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

The History of the Tanaka Cup

The Tanaka Cup is named in honour of Tanaka san a Japanese business who was the agent for Roger Land Yachts in Japan and who imported a number of 88's to Japan.  With the demise of Roger Land Yachts he acquired the Young 88 moulds and moved them to Princess Motor Yachts and appointed them as the licensed builder of the Young 88.  Unfortunately Princess Motor Yachts when into receivership and the moulds were in danger of being lost in the aftermath of winding up of the company.

At this time Colin Carran a life member of the Y88 Owners Association and a Squadron Committee Member, became involved and commenced negotiations with representatives of Tanaka san's company to ensure the survival of the moulds.  The result was that the moulds were gifted to the association along with the condition that a major trophy contested by the class be named after Tanaka san hence the Tanaka Cup.

The National Championships has always attracted so called 'rock stars' sailors so the Y88 Owners Association Committee felt that the Tanaka Cup should be awarded to the first owner/drive at the National Championship in order to provide recognition of the achievement by the boat owner.

Since it's inception in 2000 the Tanaka Cup has been keenly contested and produced strong rivalry between the Auckland and Tauranga boats and from this aspect it has some similarity to the America's Cup.

The Tanaka Cup was first contested in 2000 after been 'donated' by Auckland was won by Peter Blackie from Tauranga, for the next two years the cup stayed in Tauranga.  In 2003 the cup returned to Auckland for the first time thanks to the efforts of Graeme Duncalf who finished second in the National in 2002.

2008 Results

2007 Results

2006 Results

2005 Results

2004 Results

2003 Results

2002 Results

2001 Results

2000 Results

1999 Results