SPOTLIGHT ON: MILFORD CRUISING CLUB
Locals loving Milford Cruising Club
By Aidan Bennett
Living right on Auckland’s magnificent members. Christine says locals see the club as a harbour’s and beaches means our great place in Milford to have a meal or socialise water-based sporting clubs have truly over a drink or two. magnificent sites from where they You can see the membership attraction. Very conduct their activities. One of the affordable prices and when you sit down on very best spots is the home of Milford their stunning new deck with views to Rangitoto Cruising Club, on Milford Reserve (as I did for my chat with Christine and Tony), overlooking Milford Beach and Milford you don’t want to leave! Marina. The Channel Mag team love Tony says junior sailing is a strong focus of Original clubhouse opening day 1924. highlighting the special roles that our Milford Cruising Club. “We see our prime role sporting clubs play in our community as introducing young people to sailing in a and very few are doing it better right now than the Milford non-competitive and family orientated environment. The club owns a good Cruising Club, a club that has been around for almost 100 years. fleet of boats (Optimists and RS Fevas) and these are made available to the As can be seen with the historic photograph accompanying this youngsters in our grass roots learn to sail programme which is every Friday article, the original Milford Cruising Club was established in 1923 and and Sunday. We make learning to sail affordable for families so that parents a clubhouse opened in 1924. So it is a club steeped in history; a history are not faced with the expensive costs of acquiring competitive sailing they’re proud of – that clubhouse opening photo takes pride of place in dinghies for their children. We run school holiday programmes as well.” the foyer as you walk in. The coordinator running the junior sailing programme at the Milford As a regular in Milford Reserve I had seen the improvements being Cruising Club is Brianna Reynolds-Smith. Brianna is a high level sailor in made at the club and had heard about their recent growth, so in early the 470 class and placed 15th at the 2019 470 World Championship in April I went along to chat with current club Commodore Tony Sparks and Enoshima in Japan, seventh at the Enoshima World Cup and first female club manager Christine Robertson. It was late in the day on a Thursday team at the 2020 470 New Zealand Championships along with partner and the large first floor function area was set up for a sit down dinner for Susannah Pyatt. She qualified to compete at the Olympic games in Tokyo, 80 people. I discovered that this happens every Thursday (it’s club night) but didn't meet the New Zealand selection criteria after the club's last event and is very popular – with bookings essential. I could see why when I had was cancelled due to Covid, so she is not competing these Olympics. She is a look at the menu on one of the tables. Three entrees, four mains and currently campaigning for Paris 2024 in the 49er fx class. two desserts to choose from – Thai Mussel Pot, Pan Fried Hapuka and Friday afternoons at the club are for junior sailing and as a result Friday Apple and Feijoa Crumble would have been my order! Yum. ‘Anise’ do all evenings are real family nights with parents and members enjoying the of the club catering for their functions and are apparently top notch. hospitality on the clubhouse deck while there are kids and boats all over the It didn’t take too long to discover that the passion, enthusiasm and place down below on the reserve. Junior sailing is also run on a Sunday. organisation of those leading the club is at the core of their success. Both “Friday can be chaos but we love it,” says Christine. “The place is Tony and Christine were keen to accentuate that while this is a boating buzzing with the kids, parents and often grandparents as well, having fun club their focus is on performing a strong community function. and enjoying the hospitality, with many staying for dinner. Saturdays are a “As a club we obviously have a big commitment to boaties and our popular evening for venue hire and fleet racing is run through the week and junior sailing programme,” explained Tony Sparks, who is getting towards on weekends too. Our Winter Series commences 2nd May. For Sunday the end of his two year stint as Commodore. “These are funded by the sailing we are open for barrista coffee and muffins.” overall activity in the clubhouse which makes doing it well very important.” As club manager Christine runs the staff of 10 and ensures they are Milford Cruising Club has over 500 members and is growing by the getting maximum revenue from the facility. What a great and enthusiastic week. A large portion of the membership (around two thirds) are social team we have here.
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Issue 119 - May 2021 www.channelmag.co.nz
