The Yachtsman 2017-2018 RPAYC Yachtsman 2015-2016 | Page 44

PACIFIC KEELBOAT CHALLENGE

TEAM TIGER WIN PACIFIC KEELBOAT CHALLENGE
CLUB YACHTING

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 each 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
CHRIS WAY
42 YACHTSMAN