BREEZE WINTER 2023

BREEZE

Official Publication of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron

Cover: Angie Crafer’s Mojo competing in the Doyle Sails Winter Series on a glorious, crisp winter’s day. – Debbie Whiting Photo

EDITORIAL

Please address all editorial correspondence to the Editor, Ivor Wilkins ivorw@xtra.co.nz

Phone 09 425 7791

ADVERTISING

inklink@xtra.co.nz

Phone 09 378-1222.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions expressed in this magazine are purely those of the authors and are not necessarily the official view of the RNZYS, nor of the publishers.

PERMISSION

Reproduction rights in part or in full of the contents of this publication must be applied for from the Editor.

DEADLINES For Spring 2023 Issue Now 4

per year Editorial - 15 September

booking - 15 September Advertising material due - 22 September Magazine posted - 29 September

Layout and Typesetting by Ocean Press Ltd

Printed by Soar Communications Group

Registered as a magazine at the GPO, Wellington. ISSN 0113-7360

Advertising Debbie Whiting 09 378 1222 inklink@xtra.co.nz

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FROM THE COMMODORE

Andrew Aitken

Lots of good things are happening at your club and nine months into being Commodore I can report that I have been having a lot of fun participating in a range of events involving many of our members. Sadly, being Commodore mostly is not about having fun. It involves ensuring the club operates well, which right now means focusing on our Reset Programme.

The brief of the Reset Committee is to analyse and review all operations and expenditure and recommend changes to how we operate to ensure we have a sustainable club operation going forward. While the team has achieved a lot, there is still much to do if we are to deliver a break-even result for the financial year ahead while continuing to be a club that members believe in, are proud to be part of and want to participate in.

For many years RNZYS has relied on profits from Food & Beverage together with subscriptions, trust funding and income from Corporate Members and Sponsors to deliver a sound financial outcome. In years where major events like the America’s Cup, China Cup or the Ocean Race have contributed to our bottom line, we have done OK. In a year where there are none of these events, we have traditionally struggled.

In the last financial year, Food & Beverage profits are much reduced, contributions from trust funders are limited given the impact COVID had on their activities, and the income from Corporate Members and Sponsors has also been heavily impacted by current financial times. During the year, we have continued

to deliver heavily subsidised events and have supported loss-making sailing programmes both for our members and for the wider sailing community.

The Reset task can be looked at as a fivestage process, a number of which we will repeat as we continue to refine and improve our operation.

Stage 1 – Source a cash loan to enable RNZYS to continue trading

RNZYS is very fortunate to have a longterm Development Fund. Our Trustees have agreed to loan cash from the investment fund to enable us to continue to operate – this is something we do not want to repeat.

Stage 2 – Full review of financials including a review of all assets

We have reviewed every single cost, re-costing everything we charge for, and every event we run, as well as reviewing every asset on our asset register and every item on our balance sheet. We have identified a number of items that are over-valued as a number of surplus assets and stock including items where RNZYS is potentially not the ‘natural home’, such as support vessel Pembles Bay, the foiling catamarans, and our Etchells.

Stage 3 – Full review of processes and resources

Our computer system is approaching its end of life and delivers poor outcomes. Not only does it take an inordinate amount of time to pay for an item in our Members’ Bar, the ability to simply and quickly see the financial outcomes being generated and respond accordingly is just not there. This is the ‘big end’ of process change. There have, however, been a lot of incremental changes which have meant a much more consistent food offering, more effective event pricing and much stronger stock control. We have also reduced staff numbers in the Sailing Office and across our Events and Food & Beverage team.

Stage 4 – A full review of our products and services, what to keep and/or enhance, what to start and what to stop

There have been significant changes to our Mastercard Youth Training Programme,

REDUCED TO SELL

Doyle Sails Winter Series, our Learn-toSail programme, our Members’ Bar offering, including another menu up-grade, our retail store, our travel offering, a new fine dining option and the development of a broad schedule of winter-time member events.

Stage 5 – A drive for participation

It is truly disheartening to launch a new product such as our Sunday Brunch and only have five or six people attend, particularly when the queue outside the local café extends around the corner. On a sunny day in the weekend, our Members’ Bar must be one of the best locations in Auckland for brunch, lunch, or, for some of us, both! We are, however, getting a strong up-take on events such as Comedy Night, Quiz Night, Havana Club Rum-Racing ‘after-match’ events, pre and post Doyle Sails winter-race offerings and a range of member events. We need members to use the club.

As we run through this Reset process, it is clear that there is still more to do. The financial measure of success is that in a ‘normal’ year (that is a year with no special events) your club delivers a minimum of a break-even result. While supporting a major international sailing event, or being gifted a replacement fleet of Elliott 7’s can (and does) happen, achieving the underlying positive cash result needed is a lot about perseverance and hard work by members for members, supported by the RNZYS team in the office and on the water.

We are a yacht club. Yachting is our core and members are our community. RNZYS needs to deliver for our members both on and off the water. We know we still have work to do to resolve our financial issues. While not all that we change will suit every member, involvement and participation is key to making our club successful. The more we all use the club, the better the outcome will be.

Please come and be part of your club.

Talk soon Andrew

Higher Ground: Iconic Race Yacht

A highly respected Murray Ross design, this 10.66m yacht is ideal to take on RNZYS B Division honours. Features include a carbon mast and moveable water ballast. With an impressive racing resumé, this well-equipped yacht, built by Robertson Boatyard, is ready for competition, or for exhilarating fast cruising.

Manager

Sarah Wiblin

Dear Members,

I hope this message finds you well, and I extend my warmest greetings to each and every one of you. For this issue of Breeze, I want to touch on some of the great things happening here at the RNZYS while we work to continue to address the challenging times our esteemed club is currently facing and emphasize the importance of our collective effort to overcome these hurdles and ensure a strong and vibrant future for RNZYS.

It is no secret that the recent times have brought forth unprecedented challenges. We have encountered obstacles that have tested our resilience and commitment to the core values that define us as a club. However, I want to assure you that in the face of adversity, our team is working tirelessly to secure a sound financial position that will enable us to continue providing exceptional experiences and opportunities for our members both on and off the water.

There is much work to be done, and I am proud to say that your dedicated team of the Reset Committee is working hard to do this. We are actively exploring innovative strategies and seeking new avenues for revenue generation. We are making strategic decisions that align with our long-term goals and values, always keeping in mind the interests and desires of our valued members.

However, we cannot accomplish this without the support and involvement of each and every member of RNZYS. It is during challenging

times that we truly understand the strength of our community. Your continued support, both through Membership and through active participation, is vital to our success. Whether it be through renewing your membership, participating in club events, or spreading the word about the unique offerings of RNZYS, your contribution makes a significant impact.

Together, we can overcome these challenges and emerge stronger than ever before. RNZYS has a rich history of triumphing over adversity, and this is yet another chapter where we can prove our collective strength and determination. By standing united and supporting one another, we can ensure that our club remains a beacon of excellence and camaraderie.

It is pleasing to see many exciting things also happening around the club. Our Mastercard Youth Training Programme is in full swing, and we are excited to have the David Innes Memorial Challenge happening on the 9th and 10th of September. This will see our current YTP Students join 8 YTP Graduates for a twoday nonstop challenge aboard Steinlager 2 and Lion New Zealand, in partnership with the New Zealand Sailing Trust.

Another event that we are particularly excited about is our Womens’ Day Out happening on the 12th of August. This will be a great day on the water, with a variety of sailing options, and a great opportunity to network, build relationships and create crews for our revamped Women’s Summer Sailing offering that will launch in October. The Women’s Day Out includes breakfast, lunch and dinner in the entry price, and we will put crews together for

anyone who wants to join us for what should be a great day!

The recent Pin Presentation and New Member events were great opportunities to bring our longest serving and newest members together. It is always a pleasure to have our long-serving members here at the club; the stories and insights they each have and share are truly special and make our community the unique and special group that we are. For new members joining the club, it is a very special moment to be formally welcomed at the New Members events and we are excited to see so many new members actively getting involved in the many aspects of club life.

As I reflect on the last few months, I dwell on a wise comment from a member of 72 years – “let us remember that the challenges we face today will become the stories we share tomorrow”. The legacy we leave for future generations depends on our resolve and commitment in these testing and also exciting times as we work hard to move the club forward. With the continued unwavering support of so many members, the RNZYS will not only weather the storm, but also emerge as a stronger and more vibrant community.

Thank you for being a member, for your continued support during these challenging times and your belief in the values that underpin RNZYS. Together, we will prevail.

Wishing you all fair winds and smooth sailing ahead.

Sarah

Intrepid cruisers enjoy Shortest Day ‘Cape Horn’ outing 2023

Don’t fight the elements … but sometimes you have to when caught in bad weather. For our annual ‘Cape Horn’ cruising day out as close to the shortest day as possible, the weather continued to be “changeable” so therefore even more akin to that highly respected maritime landmark.

Several Squadron boats fully dressed with burgees (and where appropriate, ensigns) gave their engines a warm up in the stiff easterly to Islington Bay, where, after a short squall, we were rewarded with moments of sunshine.

Dinghies transferred eager boaties to the wharf where helping hands assisted a safe transfer ashore in wobbly seas up a Jacob’s ladder.

After an enjoyable downwind sail from Pine Harbour, senior members Jim (50+ yrs) and Karen Lott of Mokoia, who have actually sailed around Cape Horn, were able to verify that the ever-changing conditions we were having provided a realistic taste of the real thing.

Other attendees included Don (40+ yrs) and Liz Uljee of Morning Tide, and Rod (40+ yrs) and Karin Klarwill of Pacific Sunset based in Gulf

The all new generation design I43. Boasting a modern widebeam hull, the yacht offers much more space than previous models. Due to the continuing tradition of a raised coach roof, what we call a “semi-decksaloon”, it holds its own against competitors as well.

It will surprise no one that the hull and sail plan was designed by Humphreys Yacht Design. Be rest assured that the yacht will therefore have great sailing characteristics even at fullyloaded larger displacement yachts.

The yachts aesthetics were styled in cooperation with the design studio Pininfarina, a relationship that birthed the multiple design award-winning Elan E6 and is now continuing with the all-new design Elan Impression 43.

2024 New generation Elan Impression 43

Specifications:

Length Overall13.32 m

Beam 4.25 m

Cabins 3

Heads 2 Price $940,000

Features include: Spray hood, Bimini, Large bathing platform, Additional fridge, Additional water tank, Bow thruster with 2 batteries and charger, Harken electric halyard winch, Water maker, Raymarine navigation. To many options to list, please contact us for full specifications. For

Designed by Humphreys Yacht Design And Studio Pininfarina

Harbour. These people have a lifetime of boating through the Pacific and beyond, always with an interesting story to share.

We were pleased to welcome Commodore Andrew Aitken (Favourite) and crew members who hiked to the summit of Rangitoto for a gasp of even fresher air! Other well-known cruisers joined Marguerite Delbet (Nomos), along with a younger set aboard with Rick Menalda and Mark Roberts (Enjoy the Silence) – rather a misnomer as the stereo entertained on arrival.

Mike Malcom (MV Affinity) had expertly transported a further group of us to complete the set and, after a short convivial gathering, there was opportunity to stretch our legs with a short walk.

Steve Callagher shared his family legacy of supporting the Girl’s Brigade Bach at Gardner’s Gap, where he enjoyed many childhood adventures including carrying a water tank across the rocks with his mum and more recently replacing the roofing.

However, nobody was keen to take up the opportunity for a midwinter dip, so all too soon the time came to leave. A fab day out with friends old and new at a destination enjoyed by many.

Keep your eyes on Mainsheet for the upcoming Cruising Dinner in September and our new season cruising dates.

Sheryl Lanigan

Fidelis

Own a New Zealand Sailing Icon

In 1966, Fidelis carved her name forever into New Zealand yachting history by taking line honours in the gruelling Sydney-Hobart Race. Built by Lidgards in 1964, this stunning yacht has gone on to sail and race with distinction in a career spanning 60 years and more than 200,000nm. She has completed eight Sydney-Hobart races and as recently as this year continued to garner racing honours with victories in the CYCA Great Veteran Yacht Race and Veteran & Vintage Division line honours in the Brisbane-Gladstone Race. Following an extensive restoration in Sydney, this ocean thoroughbred has been continuously updated and maintained in impeccable condition.

Enquiries and expressions of interest may be directed to Nigel Stoke

e-mail: nigel@stoke.net.au, or call: +61 447 900 024

RNZYS SAILING REPORT

New look for the on-water team

With the winter season now well and truly upon us, the focus of our on-water programme is the Havana Club Rum Races on a Friday, and Doyle Sails Winter Series every second Saturday. It’s great to see so many members participating and making the most of these opportunities to get on the water! Some days recently have felt more like summer, than summer did.

As we are losing one Havana Club Rum Race due to the Matariki holiday on Friday July 14, we look forward to hosting a special one-off ‘Matariki Race’ on Thursday July 13. The 5pm start is slightly later than the usual winter starts, to enable a new experience of sailing under the stars and a nod to the Māori New Year.

