New Zealand’s 2013 sailing success has been recognised at regional sports Awards around the country with acknowledgement in youth sailing, Olympic class sailing and coaching in Marlborough, Bay of Plenty and North Harbour.

Kohimarama Yacht Club sailors were to the fore in the annual Auckland Intermediate (Year 7 & 8) Regatta held Thursday 21 November in Auckland. Remuera Intermediate won the event which totals the points scored in fleet racing of the best three sailors from each school.

Are you a disabled sailor looking to race overseas in a Paralympic class boat? Have you got a classification to ensure you’ll meet the criteria for the type of boat you want to sail?

After an arduous seven day series including twelve races for the gold fleet sailors the 2013 Laser World Championships have come to a close at Musannah Beach, Oman. Just one race was possible on the final day of competition the start gun firing only a few minutes prior to the 3pm final cut off time giving competitors just one more crack on the race track to determine their final fate.

Sailors Taylor Burn and Henry Gibbs won the Marlborough Sports Team of the Year at the 2013 Marlborough Sports Awards on Monday night. “It was a great night” says Taylor’s Dad Rob Burn. “330 people, John Macbeth was MC and Sir Graham Henry was the guest speaker. “Taylor gave a great speech off the cuff - even thanked his parents and Henry's. Unfortunately Henry wasn't able to be there.”

It was a day of incremental improvements for all three New Zealand sailors racing in the gold fleet at the 2013 Laser World Championships drawing to a close at Musannah, Oman. With one day remaining Sam Meech has moved up one position into 9th, Andy Maloney up two places to 14th while Thomas Saunders has climbed one place into 19th.

The International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) and International Sailing Federation (ISAF) have both unanimously agreed to merge as the 2013 ISAF Annual Conference drew to a close in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.

Australia is one of the top nations on the Paralympic sailing scene and as past International Association for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) Vice President and current President of Sailability Victoria, David Staley, explains, a strong focus of Paralympic sailors leading to Rio will be on the ISAF Sailing World Cup - Melbourne (Sail Melbourne) over the next three years.

Researchers at the Kennedy Krieger Institute announced today the results of a pilot study demonstrating use of a virtual therapeutic sailing simulator as an important part of rehabilitation following a spinal cord injury (SCI). Auckland's Spinal Rehabilitation Unit based sailing simulator programme led by Sailability Auckland's Brendan Toruelle played a key role in gathering data, conducting the same measures and sharing data with the research team.

Yachting New Zealand is pleased to announce the appointment of a new NZ National Classifier for sailing – Helen McKenzie. After attending the IFDS Classification Seminar in August 2013, Helen was awarded this designation which enables her to give a national classification to sailors with physical disabilities sailing in Paralympic class boats.