Sarah is keen to open doors at RNZYS

From the Sailing Office

We have replaced our Training Manager with Coach Zak Merton, who will be in charge of coaching the Mastercard Youth Training Programme, Performance Programme and assisting with Race Crew Training and Learnto-Sail. Welcome to the team Zak.

Megan Thomson will be out of the office for two weeks as she competes in the 470 World Championships with Paul Snow-Hansen in Israel. We wish her all the best! Fortunately, Brooke Adamson will be on board during this time to assist Dave with all the club racing.

Peter Linford recently ran a mark-laying course for those wanting to learn the art of accurate course setting. This was well attended for our first go at it and we will look to improve this course moving forward as well. Peter is also our Boat Driver Trainer, so if you are not yet signed off to drive Te Kouma, Pembles Bay, Tiri or a RIB, please reach out to set up a suitable time. We are always on the look-out for boat drivers with the ability to lay marks.

Barfoot & Thompson Learn-to-Sail is about to kick into full swing with some new offerings in the wings. Peter has done a tremendous job growing our Learn-to-Sail Level 1, 2, 3 and Race Crew Training, putting over 400 students through per year. He is in the process of getting all the course material put into a user-friendly online learning portal to further our growth in this area.

Giles Jordan and Geoff Dawson have their work cut out maintaining two foiling Phantoms, two Sonars, an Etchell, five RIBs, three Committee Boats and 10 Elliott 7s. The Elliott 7s are getting tired after 13 years without a major refit, but Giles and Geoff are pulling out all the stops to keep them running.

Geoff is also working behind the scenes to put together a potential refit project on the 7s, which have proven to be a fantastic class for the club. They are heavily used with the Mastercard Youth Training Programme, Performance Programme, all match racing events, Barfoot & Thompson Learn to Sail, E7 Sprint nights, Harken Secondary School Nationals, Mastercard Kawau Training Weeks plus additional weeknight and member use.

We hosted a First Aid refresher course here on October 2 run by St John for 20 club volunteers.

St John run a great course and brought everyone up to speed on current First Aid best practice.

We also put on a Race Management dinner as a very small token of thanks for all our wonderful people who donate their time, expertise and good humour in making this club deliver outstanding experiences. Congratulations must go to Ross Chapman for winning the Monty Singleton award for 2022 for the significant time he has spent out on the water in his capacity as a Race Officer.

We also held a very successful volunteer recruitment morning tea so you will see some new faces around in the forthcoming series.

As most of you will be aware, the start tower and ODM have now been moved to their new locations for the foreseeable future. The tower has been moved to the far eastern end of the car park and the ODM an equivalent distance east as well. This should provide more room for boats starting and finishing in our larger events.

The summer sailing season is upon us so I encourage you all if you haven’t already to get out and get amongst it.

Monty Singleton Award-winner Ross Chapman and Megan Kensington.

Reuben Corbett, Sailing Manager

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