Grey skies and gusty conditions greeted the six teams sailing in the NZTSA Christmas Regatta, sponsored by Abaco on Jervois. The conditions soon burned off and even before the briefing was held the sun was starting to shine through.

Teams spent the morning battling around the gusty and shifty racecourse in Okahu Bay, finishing 24 races before heading ashore for some coaching tips as a part of the regatta. The conditions were unrelenting for the teams in the afternoon, along with a lower tide providing another obstacle for teams to contend with as they raced out the final 6 races of the round, with gusts and shifts meaning that no races were over until the very end.

The combined team of Whangarei Boys & Mahurangi College gave a dominant performance winning 10/10 of their races on day one, giving a great example of how to race consistently even when the racetrack is anything but consistent. They were closely following by the combined team from Nelson schools, Timaru Boys and Takapuna Grammar, with 6 wins on the day. Whangarei Girls and Mount Aspiring College followed with 4 wins apiece and Otago Girls Combined & Waiheke High School just behind with 3 wins each. All to play for going in to day with just a 1 or 2 wins separating the majority of the teams!

Most importantly – the improvement that the coaches could see going from the morning session to the few races we did in the afternoon was phenomenal, particularly around the start line. That’s exactly what these kind of regattas are about, seeing improvement from all teams over the course of the racing.

Following racing everyone headed out on to the America’s Cup course just in time to see ETNZ romp home to a massive win over Luna Rossa in the Christmas Cup.