Flying Machine won in 2009 before Anthony Leighs on Medium Dry took the title the following year. Incantare owned at the time by Bloomfield won the contest in 2011 and 2012. The event has been hosted alternately in Lyttelton (Naval Point Club) and Akaroa (Akaroa Yacht Club) but owners say the event could be held anywhere there is likely to be the biggest fleet. There are currently 6 Young 88s in Lyttelton and 5 in Akaroa.
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Rebuilding The Fleet: Knight Frank South Island Young 88 Champs
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Defending South Island Young 88 Champion, Milton Bloomfield, described last year’s contest as the toughest event he’d sailed in the last 10 years. This year’s event is expected to be just as competitive.
While Bloomfield’s boat, Incantare, has been sold, Milton and his crew will defend their title on Akaroa based yacht, Shebeen. To be sailed on 2-3 March in Lyttelton Harbour the Knight Frank Young 88 South Island Championship is expected to provide close and competitive sailing.
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Dunedin yacht, Meltdown, has made the trip to Lyttelton for their second attempt at the South Island title. Owner/skipper Richard Hawkins is a previous national winner in the Ross 780, Noelex 22 and Noelex 25 Classes. Building on their 3rd placing in last year’s event they are expected to come back very strong this year. Second in the fiercely contested series last year, Flying Machine (Craig Edwards), will be competing amongst a fleet of local yachts including Phil Folter’s Full Circle and Legacy II (Colin Lock).
The event will, this year, be held in conjunction with the Presidents Cup Canterbury Keelboat Champs. It will be a busy weekend at Naval Point who will also host the 420 South Island Champs, the Finn South Island Champs and the Naval Point Regatta for all classes this weekend. Since the devastation and disruption of the earthquakes Naval Point Club has rebounded. A steady increase in participation in all areas of club activities has seen record levels in many club events. This weekend is expected to yield one of the biggest turn outs of racing yachts in recent memory. Club membership is also growing steadily with memberships now at a record level exceeding membership pre quake.
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Sponsors, Knight Frank, are supporting the Young 88 event for the third year. MD Layne Harwood, originally from Auckland, is keen to encourage Class keelboat racing in Canterbury. “The Young 88 is a fantastic Class” he says. “Many would be surprised at the standard of competition amongst the top boats here in the South Island and we are very proud to be part of this event”
Further info…
Craig Edwards: Young 88 Association 027 344 245
Ross May/Ken Camp NPCL (03) 328-7029
Milton Bloomfield: Shebeen 021 317 872
Richard Hawkins: Meltdown 027 446 0872
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Young 88 Deck Stickers Now Available
The Young 88 Class Association has now started making replacement Deck Stickers. They are available to purchase for $30.
Squadron Racing Rules Night
RNZYS will be hosting a rules night for all you sailors on Thursday 11th October at 1930hrs at the Squadron Clubrooms. Make sure you come along and brush up on the rules such as starting, passing, rounding marks,protesting, and learn all the new rules that come into effecton 1st January 2013.
Young 88 Steak Night and Pre Season Briefing.
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Another successful event at the RNZYS this week where 88ers enjoyed a steak for $16 then adjourned for a briefing ably led by Class Secretatry and Treasurer Rick Hackett.
Click here to review the presentation and keep an eye on the web site http://www.young88.org.nz and Facebook for updates
Slipstreams SSANZ Simrad Report
Young 88 Division proves close racing in Shorthanded series.
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After last years perfect conditions seems Gill must have known something when she decided not to come this year, as the 2012 Simrad series will be remembered for some very tired and sore old bodies on a couple of Sundays… With my long time mate Greg Salthouse with us this year (we last did a SSANZ race together somewhere back in the mid 90’s…..) we were looking forward to a good series, and it didn’t disappoint.
Race 1 was a very gentle way to get into things, although not an easy race with 13 Young 88's lining up! The race got underway in a light North easterly, the course an easy couple of reaches and a quick windward leeward around Rangi and back to the finish off Okahu Bay. We didn't make things easy for ourselves from the start… executed our plan perfectly, but turned out that our plan was rubbish and we were well back in the pack at Browns Is… But the great thing about these races is that there is a long time to make up for mistakes and we managed to grind our way back into contention and eventually overhaul Heaven 'n' Hell and secure a tight victory. Just the way we wanted to start.
