Little Americas Cup for Mapua Boat Club regatta

A new trophy was on offer at Mapua Boat Club’s annual regatta earlier in February.

The Little America’s Cup, a 15cm high replica of the famous trophy, will be shared after Mike Shirer tied with Graham and Anna Battersby in the sailing event.

After winning race one by 15 seconds, an extra tack at the top mark saw Mike lose by the same margin to Graham and Anna in the second race.

Cast in Pewter, coated with silver, and mounted on a plinth of Greenstone, it has been presented to the club by local resident Mike White who made it, along with several other sizes of the trophy for various sponsors of Team New Zealand at the time.

The Mapua Cup, a six-oar Sea Scout Cutters race, produced the biggest fleet ever between crews representing the Tamaha Sea Scouts, the Mapua Boat Club.

Visitors from the Springlands Sea Scout Troop in Blenheim, and two boats from Nelson’s Iron Duke Sea Scouts, were also in the field but not eligible to win the event.

The kayaks had a fleet of 14, and with ages from over 70 down to eight years old, the result was always going to be interesting, with the event won by Margaret Pidgeon with a first and a second.

For the first time, a number of young paddlers entered, and next year, Junior paddlers will have their own event.

Paddleboard numbers were also up this year with six entries, with competition close at the front of the fleet as Brett Farrell held off Khan Wyman by a few seconds in each race. Kim Pope was the first woman, one point ahead of Katrina Ballantyne.

The Radio Control Yachts had a good fleet of nine boats; six one metre long IOMs, and three  650mm long Dragonforce 65s.

Four races were held in a light breeze and a light chop, which increased slightly, adding another dimension to the racing, which former Wellington sailor John Levy was able to capitalise on, taking the overall win.

The re-jigged Power Boat event did not go quite to plan. After motoring around the course entrants had to catch a fish to earn extra points to go towards their score. Unfortunately, no one told the fish, and at the end of the one-hour time limit, Tim Robinson was the first boat home and the winner, and no fish were harmed in the running of this event.  

Results:

Sailing Little America’s Cup: Laser 18016 Mike Shirer and 420 50407 Anna and Graham Battersby 1st equal, Cutter 156 Iron Duke 2nd, Cutter 177 Iron Duke 3rd.

Mapua Cup: Tamaha Sea Scouts (184) 1st, Iron Duke Sea Scouts (156) 2nd, Mapua Boat Club  (Women) (183) 3rd.

Kayaks: Margaret Pigeon 1st, David Measures 2nd, Kim Pope 3rd.

Paddleboards: Brett Farrell 1st, Khan Wyman 2nd, Hamish Ballantyne 3rd.

Radio Sailing: John Levy (35) 1st, John Ralfe (133) 2nd, Laurie Hope (96) 3rd.