12ft skiffs to New Zealand in close match

by Sail-World NZL on 16 Jan 2006 Alex Vallings and Nathan Handley took the 46th 12ft skiff Interdominion title after the final days racing was abandoned due to light winds.

The championship was sponsored by NedLloyd, and no races were able to be sailed on the final day of the series in spite of the fleet being rigged and ready to go from 1300hrs.

New Zealand also took the 1437 to 1144 points for the John Brooke Trophy for top team of 12 boats, which is arguably the main event in the series.

Sailing Nuplex, it is the fourth time that Alex Vallings has held the Silasec Trophy – winning twice as a crew for Tim Bartlett, and previously in 2001 as skipper. This year Vallings teamed up with top skiff crew Nathan Handley who represented NZ in the 49er class in the 200 Olympics.

However the win was shrouded in controversy as a pre-start collision before the start of Race 1, between Nuplex and the second place getter, Gizmo Michael Bochner and Cameron Mcdonald, saw Gismo miss the first race due to damage and Nuplex miss the first two races due to more serious damage.

At a subsequent protest hearing, Gizmo was disqualified, and Nuplex awarded average points based on her best six races in the original ten races series (or best five if the regatta was nine races or less).

In spite of a re-opened hearing after Gizmo felt the redress granted to Nuplex was too generous, the original decision was confirmed, and in the end the result was very close between Nuplex and Gizmo.

35 boats completed in the series which aside from the last day, was sailed in good breezes and all crews enjoyed some exciting and spectacular racing.

For full results see: www.skiff.org.nz

For the image gallery from Races 3 & 4 click here: www.kiwispy.com/PhotoGallery/Ned12s-3-4/

For Races 5 & 6 click here: www.kiwispy.com/PhotoGallery/Ned12s-5-6/

All images by Garrick Cameron.

For a quick trip around the boatpark and a close up look at gear and rigs click here: www.kiwispy.com/PhotoGallery/Gear-12s/ All images by Kiwi Spy.