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It
was a great weekend away for the last round of the NZ surf series.
Accommodation for many on the first night was a 1950s caravan at the
palatial Opunake motor camp or a room at
the 1940 era pub. Everyone was up early and on the beach by 8.30 but
a low tide of 10.40 meant a leisurely start to race day around
11
am. Race director for the day Kerry Wood laid out the rules at race
briefing and indicated he would be ruling with an iron fist.
Surf
for the day was a steady ½ to 1m with a 15-20kn wind blowing from
C-A buoy (southwest). The first round of 3 heats saw the usual
amount of flips and drama as racers adjusted to the conditions.
Because of the incoming tide the initial course was short but kept
growing during the day. Those who carried the
honour of flipping (primarily on w buoy) included experienced
crews such as Diesel (Toyo Tyres) and
Waikato Finance and also some of the Rookies like Fujitsu, Yokohama
and Lasermark. Some of the early
retirees from the day were Safari print who had good boat speed when
they were running but suffered from an unreliable motor to finish
second last, Protech pumps with motor
problems and Ruff Rider who withdrew after race 1 with a punctured
hull.
The
surf conditions meant that placings in
all races changed with each lap ensuring close and exciting racing.
Fat boys like CSI and Plumbquick were able to excel in the rough
conditions.
The
line up in the final was a competitive representation but the first
lap was stopped by a crash on D Buoy involving the mid field runners
of CSI who were flipped, Toyo, More FM and Reaction Screen print all
who rear ended each other. The beach restart worked for Reaction who
then won the final and won the day. Second place went to Quicken
with Greg Powell at the helm who returned from retirement to pilot
the Quicken boat under extenuating circumstances (we needed an RD)
and third was Jungle Coffee who had a stellar performance throughout
the day. (Rod please check these results with Sandra)
A
relaxed prize giving was held at the beach immediately after when
the medals were handed out for the day plus the west coast
champions medal (Raglan and
Opunake) which went to Plumbquick who
wrestled the trophy back from the previous winners Jungle Coffee who
had to settle for second place this year.
Most
crews returned to stay in more comfortable accommodation in New
Plymouth that night and made the most of the free drink vouchers
handed out at prizegiving for Club 55 at
55 Devon St although by 3am the free vouchers were long gone.
Thanks again to the Marshalls; Kerry as Rd, Sandra as scorekeeper,
Graham Goodwin as starter and Maxine and Wayne Powell as D Buoy
marshalls without whom the event would
not take place and to Tony (More FM) who was responsible for
organizing the event in conjunction with the South
Taranaki district council.
Opunake
proved to be a great surf venue only a 4 ½ hour drive from Auckland
(if you don’t run out of gas on the way) with good after match
facilities in New Plymouth
Steve Frogley
(it
appears that no one from the club has taken any photos. We were all
too busy racing)
Copyright © 2002-07
TRA-NZ
all rights reserved
Revised: February 2007
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