Issue date
In our regular focus on the regions, the four regional development managers look at what has been happening in their areas and also provide some advice on how members can access some of Yachting New Zealand's resources.
Winter is often a time when club members take the opportunity to improve their skills and knowledge by taking advantage of the courses and resources offered by Yachting New Zealand to members of affiliated yacht clubs.
A lot of that is done through our online learning platform, Embark, which has a number of coaching and race management courses available.
It's really easy to access but everyone needs to log in using a unique email address. This is essential so you're taken to the correct course and to track and advise progress.
In the past, some families might have used one email address for the whole family but this doesn't work very well if multiple people are looking to take a course.
Logging into the Yachting New Zealand website with your unique email address is the best approach and will provide users with access to products and resources not available to the public.
Yachting New Zealand’s main method of communication is by email and it is a good way to stay in touch. We also send out the Briefings newsletter fortnightly straight to your inbox.
If you don't already have one, there are several email services available which are free of charge, including Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo Mail.
Evans Bay Yacht and Motor Boat Club
What a way for Evans Bay to start their 2021 Barton Marine Winter Series.
With 64 boats out racing and more than 150 people involved either sailing, on support boats, in the control tower, cooking nice warm food or just supporting in general, it was great to see a huge turnout from the yachting community.
This is a big jump from last year's numbers and the good news is there are still more boats to come.
Pupuke Boating Club – P Class Fresh Water Champs
A revival seems to be happening in the P Class, if the number of boats that turned up to last weekend's P Class Fresh Water Intergalactic Champs at Lake Pupuke is anything to go by.
As many as 27 sailors competed over the two days of racing and experienced the full range of conditions from light winds on Saturday to big squalls on Sunday and plenty of typically shifty lake conditions in between.
Joe Leith (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) dominated the event, winning all six races in his boat Great White (No 75). It was a lot closer for second, with Tessa Clinton (Wakatere Boating Club) edging Nelsen Meachem (WBC) and Oli Stone (Kohimarama Yacht Club) and also taking out the girl's competition.
Leith claimed the impressive winner's trophy designed and made by Team New Zealand and Gemma Hebberd was awarded the Perseverance trophy.
Thanks to all those involved from Wakatere with running the event, particularly Andrew Brown and Neil and Garth on behalf of the Pupuke Boating Club.
Rotorua Yacht Club
The Rotorua Yacht Club enjoyed a good season over the summer with the club's learn to sail programme introducing a number of new sailors to our sport.
Having a good base of new sailors will prove beneficial for the upcoming season as the club continue to build their junior fleet and this will only develop further with news their LTS programme is nearly full next season.
The club will also be hosting the O'pen Skiff North Island championships in early November which, along with October's annual Sprint Regatta, will give them an added boost.
Hamilton Yacht Club
The Hamilton Yacht Club have been trialling a Quest Winter Series which is proving popular.
Tight racing was a feature of the last event recently, along with a number of new skippers emerging despite the light winds. Many crew still got out on the trapeze wire, which was a lot of fun.
Auckland Junior Winter Sprints
The second round of the Auckland Junior Winter Sprints will take place on Saturday at the Kohimarama Yacht Club and the forecast is already looking more promising than the one that preceded racing for the first round a fortnight ago.
Some atrocious weather hit Auckland ahead of racing at the Point Chevalier Sailing Club on June 19 but it dawned fine with a gentle northerly and it provided great conditions for the 65 boats in the Optimist, P Class, Starling and O'pen Skiff classes. Full results here.
Registration will be open from 12.30pm-1pm on Saturday, with the first warning signal scheduled for 1.25pm. Find the notice of race here and anyone needing to charter an OWNZ boat can do so here.
The winter sprint series is sailed over six regattas at various venues around Auckland with the last race in the series incorporated into the Murrays Bay Sailing Club's Icebreaker event in September.
RNZYS YTP Alumni Regatta
Photo: Andrew Delves / RNZYS
Calling all past and present Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Youth Training Programme sailors, volunteers, coaches and staff.
Make sure you clear your diary for October 15-17, 2021, for the club's YTP Alumni Regatta and celebrations.
The club are planning an 'epic' weekend that includes Friday Harbour racing, Friday Drinks, Elliott 7 fleet racing on Saturday, a big party on Saturday night and a knockout match racing regatta on the Sunday.
See here for more details.
