The first Windsurfer LT class regatta in New Zealand was held recently, starting and finishing at Big Bucklands Beach.
Organiser, Bruce Kendall, the windsurfing legend, says there were two events: The Tamaki Estuary Cascade, on October 12; and The Motu Challenge, the next day.
“Both event formats have never been used before and were designed to offer high-quality racing and general enjoyment of windsurfing and the stunning place we live in,” he says.
“The Tamaki Estuary Cascade was the first ever sailing race from Big Bucklands Beach to State Highway 1 at Otahuhu and back with a handicap restart ‘Cascade’ element.”
Kendall says the course is about 30 kilometres in a straight line following the channel.
During the race, he says the southwest wind over the course was from 0 to more than 60 kilometres an hour with a “vigorous incoming tide”.
The fleet racers in the event were all highly experienced board sailors, including Kendall, aged 60, New Zealand’s first double Olympic sailing medallist with gold and bronze.
New Zealand’s first Olympic class world windsurfing champion has also recently taken up sailing the Windsurfer LT.
Claudio Barbuzza, 60, was just back from the Windsurfer LT World Championships in Spain.
“It was unfortunate as not long after the start, he fell through his sail. He certainly was not aching as much as us other sailors the next day,” says Kendall.
Local east Auckland sailor and builder Doug Ferguson has represented New Zealand twice at Olympic class world windsurfing champs, campaigned in Paper Tigers for many years, and is an experienced wing-foiler.
Lloyd Parratt has represented New Zealand at the Youth Windsurfing World Champs, coached by Kendall.
Parratt is a windsurfing, wind-foil and wing-foiling instructor with the Mad Loop Windsurfing School, and one of New Zealand’s top wind-foil and wing-foil champions who recently won the Australian Wing Foil Champs.
“Lloyd impressively took on this race in these conditions having never sailed a Windsurfer LT before,” Kendall says.
“The Cascade handicap race start system has never been done in the world before and the Tamaki Estuary is ideal for this system.
“Once the first sailor rounds the top mark and is sailing downwind, those that can see this sailor or other sailors sailing down wind, they’re allowed to sail downwind as well.
“Effectively, only one sailor needs to round the top mark and becomes the trigger for a second handicap start for the rest of the fleet.”
While there was a good chance Kendall would be first to the rounding point having sailed there from Bucklands Beach numerous times before, the question was, would he be able to be first back to Bucklands Beach as well?
Fergusson saw Parratt turn and start sailing downwind from about a kilometre away giving him about a three-kilometre head start on Kendall for the return race back to Big Bucklands Beach about 10 kilometres away.
Kendall passed Parratt (eventually third) between the Waipuna and Panmure Bridges and then Fergusson (second) near the Pakuranga Sailing Club to claim his win that took just over two hours.
Kendall says he estimates he tacked about 40 times and a similar number of gybes.
“This was one of the most extreme races I have ever done, and extremely tiring but I’m very happy. The unique images and sensations from that race will be with me for a long time.”
Four sailors started The Motu Challenge on October 13: Ferguson, Parratt, Steve Macris, and Sofia Currie.
The winds were lighter compared to the previous day, says Kendall, for the race covering five nautical miles in a straight line, from Big Bucklands Beach to Motukorea / Browns Island’s crater bay.
Ferguson won, with Parratt second.
Macris, 70, the legendary New Zealand windsurfer from the 1970s and ’80s and Kendall’s Olympic coach in 1984, raced for the first time after only sailing the WLT once before to finish third.
Currie, 17, an experienced wind-foiler who recently represented New Zealand at the youth IQ foil world champs, raced on the WLT for the first time and was a close fourth.
“There will be learnings for her from sailing and racing the Windsurfer LT that will improve her results in other wind sports,” Kendall says.
The next Tamaki Estuary Challenge is on November 23-24: https://windsurferlt-nz.org/events/tamaki-estuary-challenge-2024/
