Sailing: Jury clears Flying Fifteen leaders

Skipper Ashley Smith (left) and crewman Adam Kingston set the tone during the Flying Fifteen National Championship at the Ahuriri waterfront, Napier, yesterday. Photo/Duncan Brown

The jury was out but not for long before it returned a unanimous verdict of victory to give skipper Ashley Smith and crewman Adam Kingston day one honours of the Flying Fifteen Nationals in Napier last night.

The race officials had lodged a protest, calling an OCS (on course side) against the Australian pair on Sake in race one for having breached the starting rules when competition began in the three-day event at the Ahuriri waterfront during the Napier Sailing Club-hosted regatta.

"They actually bumped into a boat at the end of the start line so there was a question on whether they actually went back behind the start line or not," said championship convener Graeme Robinson, of Napier.

"If you're over the start line then you've obviously not started the race correctly," Robinson explained.

When the two orange flags drop from the race committee boats in the 350m stretch of the starboard (right hand) and port end (left hand) starting line, any Flying Fifteens caught encroaching the course side are required to retreat smartly behind the line before they can resume racing.

He likened it to a false start off the blocks in a track race in athletics.

Robinson clarified Smith and Kingston had retreated but the deliberation was over they had done so according to protocol.

The upshot was the Brisbane combination, who are sailing as Hong Kong champions, were reinstated and the protest thrown out to ensure they finished the three races yesterday with two wins and a fifth placing.

The four-person jury comprised chairman Peter Scheuerl, of Germany but living in Napier, Peter Johnson, of England, John Bullot, of Auckland, and Alisdair Daines, of Marlborough.

The first three have international pedigree while Daines is of national class.

"They deliberated only for a short while before satisfying themselves the decision was valid.

"There some other issues but they were all resolved amicably and that's how we like to do it with the Flying Fifteens class," said Robinson, after 55 yachts took to the starting line.

In each race, the winners receive one point, the runners-up two, third three and so on.

Smith and Kingston are leading on seven points.

Another Aussie combination of skipper Matthew Owen and Andrew Reed, on Deffcon 1, were second on 11 points (4th, 1st, 6th).

The Great Britain pair of skipper Geoffrey Bayliss and Tom Bayliss, steering 7th Heaven, accumulated 19 points (2nd, 7th, 10th) to sit in third place.

The gulf kicked to leave the top three in a peleton, as it were, with Australians Greg Tonnison (skipper) and Andrew Jackson coming fourth with 26 points (11th, 13th, 2nd).

The best of New Zealand sailors were skipper Aaron Goodmanson and crewman Alister Rowlands, of Chateris Bay (Lyttelton Harbour), in sixth place (3rd, 12th, 17th) on Ffortune, behind another Aussie pair of skipper Nick Jerwood and Janet Jerwood (6th, 16th, 8th).

Skipper Hayden Percy and sidekick Scott Pedersen, of Napier club, didn't make the top 20 on the Pedersen-owned Fflorin but were the best of the five Hawke's Bay combinations.

Robinson, who also is a crewman with skipper David Zorn on Busineff, said the Bay weather turned it on for the visiting sailors.

"It was a beautiful, clear, sunny day with sparkling seas and the breeze varied from about eight knots in the morning to about 10 to 12 knots in the afternoon."

He said at times the swells rose to about 4m to push sailors out of their comfort zones.

"There must be something happening out in the sea to cause these magnificent swells to produce conditions that some of the sailors had never been in before."

Robinson said it tested the mettle of everyone because the breezes weren't strong enough to enable them to surf or plank on the waves upwind or even when the spinnaker came into play.

He lauded race officer Gerald martin for setting a "very fair" course.

The nationals is a perfect dress rehearsal for the Lexus of Hawke's Bay 21st Flying Fifteen World Championship in Napier from Sunday to Friday, March 3, with most sailors carrying on.

Today the fleet will compete in two races but the worst result of the five over two days can be scratched to put the seagulls among the schools of fish.