Thank you to everybody who recently provided feedback on our Sailing Programme as part of the Club Reset. This prompted the Sailing Committee to review and shorten the Doyle Sails Winter Series starting sequence, and more. We welcome continued feedback as we look to finalise the 2023-24 season calendar in the coming weeks.

As part of this journey, we farewelled Dave West and Reuben Corbett whose contributions were invaluable over many years. They have left big shoes to fill.

Under the new leadership of Membership & Offer Manager, Georgia Witt, the on-water team has a new look. Many members will remember Georgia as a previous RNZYS Race Manager and she has continued her nearly 10 years related experience working with yacht clubs of various sizes, from the General Committee of her small home club in Launceston Tasmania, to running scoring and event management via TopYacht for some of the largest keelboat regattas in the southern hemisphere. In her role, Georgia will be looking after all things that we offer to members, both on and off the water.

Our new Learn-to-Sail Manager Emily Chambers is also not new to RNZYS. You will have seen her behind the bars as part of our ‘front-of-house’ team. Emily will continue parttime as senior duty manager for the Dinghy

Locker and Members’ Bar while administering the Learn-to-Sail Programme as well.

Emily grew up on the Isle of Wight on the south coast of the UK, and has been teaching dinghy sailing around the world in Greece, Antigua, Menorca, Dubai, Canada, Australia and UK. She is a qualified powerboat instructor, Offshore Yacht Master and holds various other tickets – we are excited to have her in this role!

We are thrilled to have appointed our new Club Race Manager, Brooke Adamson. Not only is she a graduate of the Mastercard Youth Training Programme and winner of the 2023 RNZYS Blake Award for Leadership, Brooke has recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sport and Recreation.

As part of the work experience required for her degree, Brooke spent time supporting our Sailing Office, getting to know our volunteers, and completed a major ‘Investigation of

Volunteer Perspectives of Volunteer Management’ assignment. Welcome Brooke!

Finally, we are very proud to have the talented Zak Merton as our Performance Sailing Manager. After also completing the Mastercard Youth Training Programme and Performance Programme, Zak started working at RNZYS in October 2022 as the Youth Programme Coach.

In addition to leading the coaching of the YTP and PP, he also looks after all of our major national and international regattas. He continues to also race with the Knots Racing Team, which recently won the 2022 Match Racing World Tour and placed 3rd at the Congressional Cup.

With this team looking after our on-water activity, the 2023/2024 season is looking great!

Georgia Witt

Getting ‘em started young – Membership & Offer Manager Georgia Witt out racing on board Tequila with daughter Charlotte. – Debbie Whiting Photo

Love of a dog led global traveller Lexi Watts to a job with the RNZYS

Story & picture by Debra Douglas

What’s love got to do with it? Lots it seems. Enough to bring Lexi Watts, the Squadron’s new Events and Engagement Manager, back to dry land after 12 years at sea. The ‘man’ in her life responsible for this lifestyle change being an 18-month-old boxer-cross.

This is how the story unfolds ...

Lexi, who originally hails from Oxfordshire, England, moved to Melbourne after university taking a restaurant manager position. She then spent the past 12 years working in the superyacht industry as a chief stewardess.

Lexi: “I had extremely wide responsibilities on board, ranging from being the main point of contact for the client, looking after the housekeeping and services sides, overseeing refits and designing the space changes on board. I travelled to the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the United States, Central and South America, Asia, Antarctica and the Arctic. It was fabulous and I met some wonderful people.”

Lexi moved to New Zealand two years ago,

still working on superyachts on rotation, flying in and out. During her down time, she started fostering dogs.

“And I fell in love with one of my fosters. He had a particularly sad story. He had a horrid upbringing and was abused as a puppy. In the end I just couldn’t leave him. So, it is true to say love for a dog brought me here.

“I feel very lucky to have found this position at the RNZYS, which gives me everything I was looking for. My entire working career has been in the hospitality sector, so I wanted to find something that was still hospitality based, but had a connection to the water, as I love being at sea. On top of that, I wanted a working environment that had a community base – which was very difficult to find – but the Squadron embodied all those things.”

In conjunction with the commercial and front-of-house teams, Lexi is responsible for the planning and coordination of the club’s corporate, private and large member events. She encourages members to look out for events taking place over winter: Comedy

Evenings on July 5 and August 2, the fortnightly quiz evenings until August 9, the Bingo evening on July 19 and the Women’s Day Out on August 12. She also reminds members the Squadron is a perfect venue to celebrate weddings and special occasions.

Away from the office, Lexi is a qualified yoga instructor, likes to keep fit with gym work and is getting to grips with Auckland traffic riding her 1984 Kawasaki GPZ 550.

“I have done a sailing course in the Bay of Islands, but nothing too serious. I would like to do the Squadron’s Learn-to-Sail course, as it is my dream to sail to French Polynesia, one place I haven’t been. But I do have to learn to sail first!”

In the meantime, Lexi says she has found the perfect job. “I love making people happy. Making people happy makes me happy. And I get to go home every night.”

• For info regarding booking the Squadron as a possible function venue, Lexi can be contacted at 027 272 9815, or lwatts@rnzys.org.nz

Lexi Watts has landed a role at the RNZYS after a dozen years at sea.

“A once in a generation opportunity”

A Landmark Estate

4 Fern Glen Road North, Saint Heliers

Prestigiously positioned, this landmark family home is one of St Heliers finest residences. A character masterpiece, set upon 1,869sqm north-facing sweeping grounds, with views towards the harbour and Rangitoto. Adjoining Dingle Dell provides a peaceful environment to live in.

Enchanting from the street with an elevated and private aspect, the classic architecture and timeless appeal delivers a lasting impression. Spectacular dimensions deliver a superb array of living, dining and entertaining spaces, set amongst the backdrop of one of the finest gardens. A stunning entry hall provides a warm welcome into the light and airy formal living and dining room with gas fireplace and full-height slider doors that showcase the garden. Also on this level is a spacious kitchen, open plan primary living room, study, wine cellar, laundry and powder room. The piece de resistance, is the breathtaking sun-filled flat lawn, gardens, large swimming pool and a garden pavillion. A secret hidden gem is a gorgeous sunroom currently being utilised as a garden room or potential artist studio.

An abundance of family accommodation upstairs comprises the master suite with a large walk through

wardrobe, ensuite and balcony with sea views. Three large bedrooms and a cleverly configured bathroom accommodates the remainder of the family. A sunny deck is also shared between two bedrooms.

A premium bonus comes in the form of a double garage with a large separate workshop. Above the garage, is a spacious multi purpose loft currently used as a gymnasium. This could also be a perfect home office or maybe the potential to make it a liveable space. The possibilities are endless.

The enviable position, with Dingle Dell Reserve across the road, provides easy access to St Heliers Village and beach. After a substantial tenure of 32 years, this is a once in a generation opportunity - truly one of St Heliers defining properties.

David Rainbow 021 923 364 david.rainbow@bayleys.co.nz

Harry Cheng 021 230 6877 harry.cheng@bayleys.co.nz

RNZYS marks the King’s Coronation

Fit for a King. Millions around the world tuned in to witness history in the making as King Charles 111 and Queen Camilla were crowned in Westminster Abbey. Not ones to miss a good party, Squadron members and guests continued celebrating the next day with toasts, tiaras and bunting at the King’s Coronation lunch in the Quarterdeck.

Among those who enjoyed a three-course traditional British menu, including Cullen skink (a thick Scottish fish soup); roast beef, potato, kumara, pumpkin, horseradish cream, rosemary gravy and yorkie, followed by trifle and custard were ...

1/ From left, Chris, Fiona and David Punter.

2/ Lady Glenice Stevens and Sir Kenneth Stevens.

3/ From left, Kat Hawkes, Olga de Rossi Hawkes and Keith Ward.

4/ Murray Mulcahy and Lorraine Nicholson.

5/ Ngaire Stone and John Baatjes.

6/ Charles Clark and Glenys Cannin.

Pictures by Debra Douglas

3

4

Celebrating success at the RNZYS Prizegiving

Cyclones, the Anniversary Weekend storm, rain and gales were all forgiven and forgotten as the RNZYS dressed up in its finery to celebrate the annual prizegiving.

There was music, laughter, banter, yarns, fibs and exaggerations, mutual admiration and applause as winners stepped up to receive well-earned trophies and awards.

A great evening to celebrate and achievement and remind ourselves that the central purpose and function of this great club is to enjoy and compete in the sport of sailing.

As per tradition stretching back more than a century and a half, the revelry continued late into the night. Among those enjoying the occasion were:

1/ The Ballroom at the RNZYS was packed with race crews and guests attending the annual prizegiving.

2/ One man band, Phil Hart kept the troops well entertained.

3/ The crew of Quentin Fowler’s Rum Bucket, which took home armfuls of silverware.

4/ John Meadowcroft’s Carrera crew raise a toast to a successful season.

5/ Past Commodore Steve Mair’s Clockwork crew in a happy frame of mind.

6/ The crew of Mike Malcolm’s Bird On The Wing celebrate a successful season.

Continued overleaf ...

Proudly

7/ Newly-appointed Club Race Manager Brooke Adamson received a leadership award for her time with the Mastercard Youth Training Programme.

8/ Reset Committee Chairman John Kensington received the certificate of ‘ownership’ of Martello Tower Island on behalf of Rob Bassett’s Wired crew.

9/ Scott Taylor from Havana Club enjoys the Dark ‘n’ Stormy arrival libation.

10/ Cody Coughlan, Max McLachlan and Lydia Zhu with the Ranger Trophy for Mastercard Youth Training Programme Harbour Course results.

11/ L-R Race Officer Colin Lucas, Blair Park, Boat Driver of the Year, Sam Knight, Race Officer of the Year and Principal Race Officer Megan Kensington.

12/ Jono Bakker of 36° Brokers with Lode Missiaen, owner of Juniper, who won C division overall in the 36° Commodores Cup Series.

Photos by Chris Cameron

RNZYS PRIZEGIVING ...

It’s what’s under the surface that counts

When you’re out on the water, you shouldn’t have to worry about what’s going on underneath it.

That’s why we’ve been out in the field, designing, testing and optimising our coatings to safeguard your boat from fouling. Our results? A new range of antifoulings tailored for your convenience, each providing superior colour and performance you can trust.

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School holidays on the water

Story and pictures by Debra Douglas

Introductions made, lunch ordered, sunscreen and life jackets grabbed and with an on-the-dock briefing that saw confidence lifted a notch or so, participants in the Squadron’s School Holiday Programme headed out on the water to learn new skills in two of the club’s Elliott 7s.

The four-day programme was an opportunity for 12 to15-year-olds to go keel boat sailing and work as a team under the tutelage of Mastercard Youth Programme members James West and Emilie Jones.

“As all of the kids had sailed solo before, they knew the basics, but there is not a lot on offer for young sailors in that age group in keel boats, unless they know someone who owns one,“ said James.

Day one was a simple sailing day, getting to know the boats, fellow crew members and coaches. Day two and three were a bit more adventurous with spinnaker work included.

James: “And on day four, with a nice northerly, we sailed almost all the way to Bean Rock. It was a great effort from the crews to get all the way down the harbour. But we had to get back for lunch!

“Off the water, we did some theory, but we wanted to make the course as enjoyable as possible and to have fun, so there was not a lot of class work. On the water, there were a couple of mishaps – one of

the kids went overboard three times in one day. But that’s all part of learning to be bowman.”

Fourteen-year-old Paige Williams, a pupil at Rangitoto College, is accustomed to sailing on all types of craft including Optis, Feva, MRX, Mr Kite (40 footer) and Ika Moana (family cruiser). The programme was therefore an ideal way for Paige, daughter of Vice Commodore Gillian Williams, to spend her school holiday week.

Mostly on the helm, Paige said she enjoyed herself. “The attraction being the opportunity to sail on a team boat and meet new people.”

Also happy about the new contacts she made was Mahurangi College pupil Kate Littler (13). Kate started in an Opti when she was eight, then moved into a Bic and currently sails a Feva. This was her first time sailing an Elliott.

Kate: “I was looking to have fun on the water with people who share the same interest in sailing as me. And it sounded fun to learn new skills on a new type of boat. We swapped around, so I did all the positions; the one I liked most was mainsail trim. The coaches were great at teaching us new skills.”

If Kate can fit in keelboat sailing into her sport schedule, (she also plays underwater hockey and water polo and enjoys swimming and surf life saving), she will be continuing her family’s involvement with the Squadron.

Her great grandfather was Cove Littler who co-owned Ariki, Past

From left, tutor James West, Felix Lei, Oliver Gibbs, Malo Armstrong-Wills, Kate Littler, Mary Ingham, Paige Williams, tutor Emilie Jones and Alex Rossaak. Back: RNZYS Performance Sailing Manager Zak Merton.

© Lissa Photography

Programme tutors and Youth Training Programme members Emilie Jones and James West.

