Windsurfing New Zealand

2007 Honda Otago New Zealand Slalom Nationals - Feb' 2007 Honda Otago

The weeks leading up to the event saw the Dunedin boys as keen as, even though the wind hadn’t been blowing its usual summer thermal Nor-Easters it had been windy but somewhat gusty, this lead to major discussion as to how the course should be laid on the Otago harbour basin.

Due to our concern that the wind would be shifty and gusty like it had been for the majority of the season so far, after about 3 weeks of maneuvering buoys from a very deep and wide course,(in order to allow for those wind shifts that can just ruin a downwind slalom race), it was decided that it would be best to tighten and narrow the course just days before then event.
Friday dawned as the weather forecast predicted so we were 90% confident that we would get wind from the Nor-east over the next few days and around 5pm people started to flow into Watercooled Sports for the registration period. After that we all headed off round to Vauxhall Yacht Club for BBQ and Beers and the first Race Briefing.

Saturday morning dawned with a slight south west wind as predicted and we were still confident that the Nor- Easter would kick in later that day. Sure enough at our 2pm briefing we were told that the first heat would start at 3pm. The same old story before hand, pottering around all day rigging and tuning and watching the wind turn but now we had to choose what sail we were going to use in the first race. Panic set in as even the locals wondered ‘was this a real Dunedin Nor-Easter or just one of those gusty shifty winds?

To be honest it seems so long ago that I can’t remember what sail size was the average but I think most were on between 6 and 7m sails that afternoon. We completed 3 rounds, (18 heats) that day and Rodger Smith the OD called it a day so that we could make it to the restaurant at a respectable hour. That night we dined at Hightide Restaurant one of Dunedin’s best cooks works there and most if not all enjoyed a quite night of fine dining and wine/beer, but not too much as we knew for sure now that the forecast was going to be correct and that the following day was going to be of epic proportions.

Sunday morning dawned and I mean literally dawned on me, as I was up with a sparrows fart looking out my window which overlooks the harbour basin slalom course. ‘Yep’ I said to myself, ‘Epic alright’. So a hearty breakfast for all those staying at my place and off down to the briefing at 9:30am before we knew it we were lining up for the 19th heat of the event at 10:30am! I’m pretty sure that is the earliest that I have started a race before. But not only that, we didn’t get off the water until 5.30pm! During that day we had only had three 15 minute breaks and one 30 minute break. While the wind strength was increasing it was a fine line if you decided that your heat numbers were far enough apart that you could sail back to shore and change your equipment, timing and gear choice was critical. The race briefings and rigging was set at Watercooled Sports in the domain next door and the start line was 1.3 nautical miles directly upwind, So you had to choose gear that was big enough to get you up but small and efficient enough to give you the speed and control required to hunt down the giants of the sport that had turned up to show us how it’s done.

That day alone saw 11 rounds completed, yes, 63 heats in total, as the women decided to save their energy and miss 3 of the rounds. No protests, no rescues, no buoy changes, just 63 start sequences which started every-time the last heat had rounded the first buoy. Each heat took around 3 – 4minutes to complete and the women’s a little longer then a small gap of about 3 – 4 minutes before heat one would start again.

That was a full on day and in my experience we have never sailed that many heats ever in one day before at a NZ competition maybe even anywhere?

Monday and the day looks similar to Saturday only this time we know it’s going to happen earlier. So it’s down to Watercooled to see if the Carbon Art Slalom Board that James Dinnis so kindly provided as a prize, has arrived. No board yet! So off to the briefing by 10.30am and racing by 2pm was the call. We knew it was going to be strong today! I rigged my 5.4m knowing that if I get on that I will be fast! Went to change my fin from the 34 that I had been using with my 7m and 6.2m only to find that I had actually already been using the 29cm fin with the 7.0m! I wondered why I was struggling to get upwind! By the time it was time to get on the water I chose to go out on my 5.4m straight off. It was perfect! Just nicely powered up and the fin even matched up! Intense is the word that I have to describe the racing that day!

