News library

Bluff Harbour is a challenging environment for the smaller dinghies, with commercial traffic, wind and tides affecting the ability of the young skippers to safely manage their boats. The fleet managed very well and the smiles on the young sailors faces said it all when they returned to shore for a barbeque sausage provided at the club rooms.

Emirates Team New Zealand is taking to the water in Singapore this week at the first of the Extreme 40 Series 2014 championships.

After a call out for sailing images to feature on the YNZ website homepage back in January we are pleased to announce that Jo Maidment – sailing Mum and budding photographer – will receive the NZL Sailing sweatshirts offered for the chosen submission.

Applications are now open for the 2014 St John’s Rotary Trust Scholarship with two $1000 scholarships up for grabs for up and coming youth sailors.

Download the results of the recent R Class National Championship 2014 Leander Trophy Finals Results

They go into combat in world class match race events, and let all comers try their hand at fleet racing. The 11 boats in the MRX fleet have been based at Westhaven Marina for 23 years and are still one of the world’s best fleets of identical keel boats.

In the Western Districts region, the Waitara Boating Club, hosted their annual regatta over the Volvo National Sailing & Boating Day weekend with the biggest fleet of centreboard dinghies turning out for years.

Geoff Durham, a keen Weta owner from Auckland talks about his last minute Weta cruise to Moturoa Island in the Hauraki Gulf last weekend.

Apologies to Grant Turnbull for the error in my last update, he has won the NZ Open Keel Boat Championships 4 times! AMAZING

Golf prodigy Lydia Ko has taken the supreme honours at the 51st Westpac Halberg Awards at Vector Arena in Auckland tonight. Among the category finalists in 2014 were three from yachting including Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie, and Peter Burling and Blair Tuke – both finalists for Team of the Year which went to the All Blacks after a faultless season. Nathan Handley was again a category finalist for Coach of the Year, which went to Steve Hansen.

The Taikata Tablet – latest news from the Taikata Sailing Club is in the newsletter for download here. 

 

Not long to go …Queen Charlotte yacht Club is counting down the days. Next weekend over 120 young sailors will launch their boats at Shelley Beach-Picton to proof themselves in the largest centre board regatta of the South Island.

With earthquake repairs only completed days in advance of Volvo National Sailing & Boating Day the team at Waimakariri Sailing & Powerboat Club pulled out all the stops to get on board with the nationwide initiative and open the Club on Sunday February 16th.

Commodore Gary Smith reports that Volvo National Sailing and Boating Day at the Tauranga Yacht & Powerboat Club was a hit. “It was a successful day at Tauranga,” says Gary. “We had 43 Windsurfing or Learn to Sail sign up today.”

The Opua Cruising Club was one of many Clubs around the country to open their doors on Sunday 16th February for the Volvo National Sailing & Boating Day.

The NZL Sailing Team had two sailors on the podium of the 2014 A Class World Championships which has just wrapped up off Takapuna Boating Club in Auckland after five days of racing.

The stars of the fleet shone again on the world of A Class sailors today in race seven and eight of the 2014 A Class Catamaran World Championships.

Welcome to the Elliott 5.9 Class Update for February 2014. Quite a short update this month, with some information about the Kawau weekend (which is shaping up to be huge!) and some indicative dates and venues for the 2014 Traveller Series.

Race Five and Six were sailed today in the heaviest conditions of the regatta thus far, the wind prior to the first race was gusting to 18.3 so the race committee waited for several big puffs to pass through before starting.

The Lake Mahinapua Aquatic Club is gearing up to take part in the National Volvo Sailing and Boating Day this Sunday. It follows the club’s successful annual regatta two weeks ago. The day is a celebration of sailing and boating and clubs from all over New Zealand are taking part.

It all started in a distant land renowned for it’s sand and desert, rather than for it’s water, and ended up with a coincidence that still makes me think how very small the world really is. In 1978, I was working in Jubail, on the north-east coast of Saudi Arabia. A real experience, but at times quite boring with not many of the usual “outlets” that we’re all used to enjoying at home.

The 2014 A Class worlds kicked off on Monday with the practice race, the event drawing a record fleet of eighty one entries from twelve nations.

Day Two of the A Class World Championships started in more wind than predicted, and certainly more than expected; today the breeze averaged 13 knots with puffs into the seventeens.

The final count-down is on to the first ever Volvo National Sailing & Boating Day. Sailing and boating Clubs across New Zealand, from Northland to Bluff, are gearing up for Sunday’s celebration of sailing and boating.

The 2014 SSANZ Two Handed Round North Island Race (RNI) supported by NZL Yachting Trust got away to a perfect start at 2pm on Saturday 8th February. Sun was shining, 15-20knots of breeze and an easy lay up the coast. As the team on Wedgetail put it during their first radio sked "20 kt reach and sunshine. Exactly what was in the brochure” Crew’s were kept busy with sail changes between jib’s, code zero’s and gennakers and the boats were making good speed up the coast.

Results from the 2014 Finn National Championship held at Maraetai Sailing Club in February.

Results for 2014 New Zealand Zephyr National Championship held at Naval Point Club Lyttelton in February.

Yachting New Zealand and Zhik have formally teamed up to give New Zealand’s best sailors access to world class technical wet gear and clothing. Zhik, the Australian based watersports brand, will be supplying the NZL Sailing team athletes and coaches with on water gear and shore uniform through until Rio 2016 as Yachting New Zealand’s Official Technical Clothing Partner

The Finn class is pleased to announce that it has launched a new website after successfully porting its existing site onto a new platform and to a new server. The address remains, as always, www.finnclass.org. The whole site has been reworked onto the new platform and should be faster, more reliable and more secure.

It was great to be joined by an additional group of foreigners’ straight after our Nationals finished, to up the quality and intensity of our training and summer racing even more. Joining our local talent, the Duchies and Omanis who were already here, were sailors from Australia, Sweden, Ireland, Norway, Singapore and Korea. It has given us some competitive racing both in training, at Oceanbridge Sail Auckland and during the OKI 24 Hour Race this past weekend.

The 2014 OKI 24-hr Race results are in, with Andy Maloney and Nicholas Heiner coming through on the winning boat, sailing for Mansons TCLM Ltd with 118 laps - almost as many as Chris Dickson's 120 lap record.