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Auckland has been awash with sails in recent times after more than 100 days of lockdown, especially with the return of keelboat racing.
The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron have restarted their popular racing series, including the Wednesday night series, and the 'first' race of the Gold Cup Series took place last weekend.
The Gold Cup Series is a collaboration between the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, Bucklands Beach Yacht Club, Richmond Yacht Club and Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
The first Gold Cup race of the season was supposed to be on September 25 but the fourth scheduled race, the Percy Jones Memorial, became the first and attracted nearly 30 boats. This took sailors around Waiheke and back, finishing off the Royal Akarana Yacht Club.
Sassinate took line honours, Zephyrus won on PHRF handicap and Fat Freddy was first multihull but, for most, it was more about getting back out on the water and catching up with old friends.
The Gold Cup's original schedule has been jigged around, with the next race the Balokovic Cup, an 89 nautical mile race, on February 4. The other four races are between 35-48 nautical miles.
You can find the full schedule here.
There are plenty of other keelboat events to look forward to, including the newly-named Covid Cup on January 27-28.
This regatta is being organised by both the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and Royal Akarana Yacht Club and is being staged as something to fill in the gap left by the cancellation of the 2022 CRC Bay of Islands Sailing Week. You can find more information about it here.
Don't forget to add your event to Yachting New Zealand's regatta calendar so skippers and crew can plan ahead.
- Photo: Adam Mustill / Live Sail Die
