Winds whip up regatta chaos

A girl was left concussed and another was fished out of the water after boats collided when winds created havoc during the annual New Year Regatta in Napier yesterday.
Fourteen rescue boats were flat tack in and out of the Napier Sailing Club in Ahuriri as gentle breezes in the morning developed into 27-knot gusts.
At one stage a rescue boat had to come to the aid of another when its steering seized.
Junior club member Olivia Mackay was concussed when a Noelex 25 (footer) rammed into her seven-footer P class boat early in the afternoon.
Hawke's Bay urologist Kim Broome, whose children also sailed in the regatta, attended to the 13-year-old Woodford House pupil before clearing her of any serious injury.
"I was dizzy and feeling a bit sick but I'm okay now," said Olivia about 5pm after she suspected some part of the bigger boat had hit her on the head. It left a lump on the right side of her head, above the eye.
Another youngster, Brooke Wedgwood, 11, of Napier, was shaken and a little bruised after a 14-footer javelin smashed into the stern of her seven-footer vessel.
"It gave me such a fright," she said.
"I thought my boat was going to sink because I could see this big hole on the front of my boat," said the Napier Central School pupil who will be attending Napier Intermediate this year.
Club general manager Lyle Tresadern said about 1.30pm the conditions on the waterfront became testing for some sailors.
About half of the 120 boats in the fleet of 12 classes competing withdrew from the regatta.
Mr Tresadern, who was helping man one of the rescue boats, said they towed in several Optimist boats after it got a little too much for some of the youngsters.
"The bigger boats should have been watching because they have more people on board," he said of the Noelex boats that have a crew of four while javelin has two.
"I think things got a little out of control for them and the sailors [both the adults and children] weren't looking at each other."
A New Plymouth sailor, Mark Hatch, drove back home to fetch another boat after his paper tiger vessel ( a twin hull 14-footer) was left with a gaping hole on one of the hulls.
Mr Hatch will be competing at the Napier club-hosted Paper Tiger Catamaran Nationals from Wednesday.