Sailing News
Team Tiger wins Pacific Keelboat Challenge Cup By Chris Way
Team Tiger representing the RPAYC wins
the Pacific Keelboat Challenge Cup held
at Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron
March 18-20 2016.
The Tiger team rolls on from event to
event, this time competing in the hotly
contested Pacific Challenge Cup held in
Farr MRX yachts with four teams from
Australia (RPAYC, CYC, CSC and SYC),
one team from New Caledonia and three
teams from New Zealand, including last
year’s two time winning RNZYS team.
This event, held in strict one design
format with controlled sails provided
by the organisers and no rig changes
allowed throughout, has been dominated
by New Zealand. This year the trophy
leaves New Zealand for the first time to
the RPAYC.
The Tiger team comprising Chris Way
(helm), Peter Winter (main), Tom Spithill
(trim), Murray Gordon (tactician),
Aaron Toresen (mast) and Mal Clark
(bow) arrived in New Zealand the day
before the regatta with a short time
to practice and get used to the boats
which, although an older boat design,
are quite similar in weight and response
to the Sydney 38. Following a team
building dinner and evening on the
town of Auckland, the team came out
firing in a NE breeze of 15-20kn with a
1,1,1,3 scoreline to be two points up on
the CYC team headed by Andy Kiernan
(David Chapman – tactician). Our secret
weapon turned out to be Andy Toresen
a good friend of James and Tom Spithill,
who had extensive AC experience as
a guest on some of the Oracle AC 45
sailing over the last few years. This was
his first regatta in competition mode and
after surviving a near man overboard
event in the first race he knuckled down
and rose to the occasion, albeit a bit
black and blue.
Day two was less successful for the tigers
who came out of the day with a 2, 3, 3, 4
scoreline and a two point deficit to the
CYC team in similar wind conditions. The
racing was very close and Murray did a
fantastic job of limiting the losses on the
day, so that we remained in the hunt for
the finale.
Day three was a magic day and one
where the tactician had to hold nerve
under pressure. Tigers won the opener
with CYC third so back to even points.
Then CYC sailed their hearts out, beating
us by one place in eac h of the next two
to draw ahead by two points. Murray did
a stellar job again of limiting the losses
so that we could take it to them on the
final. After a pep talk from Andy, Murray
and Tom, it was all on. We won the start
and went on to win the race with CYC
fourth to win the regatta overall by one
point.
Commenting at the presentation, Chris
Way said: “This was an incredibly hard
event which essentially came down to
match racing at the end. I’m extremely
proud of the team for what they have
achieved and pleased to take the
trophy home to the RPAYC. Introducing
the team he said: “ I am sure all New
Zealanders are aware of the Spithill
name in this country. Thanks so much
to Tom, for organising us to come and
competing once again with the Tigers
as well as Pete, Muz, Mal and Aaron for
never giving up and holding out for the
win. We’ll be back next year to defend”.
After three hard days of hard racing and
even harder nights making the traditional
Tiger curfew, the team crawled onto the
plane and slept all the way home…
Results:
1st RPAYC (Way) – 24pts
2nd CYC (Kearnan) – 25pts
3rd RNZYS (Bouzaid)- 32pts
4th RNZYS (Mackie) – 38pts
5th CNC (Chabaud) – 41pts
6th CSC (McKay) – 65.5pts
7th SYC (Grain) – 73pts
8th RNZYS (Little) – 84pts