It is an exciting time of the yachting year – event announcements, local yachting now in full swing and Awards recognition for many deserving yachties. Heading into the festive season I’d like to wish everyone a happy and safe Christmas whether cruising or racing. If you happen to be parked in a nice bay somewhere on our fantastic New Zealand coastline take a minute to remind yourself that we all need to continue to actively protect and preserve those magic spots for all recreational users – at Yachting New Zealand we certainly put it high on our priority list.

Wairoa Yacht Club hosted the Wairoa River Regatta and East Coast Championships last weekend with great weather and wind for both days of the event. Junior training officer Jill Metz-Mayhead said it was one of the biggest regattas since their 50th in 2008.

New Zealand has an exciting new high profile yacht race on the calendar with the launch of the A2B Blue Water Classic Yacht Race announced today at the Royal Akarana Yacht Club. The opening edition of the race is set to take place in February 2014 and its anticipated the A2B will become an iconic kiwi blue-water ocean race.

Timaru Yacht & Powerboat Club invites all Optimist sailors to participate in the 2013 Toyota Open Fleet National Championships and Sail One Green Fleet Championships. On over the Easter break the regatta runs from 29th March until 2nd April with a new Optimist National Champion for 2013 to be decided.

A group of Starling sailors for the Otago Harbour headed up to Wanaka last weekend for the Wanaka Yacht & Power Boat Club’s Spring Youth and Junior Regatta held over Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd December. What has made the travel possible for the Starling sailors is a purpose built trailer that parent, Graeme Bennett had built at Toko Engineering from Milton. The tandem trailer can carry 12 Starlings or other combinations of other yachts.

Dunedin is getting set to get up close and personal with an Olympic medal with Peter Burling, silver medallist in the 49er and Jez Fanstone, Olympic Programme director winging south to catch up with yacht club locals on Friday and Saturday.

The 11th edition of the Sir Peter Blake Torbay Regatta hosted by the Torbay Sailing Club was another great success over the weekend of 1st and 2nd December 2012. With over 360 competitors in 19 different classes competing over three courses the event is a great tribute to New Zealand’s greatest ocean sailor. Conditions were challenging with westerly winds gusting to 30 knots on the Sunday. A number of capsizes, broken masts and rescues tested the competitors and the vast number of volunteers and helpers who make this massive regatta possible. Certainly the fortitude and determination of Sir Peter Blake was needed by all sailors to complete the event.

The Notice of Race for the 2013 ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship, the 43rd version of the championship being held in Limassol, Cyprus has been released.

Sailability Auckland held their annual have a go day on December 1st, and despite the rescheduled date and conflict with other community events, 16 new sailors turned up to embrace the opportunity to try sailing.

Four Flying Dutchman yachts have just returned to New Zealand from the World Flying Dutchman Championship held in Santa Cruz, California. Andy McKee and Mathew Bismark were 5th overall, ahead of the Australian and USA competitors. They also received the trophy for the fastest Flying Dutchman over 20 years old. This is one of the best results ever achieved in this class by a New Zealand team.