Race 2 was the first of the body breakers, after a very uncomfortable, lumpy upwind sail to Gannet Rock we found ourselves trailing War Machine and Heartlight by some distance and in a pack of 4 other 88's at the turn.
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It was by that time reasonable fresh and tight through to Navy Buoy and a bit of a "who is going to blink and put the kite up.... moment. We decided it might as well be us and hoisted our little pink chicken chute, turned out at the end of the series this sail would get a lot of work. By Navy Buoy only Mike and Rod on the War Machine were still ahead, we both pulled off a pretty big air gybe and set off towards the finish, only with the wind shift we were heading to Browns Bay pretty fast. After a pretty full-on reach we both admitted defeat and jib reached back up to course. Even with 1 last ditch throw of the dice we hoisted the kite again at Rangi Lt but couldn’t get past. A well deserved victory to the War Machine.
The forecast for the long race looked windy from about Monday and never really changed. It was good to hear we were doing the course 2, as we were not really looking forward to a 40nm beat all the way to Little Barrier - the beat to Motuora was long enough thanks!!
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With a small lead we did discuss just matching the competition and playing it safe, but soon got bored of that and hoisted our trusty pink chicken chute. We don't have any wind gear, which may have been a good thing as I have later heard that most of the time it was above 30kn and up to 40 at times down that leg! We had a great sail, and apart from a couple of small skids and the sheet coming off got down to Shag Is in good shape and a pretty handy lead. The sail back up to Rakino and home was pretty nice, enough wind not to ever think about the #1 but never really getting hammered. We finished up just after 11pm with an unexpected 20 odd minute win, and MVP to our little chicken chute! It was great to see all 6 x 88’s that started… finished – a great endorsement for the boats and the owners and crew that sail them!
And that was the SSANZ series over for another year, bring on next year!!
Young88 Prizes and Preview
Between Seasons Dinner - Wednesday September 26th - RNZYS
Time to shake off the winter blues and set up the plans for a summer of great one design racing and cruising.
Join your Y88 host MC Rick Hackett for the great value $16 a head “Steak Night” in the RNZYS Members Bar
followed by a winter prize giving and summer briefing in The Commodores Room.
See Flyer for more information. Or Register here.
North Sails Young88 Owners Champs
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Bucklands Beach Yacht Club - October 6-7 2012
This is one of our most keenly contested events for the bragging rights of "Best Owner Driver" and is always great fun racing.
We are trying a couple of new ideas for this event and continue to follow the association goals of making the class more evenly matched and attract new boats including those new/less inclined to competitive racing.
Based on the crew weight data from 2011/12 nationals,feedback from the AGM and subsequent input we are trialing a max crew weight of 570kgs with no limit on crew numbers. You now have the option of 6 x 95kgs, 7 x 81.4kgs, 8 x 71kgs etc.
We are also offering a restricted division on Sunday only. This fleet will start after the spinnaker division and be sailing windward leewards inside the spinnaker fleet.
The Notice of Race is available if you click here and should also be up on the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club site shortly. For any questions or comments get in touch with the committee or contact the BBYC.
Don't forget to keep an eye on the Y88 calendar and planner for class events right out to the 2013 Nationals,
See you on the Water,
The Young 88 Owners Association Committee
Fleet numbers rising in Wellington.
Young 88's enjoy light conditions during RPNYC's Winter Series
After a long hiatus Wellingtons fleet of Young 88s is on the rise with talk of a Young 88 division at the Port Nicholson Regatta in February 2012.
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The recent arrival of Wise Guy from the north and Incantare from Lyttelton has bolstered the Young 88 fleet with talk around town that there might be a few more boats in town before the end of the year.
In light conditions (most unlike Wellington) the Young 88 fleet has been giving the rest of the RPNYC fleet a run for their money in the Moore Wilsons Winter Series. It hasn’t been uncommon for division 2 based Young 88s to be rubbing shoulders during the race with their larger division 1 competitors in the combined race format.
With the new season starting in September there should now be some added competition for the Roger Land Trophy presented to the best wellington Young 88 on line for the season.
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