Another 8 rounds, (another 48 heats), were fired off and this time the women weren’t going to rest at all! They were into it! We would sit at Burns point waiting for our heats, watching them take off past the start line which was located just upwind of ‘three legs’, (that’s a local nickname for 3 piles that stand in the middle of the harbour about 500m off Burns Point), 6 women, all now desperate to win a race! Some had only just learned taste of winning, for the first time the day before! The men would shout and cheers as they went past each other jostling for the top position before the first mark and not wanting to drop a jibe, the enthusiasm I saw from those women made me proud to be involved with this event. They would return to shore after a full days racing and tell their stories of how ‘someone crossed their bow SO CLOSE’ or ‘she dropped her jibe and I GOT HER’. At one stage there was even talk of a protest! You could see the adrenaline rush stretching the smiles over their sun beaten faces! There was talk of new gear for the girls and returning for the Otago champs and the next National event we have in Dunedin! They recon they might even be able to get 12 women to attend next time so that they could have 2 heats per round.

The men pinged off their heats, but today was different. Things were getting more serious as they knew the event was getting closer to the end. Positions were becoming defined and for the first time in the event a protest was lodged. The unnamed involved had a dispute that couldn’t be settled unless there was some sort of recourse. With the protest lodged and a late finish to the days sailing, (7.45pm) it was decided that the hearing would be the following morning. So we all went off to Filadelfio’s where we had pizza and pasta and more beers than the previous night but not enough to put us off our game tomorrow!

Tuesday and I woke really early. 5.45am in fact. I was racing but I was also on the protest committee. Stressed, I took my time reviewing what I already knew about the incident. Janine my wife had been on the start boat that day and she saw the whole thing. She knows nothing of the rules of sailing but her and the other 3 on the boat told a story that we could almost decide their and then. Still, we had to follow the process and after a relaxing small breakfast and coffee we meet early to discuss the matters. Two of my friends battling for points and I had to help decide who was in the wrong. Both parties had interesting sides to their story and it turned out that it wasn’t as clear cut as I had first thought. In the spirit in which the event had been up until this point though, we came to a decision and it was gracefully accepted by both parties and we moved on to the next thing on the agenda….. MORE RACING!

Yes the wind was up and since we had already had heaps of sailing it was decided by the OD that the results of the previous 3 days would determine the overall ranking of the event but he felt that there was something to be done about the age group rankings as there were rumblings from some saying “We haven’t really raced each other enough in age groups”, so he decided to have an age group shoot out where we have 3 rounds per age group/classification and this would count towards your age group result with no discard allowed from the 3 races.
It was the lightest day and local knowledge would tell us that we had to be even more carful with our choices of gear than any other day. Would it pick up like the other days? Would it stay the same? “There’s no cloud on Mt Cargill like there was the other days. Would it drop off? I chose my favorite sail, my 6.2m, combined with the 90ltr board (and the right fin), it is lethal and powerful but still small enough to go fast. First up were the 8 under 30’s with Robbie Swift, Clayton Dougan and Gareth Wood all having a great battle to the first mark with the others hot on their tails. Then heat 2, the 31 – 49er’s! 16 in 1 heat when we had been used to only 6. Completely different tactics were required before and to the start line. There was even pre-start jostling for position, grinding upwind then faking a jibe, or planning then stopping as quickly as possible to try and get the person behind to overtake, all before the start! Adrenaline like I have never had. The first race starts and straight away there is controversy at the line collisions, over early and mayhem, the call was to abandon that heat and rerun it. There were more grumblings. Then the over 50’s heat and some made the wrong gear choice having too small a sail to get them out of the jibes as the wind threatened to die on us. Then the women, yes the women are still battling it out even on the 4th day. “There is too much at stake not to race” one of them said. Especially since the prize money for the women is the same as the men!

The last day ended with all the required heats completed although there was some waiting for the last women’s heat and the re-run of the 31 – 49er’s. We were out of the water by 3.30pm and off to get ready for the prize-giving at the Albert Arms Hotel, (not a flash place because we know what usually happens at prize-givings). This year we mourned the lost of a fellow sailor Dave Baines So we had a presentation from his brother Trevor of a memorial trophy which went to the highest placed Dunedin sailor, which was Steve Cardno, this was very appropriate that Steve won as Dave had helped Steve learn to windsurf way back when Adam was a cowboy.

