What does one of the world’s top yachties do on her weekends off the water?
If you are Olympic gold medallist, Jo Aleh, you ‘relax’ by riding one of New Zealand’s toughest mountain bike races, the Magellan Whaka 100, in Rotorua’s legendary Whakarewarewa Forest at Labour Weekend.
“I figure if I am going to do a bike race, I may as well do the hardest bike race... why go easy when you can go hard.” says Aleh, who won gold at the London Olympics in the 470 class with team-mate, Olivia Powrie. “I did the Whaka 100 in 2011 and really enjoyed it, so it was just cool to come back again and give it another go. I beat my last year’s time by nearly an hour, so all good.”
Youth sailors are encouraged to register now for the second of Yachting New Zealand’s popular National Youth Clinics – a training clinic run just following the 2012 Sir Peter Blake Regatta.
Last week EUROSAF announced the dates of a new series of regattas in Europe, under the name EUROSAF Champions Sailing League. After due consideration, it has been decided that the series should be renamed EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup.
The aim of the EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup is to provide the best possible competition for Olympic and Paralympic Classes. The series is based on established regattas within Europe, in order to guarantee the highest level of event and race management.
Coach Rod Davis blogs on how the big cat sends a shiver down the spine of even a hardened offshore sailor…..
As things stand now, it’s intimidating, standing 40 metres tall and weighing less than 6000 kilos. The power and potential “doomsday scenarios” of the new AC72 can send a shiver down even the most hardened round-the-world sailor’s back. That will diminish with the new cat’s every outing.
When New Zealand's top coaches don their penguin suits for the 2012 Halberg Awards, expect one name to be discreetly overlooked - former Olympic windsurfing bronze medallist Aaron McIntosh, even though he coached an athlete to a gold medal in London.
Legendary Northland sailing coach Derry Godbert and Olympic sailors Blair Tuke and Andrew Murdoch are among the Northlanders in the running for Yachting New Zealand's top award.
Yachting NZ announced its 2012 performance, service, emerging talent and cruising award winners this week as well as a short list of finalists for the Young Sailor of the Year and Coach/Official of the Year.
Emirates Team New Zealand is ratcheting up its AC72 sailing programme, moving on from primarily conducting reliability and system testing to a focus on racing and speed development.
The yacht will go into the shed for 10 days for, amongst other things, modifications that are designed to extract greater performance from the boat.
Oman Sail is continuing the implementation of its coach education programme by taking part in a special coaching clinic in Lanzarote designed to radically alter training methods for young Laser sailors in Oman and ultimately empower Omanis to stand out on the international sailing scene.
The ISAF Annual Conference being held on 1st -11th November in Ireland will hold special interest for supporters of windsurfing and kite boarding, with the ISAF Council to decide whether the decision on Kite-Board Racing’s inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games is to be re-visited.
The ISAF Council is the decision making body of ISAF and is made up of representatives elected by groups of countries, known as Areas. Each country in the Area has one vote in determining matters before Council.
Queen Charlotte Yacht Club's first High Performance Clinic of the season finished up with a lot of very tired but enthusiastic Optimist and Starling sailors.
Club Junior Convenor and Coaching Co-ordinator, Ben Cowley, pronounced the weekend clinic as a great success and said the young sailors were very keen for the next one; “their skills have improved dramatically.”
Previously the IACA Committee Liberty Class Representative, New Zealander Brendan Tourelle has taken on the role of President. In this article, get to know Brendan and everything he brings to the class.
The Gulf Harbour Yacht Club will begin a Youth/Young person’s Keelboat Programme in February next 2013. Find out more here.
The programme will provide tuition aboard International Farr Platu 25 Keelboats followed by Fleet and Match Racing as part of the club's own race schedule. Looking forward, further interclub Youth Match Racing will be sought plus interclub and International Class Fleet Racing also.
The 2012 A Class Catamaran World Champion is Mischa Heemskerk from the Netherlands.
While only five races could be sailed as conditions steadily deteriorated with the impending arrival of Hurricane Sandy this week, Mischa was clearly dominant in the strong wind conditions.
The kiwi team made this event possibly one of our most successful worlds ever... three boats in the top ten; Murray Philpott 5th, Mike Drummond 6th and Allan Coutts 8th. Big thumbs up for Murray Philpott, now Grand Master World Champion and Blair Tuke 19th now Junior World Champion.
THE NEW WEBSITE is operational. Enter on-line. A big thank you to Andrew Turner for all the hard work and for his expertise – take a look it’s really great. We have a few minor ‘teething problems’ to be finished over the next week.
As we say every year, it’s more fun to enter now so you can all check out the competition.
Nominations are being called for the Lion Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award which is awarded each year at the Westpac Halberg Awards. Only nominations received before 31 October are considered for this year’s award.
Here’s a look at the up-coming sailing events around the country for the next couple of weeks.
See the YNZ on-line calendar for full details of these events and those on in November and December.
Don’t see your event in there? Don’t miss out on some free promotion for your sailing events by adding them to the YNZ on-line calendar here.
Andy Maloney returned home this morning from France, after competing in an Extreme 40 event in Nice. Here he tells all about what he has been up to in the last two weeks, including Laser training and racing, as well as how their Extreme 40 team went in Nice.
Yachting New Zealand has honoured 22 individuals with Life Membership.
