News

Bay of Plenty residents and visitors remain at risk of paralytic shellfish toxin poisoning. “Levels of toxin found in shellfish are still high and there have been two further cases of illness reported over the Christmas and New Year holiday,” says Dr Jim Miller, Medical Officer of Health for Toi Te Ora – Public Health Service. This brings to 29 the total number of people who have been poisoned by eating toxic shellfish collected from the Bay of Plenty coastline since mid-December.

The final day of racing at the Hartley 16 National Championship in New Plymouth saw the fleet complete three races in light to moderate winds.

Emirates Team New Zealand took delivery of the second AC72 catamaran this week and the complex commissioning process got underway.

Clear sunny conditions, a gentle sea breeze which never got over 12 knots and some waves to work with greeted the fleet today. Yesterday’s 180 degree shifts, calms and gales were forgotten and it was ideal sailing conditions for all, allowing the race officer to lay the course and run races continuously to get the regatta fully back on schedule.

For the first time in more than 10 years, a New Zealand Paralympic class Sonar team has entered a major regatta. David Barnes, Rick Dodson and Andrew May are a hot team to watch for at the Miami Olympic Class Regatta which starts on January 27th. Known as Team “Rio Gold” this team of individually accomplished sailors have recently started training in Auckland in the Etchell Keelboats, as New Zealand does not yet have any of the three person Paralympic class Sonar keelboats in the country.

It was a frustrating day for all at the first day of the Laser National Championships at Napier Sailing Club. The fleet of over 100 was on the water for the scheduled 1pm start but the wind spent the whole afternoon boxing the compass and constantly varying from nothing to 20+knots so only one race was completed for the Laser Open division with none of the other divisions managing to complete a race.

On January 27th 2013, Olympic Gold Medallist Jo Aleh will be one of the many helping Sailability Auckland celebrate 20 years of organized sailing for people with a disability in New Zealand

Entries are now firming up as boats complete their qualifications. So far we have 8 boats entered from Wellington and Nelson, with Wedgetail and Am Meer completing their qualifying voyages over the Christmas break. If you haven’t already completed the Advanced Sea Survival course, a reminder that Wellington Ocean Sports is running one over the weekend of January 26 – 27 so get in quick. Click here to register, or contact them direct for more information.