Staying afloat in a season of Covid

Author Ivor Wilkins spent three years researching, writing and publishing the RNZYS 150-year history.

CUSTOM DECKING

with the Navy. But it is not just about the Squadron, it is more than that. It is a history of NZ yachting, our boat building industry and the personalities involved.”

Aaron agrees, Salt in our Blood is to be prized. “And actually read every word, as there is genuinely a story or something in there for every member (including your own name listed). Oh and by the way, it would make a great Christmas gift…”

Every story has a beginning and the beginning for Ivor was to research the records and material that club historians, primarily the late John Watson, Life Member Bill Donovan and most recently Chris Collins had safeguarded for years.

Their efforts received a major boost when Colin Carran saved a trove of documents from a watery fate in the Youth Training Building. Twice before, in the early period of the club, vital historical documents were lost in fires. This time, boxes and boxes of documents were moved from the Crows Nest to the Youth Training Building, which Colin described as a “mouldy, damp hole”.

The history of the club was at the mercy of this leaky building, he said. But his rescue mission safeguarded the documents, which he also arranged to have digitised as a further protection.

“That was my starting point,” said Ivor. “I copied these files onto my computer and began to read more than 14,000 individual items. It was like an archaeological dig – moving through layers of recording-keeping technology, from digital files on the surface back through typewritten papers and further back to pen and ink, much of it in tiny spidery script, much faded by time.

“Newspaper files, album cuttings, multiple interviews, Papers Past, my own records from more than 30 years of writing about New Zealand sailing and the marine industry and many, many books provided further primary and secondary sources. For close on three years, the floor of my study resembled a city of books piled high like mini skyscrapers. Every morning, I was like King Kong picking my way through the canyons to reach my desk.

“The philosophical approach was that, just as no man is an island, no institution exists in isolation from the tides and climates of wider society. A club such as ours reflects and is affected by the socio-political and economic forces of the times and I felt it was important to place the narrative within those wider contexts.

“At its essence, though, this is a story of a yacht club and its impact on and involvement in the extraordinary rise of New Zealand yachting on the world stage. Not every major New Zealand international sailing triumph was achieved under a Squadron burgee, but most of them were – and there would be very few that did not have at least some Squadron involvement.”

As the project approached its climax – culminating with the successful defence of the America’s Cup in the summer of our 150th year – thoughts began to turn towards a suitable title. The eureka moment came when Ivor came across a speech US President John F Kennedy made at a dinner on the eve of the 1962 America’s Cup at Newport, Rhode Island.

Kennedy, a keen yachtsman himself, pondered the question of why we have this powerful connection with the sea. As part of the answer he said, “It is an interesting biological fact that all of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears.”

Ivor: “In summing up the passions and endeavours of members down the past century and half who have written this story with their achievements, their blood, sweat and tears, it seemed to say it all: we indeed have salt in our blood.”

• Salt in our Blood can be purchased from the Squadron store between 10am and 4pm Monday – Friday, or ordered through the Mainsheet link. For more info. Ph 09 360-6800 or email reception@rnzys.org.nz.

Staying afloat in a season of Covid

‘Out of adversity comes opportunity’

– Benjamin Franklin, oceanographer and one of the founding fathers of the USA.

Story by Debra Douglas The saying proved to be very appropriate at the Squadron from the day Level 4 lockdown was announced in August. With so many events postponed or cancelled, it was necessary to improvise, to keep members feeling connected and involved, albeit virtually.

“We learned a lot in the 2020 lockdown,” said CEO Hayden Porter. “And I suppose with our goal as a leading international and local yacht, we were ahead of the game with what we had to play with. We actually ended up helping some sailing clubs to get their head around doing things virtually.”

Hayden envisaged the worst-case scenario would be a six-week lockdown, so a six-week plan was activated to continually engage with members, making sure they were regularly communicated with, while still continuing to show benefits to the club’s sponsors and supporters.

