This years champs saw a record fleet of eleven competitive Young 88s with crews from Auckland and Wellington and two entries from Akaroa deliver very close racing across a variety of conditions.

Craig Edwards and crew of Flying Machine are well and truly back with strong show at the front of the fleet.

There was however tough competition again this year with a feisty challenge from Karen Selway on Abracadabra who took second place overall in her first attempt at the event.

Shifty conditions on Saturday made for some head scratching by the tacticians but Sunday served up a good ole Lyttelton Easterly and fantastic racing in 15-20 knots.

Edwards credited the win to his "awesome" Flying Machine crew, Dylan Coleman, Dylan Clark, Sam Jones, Hadleigh Prendergast, Vaughan Johnson and Seamus Tredennick.

"The competition seems to get faster every year but the crew just seem to keep finding us another gear.  Special thanks to the whole "Team Machine" crew and all our supporters, especially "Nan & Pop" Johnson who travelled down from Motueka to support their son Vaughan and the Team Machine crew.  Huge thanks to North Sails, NPCL and Y88 Assn. "

Karen picked up an extra prize and loads of applause at prizegiving for such a great result on debut and said:

"It was a privilege to sail with the talented team of sailors on Abracadabra. We sailed some great races and there were a few where we learnt a lot and we will work on improving our crew work for next year. Taking on Flying Machine in a number of races and putting them through their paces was fun. Having sailors at the championships from all over the country was fantastic. I’m looking forward to being at the nationals in a few weeks time."

Big vote of thanks to Y88 South Island Fleet Captain Phil Folter, the race committee volunteers and hosts Naval Point Club.

The planning has begun for next season including building closer links and more events with the Wellington and Auckland fleets.

Full results at this link 

and lots of fun photos in the Facebook album at this link