(added 18th Sept 2006)

BOILOVER AT MOKOIA

Gentlemen,

The Grizzlie Gold crew astonished its highly favoured opposition by WINNING overall line honours and  cleaning up the Masters division at Rotorua on the Saturday. But not only did we win but we broke the previous race record.

The green flag was raised and we set off on a down wind leg towards the island. With a stiff westerly blowing there were plenty of runners to catch and before long we were side by side Manukau Open leading the pack. For a distance of 2k or more we clashed side by side neither crew wanting to give ground but as we got closer to the island we had moved into a 2 - 3 boat length lead and held this all the way to the first corner of the island.

The calmer conditions around the island meant that we could reach out a little more and get into a good rhythm. The water was shallow and with plenty of rocks to look out for the crew had to keep its composure but Pistol steered a classy line and as we headed back towards shore we had increased our lead to over 5 boat lengths.

The journey home was a bash into the face of the westerly. At no point could we relax for a moment, especially as Manukau closed the gap to a little over 3 - 4 boat lengths for a time. However, with plenty of power in the boat we managed to maintain a good boat speed and as we turned the final buoy with only 250mtrs to go we had a comfortable advantage of some 100mtrs or more.
 

The placings were Grizzlies first, Manukau Open second by 100 + metres then Gringo's Black was behind another 150+ meters then the Goodyear team who came in fourth. Then lots of other crews.

Goodyear had all of their top paddlers, incl Tyron Thomas (Nat sprint Open champion), Bern Somers, Ray Tihou, Mike Nuku et al but they were never seen during the race. They claimed to have a bad start but Kingi  (who had won the open OC1) was watching them and observed that they were acting like they did not want to race - and their result showed why.

It seems a perfect vindication that the Grizzlie machine is absolutely on the right track!!

By the way, the Gold crew voted to place their winnings into the trust - (despite paying entry fees and the cost of travel themselves.)

Thanks Guys!!

Crew – (Martin Fox, Tim Bruce, Ken Gilbert, Graham Nell, Nick Lowes. Pete Houghton)
 

Previous Race Record 1:16:00

New Race Record 1:13:43