Burgess Interschool Regatta 2024 Results

Like last year the Waikato Thames Yachting Association chose to run this years Burgess Interschool Regatta at Raglan. The plan was to deliver sea, sun, and wind. Unfortunately only the sea part was achieved. The wind was a sick westerly (using the traditional not very well meaning of sick). The fickle breeze was accompanied by overcast conditions and intermittent soft rain. Once again we underestimated the ability of the tide to move marks that would normally stay put nicely at a shallow peat lake. There were plenty of pluses though, with a charted double decker power catamaran providing comfortable spectator seating in the middle of the course (and protection from the rain), and also doubling up as the committee and start/finish boat, 3 races completed for each of the fleets, and the filled rolls for sailors and race officials which were excellent (care of the Pirongia bakery)

Only St Peters and Hamilton Boys High Schools turned up with teams of atleast 5 sailors, so it was always going to be a competition between these two schools. Hamilton Boys came out clear winners with top or near top results in each of the 3 fleets (ILCA, Starling, Open (with P and Opti). It was very close for third between Te Awamutu, and Hillcrest High Schools. Results as pdf documents are on the results page under the 2023-2024 Season tab. Lessons were learnt about tide, and how wetsuits don't keep you warm when it is raining.

It takes a big team of volunteers to make this event possible, with 2 people on each of the three rescue boats, 2 more on the mark boat, and another 3 or 4 on the committee/start boat.