There were loads of prizes;
1 x CARBON ART Slalom Board- CARBON ART, Taranaki Carbon Art
1 x Protech Helmet – Pt Chev Sailboards
1 x Maui Sails Boom – Pt Chev Sailboards
1 x Protech Rack Pads – Pt Chev Sailboards
1 x Protech Tie-downs – Pt Chev Sailboards
1 x Tushingham 6.5m Lightening Slalom Sail – Watercooled Sports
2 x Beanies – Watercooled Sports
1 x X9 Carbon Boom – Neil Pryde International
1 x Neil Pryde Watch - Neil Pryde International
1 x Nokia 6610i Mobile Phone – Vodafone
1 x Long range cordless phone – The Telephone Company
4 x $20 meal vouchers – Filadelfio’s Restaurant & Bar.
2 x Meals vouchers – HighTide Restaurant.
4 x $20 Meal vouchers – The London Lounge
4 x ‘A Portrait of Dunedin’ books
Place getters prize money.

A few triple bourbons and lots of shots later we were off home to bed, (1am), totally exhausted. All in all an absolutely fantastic event! People went away with dreams of the next, bigger and better. Having wind is always a bonus though.

Overall Rankings (after 22 rounds - including 3 discards)
Rank Competitor Sail # Points

1 Gareth Wood NZL279 13.3

2 Mike Yasak HI34 17.2

3 Clayton Dougan KZ3 21.1

4 Steve Cardno NZL61 25.7

5 Terry Beentjes NZL427 27

6 Mark Boersma USA17 31

7 Gavin Jackson NZL113 36.9

8 Paul Vlietstra NZL21 39.4

9 Glen Taylor NZL47 40.1

10 Luke Watson NZL53 43.2

11 Terry Alkemade NZL98 43.5

12 Simon Jones NZL52 47.4

13 Simon Hall NZL40 59.4

14 Chris Dimock NZL45 59.7

15 Greg Thomas H20 64

16 Lee Groenewald W74 64.7

16 Tim Wood GBR7 64.7

18 Mike Sinclair NZL71 65.7

19 Dan Willemse NZL133 70

20 Ross Monk NZL117 71

21 Alan Taylor NZL51 78

21 Tony Limburg NZL411 78

23 John Monk NZL114 86

24 Graeme Evens NZL36 89.7

25 Ned Tamatea NZL81 92

26 Russell Lund NZL87 95

26 George Cooper NZL38 95

28 Calin Bujgoi NZL373 98

29 John Westgate NZL41 112

30 Jim Rodgers NZL10 116

31 Robby Swift K89 N/A

Age Group ranking based on 3 shoot-out heats

50 + age group

Competitor Sail # Class Total Rank

Tim Wood GBR7 50+ 3.4 1

Mike Sinclair NZL71 50+ 7 2

Ned Tamatea NZL81 50+ 12 3

Tony Limburg NZL411 50+ 13 4

Greg Thomas H20 50+ 14.7 5

George Cooper NZL38 50+ 16 6

Jim Rodgers NZL10 50+ 19 7

Under 30 Age group

Competitor Sail # Class Total Rank

Gareth Wood NZL279 J 2.1 1

Mark Boersma USA17 J 7 3

Clayton Dougan KZ3 J 9 4

Lee Groenewald W74 J 12 5

Glen Taylor NZL47 J 14 6

Chris Dimock NZL45 J 21 7

31 - 49 age group

Competitor Sail # Class Total Rank

Mike Yasak HI34 M 3.4 1

Paul Vlietstra NZL21 M 7.7 2

Terry Beentjes NZL427 M 11 3

Terry Alkemade NZL98 M 13 4

Simon Jones NZL52 M 15 5

Luke Watson NZL53 M 17 6

Steve Cardno NZL61 M 21 7

Dan Willemse NZL133 M 29 8

Gavin Jackson NZL113 M 30 9

Russell Lund NZL87 M 31 10

Calin Bujgoi NZL373 M 33 11

Ross Monk NZL117 M 35 12

John Monk NZL114 M 37 13

Simon Hall NZL40 M 39 14

Alan Taylor NZL51 M 44 15

Graeme Evens NZL36 M 46 16

Women’s Overall

Competitors Sail No# Rank Points total

Anne Crombie 182 1 26.5

Sue Bradley 333 2 49.5

Judew Green 11 3 80

Lynne Donaldson 155 4 93.7

Rachel Ann Low 217 5 98.7

Debs Merrilees XXX 6 133

Check out the March 2007 issue of Wind & Kite Mag for story with pictures.
Writen 13/04/2007