2018 Sheffield Laser Nationals - McKenzie wins on Final Day

Andrew McKenzie, Day 2, 2018 NZ Laser Nationals - Naval Point Sailing Club © NZ Laser Assoc

The final day of the 2018 Laser Nationals at Naval Point Club Lyttelton was another ripper, with a nice 10-12 knot sea breeze arriving on schedule just before midday, allowing the scheduled two races to be completed in short order and the winners crowned in all divisions.

In the Open Standards Andrew McKenzie (Akarana) made it a triple by winning both races to win his third NZ Laser Championship in a row in emphatic fashion. He battled with George Gautrey (Muritai) all day, with the two closer than siamese twins much of the time, but George was unfortunately UFD in race 9 ending up 2nd overall and winning the U21 trophy. Alastair Gifford (Queen Charlotte) and Matt Kempkers (Wakatere) continued their battle with Alastair doing enough to hold off Matt for the 3rd slot in spite of Matt having the better of the day.

In the Radials Josh Armit (Murrays Bay) continued his emphatic domination of the series, winning both races to finish unbeaten in the regatta. It was a fine performance by the World U17 Laser champion Josh who was simply too good for the opposition this week. Second on count back was World Laser Masters champion Scott Leith (Murrays Bay), who's 3/2 results today were just enough to overhaul Womens title winner, club mate Susannah Pyatt. Annabel Rennie-Younger, also from the strong Murrays Bay squad had a consistent series to capture 4th overall ahead of Youths Albert Stanley (Worser Bay) and Luke Cashmore (Wakatere) who both showed a lot of promise with strong series overall. In the very tight battle for supremacy in the Womens Youth division Elly Warren's results today were just good enough to take the title, sneaking past Samantha Stock who had led from day 1.

In the Masters Andrew Dellabarca (M, Worser Bay) scored a 2/1 today which was well and truly enough to secure the title ahead of Ian Baker (AM) from Torbay, who again showed his strength upwind in the sea breeze to take out race 9 and be close to Dellabarca again with a second in Race 10. Behind these two it was a close battle with the order of the next 6 Masters all depending on the result of the last 2 races. In the end it was Master Rob Woodward from Worser Bay who edged ahead of the pack to take out a well deserved third spot ahead of a rapidly improving Kent Copplestone (AM, Rotorua) in 4th and Pupuke's Tony Nicholson in 5th. Nick Page was the leading Grand Master in 7th overall.

In the Masters Radial Ed Tam (M) put the contest beyond doubt with two bullets today to win from local GM Hamish Atkinson. In third place was Jenny Armstrong (M) from Ravensbourne, competing in her first Laser Masters nationals and certainly showing the fleet she will be a force to be reckoned with in future. Mike Knowsley (M, Tamaki) had a consistent day to hold onto 4th overall from Hamiltons Werner Hennig in 5th. Another successful Radial Master today was Werners club mate Scott McDougall, who took out the major spot prize of a new sail thanks to Dan at Watershed.

So another really successful Laser Nationals is complete, with all races completed to schedule and wonderful regatta and race management thanks to the efforts of the Naval Point Club and their band of volunteers. Next year the contest will be at Manly so we look forward to another strong fleet there.