Issue date
The northern region begins at Lake Taupo and extends to the Far North, and has half the nations’ clubs and by far the largest number of sailors. Yachting New Zealand run two regional support officers in this region, with Kim Admore taking charge of the north and Hamish Hey the south, with the pair crossing over in Auckland. Here Hamish gives an update on the southern half of the north.
Lake Taupo
Winter sailing consists of trailer yachting on the lake as the water temperature falls to a chilly 10-11 degrees. The fortnightly series has been well supported with up to 10 hardy crews venturing out. The centreboard division kick off their season with a teams racing training clinic in the October school holidays. Teams from New Plymouth, Hawke's Bay and the BOP/Waikato region are all intending to be there and refine their craft under the stewardship of coaches Tim Snedden, Hannah Wilks and Blake Woodfield.
Rotorua
The club’s focal event – the Carson Taylor Ford Spring Sprints - will take place on the weekend of October 14-15. This fun event is always well supported by classes like the 12ft skiffs, 3.7s, A-class cats and Zephyrs. For the 12s, it’s an annual pilgrimage for the Auckland and Wellington fleets and a chance for the fleet to get their crewwork sharpened up in the lead up the Auckland championships, New Zealand team trials and inter-dominions. If sailing 8-10 races in a day doesn’t sharpen your hoists, gybes and drops, nothing will.
Tauranga
The winter series has been hugely popular this year, with college 420 crews from the Waikato joining local college teams and private boats to bolster this fleet to double figures and crews doing teams training on the alternate weeks to the fleet racing. A large fleet of Optimists has again been a feature as kids who have recently graduated from levels 2 and 3 look to gather as much experience to prepare for this month's AIMS Games – a trend we are seeing with solid participation at Opti events throughout the northern region.
The Tauranga club are bracing themselves for an influx of intermediate students this weekend for the Anchor AIMS Games with the yachting event supported by New Zealand Windows. This event is growing fast. In just its third year, 94 Optis will arrive for pre-event safety checks and registration on Saturday before competing from Sunday to Tuesday. As events go, it’s one of the most inspirational to be a part of. With the added passion of representing their school, the kids seem to get a huge lift in confidence. Emirates Team New Zealand sailors Andy Maloney and Josh Junior will also make guest appearances as VIPs at the official opening ceremony and spend time with sailors on Monday morning.
The club also celebrated the homecoming of local hero Peter Burling, who brought the America's Cup to town. Almost everyone took the opportunity to get a picture with Peter and the Cup.
Braeden Denny with Peter Burling and the Auld Mug.
Waikato
Ngaroto Sailing Club has been a success story in the last two years, thanks to the effervescent energy of Gordon Wallace. The club have hosted a winter trailer yacht regatta – Dillan Memorial over Queen's Birthday - and this weekend kick of the Waikato centreboard season with the Brass Monkey Regatta.
Fast tracking their youth out of the learn to sail Optimist fleet and into teams format 420s and Phase IIs has proven a very successful means of keeping youngsters engaged. Maru Ferarrier, who many will know as the former head coach from Tauranga, will spend a second weekend with youth this coming weekend.
The trailer yacht regatta on Lake Ngaroto made for spectacular pictures rather than spectacular racing.
Last weekend all the club stalwarts were out cleaning and repairing the buildings and club assets. Watching a man (Paul Hayes) clean the kitchen floor in his Red Band boots would only happen in a laidback country club.
A common sight at club around the country at this time of year.
The club will also host to the Waikato sailability fleet, who have more boats on order for the coming season. The integration of sailability and teams training into the weekly club sailing programme is a shining example of how to integrate all types of sailing activity on the club sailing day.
Hamilton and Cambridge are also active and have record recruitment into learn to sail. So many new coaches are needed that Yachting New Zealand are running a second learn to sail coach course in the region due to popular demand. In Cambridge, the sterling efforts of Chris Raynes in driving a college teams programme is again providing strong engagement with youth and showing younger sailors a pathway where they can maximise their enjoyment and development without needing to travel too often. Also in a busy month of coach upskilling, a coaches forum is being hosted at the Ngaroto Sailing Club on the evening of September 12.
Auckland
Everyone is gearing up for the start of the season at the Murrays Bay winter championships which will be closely followed by the Aon National Youth Trials at Manly.
The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron youth programme have been training hard all winter and the qualifying weekend for the match racing national championships was held last month. Good fleets took part in winter racing with the views from the harbour's numerous vantage points proving spectacular on the handful of crystal clear winter afternoons that have blessed the City of Sails of late.
As the new clubhouse for the Royal Akarana Yacht Club emerges from the rubble of demolition, the on-water activity has continued over the winter with a notable contribution from the Auckland sailability community who, with strong turnouts, have out-numbered the able-bodied sailors on some days. The 18ft skiff crews have been to Lake Garde in August and patiently await the return of their boats and the 12s have been beavering away in the workshops, repainting and making mods ahead of a busy season which includes hosting of the inter-dominions in January.
The Auckland winter Opti series that is hosted by clubs around the harbour was again strongly supported with the AIMS Games being a leading motivator for the youngsters.
Up the Tamaki River, Glendowie Boating Club, Bucklands Beach Yacht Club and Pakuranga Sailing Club have all enjoyed good fleets with their respective Sunday winter series. For Pakuranga, now back up and running after being decimated by a fire two years ago, the participation in Sunbursts by dads with their kids shows a lot of promise for the rebuild of sailing activity at the club. The community support has come from a generation of dads who themselves learned to sail with their parents on these sheltered waters.
Not to be outdone, the Howick Sailing Club again hosted a hugely-popular autumn series. For many looking to move on from the Optimist to the Starling, the coaching run by Yachting New Zealand’s Gareth Moore in conjunction with this series continues to be a hit and drew sailors from the Waikato and Tauranga.
Pine Harbour have run a healthy social Wednesday afternoon winter series which included a rules evening run by their regional support officer and national judge Hamish Hey.
For those looking to participate in the upcoming Coastal Classic at Labour weekend, be sure to attend one of the safety regulation seminars being run by Yachting New Zealand safety and technical officer Angus Willison at the RNZYS on the evening of September 11 and Bucklands Beach the following evening.