Commodore Hugh Littler was her great uncle and her grandfather Ian Littler owned Zambesi, which her dad Ross Littler now owns.

Ross Littler said his daughter thoroughly enjoyed the programme and asked if she could do it all over again.

James West would also like to be involved again. “It would be good to take the kids to the next level and introduce them to keel boat racing.”

The next RNZYS School Holiday Programme will be held in July.

• Week 1 (July 3-7) is designed for young sailors aged 12-15 years.

• Week 2 (July 10-13) will cater to the 10-12 age group. For more information Call 09 360 6809 or email raceoffice@rnzys. org.nz

Malo Armstrong-Wills and Kate Littler are shown how to attach the main by Emilie Jones (centre).

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With a Vakaros fleet, the race control functions can define course limits and get a jump on the fleet with extreme starting accuracy.

Come in store and check out the Vakaros Atlas 2 today!

Two aces scored at RNZYS Golf Day!

A single hole-in-one is a rare enough thing on any given day, but this year’s popular 36° Brokers Golf Day at the Gulf Harbour course saw two on different holes, one by scratch handicap real estate agent Phil Mosley and the other by 17-handicap Dave Lourie from Gloss Boats.

It was the first time Mosley had played in the Squadron event and was a last-minute entry. “Somebody pulled out at short notice and I was asked to fill in,” he says.

His ace came at the 8th hole, a Par 3 with the pin set about 170m from the tee in the far left corner of the green. “Funny enough, my playing partners had all missed the green by some distance, so I thought I should just hit a nice easy swing, get the ball on the green and try to salvage a par.

“When I hit the ball (with a 5-iron), it immediately felt OK and I was confident it would be pretty close to the hole. I never thought for a minute it was going to go in, but as soon as it landed it just headed straight for the pin.”

Mosley is an accomplished golfer who has represented New Zealand at junior and senior level. He played in the prestigious Eisenhower Cup in 1978 and has represented Auckland, Wellington and North Harbour at various stages.

However, in more than five decades of competitive golf, this was his first official hole in one as a registered club member. “I did do a hole in one at the age of 14 on the 10th green of the old North Shore Club

at Thomas Park,” he says, “but I wasn’t a member of a club at that time.

“These days, I am a fair weather golfer and only get out once every three or four weeks. Actually, I hadn’t played for more than a month before the Squadron event. I find the less I play these days, the better I seem to score, so I should probably keep that up.”

Dave Lourie’s magic shot came at the Par 3 3rd hole. Taking a 7-iron for the 127m shot, Lourie saw his ball bounce on the green, but the hole was tucked behind a bunker and he did not see what happened next.

“Holy-moley!” exclaimed playing partner and Gloss Boats colleague Reuban Callesen, “if that’s not in the hole, it has to be right next to it.”

Lourie was dubious, and reached for his putter, fully expecting to have to use it. As his group arrived at the green, a disappointed Lourie turned to Callesen and complained: “What are you talking about? There isn’t a ball anywhere on the green.”

One of the other players, walked over to the hole and quietly said, “Hey, Dave, you might want to come and have a look at this.”

“You’re kidding,” Lourie replied, sensing a prank – “but sure enough, there it was, in the hole. Pretty cool all right.”

Like Mosley, Lourie has not played much golf over this rain-sodden summer, so to get his first hole in one was a huge surprise. Also in the Gloss Boats team was Dave’s wife, Louise. “Actually, Louise has played more golf than I have. She introduced me to the game. Lucky she was

Opposite page: L-R Conrad Gair from 36° Brokers with Phil Mosley and Sarah Gair with the foil board prize for Mosley’s hole-in-one. This page: The Gloss Boats team L-R Carl Webster, Dave Lourie, Louise Herring, Reuben Callesen. Below:

1/ L-R Carol Jaminson, Sarah Gair, Franny Malcolm, Cindy Clark.

2/ L-R Mike Symonds, Tim Irvine, Neil Dayal, Shaun O’Mara from Barfoot and Thompson Ponsonby.

3/ L-R David Holt, Richard Pilley, Bruce O’Leary, Arthur Caughley from Milford Asset Management.

4/ Musto 2022 winners and 2023 runners-up L-R Robb Baird, Scott Campbell, Sam Jasper and George Hendy. there to see it for herself,” he quipped, “otherwise she might not have believed me.”

With no big hole-in-one prize on offer for that hole, Erin Dayal, representing sponsors Barfoot & Thompson, awarded Lourie a couple of beers for his effort. His wife, Louise, however, secretly had the magic golf ball mounted on a base as a trophy, which now stands proudly on their mantlepiece.

Mosley was more fortunate. His hole was sponsored by hosts 36° Brokers and came with a $25,000 foil board. After he played his shot, a sponsor representative told him, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is you have won the foil board. The bad news is that if you had been here last year, you would have won a car!

By Ivor Wilkins • Photos by Debbie Whiting

Only production yachts designed before 1988 are permitted to enter the Ocean Globe race, which excludes custom racers like Steinlager 2 – Ivor Wilkins photo.

RNZYS plays its part in Whitbread 50th anniversary salute

Fifty years on from the first fully-crewed round the world race, the modern descendants of those early pioneers blast across oceans at extraordinary speeds, aided by space-age technology and electronics, sailed by highly trained professional athletes and backed by global sponsors with armies of public relations experts telling their stories.

It is grand prix sailing of the highest order – far removed from the enthusiastic amateur adventure-seekers, who set off from Portsmouth in 1973 armed with sextants to plot their way around the planet.

Now, however, a new race will revive memories of where it all began. And the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron – which has played a significant role through most of the subsequent 13 iterations of the race – will host the entrants during their Auckland stopover this summer.

The Ocean Globe Race is described as “an eight-month adventure around the world for ordinary sailors on normal yachts. Racing oceangoing GRP production yachts designed before 1988, there will be no computers, no satellites, no GPS, and no high-tech materials. Sextants, team spirit and raw determination alone in the great traditions of ocean racing are allowed on this truly human endeavour.”

The brainchild of Australian adventurer Don McIntyre, who finished 2nd in his class in the 1990 BOC Single-handed Round the World Race, the idea is to go back “to that first great Whitbread Race and sail like it’s 1973”.

At present, 14 yachts ranging in size from 51ft to 74ft are entered, representing Australia (two), France (five), Finland (two), South Africa, Spain, Italy, USA and UK with a potential 15th entry still to come.

Several of the yachts competed in early Whitbread races, including L’esprit d’equipe, which won the 1985 edition. Maiden, the Bruce Farr design, which competed in the 1989 race with the first all-female crew led by Tracy Edwards, will return for the Ocean Globe Race – once again with an all-female crew.

The race will take competitors on four legs starting and finishing in Southampton with stopovers in Cape Town, Auckland and Punta del Este. The shortest leg is 5430nm and the longest, from New Zealand to Uruguay via Cape Horn, is 8370nm.

The Auckland stopover will be the longest with the first yachts expected to arrive about December 14. The race yachts will tie up in front of ‘Restaurant Row’ at Wynyard Quarter, where passers-by can view them. The fleet will depart on Sunday, January 14. It is expected that between 300 to 400 families will travel to Auckland to join competitors for the Christmas festivities.

Following a recent visit to Auckland by one of the race organisers, the RNZYS has agreed to host the fleet and undertake the race management for the finish and re-start.

“It is exciting for us as a club to be supporting a race like this,” says

Historic arrival in Auckland stirs memories of inspiration and an amusing etiquette lapse

The first time the Whitbread Race stopped in Auckland was in 1977, when Heath’s Condor took line honours. Peter Blake, on his first round the world race, was watch captain for co-skippers Robin Knox Johnston and Leslie Williams.

P.J. Montgomery did live radio commentary of the arrival and Auckland turned on a huge welcome party. Many Kiwi sailors –Grant Dalton and Digby Taylor among them – said the sight of the maxi yacht sweeping into Auckland inspired them to take on the race themselves.

The photo below is of P.J. Montgomery handing over a New Zealand ensign. “Blake called us on VHF asking if Condor could borrow our ensign because they did not have one,” Montgomery recalls with a chuckle. Oops.

General Manager Sarah Wiblin. “Given the ‘everyman’ nature of the event, it is a privilege to be hosting the fleet and what it represents to our club community.”

Competitors and their supporters will be given guest membership of the RNZYS for the duration of the stopover. “We will be inviting race crews to utilise our facilities, hopefully sharing some stories and participating in our activities,” says Wiblin.

On Wednesday December 20, a special Whitbread-themed Rum Race will be staged and it is hoped that some of the Ocean Globe Race visitors will join members’ yachts for the occasion. On Saturday December 23, the RNZYS will also host a welcome party for the fleet.

Over the Christmas New Year period, the club will close as usual, but will reopen on the weekend of January 6 and “go full noise” in supporting the racers through to the re-start on January 14.

“Highlights in that week will include a Whitbread reunion lunch on Friday January 12, which will lead into a special Ocean Globe Rum Race in the afternoon. We will invite previous Whitbread competitors, who will attend the lunch, to join members on their boats for that race.

“That evening, we will also host the official farewell party for the fleet before they head to Cape Horn, which will be a very special occasion,” says Wiblin. “That Friday is going to be a really big day. We are hoping that some Whitbread veterans from Europe and elsewhere will make the trip to join the festivities.” Auckland is the only venue where a major Whitbread reunion will be held.

Saturday will be left for the competitors to make last-minute preparations for the long Southern Ocean passage to come. “On the Sunday morning, the RNZYS will host a large breakfast open to members, race crews and their supporters, before heading out on the

Auckland is renowned for its enthusastic round the world race farewells. – Ivor Wilkins Photo

Exciting offshore opportunity for a young sailor

To encourage young sailors and strengthen local connections with stopover cities, the Ocean Globe Race has opened an opportunity for a sailor from each succeeding stopover under the age of 24 to join the race for the leg into their home port.

“For the leg from Cape Town to Auckland, that position will be on board the Australian Swan 57, Explorer (pictured above),” says RNZYS General Manager Sarah Wiblin. “We are still ironing out the details, but we are hoping that position will go to an RNZYS member who will be under the age of 24 on April 1, 2024.

“It will be really cool for us to follow their story as they head home from South Africa through November and December. It is a really fantastic opportunity and I am sure some of our Mastercard Youth Programme members will be keen.

“It will be interesting to see who applies and where that ends up. There is a charge attached to this opportunity and we are looking at a way to fund that, if possible.”

water to give them a great iconic send-off in true Squadron fashion.” In association with the NZ Sailing Trust, Steinlager 2 and Lion New Zealand, will join the farewell fleet for the re-start.

New Zealand and the RNZYS have a strong connection with the various iterations of the round the world race. Sir Peter Blake and Grant Dalton both carried the RNZYS burgee when they won the race with IOR maxis Steinlager 2 and New Zealand Endeavour respectively in 198990 and 1993-94.

Ross Field and Mike Sanderson both subsequently led campaigns to victory, Field with Yamaha (Whitbread 60) in 1993-94 and Sanderson with ABN Amro One in 2005-06, while other campaigns were led by Kiwi skippers Digby Taylor, Chris Dickson, Brad Butterworth and Kevin Shoebridge. Between 1973 and the 2017-18 edition, 355 on-board crew positions were occupied by New Zealanders across multiple entries.

The original 1973 race stopped in Sydney and by-passed New Zealand, but the Whitbread organisers were not happy with the Australian reception. They felt the city largely ignored the round the world racers in favour of the traditional Sydney-Hobart race.

In negotiations with the RNZYS, Auckland became the stopover for the next and most of the subsequent races. It became a crew favourite over the years and a major maintenance stop, enjoying the support and expertise of the local marine industry.

The Ocean Globe Race organisers are already in discussions with industry representatives about haul-outs and maintenance for the yachts during the stopover, while the RNZYS is mobilising some of its own partnerships and relationships, like Accor Hotels, to facilitate crew members’ time in New Zealand. Many will take the opportunity to explore New Zealand beyond Auckland, while their families visit.

In the absence of summer in NZ, Kiwis flew abroad with good results

By Ivor Wilkins • Images courtesy of SailGP and Yachting NZ

With severe weather disruptions inflicting mayhem on domestic sailing and racing agendas, it was left to international events to provide much of the action – with encouraging results across a spectrum of disciplines, including the Olympics.

On the big-boat scene, the Kiwi Live Ocean team led by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke opened its account in Season 4 of SailGP with a stunning victory at Chicago on June 18. “This puts us obviously in a great position for the season. We’re really happy to walk away with the win,” said Burling as the champagne flew in celebration.

This result followed on from the Season 3 grand final in San Francisco, where the Live Ocean team came agonisingly close to breaking Tom Slingsby’s Australian stranglehold on the championship title.

