Sailing: Napier club's 125th

Paul Redman is proud of the club's strong junior Optimist fleet.

Napier Sailing Club's 125th birthday will be the feature attraction of the club's New Year's Regatta this weekend.

Club commodore Paul Redman said a birthday party will be staged at the club tonight. More than 50 boats from a variety of classes will be competing during the Muffs Pantry-sponsored regatta tomorrow and Monday.

"While there will be a few visitors most of the competitors will be club members. The New Year's Regatta is not as big as years gone by these days and the prestige this regatta once had has been transferred to our Summer Regatta which is staged during the last weekend in November," Redman said.

He is proud of the club's strong junior Optimist fleet and expected this class to be the biggest this weekend.

Several Flying Fifteen crews will also be in action this weekend. They will be eager to get a taste of the conditions on Hawke Bay in the countdown to the seven-race national championships which will be sailed off Napier from February 22-24 and the nine-race world championships which will begin on February 26 and continue until March 3.

More than 45 crews are expected at the world championships. Among them will be the experienced Napier combination of helmsman David Zorn and crew Graeme Robinson.
Five years ago Robinson competed at the Great Britain-hosted world championships.

Nine crews from Great Britain have entered the world champs including helmsman Jeremy Davy and crew Martin Huett who finished second at last year's edition of the champs in France. Twenty Aussie crews will cross the Tasman. There will be one from Canada, three from Hong Kong and at least 11 Kiwi crews.

If the names of some of the boats are an indication expect some of the visiting crews to have as much fun off the water as they will on it. Some of the Aussie names are Affrodisiac, Where The Bloody Hell Are You? and Lapse of Reality.
The best of the Great Britain boat names is Freakin Fantabulous.