OUT OF THE LOCKER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 906, 25 February 1930, Page 14

OUT OF THE LOCKER

JsEWS from round and about

Prize winners on Anniversary Day fere reminded that the distribution ceremony will take place in the Navy JL,eague rooms on Friday evening.

The sailing and power section of the Northcote and Birkenhead regatta programme will take place on Saturday. This popular annual event has drawn good entries and should again provide interesting racing.

At last evening’s meeting of the Jtegatta Committee the treasurer reported that receipts totalled £490, which included £368 from donations and £B4 from entrance fees. Disbursements in prize money and general expenses amounted to £456.

The owner of the Y class boat Romp having reported that he did not complete the course, some readjustments were necessary. Fay was placed first. Opah second, Lois third and Rahiri JI. fourth. In the race for launches over eight knots and under 12, Esther was disqualified for breaking her time.

Boating enthusiasts are invited by the Takapuna Boating Club to be present at a dance in the boathouse, Bavswater. on Thursday evening next. The women’s committee has spared no efforts to make the function a bright one. The full Dixieland Orchestra will give the music. Flannels are optional.

The Manukau Cruising Club played «• ricket against the “Old Timers’ Club,” an institution of veteran cricketers, **nd suffered a severe reverse, which offset a beating the yachtsmen gave the cricketers last year.

There was a good muster of boats nt the Victoria Cruising Club’s annual regatta on Saturday afternoon and the upper harbour looked well as the big flotilla of craft was cruising about «waiting the start of its various a aces. The sunshine also enhanced the spectacle. The biggest field dispatched was in the V class, where 31 boats faced the starter. Notable wins were scored by Speedwell in the Peelers’ race and Mistral in the S olass. The latter was scratch boat, finished first, and won on corrected time.

An overdose of fluky breezes, light and patchy winds and calms has characterised yachting on the Waitemata of late. Important events have been detrimentally affected, and many drifting matches have been staged, while fixtures which should have been close and hard-fought have relapsed into the class of which the component part is termed “anybody's race.” Craft which have in disgust abandoned some of these races are not to be blamed, while the annoyance of club officials who have had to stand by till nearly sundown to record the times and results of these belated events is easily understood. Prominent among fixtures which have suffered are the annual regattas of the Devonport Yacht Club and the Tamaki Yacht Club and the early stages of the Victoria Cruising Club’s regatta last Saturday afternoon. Luckily for the last-named fixture the breeze freshened considerably later in the afternoon and held long enough to give the boats a good finish. It is to be hoped that better conditions will prevail for the remainder of the season.

Onehunga Wharf is busier on Sunday evening than at any other time, a crowd of 200 or more persons being quite a normal gathering. The people wait for the arrival of fishing parties and the distribution of fish gratis. A number of Aucklanders have taken to line work on the Manukau: one in particular innocently started a gale of laughter on his launch by explaining how he essayed to “get one on to” some of his fishing friends on the Waitemata. The launch he patronised regularly was so crowded that, when fishing, it was pretty well a case of standing shoulder to shoulder. Fishing had to bo done with the tide, to avoid getting the lines tangled, it being impossible to whirl one’s sinker to get a long throw. In the circumstances he bought a trout rod to give himself a. little extra reach. In three weekends he caught one nine-inch long achna,pper. On the Manukau his first expedition yielded 100 fish and it was a delighted man who hailed a taxi to transport him and his catch.

This week-end, with a six o’clock tide to help going and coming, and low water fishing, there were some record catches. Even motorists visiting the Manukau beaches share in the harvest of the sea, for the boatmen give away their unwanted fish by filling up a dinghy with it and leaving the dinghy on a beach for all to help themselves.