60th Leander Trophy

by Sutter Schumacher

Paul Roe and Dan Leech on TheVirtual sailed to swift victory during the R Class National Championship at Naval Point Club Lyttelton February 11-14.

The fleet at this year’s Leander may have been small – just nine boats, all from Canterbury – but it allowed several young rookies to make their competitive R Class debut. The fresh faces were the result of the Canterbury Squadron’s work to spread the R gospel, and by all accounts the sermon appears to have converted a new generation.

However the primary theme of 60th running of this venerable event came down to one word: hydrofoils.

Sailing with Leech in place of regular crew Jess Hix, who had a schedule conflict, Roe and his hydrofoiling L3-hull led from the first race. Gusty southerly conditions on Day 3 proved too much for three-time defending champion Sean Milner, sailing with stand-in crew Paul MacGibbon and firmly in second after the first two days. In slipped class veterans Steve MacIntosh and Tony Park, milking years of experience to finish first in the final two races and take the runner-up slot with More FM.

Just two boats raced with foils for the majority of the series – the other was Merde, a Woof sailed by Dave Pairman and Tim Allan. (Milner decided after the first race that his new foils need more work before they’re ready for prime time.) But the speed and manoeuvrability reached by the foilers around the course was the topic of conversation each night at the bar, and the consensus is that hydrofoils are here to stay.

Adding momentum to the foiling cause, Roe and Leech won four out of five races in the separately scored short-course Sprint Series – sometimes by as much as an entire leg. “That foiling boats of such different hull vintages could be competitive shows that the new technology has the potential to resurrect older hulls rather than let them waste away in a garage,” Roe said.

R Class
Yachting New Zealand