The Inaugural Inter-Club Teams Racing Nationals were held at the Viaduct Basin in Auckland on the 30^th of June and the 1^st of July.

The team flew up on Friday with five red and white Linton Sails bags and some notes on teams racing, which were quickly read on the plane. The training’s organised for the weeks before never happened, because it was too cold! So we relied on the time we were allowed on Friday to use the boats to practice. The boats were 420s, similar to a Sunburst but a bit more grand-prix. The practice on Friday never really happened either as we were only allowed 20 minutes in the boats. The day ended with a de-brief at the Squadron under the gaze of the Americas Cup. We stayed at the Giddons'. This was fine but Daryl had to sleep under a Graeme Robbins sail hanging from the roof, a cause of many nightmares!

The fleet of nine teams, Kohi, Murrays Bay, Wakatere, Sandspit, Keri Keri, Torbay, Herald Island, Howick and us were split into two round robin groups, the top teams of each group would progress to the finals. We won two of our three round robin races, with Simon and Jane winning every race true to their style, and progressed to the finals the next day.

The finals were very tough however, the lack of training and lack of time in the boats caught up with us and we came off second best in every race. Simon kept true to his form except on one occasion where he was shut down just after the start. The racing on Sunday produced no wins for the finals and so we finished a creditable 5^th against team’s which had been training for weeks. (not bad for the ‘geriatrics’ of the event, as referred to by the JAFFA’s)