Having performed strongly with 16 individual race wins and three regatta victories in Season 3, the team came into the grand final off a strong America’s Cup testing and training session in Auckland – in which Emirates Team New Zealand’s modified AC75, Te Rehutai, frequently broke the 50-knot barrier. However, the Kiwi SailGP crew’s seasonending San Francisco showing in May saw them struggling for pace in most races, posting a 4/7/3/6/7 scoreline.

But, the winner-take-all championship final, up against the Australian crew and the British outfit led by Sir Ben Ainslie, turned into a nailbiter.

With only the final mark-rounding ahead, the Australians looked set to romp home. An uncharacteristic fumble, however, saw them flop off their foils, opening the way for the New Zealanders to charge up from behind and come oh-so-close to snatching the lead.

“I thought this could be the greatest choke of all time,” groaned Slingsby as his 200m lead evaporated. But, the Australians did just enough to hold the New Zealand boat at bay and claim their third championship crown.

“Absolutely gutted,” was Burling’s assessment. “It was so close.”

New Zealand did have a winner at the San Francisco regatta in the form of 18-year-old Auckland University business student, Stella Bilger, who won the SailGP Inspire women’s Waszp crown. Stella is the daughter of RNZYS member and PredictWind founder Jon Bilger, who represented New Zealand in the 470 class at the 1992 Olympics. Keeping it in the family, Jon is the son of Jock Bilger, who competed in the Flying Dutchman class at the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games.

On the international match race scene, Celia Willison and Megan Thomson – who previously worked in the RNZYS Sailing Office – led their Edge Women’s Match and 2.0 Racing teams respectively to good results in early (northern) season events.

In the Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Santa Maria Cup event in early May, Willison’s crew (Charlotte Porter, Alison Kent and Serena Woodall) made it to the final before ultimately losing to Sweden’s

Team WINGS, skippered by Anna Östling. Earlier Östling had a tough assignment against Thomson’s crew (Anna Merchant, Maeve White, Lisa Dartnall) to come from 0-2 down in their semi-final before advancing to the final with a 3-2 score.

The Annapolis result came hard on the heels of a hard-fought victory for Willison’s Edge crew in San Francisco in the inaugural Casa Vela Cup, where they defeated Östling’s line-up 3-2 and claimed the title.

Thomson and her crew were once again in the thick of the action, but their progress was halted in a semi-final clash with Willison, who snatched a come-from-behind win.

Earlier in April, Thomson’s 2.0 Racing scored a coveted entry to the Congressional Cup by virtue of progressing to the final of the Ficker Cup, with the help of reigning world champion Nick Egnot-Johnson in her crew.

There were no favours from Egnot-Johnson at the Congressional Cup, however, where he and his Knots Racing line-up defeated Thomson in both round robins before going on to claim the bronze medal in a

Opposite page: Stella Bilger celebrates winning the SailGP Inspire women’s Waszp title in San Francisco. This page above: Peter Burling and his Live Ocean crew won the opening regatta of SailGP’s Season 4 in Chicago in mid-June. Right: Megan Thomson has posted impressive match race results overseas.

Right: The Knots Racing crew (L-R Alastair Gifford, Zak Merton, skipper Nick Egnot-Johnson, Sam Barnett, Alex Higby, Bradley McLaughlin) celebrate their podium finish at the prestigious Congressional Cup match race regatta. Below: George Gautrey edged former Laser world champion Tom Saunders to gain selection for the Olympic test event in Marseilles.

career highlight 2-0 victory over British ace Ian Williams.

Egnot-Johnson said he and his crew of Alex Higby, Bradley McLaughlin, Sam Barnett, Alastair Gifford and RNZYS Performance Sailing Manager Zak Merton learned to match race by studying Williams.

“We’ve watched him beating so many different people and dominating the World Tour for years,” said Egnot-Johnson. “To then come up against him and get the win was pretty cool.”

At the Moth World Championship in Weymouth, UK, four young Kiwis from North Shore clubs posted outstanding results in the 128-boat fleet, but it did not count as a world championship because only two qualifying races were completed due to lack of wind

Jacob Pye of Manly SC won both races to be declared the winner, while Mattias Coutts (2/7) finished 7th. Henry Haslett and Seb Menzies were 12th and 19th respectively.

On the Olympic front, the current selection contenders were under close scrutiny as they headed to Europe for the Princess Sofia Regatta in Palma, followed by the French Olympic Week at Hyeres, before a crucial cut to one team per discipline at the Olympic Test regatta in Marseilles in July.

Following a disappointing showing at the Tokyo Olympics, natural attrition and the rise of a new generation has seen a shifting of the landscape in the New Zealand squad.

America’s Cup priorities have seen a significant exodus from the Olympic ranks, most notably with Burling and Tuke – the sole medallists at Tokyo – leaving the 49er class they dominated for the past decade. With the Finn class off the Olympic slate, Andy Maloney and Josh Junior have also focused on their Cup duties, as has Laser bronze medallist Sam Meech.

Going into the European campaign, Yachting New Zealand’s High Performance Director, Ian Stewart acknowledged the squad was on a redemption path following the Tokyo result.

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The wish list for the European campaign, he added, was for the sailors to demonstrate an ability to win races, to get on the podium and to foot it with the rest of the world in international competition.

“We did not fire in Japan,” Stewart said. “That is an undeniable fact.You had to feel for several of the teams, who were impeded by the world of Covid, but the pandemic reminded us about how valuable our own sailing squads are in New Zealand, if we use them purposefully.

“We are continuing to work hard on the power of the squad, which is not always straightforward bearing in mind different dynamics and egos and the fact that, ultimately, good mates are trying to knock each other off to go to the Olympics.”

And the European campaign has revealed that some feisty selection battles are looming in the coming year, particularly in the 49er, 49er FX and ILCA7 (Laser) classes.

Making the cut for the dress-rehearsal event in Marseilles, Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie won a ding-dong battle with Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn, who drew first blood at the Princess Sofia event with a gold medal to McHardie and McKenzie’s bronze.

The balance only just tipped the other way when McHardie and McKenzie took 6th place at Hyeres, while Dunning Beck and Gunn slipped to 9th.

Jo Aleh and Molly Meech were picked for Marseilles in the 49er FX class ahead of Alex Maloney and Olivia Hobbs, while George Gautrey edged former world champion Tom Saunders for selection in the ILCA 7 courtesy of his silver medal at the Princess Sofia.

Nacra 17 combination Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson, who finished third at the Lanzarote International Regatta

in February and managed a top-10 finish in Hyères, have also been selected as have windfoilers Josh Armit and Veerle ten Have.

Ten Have won bronze in Palma, with Armit finishing fourth in the men’s competition at the same event, before securing seventh place at the European championships in Greece.

New Zealand’s leading women’s kitefoiler Justina Kitchen will also compete in Marseilles, while Lukas Walton-Keim has recovered from a knee injury to book his spot in the men’s event.

Several members of the squad, who missed the cut, will still travel to Marseilles to learn as much about the Olympic venue as possible.

“The test event provides an invaluable opportunity for our sailors to race at the Olympic venue against an Olympic-sized fleet and to understand the conditions they will encounter next year,” said Stewart. “There’s a long way to go before the sailing team is finalised for the Games, with strict performance criteria which must still be met,” he cautioned.

Clearly, the battles for final selection will only ramp up with a year to go.

When the crews return from their Northern Hemisphere campaigns next summer, one aspect Yachting NZ is keen to repeat in preparations for the 2024 Olympics are the race preparation sessions they held using the RNZYS fleet of Elliott 7s in the lead-up to Tokyo.

“It helped connect sailors throughout the high performance programme, from the top to the youth guys. Everybody loved it and it put a bit of competitive heat into the programme as well,” he said. “Doing it again is definitely on the cards.”

Isaac McHardie and Will McKenzie are locked in a fearsome battle with Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn for Olympic selection in the 49er.

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Talented squad of applicants for Youth and Women’s America’s Cup

By Ivor Wilkins

More than 120 would-be candidates from around New Zealand have answered the call for applications to represent Emirates Team New Zealand and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron at the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup – providing the selection panel with a pool of “exceptional calibre” from which to draw its final squad.

The Women’s and Youth America’s Cup Events will be raced in the one design AC40 class in the weeks leading up to and during the America’s Cup in Barcelona next year. There will be 12 teams from 12 nations competing in each event.

For the Youth America’s Cup, competitors must be aged between 18 and 25, with no gender specification – crews can opt for mixed gender, all-male, or all-female lineups. For the Women’s America’s Cup, the only stipulation is that the crew must be 18 years or older.

“We received applications from 121 people in total,” says Emirates Team New Zealand’s Elise Beavis, who, with Josh Junior, will assess the applications before narrowing them down to 20 from each category.

These will then be presented to the seven-person selection panel, who will choose eight short-listed candidates in each category. The Selection panel is made up of:

• Josh Junior – Emirates Team New Zealand Sailor & Programme Lead

• Elise Beavis – Emirates Team New Zealand Performance & simulator

• Kevin Shoebridge – Emirates Team New Zealand COO

• Gillian Williams – RNZYS Vice Commodore

• Suzanne McFadden – Award winning Sports Journalist

• Polly Powrie – Olympic 470 Gold & Silver Medallist

• Ray Davies – Emirates Team New Zealand Coach

The shortlisted sailors will spend a week at Emirates Team New Zealand being assessed on a number of levels including AC40 simulator sailing, team participation and attitude. Upon completion of that process, the final teams of five sailors each will be selected by the Selection Panel in December of this year.

Of the 121 applications received, 100 comprising both men and women fell within the youth age bracket. All the female applicants who met the youth age criteria, applied for both categories.

“We had applications from women aged 18 to almost 50,” Beavis notes. “There were fewer and fewer applicants as age increased. There were 31 youth female applicants, which is a really exciting area as they are eligible for both teams and are the sailors which junior female sailors will be looking to as role models.”

More than 20 of the male and female youth applicants were under 19-years-old, including some “very strong” candidates, according to Beavis.

Some applicants had no sailing background, but more than 30% have foiling experience, ranging from single handed dinghies such as Moths and WASZPs, to wind foilers and wind surfers, through to high performance larger team boats such as the 69F. Some had F50 and/or AC40 experience.

There are four Olympic medals among the applicants and many more medals from world championships in Olympic classes, youth classes and match racing events.

“Overall the calibre of the applicants is exceptional,” says RNZYS Vice Commodore Gillian Williams, who was hopeful that members or graduates from the Mastercard Youth Programme would be among the candidates to make the final cut.

The Women’s and Youth America’s Cup contests will be sailed in one-design AC40s.

Josh Junior, who leads the selection process, said the strategy is to develop high performing teams that can win and represent New Zealand “with pride, passion, and professionalism on and off the water”.

“One of the strengths of Emirates Team New Zealand over its 30 year history has always been to continue to grow the team by integrating new talent across the board,” says Chief Operating Officer Kevin Shoebridge.

“So this is a really exciting and vitally important selection process to go through when thinking of the next generation of Emirates Team New Zealand.”

AC37 will be the first to include a Women’s America’s Cup, but New Zealand has an extraordinary record at the two previous Youth America’s Cups. A crew led by Peter Burling won the inaugural youth event in San Francisco in 2013, with another Kiwi crew skippered by Will Tiller finishing a close second.

At the Bermuda America’s Cup in 2017, the New Zealand team, led by Logan Dunning Beck, came agonisingly close to defending the title, but did well to take the silver medal.

• Emirates Team New Zealand is directly investing in the future of New Zealand’s world class sailing talent by purchasing a new fleet of 10 Elliott 7 yachts for the RNZYS Mastercard Youth Training and Performance Programmes, which have long been globally regarded as world leading youth ttraining for performance keel boat sailors.

The RNZYS Mastercard Youth Training Programme, now in its 36th year, has produced more than 1200 graduates, including some who have risen to the highest levels of the sport. Recent examples are Nick EgnotJohnson 2022 Open Match Racing World Champion, and Celia Willison second in the 2022 Barfoot & Thompson Women’s Match Racing World Championship.

RNZYS Commodore Andrew Aitken said, “I am absolutely delighted by the investment that Emirates Team New Zealand is making to support these programmes. The enduring legacy of this new fleet will shape the future sailors of today and tomorrow.”

Noted Emirates Team New Zealand CEO Grant Dalton: “This Programme is one of the cornerstones of the development of New Zealand sailing talent. It is the pathway from teenage enthusiasts to high performance sailors in New Zealand, and around the world.

“So, we are happy to be able to continue to support it by refreshing the fleet of Elliott 7’s, the legacy of which will go well beyond the physical boats themselves.”

Musto and RNZYS make for a good fit

It’s a good fit. The RNZYS Retail Store has a new look this winter stocking the latest Musto clothing range. Catering for the serious sailor, weekend adventurer, or just the need to be warm and comfortable outdoors, the collection includes jackets, jerseys. fleeces, polos, caps and gloves.

“The Squadron has a good relationship with Musto and the NZ distributor George Hendy,” said Membership & Offer Manager, Georgia Witt. “Musto supports us with uniforms for Performance Programme teams and they have a good track record when it comes to sailing merchandise.