“To do that, we had to look at all the events we had planned and what could we do online. That became an evolving thing. While it was not perfect, members were still involved and felt the club was providing some value. Of course we missed revenue from the food and beverage area, which ultimately goes back to the sailing side of operation; the online events were purely membership engagement projects.”

Initiatives included quiz nights, an on-line auction, wine and whisky ‘tasting’ sessions, Melbourne Cup experiences, kid’s colouring competitions, contactless bottle store sales, sailing webinars and eSailing races.

Another important way of coping with lockdown was to occupy Squadron staff with work that had been set aside for the volunteer programme, but could not be done because of restrictions. For example, members of the Food & Beverage team went up to Kawau to paint, plant trees and repair the sea wall. Images of their work were shared, to keep members up to date with what the club was doing.

Hayden: “Our communications always said, ‘We are ready to go’. I lost count how many times we had to change dates, but we went into the weeks with the thought we will plan for it until we are told we can’t do it. As the goalposts moved, we moved with them, but we got to a point where we ran out of weeks in the year to squeeze everything in. We have pushed out many events until next year, but some will not happen.

“Financially, it has been a big blow to the Club, but on the positive side we picked up new members during the period, the club is in good shape still and I guess it has just been a short-term blip in our 150-year history.”

Lockdown was a bumpy ride for Commercial Manager Sarah Dance, with planned sponsored events put on hold or canned.

“My role was to communicate to members what we received from the Government, working out how we could put into Squadron terms what we could or couldn’t do,” said Sarah. “But even in the hardest of times, we still managed to connect with our members, our partners and Corporate Members and keep momentum going.

“We were also always thinking of ways we could do things on-line with our sponsors. We encouraged them to reach out to us. For example, in partnership with our cruising sponsors, PIC Insurance Brokers, we presented two evenings of cruising advice for the summer. This was also an opportunity for PIC to talk via Zoom to members about different marine insurance they can provide.”

Some events have been pushed out until 2022. The Corporate Regatta, for example, will now be held on March 24th. But, with partners Barfoot & Thompson facilitating, the on-line silent and live auction to raise funds for our Kawau Tree Planting & Reforestation Project and International Sailing Fund went ahead and raised over $50,000.

Sarah: “Part of our Corporate Members’ agreements and assets is that their benefits include utilising the venue. Of course they couldn’t do that, so we had to look at ways of giving them other benefits or extending their agreements. It was quite challenging, but it has been encouraging that partners have said they will be back next year.”

Despite the lockdown restrictions, there was still plenty going on in the Sailing Office, with two key components in its programme to keep members engaged on-line, being webinars and eSailing events.

“With the webinars we started with rules and tactics nights, three over three weeks,” said Sailing Director Laurie Jury. “This attracted about 80 participants and we received good feedback. This led onto a ladies’ virtual tactics night, on-line splicing tutorials, plus quiz and online theory sessions with the Youth Programme and Performance Programme members. “

In October, the Sailing Office ran a very successful cruising seminar via Zoom, timed for the summer preparations. with contributions from Daniel Garner of PIC Insurance Brokers, Viki Moore from Island Cruising NZ and well-travelled cruisers Jon and Barb Tucker.

Learn to Sail Manager Peter Linford outlined practical aspects of navigating, chart reading, weather and radio procedures, while Laurie discussed various anchor types and, most important, anchoring etiquette and neighbourly behaviour in crowded summer bays.

Jon and Barb Tucker outlined breaking up the passage to the Bay of Islands into manageable daily runs and gave tips on some of the best anchorages, walks and places to provision in the Bay of Islands.

This was followed up in November with another evening of cruising advice, this time focusing on cruising Great Barrier and the Marlborough Sounds.

Laurie says one their most successful webinars was the Learn-to-Sail course for complete beginners. With 100 signing up, the event had a positive flow-on effect. To receive their finishing certificate, participants have to complete the practical side after lockdown.

“More than 30% paid the fee to finish the course, so it was a good marketing tool for us, pushing sales for the programme.”

The other important tool for the Sailing Office was the increasingly popular eSailing. Although it was realised early on a webinar was needed

Photo Credit // Cory Silken

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