2010 BMW Auckland Regatta

2010 BMW Auckland Regatta

MEDIA RELEASE

A frenetic month of sailing kicks off in Auckland tomorrow with the start of the BMW Auckland regatta, which has attracted an entry list of 60 yachts.

The regatta is jointly run by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club and will see competitors racing in nine divisions.

This is the first stage of three BMW regattas to be sailed in Auckland this month. The divisional winners from this weekend’s competition will advance to the second stage, which will see them compete in identical Farr MRX yachts. The winner of the BMW Sailing Cup will earn the right to represent New Zealand in the BMW Sailing Cup World Final to be held in Auckland from March 22 – 25.

New Zealand are the defending champions, having won the world contest in Lake Garda, Italy last year. The BMW Sailing Cup World Final is one of the leading amateur keelboat regattas in the world and will see top racing crews congregating in Auckland.

For this weekend’s contest, a wide range of yachts is taking part. The battle of the big guns will see Jim Farmer’s Georgia, with former America’s Cup skipper Chris Dickson in the afterguard, squaring off against Wired owned by Rob Bassett and Brett Russell.

Following the recent America’s Cup face-off in a trimaran and a catamaran, the multihull trend continues in this regatta as well. The biggest division in the fleet is the 10-boat 8.5m multihull division, while there is further strong representation in the open multihull division.

This represents a major shift in New Zealand sailing with the multihull brigade moving from the fringes to a dominant place in the mainstream. Olympic sailor Dan Slater is an early convert and will be sailing his trimaran Frantic Drift in the BMW Auckland Regatta.

He said the most recent America’s Cup had played a part in a global trend towards multihull racing. The main attractions were speed and money, with a small multihull costing a fraction of the large, complex canting keel monohulls. “When you go ripping past a multimillion dollar keelboat in a small multihull, you only need to look at the dollar figures involved and it all makes sense,” he said.

Racing this weekend will take place off Northern Leading and Eastern Beach and will comprise a mix of windward-leeward courses and harbour courses.

The BMW Auckland Regatta is followed by the Auckland Festival of Sailing which comprises a series of on and off the water events including the Omega Auckland Match Racing Regatta, the Louis Vuitton Trophy Auckland, the BMW Sailing Cup World Final and the Auckland International Boat Show.

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