Two bullets and a 3rd from Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie sees the Olympic champions take the early lead in the Women’s 470 class at Delta Lloyd Regatta which got underway overnight in Medemblik, Netherlands.

This weekend (May 25-26) sees the first event of the 2013 Elliott 5.9 Traveler Series at Opua. The largest fleet for several years is expected with at least 15 boats and possibly up to 17.

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.

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!”

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.

With our magnificent summer finally coming to an end it is time to start looking at getting into the nice warm classroom and do some theory courses during the long dark winter evenings. This winter here at Wellington Ocean Sports we have a variety of Coastguard Boating Education courses that will make your boating next summer (and on those nice winter days) that much safer and more enjoyable.

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

The Yachting New Zealand Qualified Coaches Facebook Group has gone live. The facebook group is for any YNZ qualified coach from LTS through to Olympic Coaches. On the site you will find drills, pictures, videos, upcoming events and courses.