YACHTING

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 159, 25 March 1918, Page 6

YACHTING

CHAMPIONSHIP AND LADIES' RACE. The season's yachting practically concluded on Saturday afternoon, when the BRil-off for the championship of tho sesann and tlie ladies' race took place. As far as the sport of yachting and yacht racing is /concerned, the season has been ths best for several years, and tho interest has been so ivell maintained that it is anticipated that when the war is at an end and the many yachtsmen who are "somewhere in Europe or Asia" drop the rifle for the tiller the sport will boom in Wellington. The past season has been notable for tho great amount ,of southerly weather experienced—greater than ever known in the memory of the oldest yachtsmen in Wellington. As far as yachting is concerned, the prevailing wind, has boon just as much southerly as nqrth-westerlv. and the number of occasions on which the yachts luire set out in a north?rlv for a .nm to the Heads and been able to run home with a free sheet are too numerous to mention.

On Saturday afternoon the snil-off between the W.ii f engi .aiid tbr Kotiri for fclie club's cliimpionship took place, the ■ffnitanri—now wer a quarter of a centurv okl—lining an easy winner. The ladies' rncc attracted a good deal of attention. The race v.as once round the Koto Koro roam, a lady to hare control of the tiller of each yacht from ■start to finish. Tlip. starters were the Rona fsernHO, Atalanta (Imin.). Vink (9min.). Tolanthe nemin.). r airare (16 min.), Venus (16min.), Rawene (21 min.). The result was as follows:— Viola (sailed by Miss Olive , M'Lean), 1; lolanthe (Mrs. G. M'Lean), 2; AtaIfinta (Miss M'Comish), 3. Tlie recent pule in conjunction with the plionomonally high tides caused a .Tood deal «f damntte to yachts in the Sumner estuary, Christehurch. Such was the violence of tbe gale that some of the boats were throvra nr> on the tramway track, and one yacht lodored almost 'upright on the track, allowing licr top-gear to foul the ti oily-wire.