It was a little bit of a down and out weekend for the Kerikeri Club Champs over Easter.
Boats didn’t turn up because of family functions and the wind didn’t turn up and nobody knows why!
However, with a late start, racing commenced with eight boats on the start line. The first three races were off wind starts and this made for a lottery when the whole fleet converged on the bottom mark that nobody could see!
There was an unusual dog leg on the course because of a wind change and this confused a few (including myself) when rounding the wrong way!
Roddy Booth who happened to be race officer was having some good consistent places early on and called lunch when the lake looked like a mill pond.
Dougy organised some great refreshments for lunch and everybody seemed quite happy to have good social time; however, Neil and Deano and Dougy were determined to get some racing in!
The others all went home and the four boats that were left continued to battle it out until 4pm.
At that stage Roddy still had a one point lead over Dougy; and despite Roddy’s unwillingness to sail on the Sunday because of a threatening rain forecast, he and 6 other boats turned up to a nice wind and blue skies in the morning!
Once the boats were rigged the wind disappeared so yet another frustrating day of sailing in very trying conditions.
Again a few boats went home because they couldn’t hack it and the five stalwarts, Roddy Booth, Doug Kane, Dean Lutze, Neil Deverell, Roy Brown,and maybe Glen Riley raced till 1.30 p.m. Roddy held off Doug and a late challenge from Dean, so his name goes on the trophy for another year.
Overall a great time was had by all and a big effort was put in by Doug for organizing a fun weekend