Young 88 National Championships
18 & 19 April 2009
11 - 13 April 2008
2008 entries - check out the entry list and crew list here
2008 Y88 Nationals Report – Andrew Wills
One of the biggest, most competitive fleets for years turned out for the 2008 Young 88 National Championships supported by Harken New Zealand. Racing was held off the east coast bays and run by RNZYS under the guidance of Ross Markwick and his team in stellar sailing conditions. On Saturday the fleet enjoyed sailing at the top end of the number ones in a bumpy north easterly swell. As with all one design short course racing, but especially the 88’s, racing was extremely close, sometimes too close, and there were a few unfortunate collisions at starts and turning marks, fortunately no one was injured.
Going into the regatta I thought that any one of about 12 teams could win the regatta if things went their way so we adopted a one step at a time approach and just wanted to go into the last day still being in contention. Throughout the day we had an awesome battle with defending champions, Triple 8. At the conclusion of the first day we had a narrow 3 point lead over the Triple 8 with a further 14 points back to third placed Wakahuia. The last day was cancelled because of strong winds so the regatta became a 5 race series and the first days results became the final results. Sunday’s early finish let us enjoy a whole day of celebrations, which proved to be good fun!
I would like to thank Richard Coon for loaning us his boat ABRACADABRA for the regatta and all his support, my crew of Matt Kelway, Jayson Herbert, Scott Beavis, Peter Waters, Alistair Gair and Tim Lidgard, and RNZYS and North Sails for their continued support of this event. Congratulations to all the teams that competed and hopefully this event will get even a few more boats out next year.
Line Winners
1st Abracadabra, 2nd Triple 8, 3rd Waka Huia
Handicap Winners
1st Eye Spy, 2nd Sweeny Todd, 3rd Young Radical
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