Sail Auckland, New Zealand’s most prestigious regatta for International and Olympic Classes, finished on Monday 11 February after twelve races were completed. Sailing was hosted by the Kohimarama Yacht Club, Auckland.

The men’s and women’s Mistral fleet raced together on a number of courses on Auckland Harbour between Orakei Wharf (Kelly Tarlton’s) and Brown’s Island.

After twelve races it was Great Britain’s Nick Dempsey who came out on top in the seventeen-boat fleet. Nick scored an impressive string of results with nothing outside a fifth place, and winning three of the races to finally win the regatta by twelve points from his nearest rival, New Zealand’s Jon-Paul Tobin. RYA team GBR team mate Dominic Tidey finished in third place, just one point behind Tobin.

In the Women’s fleet, team GBR sailor Natasha Sturges led the fleet from the start of the regatta to the finish in front of Alison Shreeve of Australia.

Sturges’ former training partner Julie Worth from New Zealand finished in third place. Sturges and Worth were training partners for four years in the lead up to the Sydney Games 2000, and trained with each other prior to the Sail Auckland Regatta. Sturges finished the regatta eighteen points in front of Shreeve and tenth in the overall positioning.

RYA team GBR team-mate Bryony Shaw put in an impressive string of results to finish fourth overall in the women’s fleet, twenty points behind Worth.

The Men’s British Mistral team will now move on to Palma where they will take part in an RYA Olympic Classes training camp before competing at the Princess Sofia Regatta in March. Sturges will continue training ‘down under’ and return to Europe for the SPA regatta in Medemblick in May.

“The feedback I have been getting suggests that the `down under’ training period has been really constructive and you can see this in the improved results between the Sail Melbourne Regatta and this one. This trip should see the team better prepared for the European circuit than ever before”, commented RYA Competition Coach Barry Edgington.

Final Results
Mistral Board Class-Men
1, Nick Dempsey GBR (5,1,1,2,2,2,2,3,3,2,2,1) 18 pts
2, Jon-Paul Tobin NZL (4,8,11,3,1,1,1,1,1,4,8,6) 30 pts
3, Dominic Tidey GBR (8,2,4,1,3,5,3,2,2,1,9,OCS) 31 pts
Other British Results
7, Leo McCallin (2,7,5,6,6,OCS,6,6,4,7,10,OCS) 59 pts
10, Hugh Sims Williams (13,11,13,5,11,10,12,10,11,11,OCS,OCS) 107 pts

Mistral Board Class-Women
1, Natasha Sturges GBR (6,10,10,13,DNF,DNF,9,11,14,12,6,5) 96 pts
2, Alison Shreeve AUS (15,13,9,9,12,13,15,13,10,13,13,9) 114 pts
3, Julie Worth NZL (12,12,14,10,14,14,11,12,12,9,14,11) 117 pts
Other British Results
4, Bryony Shaw (14,15,15,15,16,11,13,15,15,14,16,10) 137 pts