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Happy New Year everyone! Hope you all had a good break, bit of a shame there hasn't been more sun over Summer this year for us to enjoy but a positive is it's still warm and we can still get in the water. Maybe we will get a bit more sun in the Autumn months.
Term 1 is well underway, it's definitely been a busy one so far with Cruise Ships, Regattas, Coaching Sessions and Cyclone clean ups. It's great to see the club busy with a lot of new families joining the club. A big warm welcome to those families.
2023 O'Pen Skiff Nationals This year the club hosted the O'Pen Skiff Nationals Regatta. We had a great turn out for that with over 50 entries and a team join us all the way from Japan. Skiff Regattas are always fun and exciting with lots of smiles out on the water. It was planned as a 3 day event but unfortunately Cyclone Gabrielle was on its way and the last day of racing had to be cancelled as it was going to be far to rough to sail. Even though it was cut short we still had great reviews from our visitors saying the club was a welcoming and a friendly place to be and they all had a great time. FOIL Bay of Islands
Kite foilers a spectacular sight
About Being Seen 2023 T-Shirts
Windfoilers flying by
FOIL Bay of Islands 2023 kicked off with Three days of beautiful sea breezes, and although a tricky Southerly bucked the trend on the final day there was no complaints from competitors, the general vibe coming off the water on Sunday of 'happy exhaustion'.
The annual event now in its fifth year is hosted by the Bay of Islands Yacht Club and is open to all foiling classes, ages and abilities.
Event coordinator and race officer Chris Fewtrell says he's always overwhelmed with the support and gratitude of the competitors, and still gets a buzz out of the foiling spectacle.
“The Bay of Islands delivered some of the best weather we’ve had all summer, and although the breeze kept us on our toes with a tricky offshore Southerly to finish on, we’re proud to have got away a full series of 18 races for the kite foilers and 16 for the Wind foilers, Wing Foilers, and Waszp sailors. It was a pleasure to facilitate an event with so many enthusiastic foilers,” he said.
The regatta kicked off with the 'About Being Seen' Island Race on Thursday, which consisted of a 6.5 nautical mile blast out to Motorua Island and a thrilling downwind run back to the Bay of Islands Yacht Club.
Competitors stopped off at Motorua Island for a quick snack and a rest before a few laps of the island and downwind run home.
The next three days saw a mammoth effort from the race committee to run up to six races across four divisions for the course racing.
Wing foil division winner Sean Herbert said the final day was a challenging note to end a fantastic regatta on.
“It’s such a great event up here and the racing is quality. It was pretty patchy and shifty on the last day, but overall it’s been awesome to get out there, and also have a few more wing foilers turn up for the weekend to boost fleet numbers,” the Manly Yacht Club sailor said.
Herbert was one of seven wing foilers to enter the event, with fellow competitor Travis Gillbanks offering some stiff competition at the front to come away with 2nd.
Overseas additions to the kite foiling fleet this year included Fung Yang and Adam Becker from Hawaii, and youth sailor JJ Rice who is campaigning to represent Tonga at the 2024 Paris Olympic games.
The kite foiling division was won by current NZ national champion Lochy Naismith who also scooped up the foiling week trophy for the most guns, with twelve wins from 18 races to comfortably finish on 20 points.
The battle for 2nd and 3rd came down to the wire between NZ female national champion Justina Kitchen and Andy Robertson who ended up tied on points, with Justina claiming the final race to earn the 2nd place and 4th place getter JJ Rice claiming first youth.
A solid turn out of wind foilers had 21 sailors split between gold and silver fleets, with Liam Herbert taking out the overall prize.
“It’s been a good couple of days, a little frustrating today but good little battles within the fleet and it’s been really entertaining. Stoked to come away with the win,” he said.
Rounding off the podium was Ben Rist in 2nd and Stellar Bilger in 3rd, who also took first female.
Bilger held off a late charge by Thomas Crook who entered the regatta on the weekend, carrying a heavy scoreboard from missing the first day of course racing.
There was no room for improvement in Crooks performance as he swept the scoreboard clean on Saturday and Sunday – narrowly missing out on third place by one point.
Across in the Silver fleet local youngster Sol Douwes claimed third place and first youth, just behind Alin Misescu who took the second to Devan Pickmere.
Waszp sailors Storm Douwes and Toby Clarke also had a solid tussle, with some match racing manouevers thrown in there at times to keep things interesting.
Prizegiving saw a full house in the Bay of Islands Yacht Club with plenty of praise for the sponsors and volunteers who put in a mammoth effort to run the event.
The event was proudly sponsored by About Being Seen, NZ Sailing and Max Coffee.
Dates for the 2024 event have now been set, and foilers of all ages, stages, classes and abilities are encouraged to come up from 22-25 February and experience FOIL Bay of Islands first hand.
Full results from the 2023 edition can be viewed online here.
Waitangi Yacht Club Teens to the rescue!!!
We have a few heros at our club Thomas, Jacob and Carter. While Cyclone Gabrielle was battering our shores these three boys were out on the water helping a man in trouble in his dinghy. There was a great article in the NZHerald. Click Here to read if you missed it.
Clubrooms With a few more people now at the club, new families and cruise ships coming in can you all please try and keep the clubrooms clean and tidy, after using the kitchen please wash and put away your dishes where you found them, take all old food from the fridges and also the shower blocks please take all clothing, soaps and shampoos home with you. Thank you it would be much appreciated. Lost Property There is a lot of property left behind at the club if you are missing anything like sailing gear check the lost property in the bucket in the shed it may be there. Friday night Dinner There is a dinner on this Friday 17th March. It will be a 3 Course meal as a fundraiser for moorings. All welcome
Up and coming Events
This is always a fun Regatta held at the club each year. Despite having the word 'schools' in the title it includes all sailors. If you are a dinghy sailor at the club this is a great regatta to join in on. There will be 3 fleets, Development, Silver and Gold. This regatta is also apart of the Starling Traveller Series. This is a great regatta for new sailors to give a go and earn a club T-shirt. Registration is open now As a part of the regatta we will be offering a Friday and Saturday night Dinner all club members are welcome. Regattas can not run without volunteers so if you can help in any way please contact Robyn 021855986
March and April are amazing months for exploring the northland coastline, as we often see more settled weather & warm blue water pushed in from the tropics.
As many shift their focus to offshore sailing, let’s get together to sail, celebrate, and drink the last of the summer wine!
Join in the fun for this day sail fun race from Bay of Islands to Whangaroa Harbour.
Finishing with a raft up BBQ and drinks. Registration open now.
36 Degrees is pleased to announce our Whangaroa Cruising Rally, in conjunction with the annual Bay of Islands Yacht Club Whangaroa Race on Saturday 22nd April.
We’d like to invite cruisers and racers alike to participate in this 30-mile race from the Bay of Islands up the coast to the beautiful Whangaroa Harbour. As is tradition, at the end of the race all boats gather in the Western Arm (Lane Cove) to catch up, raft up for the night and socialize.
There is a stunning walk up the Dukes Nose & around Whangaroa harbour, as well as supplies and marina facilities further up for those who may wish to enjoy the area for a few extra days.