The honours were confirmed at the 2012 Annual General Meeting, and recognise exemplary contribution to Yachting New Zealand and to the interests of yachting generally.
The list of new Life Members includes men and women whose contributions to Yachting New Zealand are wide ranging. Olympic sailing medallists, America’s Cup accomplishments, promotion of the sport and support of sailors are among the achievements and contributions that these individuals are being recognised for.
Marina spokesperson, Jon Nicholson updates on their move to address the shortage of mooring space in the Kawau Bay area…
For many years there has been a chronic shortage of mooring space in the Kawau Bay area and south as far as the Mahurangi Harbour. In the Sandspit River there is a 20 year waiting list for moorings and that list has now been capped and the Council is no longer taking applications for moorings.
Four classes 3.7, 12ft Skiff, A Class Cats and Starlings attended the annual Spring Freshwater Sprint Championships hosted by the Rotorua Yacht Club before labour weekend and endured a weekend of wild weather.
The ‘Spring Sprints’ as they are affectionately known are an annual event hosted by the Rotorua Yacht Club and are flagship regatta for the club. It has a long tradition of being well supported by a number of the non-Olympic classes and the grass- roots sailing fraternity and this theme continues with good fleets of eight to ten boats in each of the senior classes, and a friendly social atmosphere.
Labour weekend saw the 24th running of the Aviemore Classic sailed on Lake Aviemore out of Otematata Harbour, organised and run by the Timaru Yacht & Powerboat Club and this year supported by Trust Aoraki.
The South Island Otago Trailer Yacht Championships attracted 70 entries and were sailed on Saturday along with a fun race in a variety of winds from flat calm to a brisk southwesterly wind.
Yachts travelled to Lake Aviemore from as far afield as Picton and Invercargill with some people flying in from Wellington to crew on local yachts.
Yachting New Zealand has two new Board Directors elected at the recent 2012 Annual General Meeting held in Wellington. They are Aucklander Peter Dawson (Murrays Bay Sailing Club) and Wellington’s Jamie McDowell (Worser Bay Boating Club).
The first of the season’s Zone Development Clinics for the Otago Region took place over the weekend of the 13th and 14th October at the Macandrew Bay Boating Club on the Otago Harbour.
The Zone Development Clinic was targeted at the growing fleet of Starling sailors in the area at present. The goal was to see these sailors competing with confidence at the Nationals in Picton later in the year as well as other significant regattas both within the region and the greater South Island.
At the opening of the 2012-13 Summer Sailing season recently the Port Chalmers Yacht Club was able to display some yachting history, both of regional and national significance.
Two miniature trophies awarded by the late Mr George.A.Wiseman were shown to members for the first time in many years. The trophies date back to 1925 and are exact silver replicas of the actual trophies that Mr Wiseman won that year.
The Service Awards are all about exemplary or selfless services to the sport of yachting – and this list of ten all truly deserve to be recognised. They’re generally the type who don’t seek fanfare, don’t like a fuss, they just get on and get the job done. Giving year and after year of service, the total collective time given to yachting by this group of Service Award winners is extraordinary.
It was a tough year for the Judging Panel as many more very dedicated individuals were nominated and they were required to select this year’s ten winners. Come November 23rd each will step up to receive a Yachting New Zealand Service Award at the 2012 Yachting Excellence Awards.
This year’s Service Award winners are…
Whaingaroa Fisheries Company Limited has applied for a significant area of space inside Whangaroa Harbour for marine farming. The area is absolutely inappropriate for aquaculture and it is important that boaties and clubs put in a submission to the Northland Regional Council voicing their concerns otherwise the bay may be lost.
Hudson Andrews is a 14 year old lad who has cerebral palsy and is mad keen on sailing.
Recently Chris Andrews and her son, Hudson, got in contact with Bluff Yacht Club to see how to get Hudson into the sport of sailing. The team at the club has embraced the idea and is totally committed to seeing him on the water.
“Chris has recently purchased an Access Dinghy 303 and has been out for a few sails so far,” reports Graeme Wall, Yachting New Zealand Regional Support Officer.
Sport Auckland has announced the nominees and finalists for the 2012 Sporting Excellence Awards and two yachting crews are among the finalists.
Andrew McKenzie is a finalist in the Junior Sportsman category, and Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie are finalists in the Team of the Year category. In all categories a large number of quality sportsmen and women were nominated.
The announcement of the winners of each category as well as the overall winner of the 2012 Sport Auckland Sporting Excellence Awards will take place on Thursday November 29th at 6pm at Top of the Park, Alexandra Park Raceway.
A new series of championship regattas will be organised in Europe next year, under the name EUROSAF Champions Sailing League® using the above logo. The new series, which incorporates all Olympic disciplines, had previously been announced in May of this year. These regattas will incorporate new innovations in race formats that will make sailing easier to follow and more attractive for sailors, media and spectators alike.
The EUROSAF Champions Sailing League® will be staged over five professionally organised events, starting in May 2013 at the Fraglia Vela Riva, Lake Garda, Italy. The Dutch Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik is next, followed by Sail for Gold at the 2012 Olympic venue of Weymouth & Portland in the UK. Kieler Woche in Germany will be the fourth event in the series, which will conclude later in the year with the Semaine Olympique Française, at La Rochelle, France. The first four events take place in the ISAF defined ‘European Window’ and all five events qualify for ISAF ranking points.
