News

Here’s a look at the up-coming sailing related 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 beyond that.

Yachting New Zealand congratulates all the Class Associations and Yacht Clubs who contributed to the success of the Sailing Central Hall at the 2013 Hutchwilco Boat Show which attracted a huge public crowd to the Greenlane venue in Auckland over four days last weekend.

They said come to France, it will be sunny and hot. They said the water will be warm and they said it never rains here. They lied. However they were right about one thing. The racing on the opening day of the 2013 Finn World Masters in La Rochelle was simply fantastic. Despite the cold inclement weather, with low cloud, non-stop drizzle and temperatures around 10 degrees, about 95 per cent of the fleet went racing and a grand time was had by all.

The 2013 EUROSAF Champions Sailing Cup rolls on with day one of the Delta Lloyd Regatta about to get underway in Medemblik, the Netherlands. Four NZL Sailing Team crews including Olympic champions Jo Aleh and Olivia ‘Polly’ Powrie are in Medemblik for the five day regatta where racing is scheduled to start at 11am local time on Tuesday 21st May – just a few hours from now.

Second stage of the Eurosaf Champions Sailing Cup, the Delta Lloyd Regatta has taken on the challenge to bring the event to a new dimension where media presentation is playing a big part. For Event Director, Arjen Rahusen, this is the way forward “ We are concentrating our efforts to take sailing closer to the public especially through social media. All the boats will be equipped with trackers with the help of Swiss Timing. We have two video teams, who will feed daily news via the social media network and highlights. We want to give the sailors the best exposure they deserve. It is vital for them and for us!”

Subsidized flights thanks to American Airlines, free boat charter, a race clinic, the hospitality of the Chicago Yacht Club... are you convinced?

In just days' time racing will be underway in Japan at the 2013 IFDS Blind Sailing World Championships, where again a strong team of New Zealanders are looking to defend their world championship title.

The NZL Sailing Team with Emirates Team New Zealand has confirmed that all plans to race in the the inaugural Red Bull Youth America’s Cup are on track. “This last week after Artemis’ tragedy in San Francisco have been tough on everybody, but we’re still just as motivated to continue working toward flying the flag for New Zealand in September” says team skipper 22 year old Peter Burling.

To reflect its goal of introducing people of all ages and from all backgrounds to sailing, Access Sailing Systems Pty Ltd has had a name change to Hansa Sailing Systems Pty Ltd and has adopted the Hansa sailing brand for its range of small keelboats and accessories.