Auckland boat Ruff Rider made the most of the benign conditions on Saturday to win the Waipu Cove round of the Thundercat Racing series.
The boat - crewed by Glenn Burnard and Greg Norman - now leads the national series by more than 200 points and it will be hard to
pull back in the two remaining rounds.
Starting well in the small surf was critical and handling the waves on the inshore breaks was also important, competition organiser Steve Frogley said.
"Unless they were caught by a bad wave - and there weren't a lot of them at Waipu - boats that started well were generally able to maintain their lead."
All three winners were from Auckland, with Ruff Rider finishing ahead of CrashPad.com and Jungle Coffee after 13 races at Waipu Cove.
The round was the fourth in the six-round series, with the fifth round in Waihi in a fortnight and the final round in Piha two weeks later.
"Bringing it here was to spread the venues around and allow more people to watch the racing.
"There is usually good surf at Waipu and the east coast surf is a bit more manageable for racing whereas the west coast beaches often see the lead changing a lot and a lot more carnage," he said.
There were still plenty of thrills and spills at Waipu, five boats flipping during the day's racing.
"Because the boats are all so even now, even the most dominant boat, which was Ruff Rider, got beaten in one of the races," Frogley said.
There were 12 heats of racing followed by a grand final won by Ruff Rider, with Jungle Coffee second and Waikato Sandblasting third.
Caption: The CMC Markets boat, left, crewed by Garry Waller and Rebekca Gray battles it out with Plumbquick, crewed by Steve Frogley and Steve Morrison, at the Waipu Cove round of the national Thundercat Racing series.
