This years national championships were also run in conjunction with the A Class nationals.
The event was run over 4 days with the entire Tornado team staying together both on and off the water. The campground with its natural mineral pools was a great help to ease aches and pains at the end of each day. Many thanks to the Turangi Yacht Club for hosting the dual National Championship event.

Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club retained its place as the home of the Tornado class in NZ, with sailors from the Bay of Plenty taking the two of the top three places at last months Tornado national championships at the Turangi Yacht Club.
Jason Marra and Brendon Dusky on Relentless took out the title, with Wayne Limbrick and Sally Tait (Bay of Islands) second and Winston Ordish-Benner and Stuart McKinven (Tauranga) in third.
Marra and Dusky led by eight points going into the final day. Not making it easy for themselves on the first race of the last day.

 

Relentless split away early from the fleet on port but found themselves near the back of the fleet and on the second race of the day Marra lost contact and fell off the boat due to gear failure but eventually clawing back to 3rd. Luckily 2 races were dropped and In the end the win was convincing maintaining their 8 point lead.
"It’s a fantastic result. No one gives an inch – the conditions were all over the place and it’s a hard fought battle on the race course, so it was a sweet and immensely satisfying victory.”

“It was awesome to retain the coveted trophy, which has been contested since 1971 for the second year" Marra said.
Special mention to Aaron Duncan for flying in from Christchurch so sail on a boat (Spitfire) he had never been on before with a crew (Pierre) he had never meet before, and perform so well giving well established teams a good run.

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Final Results:

1st NZL87 Relentless Marra & Duske

2nd NZL90 VMG Limbrick & Tait

3rd NZL121 Arriba Ordish-Benner & McKinven

4th NZL84 Shoot to Thrill Caunce & Maidment

5th NZL79 Spitfire Duncan & Harrison

6th NZL94 Quantum Leap Wain & Hayward

7th NZL93 Resonance McGuigan & Mills