Issue date
Team Kiwi Gold give their supporters a quick update from December 2013, including information on a 'try sailing' day they will be hosting in their new Sonar sailboats on 18 January 2014. If you are interested in attending, please contact team PA Amber Cameron amcameron1974@gmail.com or 0212 152 351
9 December 2013- Now that we are all back home in New Zealand, the Kiwi Gold Sailing Team wanted to give all of our supporters a quick update on what we are up to over the coming months and a short de-brief on our performance in Kinsale and Rochester.
Our New Sonar named for Neville Chriton's Great Wall Cars has arrived into Auckland and all being well, will be cleared by MAF in the next 24hrs, while we await the USA boat due into New Zealand on the 10th December.
Our main focus this summer is working on big fleet starts, downwind sailing, testing and getting to know our new boats intimately.
To this end, we are holding what we are calling a 'Have a Go' day on the 18th January 2014 at the Emirates Team New Zealand at Halsey Street, Auckland. This event is aimed at bringing to the forefront the opportunities available in sailing for disabled people as well as introducing New Zealand to the Sonar Class. Additionally as we are still searching for a 3rd person to compete the Team, this should hopefully be a fruitful exercise.
We are very lucky to have ETNZ working with us, offering us a base to sail out of until things get going in their own camp. We would be remiss in forgetting to mention the incredible response from ETNZ sailors and management that have come forward to donate their time and skills to us over the next 8 months in preparation for the IFDS Worlds in Nova Scotia in August.
A little while after this, we will be taking part in an event being put together by SailAbility Auckland. Tim Dempsey is organising a weekend Paralympics Training Clinic from the 27th to the 30th January 2014. We would love to welcome anyone wanting to take part to let us know as we may have space for volunteers and willing crew over that weekend.
Next on the calendar is Sail Auckland in early February. Kiwi Gold will be there with Great Wall Cars and our second Sonar (yet to be named). Fingers crossed we will have a few 3rd Crew hopefuls, other disabled sailors and able-bodied volunteers.
Back in August we completed in the IFDS Worlds in Kinsale, Ireland. Being only our second ever regatta in the Sonar class but also the first in Great Wall Cars, we were keen to see how we would line up against the best Paralympic sailors in the world.
During the regatta we found that for the most part our speed up wind in light airs was very good, but as the breeze increased it was evident that our weight ion the rail needs to be increased for best boat speed. Rick and David are now on a strict diet of pies and doughnuts….
Due to the seaway in Kinsale we found it really challenging too sail the downwind angles we used so successfully in Miami. These boats perform well in light to moderate conditions with quite a slack rig, sailed flat with a lot of twist.
In both regattas we had very close racing against the top three London 2012 Paralympic sailing teams, often finishing in the top 5. Overall we placed five places down from the 2012 Gold medalists, three places from the Silver and two spots away from the Bronze medalists.
Rochester was hard going. Being an 'able-bodied' regatta as well as using a spinnaker for the first time with a 4th person, it was clear we needed more time in the boat but also how dramatically racing four long races, back to back, took it's toll on us.
It was worthwhile going to Rochester and sparring in a big fleet with a very busy start line against other top level sailors. The only other Paralympics participants in Rochester were the GBR team who placed 5th at the London Games. They finished 25th in Rochester with Kiwi Gold beating them by finishing 17th out of 30.
As a final note, we want to thank all of our valued supporters for all of their interest and help over the last few months. The Team look forward to seeing you in January and we will be updating you when we have the container doors open and the boats in the water.
Watch this Space!"
