Youngster Cate revels in windy conditions

Michael Cate is one of the few Northlanders who is enjoying the variable weather patterns of the last week or so.
The Onerahi Yacht Club sailor used the wild conditions to his advantage last week to finish as the top youth sailor at the Laser Radial nationals and if he can do it again at his week's Sail Auckland Regatta he will become the men's radial representative in the New Zealand team to compete at the ISAF Youth Worlds in July in Zadar, Croatia.
Cate made the most of big conditions on one of the three days of sailing to finish with two wins and a fourth in the nationals held at Torbay last week. But he earned his national title for his consistent sailing throughout the regatta, particularly in conditions that were often more suited to his opposition, with two of the three available days of racing held in two to seven knots of breeze.
On both those days Cate consolidated his results to keep within a few points of the leaders.
"I was really happy with the first day because the wind was extremely flukey ... and I came out of the day with two top tens, so that was a great day for me," he said.
The following day saw the tropical cyclone hit cancelling sailing. The following day the winds were gusting up to 32 knots, which Cate used to his advantage to finish with two wins and a fourth in his class.
"I wasn't the heaviest sailor in the fleet but definitely when the breeze came up it was good for me," he said.
The first race finally got under way in winds of 25 knots, with the wind dropping slightly for the two following races.
"These weather patterns over the summer have been pretty weird, so you never really know what's going to happen next, last week was a regatta of extremes - extreme light and extreme windy - you don't often get that at regattas," he said.
His results also saw him collect second overall in the Open Radial fleet - trailing Olympian Jo Aleh by just two points - in a strong fleet of 51 sailors, which also included many more experienced sailors.
The 17-year-old gave away more than 17kg - and a heap of experience - to Aleh. He is in his last year as a youth sailor and with Aleh competing in the 470-class in the regatta at Sail Auckland - Cate will be targeting the Radial open class as well as trying to repeat his win in the youth class.
Other Onerahi Yacht Club members competing at the Laser Nationals were Jackson Yovich, in his first nationals, who finished 16th out of 30 in the Laser 4.7 rig, while Spencer Loxton finished 18th out of 26 in the Laser full rig competition.
Kerikeri's Andrew Murdoch had to rely on a countback to take the Men's Laser national title from Sam Meech. After one drop only three points separated the top four with Murdoch and Sam Meech on 25 points, with Josh Junior on 26 and another Kerikeri sailor Andy Maloney on 27.