Issue date
The Naval Point Club Lyttelton has become a club of clubs over the years and this will become even more engrained through the establishment of a sports hub that could become an example for other yachting and boating clubs to follow.
The Whakaraupo Recreation Hub was established in a joint project between Naval Point Club Lyttelton and Te Hapu o Ngati Wheke recently with a view to bringing together all the users of facilities at Naval Point in Lyttelton.
More than 20 clubs presently use the facilities there, from waka and surf lifesaving to stand-up paddling and open water swimming, but new facilities and infrastructure will be developed as part of a $26 million upgrade of the area by the Christchurch City Council. Some of that development will be done in time for March's New Zealand Sail Grand Prix in Lyttelton.
The hub already has a membership in excess of 2500 members even though it has been in existence for about only two months. About 750 of those members of the Naval Point Club Lyttelton, which is the largest sailing club in the Canterbury region.
"The long-term goal is that this new organisation can consolidate the facilities and services at Naval Point into one organisation and the clubs can focus on the sports they represent rather than being everything to everyone," Whakaraupo Recreation Hub chair Jamie Macgregor said.
"The real opportunity with the hub is to share the costs a little bit wider because the [yacht] club bears a lot of costs on behalf of the users of the site. By setting up an organisation that’s there not just for the sailing base but all the user groups allows for people to contribute to that knowing the resources are going to be fairly distributed. Then the club doesn’t have to have the burden of maintenance costs and having staff on site fulltime if it’s not necessary to the sport. The hub can do that. That will be a real step forward."
Pressure has come on the site the Naval Point Club Lyttelton occupy because it is, essentially, the only place users can access Lyttelton harbour. The facilities there, however, are desperately in need of an upgrade.
The Council are presently undertaking civil works, with the expectation about 60-70 percent of that will be completed by the time the SailGP rolls into town.
Macgregor acknowledged that a hub system wouldn't suit all yachting and boating clubs but could be a viable option for those with multiple user groups.
"Naval Point is a really complex problem because of that one access point to the harbour and so many user groups wanting access," he said. "We really don’t have any other choice where we are. If there are other sites around the country in a similar position, then this would be something really worth considering and we would be happy to talk to them about our journey.
"There are obviously also other benefits for doing it. You can share the operational costs across a number of user groups and you'll have a stronger argument when you go and ask for some funding and show that benefit of a wide range of user groups.
"We plan to support programmes like Yachting New Zealand’s RUNA modules which link the local primary schools with the marine environment through clubs and hubs like ours. A hub model creates a real opportunity to teach kids about sustainability, local history, science and technology as well as including some sailing and paddling opportunities through the various member organisations.”
