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For all those that attended the Commodore’s Conference held in June this year you may recall I gave a small presentation on the great work that a small group of guys and girls are doing at the North Otago Yacht & Power Boat Club located in the historic town of Oamaru. I am pleased to be able to report that their story continues with the gains they have made in the past couple of seasons giving rise to the need to get a bigger and better rescue/coaching boat.
Club Captain, Graeme Thorn, with their new RIB © David Bruce / Otago Daily Times
Over the past couple of years a small band of enthusiastic club members have taken up the challenge of reinvigorating their Junior sailing with one of the goals, at least being, to lift up the sailing at their club. This has been done with their small club fleet of Optimists and Sunbursts plus a couple of privately owned member boats along with setting some small achievable goals to target along the way and most importantly having fun. This growth has not gone unnoticed by the wider community in Oamaru, with many of the town’s homes overlooking the harbour and seeing an increasing number of kids out in yachts during the summer weeks.
The Club’s Thursday evening Junior Learn to Sail programme jumped in a matter of a couple of seasons from low single figures up to now hitting 30. This all culminated in a contingency of 5 Sunbursts and 10 kids plus parents all heading down to Dunedin last season for the South Island Secondary Schools Sunburst Regatta that is annually run on the upper Otago harbour in March.
With this growth came the next goal of a bigger rescue boat to enable them to get outside of the Oamaru harbour on the Thursday evenings to provide more challenges for the kids and enable it to be done safely. The Club settled on a deep-vee 5.2m RIB with a 60hp on the back to cope with conditions that can quickly spring up from the south along the coastline of Oamaru.
The new boat was launched on Saturday 4 October by Waitaki Mayor Mr Gary Kircher. Whilst the weather on the day was a rather cool breezy southerly it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of trying out the new boat – just maybe not that day. The club raised half the money for the new boat, with grants from the Community Trust of Otago and the Lion Foundation and support from Mortimer Auto and Marine.
Launching the new RIB are (from left) Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher, 2 of the Club’s Life Mambers, Graeme Ferris & Stan Thorn and longtime club member Ray Wilton
Their previous rescue boat was a 3.5m rigid plastic with a 15 hp outboard on the back, not at all suitable for the conditions beyond the breakwater but will be kept for inner harbour training whereas the new boat will cope in these conditions well and also be able to provide support for other events in the harbour, such as the annual Birdman Competition.
Whilst a new rescue boat is not always a big deal for some of our yacht clubs; for others it can be a big challenge. For the North Otago Yacht & Powerboat Club it would have not have even been on the radar a couple of seasons back and certainly wasn’t their goal back then. The objective has always been in recent times of getting the kids on the water – from that so much more has been achieved in small steps along the way.
Some of the club boats being used to build their Junior sailing with along with their new rescue boat in the foreground
For those that may not as yet have had the pleasure of sailing at Oamaru, it is a great place. The clubhouse is located in the historic harbour in the Victorian precinct at the south end of the town. The area is famous for being, amongst other things, the landing place for crew off of Robert Falcon Scott’s expedition ship ‘Terra-Nova’ when it returned on 10 February 1913 with news of the death of Scott during his ill-fated quest to reach the South Pole.
The old harbour is protected by a breakwater and has become the home of many moored craft making the better sailing waters beyond the entrance, hence the need for the bigger support boat.
Google map showing the historic Oamaru harbour with the breakwater – beyond that, next stop Chile
Whilst not such a commercial harbour as was the case many years ago it has become a mecca for those wishing to view the hundreds of penguins that return each evening to their burrows in the area around the harbour including the Club’s boat park, sheds, anywhere they can get into. If your travels take you along State Highway 1 through Oamaru give yourself plenty of time to turn off and take a look around the old historic area.
Don’t forget to mark on your calendar the 21, 22 February 2015 when the Club again runs its main regatta for the season – the ‘Terra Nova Challenge Trophy’ regatta, everyone will be welcome and it would be the Club’s pleasure to assist you with their new RIB should you need plucking from the water.
