 SPA Regatta Medimblick Holland 21-26th
May.Kiwis go close. All we want to do is race the best guys all of the time. Spa Regatta we were to do this. Aaron McIntosh , Jon Paul Tobin , Bruce Kendall and Bruce Trotter made up the Kiwi contingent.. Everyone thought that the post Olympic year was going a quiet year but I tell you your wrong. 102 men and 55 women. It was time for all the big guns to come out and battle. Most had not seen each other since the Olympic Games and the 96 World Championships in Israel. A nine race regatta was scheduled with two races a day , a fleet of 102 can’t start successfully together so they split it in to 2 evenly seeded groups and race them like that at the end of the day they reseeded the groups , this was to split in to the gold and silver groups after 6 races. Then 3 races were sailed in the finals with all races counting for the contest. Racing was tight amongst the top 10 as the results show. Aaron and Jon Paul had excellent regattas both finishing on 32 points and Aaron taking 7th place on a count back. The top 9 men finished the regatta within 6 points of each other and the final placing were up for grabs going in to the last race. Wind conditions were light to moderate with the winds never getting over 14 knots , the winds tended to shifty witch kept everyone on there toes , with the temperature between 10-20 degrees. Julie Worth Sailed extremely well in the Woman’s Mistral Class having her best contest to date 9th. Everyone walked away from the regatta fizzing that it had be so close and it was a fight to the bitter end , the closeness of the contest shows how high the standard really is. Roll on the Worlds in December. Results Men’s and Woman’s link to http://www.trefpunt.nl/spa/ back to Regatta Reports |
Last updated 05/02/98