“It’s a reputable brand in the industry and as a leading yacht club we like to align ourselves with leading brands.

“The range, which is also available on-line, is modelled on the success Musto has had with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. We have taken their advice as to what are fastmoving products that sailors are interested in. And come summer, we will introduce a new seasonal drop of items.”

“It is exciting to be stocking the store again with fresh items and we look forward to working with Musto in the future.”

Story and pictures by Debra Douglas

Top: Kyra Kalkoff, the new Receptionist, is ready to help you choose from the Musto range at the Squadron Retail Store.

Left: The Squadron team in the new Musto gear, from left, Tom Hall-Taylor, Kate Rathbun, Lexi Watts and Jason Carr.

Youth sailors will get to train aboard ex-Whitbread maxis Lion NZ and Steinlager 2.

Generous bequest will give youth members big-boat experience

A generous bequest from former RNZYS General Committee member David Innes will enable Mastercard Youth Programme members to experience big-boat sailing aboard the two former Whitbread maxis Lion NZ and Steinlager 2

“One of the key areas we need to address with our Youth Programme members is big boat racing,” says General Manager Sarah Wiblin. “They need to develop the skills to jump out of Elliott 7s and onto bigger boats for races like the Coastal Classic.”

Competencies to work on include dealing with big boat winches, trimming sails, experiencing the different loads, sailing at night and standing watches.

On September 9-10, the youth sailors will join the NZ Sailing Trust’s two maxi yachts for a 26-28-hour session in the Outer Gulf, with several mark-roundings thrown in to test sail-handling.

“Each boat will have about 16 youth sailors on board along with four graduates of the programme with serious ocean racing miles behind them as coaches and mentors,” says Wiblin.

“This is an exciting opportunity and a great way to give some realworld ocean racing experience in memory of David Innes and his very generous bequest. It would be wonderful if we could do something similar every year.”

David Innes joined the RNZYS in 1979, served on the General Committee and was an active member of the Cruising Division with his Lotus 10.6 Breakfree. Towards the end of his life, he made a big contribution to the reorganisation of the RNZYS Peter Cornes Memorial Library. He also played an active role with the Kawau Island Boating Club.

• Members interested in making similar bequests to support particular RNZYS activities are encouraged to check the website www.rnzys.org.nz/donations, or email legacy@rnzys.org.nz

Scoping travel options to Barcelona for the 2024 America’s Cup regatta

In partnership with NZ sports tour operator, BCD Travel, the RNZYS is offering members an official 12-night land package to support Emirates Team New Zealand at the 37th America’s Cup, to be held in Barcelona in October 2024.

Among those members present at the Squadron Travel launch event to hear about Barcelona travel and sightseeing opportunities, AC race viewing and boat charter and berth options were ...

1/ Bruce Tantrum and Shirley-Ann McCrystal.

2/ Chris Shaw and Russell Hawken.

3/ David and Michelle Booth.

4/ Blair and Anita Wolfgram.

5/ Joanne Williment and Ross Jamieson, BCD Travel.

6/ From left, Rod Slater, Roger Moore and Wally Baker.

7/ From left, Kim McDell, Richard Lintott and Len Heard.

8/ From left, Simon Manning, Nic Tait and Nina Monks.

• For more information about destination Barcelona contact: Ross Jamieson Ph: 04 891 1000, AC37@bcdtravel.co.nz.

Photos by Debra Douglas

A winter favourite

Soup’s on! Head Chef Campbell White brings to the table a true winter warmer - Sailor’s Flourless Chowder. A favourite on the Member’s Bar menu, the dish is chockfull with smoked fish and seasonal seafood, accompanied by house-made brown bread and butter. “While I was in Ireland, everywhere I worked had chowder on the menu, made all different ways.” said Campbell. ”At one place I came across a flourless chowder and I thought it was amazing. I altered the recipe to include some extra ingredients I like and have been using it ever since. Bon appetit.”

Picture by Debra Douglas

80 and Bouzaid is still at full throttle ahead

By Ivor Wilkins • Photo by Hamish Ross Milestone birthdays

are opportunities for reflection, but on turning 80 Chris Bouzaid – whose life of achievement offers much to reflect on – remains firmly focused on what lies ahead.

“I don’t see much point in looking back,” says Bouzaid, whose well-charted sailing achievements include groundbreaking victories in the One Ton Cup and Sydney-Hobart Race, among others.

“Memories are wonderful things, but looking at things you are still going to do are far more important.”

On both sides of a yarn-filled birthday bash at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in April – attended by sailing luminaries from New Zealand and Australia – his calendar brimmed with things to do, places to go.

Shortly before arriving in New Zealand, he had been in the Caribbean, racing on the 49m Vitters ketch Meraki with his son, Richard, and a full works team from Doyle Sails in the St Barths Bucket superyacht regatta.

“I posted on Facebook that you know you are on a big yacht when it takes two people to carry an empty sail bag,” he chuckles.

First stop after the Squadron celebration was a visit to Australia to see his showjumping grand-daughter, Georgia, competing in an equestrian event with a new horse. Even in this arena, sailing connections are not far away.

Georgia’s trainer is John Winning’s daughter. The Winning family are prominent in Australian sailing. They currently charter the supermaxi Andoo Comanche and took line honours in this year’s Sydney Hobart.

John Winning Snr, known as ‘Woody’, in his seventies continues to race in the highly competitive 18ft skiff scene, in which he has

played a prominent role for four decades. He and his son, John Jnr – who now runs the family construction empire – enjoy a strong rivalry in the super athletic class.

One nostalgia trip Bouzaid is allowing himself is a visit to Lord Howe Island. “In many ways, my first real memories date back to Lord Howe Island, where my mother ran a guest house,” he says. “I lived there for several months when I was a seven-year-old, but I have never been back.

“I have sailed past it several times, but never stopped. When I went there as a child, I remember flying in on a small flying boat. We landed in the lagoon and a couple of kids rowed out in a dinghy to take us ashore.

“The fishing was fantastic. The permanent population was tiny, maybe 50 inhabitants, with occasional tourists. Most of the inhabitants

never left, but while I was there, one took a trip to Sydney. He was so overwhelmed, he barely left his hotel room.

“Earlier, when I was five, my mother also ran a guest house on Norfolk Island. Most of what I know from Norfolk Island is stuff I was told, not what I actually remember myself.”

With his Antipodean activities ticked off, Bouzaid is in a hurry to get back home to the USA in time to re-launch his classic 30 Square Metre yacht Bijou II for a summer of racing in Maine.

Bijou II is a new acquisition. “We were skiing in Utah last March,” he says. “I still ski every year, but not as aggressively as I used to. Anyway, while we were stormbound for a bit, I found some old yachting magazines and saw this boat advertised for sale in Seattle.

“I called the owner and bought it. It is a

Chris and Lydia Bouzaid enjoying a sail aboard the Logan classic, Rainbow, during his birthday visit to Auckland.

beautiful boat, built in Germany in the early 1970s. The owner had two of them, one he called a racing version and one he called a cruising version.

“I bought the cruising version. The thing that makes it a cruiser is two tiny lockers by the companionway; otherwise it is identical to the racing version,” he laughs.

This represents a return to the 30 Square Metre class for Bouzaid. “I owned one of these boats in New Zealand when I was about 20 years old. It was called Caprice and I won the Balokovic Cup with Jimmy Lidgard and Pete Shaw. In fact, we won a couple of ocean races with Caprice

“She had no lifelines or self-bailing cockpit. I don’t think we even carried lifejackets. It was a bit different back then. We had this tiny primus stove. In one of our races, we hoisted the spinnaker and the primus went up with it and was lost overboard, so we couldn’t even have a hot drink.

“This new boat has taken a bit of sorting out. I tried to race it last season with the sails it came with, which were about 40 years old. I realised just how bad the sails were that we raced with in those days, compared with modern technology.”

Having ordered a new Doyle mainsail from son Richard, Bouzaid stitched up a new spinnaker in his basement at home. “I have three sewing machines in the basement. Col Anderson (an Australian sailmaker and sailing legend) visited me last year and we made up a new headsail together.

“With better sails, we were hanging in quite well at the end of last season. I think we won the last five races at Newport, Rhode Island.”

Bouzaid is also a shareholder with Brad Butterworth, David Glenn and Hamish Ross in the Auckland Logan classic, Rainbow, which his father, Leo, owned after World War Two. In keeping with his high-octane lifestyle, he wasted no time in joining Rainbow for a race on the Waitemata Harbour the day he and his wife, Lydia, flew into Auckland for his birthday celebrations.

“It was blowing like stink. We had the wrong sails. The bottom was dirty. We did very poorly,” he laments. “We were meant to go out racing again the following Sunday and had the bottom cleaned, but it was blowing so hard they called it off.”

However, Rainbow features in yet another part of Bouzaid’s forward planning. “We are looking at taking her over to France next year

and doing a season of classic racing there, finishing up at Barcelona for the America’s Cup.”

Under the Protected Objects Act, heritage items including classic yachts cannot leave New Zealand except under tight conditions to ensure their return. This usually involves posting a substantial financial bond.

The syndicate owners are in the early stages of negotiating those obstacles, but are keen to make it happen. They are also talking to other classic yacht owners about forming a team. “There is a circuit of classic regattas in the South of France, starting in Monaco and finishing in St Tropez,” says Bouzaid.

“They also have three-boat teams. If we could get Rainbow, Ariki and Rawhiti together as a team, they could acquit themselves very well, so let’s hope we can take this somewhere.

“This is an idea that is one day old at the moment, so there is a long way to go. But plenty of big achievements began with a conversation in a bar, so why not this one?”

Clearly the passage of 80 years has done little to slow Bouzaid’s pace, or dull his passions. No resting on past laurels, he continues to charge full-steam-ahead towards new goals and ambitions.

Pin presentations for senior RNZYS members

A winter luncheon in the Quarterdeck was both an opportunity to enjoy a catch-up with old friends, as well as applaud the recipients of 40, 50 and 60-year membership pins, presented by Commodore Andrew Aitken.

Among the guests were …

1/ From left, Scott Douglas, Tracy Malcolm (40 years) Ray Thompson (50 years) and Gillian Thompson.

2/ Dr Clive Ross (60 years) and Noel Vautier (60 years).

3/ From left, Graham Hubble (50 years), Robby Thompson, Mary Brook and Peter Brook (50 years).

4/ From left, Shane Pollard and Reston Pollard (60 years) with Chairman of the House David Blakey and Life Member Bill Donovan (66 years).

5/ Ross Dennison (40 years) and Julie Conning.

6/ Graham Tercel (50 years) and Pam Tercel.

Pictures by Debra Douglas

Encouraging progress with the RNZYS sustainability project

Kawau Reforestation Update

After a recent trip to Kawau, we were pleasantly surprised to see the good growth of last year’s plants and the efforts of all the volunteers that supported our Kawau Reforestation Project. Finally, a benefit from La Nina and our “summer of storms”: there was lots of rain, which the new plants appreciated.

As we look ahead to this winter and continuing momentum, we will commence with a weeding working bee to remove invasive species, and follow up with a couple planting days on the hill above Lidgard House to add approximately 2000 more trees this winter.

Our first weeding days are scheduled for July 8 and 9, and dates for the tree planting in July and August will be announced soon. Keep an eye out in the RNZYS Mainsheet e-newsletter, on facebook and other emails for the call to assist and RSVP.

This is a great opportunity to get involved in the club community and help support something with meaningful outcomes for this slice of Kawau paradise!

The goal of our weeding days is to give last year’s young trees clear space to grow in the spring, and prep the site for more planting. Here are a few things we’ll be doing and these are also tips you may want to bear in mind for your own garden:

• Depending on the type of weeds removed, once uprooted it’s OK to leave them on the ground to mulch and provide nutrients.

• Carefully remove and cut off dead head flowers to minimize spread – especially for the likes of gorse/thistles with characteristically

yellow/purple flowers. This is one of the key things we will focus on and when removing the weeds to make sure any seeds from those flowers don’t fall back into fresh holes just created by weeding.

• Tobacco weeds aka woolly nightshade especially need to be pulled out before they get too big, and pulled or twisted from the base close to the soil line. If the roots are accidently broken off, make sure to dig them out of the soil completely, as they will re-grow and become a persistent problem.

• Especially on the hill above Lidgard House, take care not to confuse young pines (pervasive invader) with young manuka. The manuka trees provide erosion control and are an excellent coloniser of bare ground to re-vegetate, which is ideal for restoration projects on sloped land.

• And, of course, be careful not to disturb any young plants that are just getting established.

Overall, we are thrilled with the progress of the Kawau Reforestation Project and are grateful for all the support from our volunteers. With continued efforts, we can help restore the natural beauty of Kawau for generations to come.

YNZ Clean Club Certification

RNZYS is well on our way to achieving certification with the Yachting New Zealand clean club programme. Stay tuned to the next edition of Breeze for a further update from our Sustainability Committee on our journey through this certification process – it’s a culmination of many years work with credit due to a huge number of people.

