Juniors shine at Sunburst championships

A beautiful breezy day made for great sailing on the Muri lagoon during the 2011 National Sunburst championships held on October 29.

Ten boats from the Rarotonga Sailing Club took part in two fleets Sunburst wooden and fibreglass boats.

Two boats were raced by a junior skipper and crew, who competed superbly with the rest of the fleet, despite a large amount of sand in their boats!

The juniors were also thrilled to be racing alongside our sailing golden girl and boy from the Pacific Games - Helema Williams and Taua Elisa.

Rick Hickling and Marie Melvin in Makeover improved their racing over the series to give the brothers a run for their money.

Jan Christenssen and Wolfgang Losacker competitively crept up the rankings, as did Eseta Ailaouamaua (13) and Tyler Davis (10), the only full junior crew in the wooden boat fleet, making for an exciting series with the final outcomes not entirely determined before typing in the results in the club house computer afterwards.

Closely fought races in some parts of the fleet meant some placings were finally determined on count back for some of the wooden fleet, with results for the two boats in the fibreglass fleet also determined the same way.

Final winners were Tony and Maeva Ailaouamaua (10) in Eke with a very convincing four firsts, two seconds and a third achieving 8 points.

Peter Heays and Martin came in at 2nd place on 15 points. 3rd place was taken by Eseta and Tyler with 21 points, closely followed by Rick Hickling and Marie on 22 points.

Tony now has a hat trick in RSC racing championships this year, having won the Electron and Vaka Tangaroa 18 national championships earlier in the year (maybe he does know how to sail after all).

Many congratulations to the winners and thanks to all for competing so well.

Results (fibreglass boat fleet) 1st Anne Tierney, 2nd Vanic, (wooden boat fleet) 1st Tony Heays and Maeva A, 2nd Peter Heays and Martin, 3rd Tyler Davis and Eseta A.