Issue date
The Bay of Plenty Sailing Academy Trust has had another good year as we helped more clubs, schools and families pursue their sailing ambitions regardless of means or ability.
Our fleet stands at 45 vessels plus two trailers and a container of gear and their bank balance is positive.
One of the highlights was taking possession of four new 420s for school team sailing, named after past team sailors Tom and Jason Saunders and Molly and Sam Meech, and funded by Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust (TECT) and New Zealand Community Trust (NZCT). This year we received grant approval for two more boats, thanks to the Lion Foundation who contributed half the cost of one of our two new Mackay 420s which will arrive soon and to TECT who will be paying for the other boat on delivery.
Many thanks again to Steve's Marine Supplies for his ongoing financial support, and also very important to our ongoing viability is the pro bono accounting done for us every year by Ingham Mora.
Sail for Life endowment fund
In an all-out effort to boost the coffers of our Acorn fund, Nicky Wilkins promoted the dollar-for-dollar matching donation offer in the months up to March 31, 2017, and secured $37,500 in donations to use up the remainder of the $50,000 matching offer. By March 31, the investment balance stood at over $120,000, up from $53,000 at the start of the year, which we expect to generate reliable income in perpetuity to allow us to expand our programmes. Our thanks go out to those donors and we would love to see more gifts and legacies in the future – including someone to step up with a new donation-matching pledge.
Boat hire and charter
Our good relationships with the TYPBC Sailing School and Port Ohope YC continued. This year we agreed to gift 10 plastic Opti's to TYPBC (with some conditions) as they are likely to need them every year and it makes sense for them to take over the maintenance alongside their own boats.
The TYPBC sailing school again took six Topaz and the Omega as well, while the Tauranga windsurfing programme driven by Pauline ten Have continued to use our learner gear. Port Ohope again took six Optimists for the season and two Topaz for a period.
Fibreglass Opti charter was down a little, with five families chartering during the year, while another two families chartered Techno sailboards. Thanks to a fine effort by Leanne Warren, we had winter charters to families for a number of 420s as well, some of whom went on to buy their own boats.
School team sailing
Team sailing is in good heart and our four new Extreme boats were in hot demand along with the seven older boats in our fleet. Teams were fielded by TBC, TGC, Aquinas, Otumoetai and Western Heights, and a Whakatane High development squad trained for the first time. We based boats in both Rotorua and Port Ohope as well as Tauranga this season.
This led to a successful BoPSAT Trophy regatta event, with some of the crews going on to the CNI regatta in Taupo and the Nationals in Algies Bay in April.
Sponsored school programmes
We again funded the TYPBC Sailing School to run daytime courses for a number of lower decile Tauranga schools, as well as delivering our own programme with volunteer coaches for Merivale School. We opened discussions with Welcome Bay School which Peter Burling attended, but await funding before being in a position to expand the programme to them.
Sailing scholarships
An attempt to launch this new programme stalled when our chosen recipient (recommended by the instructors following the Brookfield School sponsored programme) was unable to continue sailing for unanticipated reasons. However we do have four sponsors lined up for next season – two private individuals and two companies. We will move cautiously with this to ensure we get it right.
Disabled Sailing
This year we helped kickstart an exciting new initiative, Sailability Tauranga, after commissioning a feasibility study by volunteer Dave Birss in May 2016. This led to discussions with Peter Dallimore of Blue Gavel and TYPBC commodore Nick Wrinch, after which we called the first steering group meeting. This now has a substantial life of its own, so we look forward to its future success and will support it in future when possible.
Overseas Sailors Fund
We committed to support three young Tauranga sailors who were selected to represent New Zealand overseas. Each received a $500 grant towards their travel costs. Media and communications Our website remains mostly unchanged this year but we have posted regularly to our Facebook page, which has a growing number of 'likes'. We contributed to most issues of Waterline and put items in the TYPBC newsletter from time to time. The launch of our new 420s generated good publicity in the local papers thanks to Sam Meech and Tom Saunders coming for the event.
We were also delighted to be the subject of a television sports news story about the sponsored schools programme on Newshub following the America's Cup, after Heather Burling tipped off a reporter in Bermuda.
Lastly, this is the first time I have put pen to paper and tried to summarise the year for BoPSAT – which I hope we will continue to do annually. We have put it online and out to our key stakeholders.
Volunteers
Finally I would like to thank my fellow trustees Tina Kennedy, Phil West, Sue Davy, Roger Clark, and Fi Charman, for their hard work between meetings and patience during our trustee meetings; instructors Bruce and Marcus; maintenance heroes Dennis Webster and the Monday Coffee Guys; and Leanne Warren who kept the 420s programme ticking over beautifully. Our costs remain very low thanks to our volunteers and sponsors, and we want to keep it that way. Fair winds and following seas!