Richard McCrystal Cup

One stalwart of our journey to become more sustainable as a club is Debbie Whiting, and as such she was awarded the Richard McCrystal Cup for sustainable action at the RNZYS 2023 Annual Prizegiving. The Sustainability Committee nominated Debbie for this award as acknowledgement of her cheerful and productive contributions to last year’s efforts at Kawau, promoting the project and leading by example at the club. Thank you and congratulations Debbie.

By Sheryl Lanigan, RNZYS Sustainability Committee

A group of volunteers planting last years’ crop on the steep terrain and in the rain. The hard work is rewarding – we promise!

Debbie Whiting, recipient of the Richard McCrystal Cup for Sustainable Action.

Keen interest as Auckland Boatshow makes its first return since 2019

The first Auckland Boat Show since 2019 celebrated its return, showcasing New Zealand’s largest on-water display of luxury vessels, rows of trailer boats and marquees full of marine companies. Pictured meeting and greeting visitors and enjoying the Autumn sun and warmth at the Jellicoe Wharf venue were ...

1/ Allane Clark and Mitchell Bond, GB Marine Group aboard their Palm Beach launch, Largo.

2/ Pauline Pringle, Smuggler Marine.

3/ Felicity Gould-Thorpe and Sarah Mair, Kennedy Point Marina.

4/ Adrian White and Brent Gribble, AkzoNobel Coatings.

5/ Cameron Burch and Anthony Bishop, Windcraft.

6/ Lloyd Stevenson and Robert Daly, Lloyd Stevenson Boatbuilders.

7/ Max Hall and Matt Hall, Sopac Marine.

8/ From left, Frankie Davis, Conrad Gair, Kayla Symmans and Emma Sheldon, 36 Degrees Brokers/The Yacht Collective.

9/ Richard Koreman, Abbie Clark and William Allcock, Altex Yacht & Boat Paint.

10/ From left, Scott Oldfield, Kat Mager, Fiona Heenan and Jason Snashall, Orakei Marine

11/ From left, Mitchell Clough, Jarrod Briggs, James Blockley and Sally Ostick, Marine Protection Solutions.

12/ Colin Rees, Busfield Marine Brokers Ltd.

13/ Al White, Ray White Marine with Rui Zhou of Wally Yachts.

Pictures by Debra Douglas

Holcim PRB broke the record first, but only held it a matter of hours before Malizia bettered it during the Atlantic leg of The Ocean Race.

‘Horrific and brutal’ – but fast enough to smash the 24hour record with a 641nm ocean blast

By Ivor Wilkins

The switch to semi-foiling IMOCA 60 yachts for the first running of the revised round-the-world race has seen some spectacular racing, brought alive by stunning mid-ocean drone footage –with the additional spice of two yachts smashing the 24-hour speed record, previously held since 2015 by the 30m supermaxi Comanche.

Comanche’s run of 618.01 nm at an average of 25.75 knots came during a stormy Transatlantic race. With just four crew and in 18m yachts, Holcim PRB and Malizia both clocked average speeds 1 knot faster than the bigger boat with distances of 640.90 nm and 641.13 nm respectively.

Competing in The Ocean Race, the record runs came during the Atlantic leg of the seven-stage race. Abby Ehler, on board Holcim PRB, said the hard-reaching conditions were horrific and brutal. “It’s that skimming stone motion that makes living on board so hard,” she said, describing how the crew wore helmets and body protection gear to avoid injury and even went without food at times because cooking was impossible.

Richard Bouzaid from Doyle Sails has first-hand experience of life on board these yachts, which are designed primarily for the Vendee Globe non-stop single-handed round the world race. Bouzaid led the sail programmes on two of Alex Thomson’s Hugo Boss campaigns and, through thousands of miles of sail testing, developed high respect (and aversion) for the punishment boats and pilots endured.

With three round the world races and dozens of long ocean races on his resume, Bouzaid is no stranger to tough offshore conditions, but said the IMOCA boats inflicted suffering on another level entirely.

“These boats are incredibly noisy and the motion is extremely harsh and jerky, both from the slamming and from the autopilot making constant high-speed course corrections,” says Bouzaid.

“It is hard enough just standing up, let alone moving about and getting things done. As each generation has evolved, it gets more brutal as the boats go faster and spend half their time out of the water.”

Even on Comanche’s record run, with 16 crew on board, it was no picnic, says Kiwi offshore racing veteran Tony Mutter. “It was pretty heinous,” he recalls. “We were in a terrible sea state with the wind going from 20 knots to over 40 knots. We were not really far enough north to get any benefit from the current, so it was just the strength of the wind from the right quarter that gave us a big push for 24 hours.

“We were banging and crashing, with a lot of water over the deck. This was quite early on in the Comanche programme and we had not had much time in bad conditions. We had some issues. The water ballast tanks kept filling up through the breather vents, which made the boat pretty sluggish. We had to slow down once every watch to pump the tanks out.

“We weren’t really thinking about a 24-hour time, because we were focused on winning a Transatlantic race. Early in the morning, Stan Honey (navigator) came up on deck to let us know we were getting pretty close to breaking the record.

“Just then, we stuffed the boat into the back of a wave and Stan went flying a few metres across the deck and was knocked unconscious.”

Even when they knew they had cracked the record, there was no sense of celebration. “We just pushed on and actually kept improving our time for about the next six hours (the clock keeps running, so the best continuous 24-hour period counts). We were racing Rambler, which was behind us. We figured they had a good chance of beating our time, so we just kept going hard.”

Mutter is impressed by the IMOCA 60s eclipsing Comanche’s run. “It is a pretty amazing effort, but I am sure they would tell you they could do a lot more if they had perfect, flat-water conditions.

“If you watch those boats during the inshore races, with flat water, they are often doing well over 30 knots. Get them in the open ocean and they are doing 19-20 knots most of the time because of the sea state.”

Also, the IMOCA class currently does not allow rudder foils, which means they drag their sterns. A change to the rule has been talked about for some time. Unleashed with full foiling, their performance potential would leap, but safety at precarious speeds, particularly on solo races, is an obvious consideration.

Following their Transatlantic race, Comanche actually planned to set up a run specifically targeting a new 24-hour record.

“We were aiming for a 720-mile day, which we were pretty confident we could do in the right conditions,” he says. Their plan was to strip

weight out of the boat, reduce the sail inventory to a cut-down mainsail and about three headsails, reduce the crew number to a bare minimum and then wait for conditions that would enable them to run ahead of a storm front with a True Wind Angle of 130°.

The World Sailing Speed Record rules do not take account of current, so the idea was to make the run off Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, where the powerful Gulf Stream would provide a turbo-boost. Sadly, however, the boat was sold before the attempt could be made.

New Zealand sailors have been in the thick of several ocean speed records over the years. At their second attempt, Sir Peter Blake and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston led a successful Jules Verne Trophy campaign for the fastest circumnavigation of 74d 22h 17m 22s with the Enza catamaran.

In 2001, Grant Dalton and co-skipper Franck Proffit sailed into the record book with the Club Med catamaran, completing their circumnavigation in 62 days. In the process, they claimed two 24-hour record runs, the first at 625.7 nm and the second at 655.2 nm.

Doyle Sails CEO Mike Sanderson was on board the 42m Mari Cha IV in 2003 when it demolished the west-to-east Transatlantic record with a time of 6d 17h 52m 39s that would stand for 13 years. During that run, Mari Cha IV also set a 24-hour record of 525.7 nm.

Two years later, as skipper of the victorious Volvo Ocean 70 ABN AMRO One, Sanderson claimed another 24-hour record of 546.14 nm.

The monitor screen says it all as Team Malizia’s exhausted crew celebrate their incredible achievement.

Honouring mothers and motherhood at the RNZYS

The second Sunday in May is always a special day in the Squadron’s diary. This year Mother’s Day Brunch was celebrated with platters of tempting sweet and savoury dishes, to be shared by family and friends. Among the members and guests honouring mothers and motherhood were ...

1/ From left, Lloyd Earwaker, Linda Stewart, Joan Earwaker, Bill and Colin Earwaker.

2/ Stephen Brown and Victoria Silwood.

3/ From left Gio Penna, Heloisa Peixoto, Rod Penna, Fernando Queiroz and William Braga. In front: Alex and Sabrina Penna.

4/ From left, Victoria, Jon, Amanda, Kate, Astrid and Anthony Cooke, Camilla and Diana Stirling.

5/ Bob and Kerry Glen.

6/ Marlene and Stuart Kendon.

Pictures by Debra Douglas

An extraordinary story of triumph and tragedy

In 1997, America’s Cup-winning strategist Rick Dodson thought he was invincible. He had a happy marriage, a stack of wins in national and international sailing, and was part-owner of one of the world’s most technically advanced sailmakers.

Rick Dodson: America's Cup champion to Paralympian

But a diagnosis of MS (multiple sclerosis) threatened his world. He kept it secret and was strategist in two more America’s Cups. In 2012, Rick co-founded Kiwi Gold Sailing to compete at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games.

Storms Ahead – Rick Dodson: America’s Cup champion to Paralympian is a story of determination and relentless optimism, written by award- winning yachting journalist Rebecca Hayter. Including interviews with Sir Russell Coutts and other members of Team New Zealand, it captures the extraordinary mateship that won the America’s Cup in 1995 and 2000, and was a major factor in Rick Dodson’s Paralympian campaign.

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Rick Dodson’s life has scaled sailing heights known only to a select few. He won the America’s Cup twice, the One Ton Cup twice, the OK world championships twice and the Admiral’s Cup once, among a host of other achievements. At the height of his career, however, he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis – and his world steadily shrank. He lost his career, his marriage and much more. But, while the disease exacted its cruel price in all aspects of his life, it never crushed his spirit, his humour, or that relentless drive that made him such an outstanding competitor. Now author Rebecca Hayter has told the story of his extraordinary life in a new book, Storms Ahead – Rick Dodson: America’s Cup champion to Paralympian. It all began in Wellington and grew from there, as this edited extract recounts …

‘They had a saying that the good yachties who came out of Wellington must have loved it,’ says Rick’s older brother Tom, ‘because it was a prick of a place to sail with the cold and the wind.

‘Most people didn’t get into sailing. Those who did get into sailing usually got out of it pretty quickly.The ones who stayed were pretty good. We weren’t world-beaters but we were fighting each other hard enough to hone each other’s skills.’

But a high proportion of those Wellington kids did become worldbeaters. Within a decade, Russell Coutts, Murray Jones, Brian Jones, Glen Sowry, Grant Beck, David Barnes, Tom Dodson and Rick Dodson, among others, would be synonymous with New Zealand sailing success.

As Sir Russell Coutts reflected in 2021: ‘In that era, there was almost a perfect storm of events – a group of us who were really passionate about sailing and had strong backing from our parents in taking us around to events. We had events pretty much every weekend at different sailing clubs, so we didn’t just sail at our own clubs in isolation. We toured to clubs around Wellington and also out of Wellington to Wairarapa and up to Lake Horowhenua, which was full of eels. We went to the national champs.’

Rick’s parents bought him a P-Class called Banshee. ‘I spent my whole time varnishing it and polishing it,’ he says. When their father, Harry, and uncle Dennis raced their OK dinghies at events around New Zealand, Tom, Rick and their boats went with them.

Later, however, they realised that if they were to develop as sailors, Auckland was the place to be. The Dodsons moved cities, bought a house in Remuera, and Harry set up a business making car radiators.

Tom and Rick attended Saint Kentigern College and were soon involved in the sailing scene. ‘When we got to Auckland and even overseas later on, there were not many people we really feared,’ says Tom. ‘We were no good at any other sport or academically, so sailing was our only chance, and we just dug in. We’d beaten pretty much anybody else

in heavy weather in Wellington, so then we worked out how to win in light weather.’

Rick and Banshee were often up against another young sailor, Brad Butterworth. ‘We were just kids from different backgrounds, but loved sailing,’ says Butterworth.

‘Richard was in my age bracket and I first noticed him as we were racing around the course. He was in the unusual position of being behind me. I could hear him shouting at me to get out of the way as he was coming through. Richard had that personality that went with him through his career.’

Intense rivalries forged in these early years on the wind-whipped waters of Wellington and later during bitter battles for Olympic selection in the Finn class had Dodson and Russell Coutts near to blows at times. But when Coutts came to select his crew for the ground-breaking 1995 America’s Cup, he had no hesitation in giving Dodson a call.

‘Rick was strategist, the eyes out of the boat,’ says Coutts. ‘And he would just look at the wind and I knew, having sailed against him for years, that he was really sharp. Whenever there were changeable or unstable conditions and you were searching for where the wind was going to come from next, he was really good.

‘San Diego was a light wind venue that was quite patchy and there were subtleties on the water in terms of the wind shift that are hard to read, but if you are familiar with it you can generally read it, and that’s where he really came into his own. That combination of Butterworth as tactician and Rick and Murray Jones, the three of them, was a good brains trust in the back of the boat, for sure.’

