YACHTING: Napier club sailor in eighth place

ANENDRA SINGH
Raukawa schoolboy sailor Ben Goodwin (pictured) finished in overall eighth place in the Tanner Cup in New Plymouth yesterday.
It was a vast improvement for the 14-year-old Lindisfarne College student sailing fraid sew in the Nuplex-sponsored regatta at the New Plymouth Yacht Club.
Goodwin, of Napier Sailing Club, started off strongly in the first race in fourth place but slipped to ninth in race 2, 11th in the third race, ninth in the next and seventh in the fifth race and fifth in the last one. He discarded the third race for a total of 45 points (nett 34).
Napier club manager Lyle Trasadern said: "The weather wasn't really good for Ben because the winds were too light, but he did well to finish eighth."
The fireworks in the fleet of 12 boats hit a crescendo when Auckland's Carl Evans and North Harbour's Paul Snow-Hansen battled it out.
Evans, in an unnamed vessel, started off runners-up to Snow-Hansen in Harry History in race one but hit back with three consecutive first places in the next races.
Snow-Hansen was second in races two and three and slipped to third in the fourth before finishing runner-up in the fifth and clinching first place in the last race to tie on 11 points with Evans.
"Paul Snow-Hansen lodged a protest on a technicality against Carl Evans but it was dismissed and Carl won on a countback," Tresadern said yesterday.
The Tauranga Cup races start today with Napier club's Goodwin, sister Emma Goodwin, Wade Tresadern and Josh Weeks competing.