After placing third at the Auckland Cup, the King’s sailing team was placed in the Gold Fleet at the New Zealand Team Racing Nationals, held at Algies Bay from 22 to 28 April.
Teams are split into three fleets of boats - 11 in Gold, 10 in Silver and 15 in Bronze - a total of 36 teams from all over New Zealand.
Throughout the week our team raced in three round robins, racing all the members of the fleet. At the end of each round robin there is a repechage for the bottom and top boats in each fleet to swap into another fleet.
In the first round robin, our sailors faced strong winds and unfortunately ended up placing 9th. They were successful in the following repechage and managed to stay in Gold.
Over the next two days the winds were much lighter, which suited the light King’s crews. Our crew beat both Westlake Boys High School and Queen Charlotte College to secure an impressive 4th place.
Teacher in charge of Sailing Bryan Sapsworth says: “It was great to see our crew step up and make some good manoeuvres, ably led by skipper Hamish McLaren.”
After the final round robin, our sailors ended up in 8th place.
“The competition is very fierce in the Gold fleet, with only a few wins deciding the places,” says Sapsworth.
Our sailing team:
Skippers
Jordan Stevenson (Race Captain)
Annabel Cave
Hamish McLaren
Crew
Chester Duffett
Rose Dickson
Oscar Little
Ben Carter