Two years after the Cup victory in San Diego, Rick walked into an appointment with neurologist Dr Ernest Willoughby. Rick had brought his wife, Sally, and brother, Tom, with him as reinforcements. They were there

REBECCA HAYTER

Author of Wild Seas to Greenland

to hear the verdict of recent test results. Rick was hoping for a reprieve, but more likely he would receive the diagnosis of an incurable, debilitating disease: multiple sclerosis (MS).

He was 38 years old, happily married with two children and on a career high, halfway between winning the America’s Cup and defending it. But disease is fickle where it falls.

The first symptoms had appeared two years earlier when Rick was racing on Black Magic as it stormed through the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series of 1995 in San Diego.

Occasionally, as he looked up the course to check the wind, he saw double: two top marks instead of just one. He closed one eye, effectively deleting the phantom mark, and got on with his job.

Until his diagnosis, Rick had never heard of MS. ‘That was probably quite a good thing because I didn’t worry about it,’ says Rick. ‘I could walk; everything was perfect, apart from my eyes. But all the people with MS get it in their eyes first. I had some surgery to correct that.

‘I told Jeremy Scantlebury, who was pitman/grinder on Black Magic, because he was my best friend. I said, “Jeremy, I’ve just been to the doctor and I’ve got MS.” He didn’t know what it was. I said, “If anyone says I’m not performing, or that something’s not right, tell me and I’ll step down.” Jeremy never came back to me.’

Still keeping his condition secret, Dodson sailed again with Team New Zealand in 2000 for the successful defence of the America’s Cup. But, in the immediate aftermath of that glorious summer of the new millennium, Team New Zealand was rocked with the news that Coutts and a number of his close lieutenants were leaving to head up a new Cup team for Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli. In the scramble to secure new contracts, Dodson signed up with the American OneWorld team for the 2003 Cup cycle.

At the close of America’s Cup 2003, it was nearly six years since Rick had been diagnosed with MS. Matthew Mason remembers that some symptoms were starting to show: a stiffness in Rick’s gait and some issues with his eyesight.

Rick, typically in rose-tinted glasses, says he had no symptoms or could ignore them, but he was disillusioned over the OneWorld campaign, particularly the Sean Reeves controversy.

‘I felt tired by then,’ he says. ‘I was just bored with it and it was time to retire from the America’s Cup.’

For nearly a decade, Dodson was able to continue at the top of international sailing, usually as tactician on the magnificent J-Class yacht, Ranger.

As Rick approached his mid-40s, life was good. As a big boat yachtsman, he was entering his prime. His children were aged 12 and 10 and he was proud of the fact that, of all the Black Magic 1995 crew, his marriage to Sally was one of the few that had survived.

Then, in November 2013, Rick was at a café in Orewa when he got a call from his father, telling him to go home because Sally had left him. ‘And I said, “No, you are joking.” But he told me to go, so I finished my coffee and drove home. She’d left me.

‘When I went from Team New Zealand to OneWorld,’ says Rick, ‘they didn’t know about the MS, apart from my family and Jeremy. Then after that, it was out in the public because of my eyesight and people were starting to notice the way I walked. I had to retire and step down from the J-boats, and then my wife left me.

‘So quite a few things impacted at the same time. It was hard. It’s not just your job, it’s your life; so you lose a lot of money, lose your marriage, everything finished. It’s like you die, but you don’t want to die. It wasn’t slow; it was fast.’

Ever positive, always searching for the next goal, Dodson set his sights on competing in the Paralympics. By grim coincidence, David Barnes – who had enjoyed a similarly stellar sailing career, including multiple world titles and America’s Cup campaigns – had also been diagnosed with MS.

They joined forces and started working on a campaign for the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, but sadly, Barnes’s condition deteriorated to the point he had to withdraw. Dodson sailed in the Sonar class with Andrew May and Chris Sharp. They finished on equal points with the Canadian crew, but were edged out of the bronze medal on countback.

As her account draws to a close, Rebecca Hayter notes …

In many hours of conversations with Rick, he has never expressed resentment or envy, while his brother and his friends from America’s Cup days, in their late 50s and early to mid-60s, are still sailing professionally at top level regattas around the world. Reports on the 2021 Rolex TP52 World Championship featured a photo of The Sled’s winning crew including Kiwis Murray Jones, Don Cowie, Robbie Naismith, Jeremy Lomas and Rod Davis. If MS hadn’t intervened, it’s likely that such photos would have included Rick Dodson. ‘I love sailing so much,’ he says. ‘It’s been my whole life.’

• The launch of Rebecca Hayter’s book will be at RNZYS 5pm on July 6 –all welcome.

Storms Ahead – Rick Dodson: America’s Cup champion to Paralympian, by Rebecca Hayter, published by Oceanspirit Press, 2023. RRP $39.95 –Copies are available for purchase at the RNZYS Retail Store.

Rick Dodson training for his 2016 Paralympic campaign.

Is Globalisation Dead?

By Dr Deborah Lambie, Investment Analyst, Milford Asset Management

Dr Morris Chang, founder of TSMC – the world’s largest contract manufacturer of semiconductor chips, believes globalisation is ‘almost dead’. In this article, I will delve into current data around globalisation, and the investment implications of this data.

Over the past 150 years, we have seen a significant increase in globalisation, which at its most simple level can be thought of as the process of interaction and integration among governments, companies and people worldwide1. This has been driven by the belief that global integration would be beneficial for all economies; developed nations benefitted from offshoring production at lower costs, while for emerging economies it was the pathway to rapid growth and greater prosperity.

A metric we look at as a measure of globalisation is global exports as a percentage of global GDP. The chart below shows that, at least until now, we have not seen a significant deglobalisation trend, rather that growth in globalisation has been slowing since 2007, hence the coining of the term ‘slowbalisation’.

policies implemented in both Europe and Japan.

Another area that is seeing policy support to move supply chains onshore is in vehicle production. The auto industry has traditionally been optimised for cost, which has seen outsourcing to suppliers and operations offshoring in lower cost counties and ‘just in time’ supply chains. However, we are currently in the midst of a global shift from vehicles powered by internal combustion engines to electric vehicles. This shift has provided an opportunity to rethink the vehicle supply chain, particularly around electric vehicle batteries where around 80% of electric vehicle battery capacity is currently located in China.

One of the objectives of the US Inflation Reduction Act is the development of new clean energy capacity, via roughly $390bn of investment and production tax credits. The act includes local content requirements which specify minimum onshore manufacturing requirements in order for the companies concerned to be eligible for the tax credits. The implication of this is that vehicle companies with ambitions in the United States, will likely invest in battery capacity onshore in the United States.

There are two industries that can be thought of as enablers of reshoring: logistics real estate and capital goods. Logistic property is property specifically designed for storage, goods distribution or order pick up. The warehouse logistics space is set to benefit from companies taking steps to increase resilience in their supply chains and “reshore” capacity.

Anecdotally, companies are also seeing tenants invest more in automation, which requires substantial capital investment, and that subsequently they are seeing trends of tenants requiring longer leases to protect their investments. The capital goods or industrials sector is the engine house of the assets used in the manufacturing process, thus to the extent we see increased capex from customer relocation and manufacturing coming online, this will be positive for the sector.

Drivers of this have been multifactorial. There has been a reduction in the cost arbitrage achieved from manufacturing offshore; an increase in protectionist policies – for example, Trump’s trade war with China saw tariffs and trade barriers put on China; the Covid-19 pandemic caused huge disruption to global supply chains; and most recently the war in Ukraine has seen energy become weaponised, with countries considering how dependent they should be on Russian energy.

We are, however, seeing a significant increase in the intentions of companies to bring manufacturing back home (‘reshoring’ or ‘onshoring’) or closer to home (‘nearshoring’ or ‘friendshoring’). UBS conducts regular surveys of c-suite executives in the US, Europe and China and in a recent survey found that 72% of respondents in the US and Europe, and 54% of respondents in China indicated they are planning to move parts of their supply chain closer to home2

We are also seeing a proliferation in polices by governments around the world supportive of reshoring in certain industries. One area where this is evident is semiconductors, which can be thought of as the ‘brain’ within electronic devices. As digitalisation becomes increasingly widespread, access to semiconductors is becoming increasingly strategically important and countries want to ensure they have local capability. This is especially sensitive as currently approximately 75% of semi-conductor manufacturing capacity is located in China and Taiwan. The United States Chips Act is a $50bn bill that will increase semiconductor capability in the United Sates, and we have seen similar

In conclusion, there has been a significant step-up in rhetoric about deglobalisation in recent weeks and months. However, while we have yet to see significant deglobalisation trends coming through in the data, we are clearly seeing: a slowing down in globalisation; companies increasingly looking to increase supply chain resilience; and pockets of reshoring in strategic industries, particularly where there is policy support. We will continue to monitor how this trend plays out over time, and to position our portfolios to benefit from these trends.

1. Klasing & Milionis (2014) describe three waves of globalisation going back to the 1870s

2. UBS Evidence Lab

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RNZYS PERFORMANCE PROGRAMME

The RNZYS Performance Programme this year has four teams who are passionate about achieving success at the international youth level. They’ve recently had their first planning meetings where they discussed what the season would look like and the challenges of balancing their busy uni/work commitments with their sailing goals.

All of the teams have highlighted that they would like to target the sole New Zealand spot for the Youth Match Racing World Championships, which will be held in Sydney December 2023. The selection trial will be held in September, which will no doubt be hotly contested! Those trials should make some good spectating from the shoreline in front of the club, so stay tuned for news on the dates

So who are our teams?

• Josh Hyde and his Yosemite Sam Racing Team, which consists of Jack Manning on main, Zach Fong on trim and Cody Coughlan on

You’re probably familiar with those names by now as they have been dominating the local scene over the last year. They hold all three of the major youth match racing titles in New Zealand and are now setting their sights towards some international events later in the year. First up they will jet off to Newport, California where they will compete for the prestigious Governors Cup. They will be aiming to follow in the footsteps of our PP alumni after KNOTS Racing and Vento Racing took out the last two championship titles.

• Jack Frewin and his team of Sofia Higgott on main, Ollie Gilmour on trim and Oliver Lloyd on the bow:This team has come together with the goal of winning the Youth Worlds Trials

Ollie and Oliver have lots of international experience after being based in Palma over the last year racing on various keelboats and the NZ 69F foiling team. This team got 2nd in their

first regatta together and will no doubt be one of the hardest working teams this year. Watch this space!

• Luis Schneider and Macgregor Jones are also adding to the depth of the squad and have some exciting plans this year as they are gearing up to do the Airlie beach race week and Hamilton Island race weeks with RNZYS’ own Equilibrium. Together with Mason Mulcahy and Hugo McMullen they round out Wooden Spoon Racing which will also be gunning for match racing success going forward.

• Sophia Fyfe and her all-female team of Maeve White and Roberta Li Bassi: This team, along with all the teams, are all graduates of the Mastercard Youth Training Programme.

Sophia and Maeve have both had the opportunity this year to join 2.0 Womens Match Racing Team at Women’s World Tour events earlier this year. This experience will be invaluable in their own campaign; we look forward to seeing how they develop this season.

All four teams are all enthused about having Musto on again as uniform sponsor for this season and are looking forward to receiving their team kit very soon. This will allow them to look sharp at regattas. Musto’s cutting-edge technology is exactly what our athletes need in order to perform at the very top level of our sport. Thanks also to the NZL Sailing Foundation for its continued support.

Zak Merton

YOUR

LEGACY WILL LIVE ON

MASTERCARD YOUTH TRAINING PROGRAMME

SUPPORTERS

The Mastercard Youth Training Programme is well underway for 2023 and looks a little different to previous years. Instead of having to commit to the whole year, trainees have the option to sign up to any number of three modules. The first module is focused on boat handling and trim, the second is fleet racing with a focus on big boats and the third is targeted to match racing.

Although we still encourage students to do all three modules, this shift helps alleviate some of the pressure on families and enables participation in other sports without taking away from what our world-leading programme is famous for: developing exemplary young athletes – as sailors and as people.

The start of Module One has been ‘full on’ for the sailors, with the extreme weather we’ve been experiencing putting them through their paces and forcing them to learn fast in some tricky conditions. Unfortunately, this has also meant we’ve lost a couple of on-water days. However, this has given us the opportunity to cram in lots of off-water learnings/activities.

Off-water, the students have been learning rope skills, having in-depth discussions about rules and tactics, spending time with some of our most talented and experienced RNZYS members. For example, Bob Still generously donated his time to talk about weather, Carl ‘Tiny’ Whiting shared some of the complex rule situations he’s experienced and race-winning tactics, and Chris Collins provided a ‘behind-

the-scenes’ club history tour.

On the water, there has been a big focus on fine-tuning boat handling and sail trim as you can’t win races if you can’t get around the course! In practice this has involved 100s of spinnaker and gennaker hoists and drops.

