Convincing yacht win

Press, 11 February 1986, Page 24

Convincing yacht win

PA Tauranga John Cutler, of Auckland, was a convincing winner of the Finn Class yachting championship at Mt Maunganui yesterday. In the seven-race series Cutler, aged 23, scored four wins and three second placings to outsail his rivals. The chemical engineer from Takapuna showed the benefit of his experience in Europe last summer, when he sailed in several regattas leading to a ninth place in the 1985 World Finn championships — he handled light and heavy conditions with equal assurance. The runner-up in the series and winner of yesterday’s final race was another Aucklander, Mark Oliver, who followed his success in the recent national lAser cham-

pionships in the same waters. Oliver started yesterday in fourth place but scored a convincing win in the last race by gambling on a different course. He won with ease. Third over all was last year’s runner-up, John Irvine, of Dunedin. Takapuna’s Greg Knowles finished fourth. But none was really in the same class as Cutler, who under the Olympic system finished with only 6 points compared with Oliver’s 29.4 points and Irvine’s 36.7 points. The new champion is shipping his boat to Europe soon and plans to follow it at Easter for another five-month expedition to major regattas as preparation for the 1986 world championships in Spain.