YACHTING - Successful national regattas puts Parua Bay on the map

It was hardly smooth sailing all the way but the success of this week's Starling class and P Class nationals have convinced organisers that Parua Bay may be a yachting venue of future.
Whangarei Cruising Club event organiser Mike Wright said there was a great deal of doubt about how the regatta would go but that was soon dispelled.
"It was a great success on many levels, for Whangarei and Parua Bay in particular, it put the place on the map, many of the people visiting didn't know it really existed but they do now," he said.
"We don't realise how much space we have here on shore either compared to so many clubs and the place has a huge potential to be turned into an event centre."
Wright said the idea had been around for some time but with the feedback received over the week's sailing - it had gained momentum.
Despite some squally conditions earlier in the week, racing progressed well, with no real delays, allowing the competition to finish on time on Friday.
"The racing was just offshore and competitors were relieved to know that if they suffered from gear failure, they could whip in and make changes in time to catch the next race and that made a big difference for a number of competitors," Wright said.
"Many of them said it was the best P and Starling regatta they had attended, some of that was because of the new format we tried but mostly it was because of the venue."
The regatta was groundbreaking because it combined the two classes - more than 170 boats in total - on the same course in the same period of time. This helped to cut down on the number of people it took to run the racing but also allowed more races to be completed.
"It was an unknown whether it would work or not but in the end it worked very well ... out of all of the races we had over the week, there were only two legs that saw the boats merge at all," he said.
Bay of Plenty sailors cleaned up at the championships with an overall win in the Starling class to Thomas Saunders, while Oscar Rorvik won the P Class title after both sailors had already won their respective warm-up events last weekend.
For Rorvik, who looks like a sailor with a big future, the win meant more than just a national title.
"I was talking to his mother on Friday night and he'd already had a call from Russell Coutts to congratulate him and invite him out sailing on Wednesday," Wright said.
While Rorvik was the clear winner of the P Class, with Napier's Sam Mackay second and North Harbour's Erica Dawson third, the Starling class was tight throughout.
Following Saunders on points, was North Harbour's Chris Steele, with the class's surprise package Marlborough's Josh Edmonds, sailing consistently throughout the event to unexpectedly finish third.
Whangarei's Marcus Hansen finished the week poorly, losing his early lead in the Starling class to finish in eighth place.
Wright said the volunteers deserved congratulations.