Looking forward to Module Two, we have some exciting things planned. On the September 9 and 10, the trainees will set off on an overnight adventure with the NZ Sailing Trust, which will give them the opportunity to learn watch systems and the skills involved in night sailing.

The other exciting thing we are celebrating and looking forward to, is that Emirates Team New Zealand is gifting 10 new Elliott 7’s to the RNZYS and our youth programmes! With this support of new boats, and commitment from Mastercard for another few seasons ahead of us, the future is bright.

The cohort is also looking sharp in their brand-new uniform with thanks to Rusty and the team at Brandit.kiwi. Having a tidy uniform ensures that we make a statement when competing against other clubs, and shows how proud we are to represent the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.

Module Two begins on July 23 and there are a couple places remaining if you have a young person in your life aged 15+ who might be keen, contact me.

BOAT SPONSORS

Zak Merton

Kia Ora makes a welcome return

Kia Ora, the 120-year-old 24’6” Patiki class yacht built by Arch Logan has just been relaunched at Stillwater. With her flat-shaped hull and no ballast, she was designed to beat the Mullet boats to market, says Sam Bamforth, who, with his father Jeff (a retired boat builder), has spent the last five years restoring her on his Stillwater front lawn. Sam is a builder.

She was in a sorry state when he came across Kia Ora at Pam Cundy and George Emtage’s Traditional Boat Yard at Whangateau, he says. She’d been lying on the sandy bottom of Coxshead Creek for nearly a decade, partially floating each high tide. For the 50 years prior, she’d languished on a mooring she hardly ever left in the Whangarei yacht basin.

“We got two barrow loads of sand out of her,” says Sam. ”Every time she sank, more sand came in through the cracks. But the tide coming in and out and covering her saved her hull. We only had to scarf one piece of damaged hull.”

Getting Kia Ora to Stillwater to restore her was nerve-wracking.

“George towed us to the end of Whangaparaoa, then I screwed a temporary six-hp

outboard on the stern and Dad and I motored back –right into a 25-knot wind. We were flat-out pumping all the way, and wallowing. I thought we would sink. By the time we got to Stillwater, she was half full of water.”

In contrast, the relaunch was uneventful, he says.

“We lifted her onto a trailer, stepped the mast, hooked up the rigging, tuned her up and then backed her into the tide.”

Kia Ora has a new set of sails and rigging, new centreboard plate, new sliding entry hatch, a new self-draining cockpit and an outboard well (“so her lines are not spoilt by that ugly outboard look – we got the idea from the Ross 830s and 930s.”)

When he rang up the CYANZ to check if her O5 sail number was still valid, he found it was, even though Kia Ora had not been registered since 1969.

She is the last of her Patiki class, as far as Sam knows. That’s why he particularly wanted to save her. He’d actually been looking for a Mullet boat to restore when he came across Kia Ora.

”I’ve always loved the look of Mullet boats. Their sails are so huge for such a small boat – like a V8 in a small car.”

But he is very happy he found Kia Ora instead.

Kia Ora will soon be racing out of Opua and will compete in the next Mahurangi and CYANZ annual regattas.

“I’m going to race her as much as I can. She was never built as a racing machine. She was a working boat from day one, with thicker planks and bigger ribs. But this boat is going to get up and boogie – she has no ballast and is basically like a large skiff.

“I’m going to put a challenge out to all the Mullet boats. I can’t wait to race against them. Mullets have more belly and a straight up

and down bow and this one has a spoon bow – she will pick up and plane quickly.”

The Patiki class was a design before its time, he says, pointing out the latest racing boats designed for the round-the-world Volvo race also have big spoon bows.

Sam is particularly keen to race against the 1904 Mullet boat, Maru, currently being restored at Milford Marina. He thinks the 1912 match race series between Maru and Kia Ora’s sistership Waterwitch was the last match race series between Patiki and Mullet boats.

By Penelope Carroll

A tale of plucky boats and voyages

Building and restoring yachts has been a big part of Boris and Svetlana Penchevs’ lives for more than 50 years –first in Bulgaria, then here in New Zealand.

The first yacht they designed and built was the 21’ Linda in the Bulgarian city of Varna on the Black Sea, in the late ‘70s. The 22’ Fiesta followed, in the early ‘80s.

“Back then if you wanted to go blue water sailing, you had to build your own boat,” says Boris. “And if you wanted to build a boat, you had to log, mill and dry pitch pine and white oak, make your clamps, table saw, copper rivets, bronze bolts, blocks, rigging

screws, do the welding and the casting, make your sails out of cotton canvas, collect discarded twine and ship docking lines from the local shipyard, unravel and run them through a homemade rope twisting machine … you couldn’t buy any boating bits, as there was no such industry.”

With their three children (now 41, 39 and 36), they sailed in regattas and around the Black Sea, through the Sea of Marmara and into the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. “We probably sailed over 10,000 miles in the engineless Fiesta”.

In the late 90s, while building a Van der Stadt for a

single-handed trans-Atlantic race, the Penchevs met Canadians Lesley and Ray Ginnever, completing their second circumnavigation and en route for New Zealand. That led to a job offer to restore the Guinnever’s yacht G-Force at the marina in Warkworth.

“So, we came to New Zealand instead”.

Their first Kiwi boat was a donated derelict Trekka. “We kept some ribs, frames and the skin, then elongated the stern and rebuilt the decks and cabin, cast a bulb keel, added a slim rudder and bowsprit, made new sails at home… and Gift won the Mahurangi Regatta in 2002!”

Boris became viceCommodore and Commodore of the Mahurangi Cruising Club until he moved to Melbourne for a stint lecturing at Deakin University.

In Bulgaria, Boris had trained and worked as a surgeon and Svetlana as a mechanical engineer and designer of ship systems. In Auckland, they both lectured at Unitec (Svetlana still does, while Boris has now retired.)

Their latest restoration has been Tonnant, the kauri Davidson 31 built for Peter Mulgrew in 1974. When they bought her in 2012, she was full of water and rotting, says Boris. For nine years their Glen Eden driveway was the site of a meticulous rebuild: “fiberglassing the hull, new bulkheads, cockpit, keel bolts, rudder, propulsion, electrical and plumbing, tanks, rigging, sails – she should be good for another 50 years.”

Tonnant was relaunched in

December 2021, competed in the CYA Winter Series, and has just completed a threemonth circumnavigation of New Zealand, with Boris sailing solo most of the way. (Svetlana joined him for the beginning of the voyage; and a friend, Atanas Gornakov, for the final leg from Tauranga).

After brief stops in the Bay of Islands, Port Taranaki and the Golden Bay-Nelson area, he sailed straight to Fiordland (“NZ really does look like a long white cloud when you’re sailing down the west coast!”). He spent six weeks exploring Fiordland’s many inlets, islands, anchorages, tracks and lakes (“I was overwhelmed by so much incredible beauty”); sailed around Stewart Island then up to to Lyttleton to watch the SailGP before returning to Westhaven with a stop at Tauranga.

“The weather – mostly headwinds, mostly sunny – was never a drama. I saw incredible sights, met amazing characters, read some good books … it was a great voyage.”

Tonnant’s next journey is likely to be to Fiji, “hopefully in April or May next year”.

As a side note, Gypsy, (Arch Logan’s last design, built in 1939) has taken Tonnant’s place in the Penchev’s Glen Eden driveway as Boris and Svetlana’s three children Dimitar, Lora and Vessie add O-frames, a new mast step, rebuild the cockpit, refasten and recalk the hull, change the seacocks… with grandchildren Oskar and Audrie wanting to help.

By Penelope Carroll

CLASSIC YACHT ASSOCIATION CONTACTS – GENERAL ENQUIRIES: Joyce Talbot, admin@classicyacht.org.nz

CLUB CAPTAIN YACHTS: Peter Brookes, yachtcaptain@classicyacht.org.nz

CLUB CAPTAIN LAUNCHES: Shirley-Ann McCrystal, launchcaptain@classicyacht.org.nz

Tonnant restored.

Marine Scen e

Striker brings the joy of fishing within reach of severely disabled

Thanks to his Striker invention, Ray Lowe has witnessed dozens of severely intellectually and physically disabled people catch kingfish and kahawai all day long.

“Anyone who wants to go fishing, should be able to go fishing,” he says. Now they can.

Dufour 37 to make Southern Hemisphere debut

the new Dufour 37 will make its Southern Hemisphere debut at the 2023 Sydney International Boat Show from August 3-6.

The stylish new model offers a wide range of onboard living spaces, including an expansive cockpit with plancha grill, forward sunbathing area, generous saloon, contemporary galley, and a spacious master suite with extraordinary headroom.

Available in two- and three-cabin versions,

the Dufour 37 enjoys beautiful natural light throughout its interior courtesy of large windows and deck hatches that also afford excellent ventilation.

The Dufour 37 boasts outstanding performances with superb stability and delivers improved handing and responsiveness with her single rudder and twin steering wheels.

https://yachtsalesco.com.

Millennium Cup Regatta moves to Auckland

The South Pacific’s only superyacht regatta will move from the Bay of Islands to Auckland next year.

“When the NZ Millennium Cup is raced from February 23-26 next year, it will be with Auckland City of Sails as its backdrop,” says organiser Stacey Cook.

The regatta is known for fun, exciting racing with a Kiwi flavour all of its own. Moving the regatta to Auckland means it will be convenient to the country’s largest superyacht marinas and comes as part of a summer of events supported by Tataki Auckland Unlimited.

In recent years the regatta has been held in the Bay of Islands, but the move south means superyacht owners can fly direct to Auckland, step aboard and begin racing in the heart of New Zealand’s largest city millenniumcup.com

Sometimes described as “remote control fishing”, the Striker is a setup that allows people with severe disabilities to catch fish at the push of a few buttons on a keyboard, in combination with an electric reel and rod.

Originally created for Lowe’s business partner and close friend Bryce Dineen, the Striker can now be found on a number of vessels around the country. It’s designed for those who don’t have the strength or capability to manage a traditional rod and reel, or even the electric reel set-up that some charters offer.

For the Jones family of New Plymouth, installing the Striker has been a way for Dad Nathan to share his passion for fishing with his five year old son Nash, who lives with LeschNyhan Syndrome. When the fish are biting, the young boy can forget his pain and embrace the thrill of the catch.

Wish4fish.co.nz

Raymarine’s flagship AXIOM 2XL now available

Seeking passionate volunteers for AC37 in Barcelona next year

The 37th America’s Cup organisers are seeking 2,300 volunteers to assist with running the event in Barcelona next year.

“We are seeking the most diverse candidates from all backgrounds and demographics to become ‘Team B’, Team Barcelona, and showcase the event and the city to the world,” said AC37 Event CEO Grant Dalton.

Raymarine’s stunning new Axiom 2 XL features nano-coating technology, which means their screens are as at home in an exposed cockpit as they are in an enclosed glass bridge station. Able to repel water, they enable their skippers to confidently use their touchscreen controls in even the most adverse weather.

Axiom 2 XL’s new super-bright, wide-angle displays also ensure all those on the bridge or in the cockpit have a great view of what is on the screens and their advanced colour palettes deliver a huge range of bright colours, along with outstanding non-reflective visibility on the brightest days.

In addition, Axiom 2 XL’s new ambient light sensor will automatically adjust the display’s

brightness, ensuring the great viewing in all conditions.

Thanks to their 6-core processors, Axiom 2 XL models deliver ultra-quick panning and zooming of charts along with integration of radars, sonar modules, autopilots and video streams.

Fitted with Raymarine’s LightHouse operating system, the Axiom 2 XL models also offer seamless engine integration, advanced sailing tools and easy connection to CHIRP sonar modules, transducers and radars and high definition day/night IP cameras.

Axiom 2 XL chartplotters come in 16, 19, 22 and 24in models.

www.lusty-blundell.co.nz.

“It’s an ambitious project open to all adults, genders, demographics, and abilities. We are seeking volunteers that have a passion for Barcelona, a passion for volunteering, and want to showcase the values of the 37th America’s Cup on the world stage.”

Volunteer registration will run through to November 2023 with the review process taking place between December 2023 and February 2024. Appointments and confirmations will be communicated in March 2024.

Applications can be made exclusively at https://www.americascup.com/volunteers

Carbonautica carbon fibre steering wheels

So-Pac Marine introduces Carbonautica’s carbon fibre and glass fibre power boat and yacht steering wheels.

Power boat wheels are 350mm diameter. Yacht wheels range from 700mm up to 1700mm.

Carbon fibre models are clear black, glass fibre are available in white, black or any colour from the RAL chart.

sales@sopac.co.nz

Harken Fosters hosts Marlow Ropes tech session

Harken Fosters hosted a stream of sailing enthusiasts at the Marlow Tech Talk ,where rope expert Paul Honess discussed how to maintain ropes and how to select the correct line for your applications.

Stay tuned to the Harken Fosters social channels and website for the next expert tech session. Come in store and check out the Marlow range for all your marine requirements.

fostersshipchandlery.co.nz

YOU’LL BE SURPRISED WHAT WE’RE BEHIND