International News  

Home

NZ Race News

NZ Race Results

Club Newsletter

Archives

TRANZ Rule Book

2003  Trans Tasman Challenge

Australia v NZ

Ballina, Australia 

NZ team for 2003 Trans-Tasman Challenge at Ballina, Australia 21st-25th May 2003;

Monday 19th May

NZ team arrives in Coolangatta at 9am and decide to split into 2 groups.  One van heads straight to Ballina while the 2^nd van heads up to Surfers Paradise to check out the sights.  The boat Container is held up at the Port of Brisbane by M.A.F.  9 of our guys to go to Brisbane to unpack the boats for inspection.

Tuesday 20th May

4.30am- Van leaves for Brisbane.
9.30am- the all clear is given and the container is loaded onto the truck
2.30pm- the container arrives in Ballina and is placed inside the compound. The whole team arrives to unpack and setup the boats. Setup and testing to be carried out early tomorrow morning
7pm- Welcoming dinner hosted by the Australian Team at Shaw’s Bay Hotel.

Wednesday 21st May

The vans leave the motel at 7am and head for the compound.  Boats are taken onto the beach early and the guys are given time to run and setup their boats. 

The 1^st Long Haul commences at 11.30am with 10 laps of 12km to be completed.  Big surf hampers the guys running cleavers as they try to make their way out through the breakers.  The course runs along the coast in open water with a reasonable swell and a short chop.  

NZ wins the day with a slight margin by taking a lot of the middle order placings, which helps bulk up their overall points tally.

Thursday 22nd May

1^st day of Surfcross.  The NZ team was on a steep learning curve trying to adapt to the surf and it’s characteristics, with it being a different shape to home with real tubes and barrels that swallow your boat if you hit them late.  Flip score- NZ 8, AU 2.

The biggest jump of the series by NZ GB AQUARIUS saw Tony & Jason head skywards as they punched out through the surf……… and still land it upright.

The ‘W’ course was run with no beach finishes.  Starts were stand by your boat, kill keys in, motor off and hand in the air.  Each country was allowed to start as they do in their own race events, NZ could start their engines outside the boat while the Australians preferred to board the boat before pulling the starter cord.  Both crewman had to be in the boat before they got underway.  Due to the number of flips and breakage’s the number of heats were cut short.

NZ were ahead on points again by a small margin, encouraging but we realised that the next 2-day’s could still change our points lead.

Friday 23rd May

Layday -  A day to sleep in, fix the boats, play golf, go shopping and head to Movieworld.

Saturday 24th May

9.30am- 2^nd Long Haul commences. 4 laps of the same course as we ran on Wednesday. A total of 48km in reasonably flat conditions. A battle between TEAM AQUARIUS RACING (NZ) and GO (AU) saw both boats side by side for 3 laps with GO eventually falling foul to mechanical problems and finish further down the field.

NZ finished with most of their boats in the top 15 which saw their points lead increase.

11.30am- Surfcross is run in 2 to 4 metre clean surf. Once again the NZ’ers were on a learning curve but still managed to stretch our points lead by the end of the day.

Sunday 25th May

Boats were on the beach for 9am ready for a good day’s racing.  Unfortunately due to a very low tide, the infamous Ballina Sandbar appeared along beachfront and it was deemed to dangerous to race in these conditions.

A few boats went out and practiced on the back markers while the Australians introduced us to Driver only racing where the crewman were left on the shore & the driver negotiated the surf by themselves. Very exciting to watch with a lot of near flips (and flips…Rhino! )

By 11.30am the call was made to cancel the day to allow the Kiwi’s time to clean their boats and repack the container.  The boats and crews lined up on the beach for team photos before heading off to the compound.

It was 6.30pm when we locked the doors and headed back to the motel to clean up and get to Shaw’s Bay Hotel for the Prize Giving dinner at 7.30pm.    Once again a great meal followed by speeches, trophies and thank you’s to close the event at about 11.30pm.

As Team Manager I would like to thank all those that made this event a success; 

Alan Astrop(RD), Kelvin Kay & Steve Morrison (Container), Wayne Powell (Rules), Cameron Adshead (Engine Tech/Sealing), Paul Collins(Finance), Mark Pantarotto & Shane Smith(All matters in Australia) and a huge thank you to Corinne Powell(Clothing, Airfares, Accommodation, Financial Control, Licenses, Entry Forms)

Rod Klaassen

See Day 1 racing results & info

See Day 3 racing results & info

See 2003 Trans-Tasman Photo action