Stu Williams Memorial Regatta. On the 5th-6th of September, the Wellington Youth Sailing Trust will host the Stu Williams Memorial Youth Match Racing Regatta. The Weekend regatta will max out at six youth teams who will sail two round robins and a final series. Event details can be found here on the Wellington Youth Sailing Trust Website: https://youthyachtingscheme.org.nz/poneke-spring-regatta/. Wellington Open Match Racing Championships. Due to COVID, the trust has decided to add a new event on the calendar. The Wellington Open Match Racing Championships will be on the 17-18 October. The weekend event will consist of 2 round robins and a…
Author: Gavin Pascoe
The Development Squad had successful “have a go” days resulting in more sailors becoming apart of the programme. Over the past couple of weeks, the Development Squad sailors have been learning the ropes in the Elliot 6m. The new sailors are working hard on their boat handling and learning how to use A-symmetrical and symmetrical spinnakers for the first time. Young sailors who are interested in match racing and keelboat sailing are more than welcome to sign up and come along to the training sessions which are on Sundays 9-2 pm. Sign up here: https://youthyachtingscheme.org.nz/winter-programme/ The Under 23 Match Racing Squad…
The Volunteer of the Year Award is awarded to the many dedicated RPNYC volunteers that without each and every one of these dedicated members, our club activities would not survive. Attributes of generosity, humility, just getting on with it without fuss or fanfare are typical attributes of volunteers who support our club and are passionate to ensure its success. The Volunteer of the Year Award is given each year to a volunteer who shows these attributes and makes a significant contribution to the running of our club. Every year, it is very difficult to choose a person to award this…
As we all know, boats need marks to go around. The Club’ s kit needed a fair bit of maintenance to be ready for the 2020 regatta. Long time member, personality, and boatbuilder Kim McMorran organised sponsorship and gathering together of America Cup-size marks and tackle. Sponsors of the Buoys themselves were Kiwi Yachting and their subsidiary Southern Pacific, Barton Marine, Chaffers Marina, and McMorran Boatbuilding. Buoys require plenty of strong tackle to hold them in place. Richard MacAlister, whose family have a long association with the Club, and his team at Kiwi Yachting provided all rope, chain, and some parts…
Anybody worth their salt knows a broach, and I wouldn’t really be writing this up if it wasn’t for the excellent sequence of photographs of the event. Back in 2006 I entered my Davidson 28 Beaumaris in an Island Bay race. On board with me were my mates Matt Conway working the forward end, and Sean Burns – a big unit – to work the lines aft. Perfect conditions prevailed, with a northerly lurking around the 15-20 knot mark, and we carried the number one with a full main, and as we bore away for the heads, put up the…
Back in the 1970s, in an effort to spice up the offshore series a bit, the Club chartered a helicopter to drop a mark inside the Wairau River in Cloudy Bay, just south of Port Underwood, for the fleet to sail around. It was a great expense, caused a bit of controversy, and not repeated. Here’s Paul Hastings’ memory of the race. I sailed with Brian Cardiff on his Lidgard “Kidnapper”, for many years, as his cockpit and sail-trimmer, and all-around dogsbody, completely uncomplainingly, and uncritically, as you would expect of me. The first race we sailed to a mark…
There are at least two families named Moore who have a long association with boating in Wellington. This one has been part of the RPNYC at least as far back as 1893, when William (Billy) Moore raced his 18 footer Myra with the Arawa Sailing Club. The Club was set up by Port Nic members for the purposes of small boat sailing which would be for youths to learn the art of racing together – a grassroots investment in the sport. Moore and his friends soon began sailing the top boats of the fleet, Miru, Ruru, and Vixen. These boats…
Alexander Turnbull is most well known as a businessman whose collection of books and manuscripts form the foundation of the Turnbull Library and National Library of New Zealand. He was also a passionate yachtsman who was highly influential in the early development of the sport in New Zealand. Turnbull, who was NZ-born, was educated in England, and served his apprenticeship in business in London where his father had a partnership. The business folded in 1889. It is likely Turnbull took an interest in the sport of competitive sailing during the several years of leisure he enjoyed before returning to New…
Earlier this year one of our most regular Caniwi drivers decided that the time had come to retire from race management and so the team had to say farewell to Malcolm Baxter. A big loss to the team, we do miss you. Malcolm, along with Gary Hutchings and Cathie Johnson crewed Caniwi for years and collected the Volunteer of the Year trophy in recognition of the amount of hours they gave so that yachts could participate in safe and fun racing. We really appreciate all the hours you put in and loved seeing you out there, but we thought that…
The Finish Leg 4, Napier to Auckland, dawn of Day 2. In the early light we can see East Island off our port bow. We’ve ended up a little high in the SE wind, using our FR0 along the east coast has given us a decent lead on the other 40s, but has also ended up high, heading NNE, away from the Mercury Islands, our next mark, and therefore the finish. We know we must head north-ish, hopefully NNW, to get offshore and stay in better pressure before gybing west. It’s supposed to be mid-to-upper 20s for most of the…