WATERLINE 11
DECEMBER DECEMBER2012 2012
of sailing going on
been kept busy with coaching Learn to Windsurf, Optimists, Starlings and Learn to Sail for both adults and children.
Learn to Sail
Learn to Sail has eleven new sailors who are quickly coming to grips with their Optimists and are starting to look quite at home in them. Soon they will be ready to take the next step and perhaps move into the Learn to Race group in an optimist of their own. Parents of the newest sailors have been involved helping on the water and with launching, there’s been plenty of action in the breeze each Friday evening. Learn to Sail for adults has been popular, particularly with parents of sailors. Thankfully the Topaz is a sturdy boat as it seems that sometimes the adults are not fully in control. They are having a great time learning and appreciating just how skilled their children are. Rumours are of a much increased Laser Fleet in future club racing. Taylor has been working with the current Learn to Race group, getting them ready for their first major regatta, which was the Optimist North Island Champs in Taupo. The LTR group did very well, coping with some fairly windy conditions for green fleet sailors and the entire group had top ten race finishes and final positions mostly in the top half of the fleet of 43. The LTR group have been a social bunch with dinner organised for the kids each training night. LTR training night is Wednesday so an added benefit is that parents have been able to watch the Keeler division’s Wednesday night racing and many of the LTR group’s older siblings have been hopping on to the bigger boats to learn some new skills. The Optis have had a great view of the keeler racing from the safety of the sandbank area. Open fleet optimists sail on a Thursday and they are aiming to go to major regattas this season and become more experienced racers.
Taylor coached the Open Fleet Optimist group throughout the three day Optimist North Islands ranking regatta, helping them to understand the peculiarities of sailing on a lake and coaching them to some good race results.
Other divisions
Starlings are not a boat that Taylor is familiar with it being a NZ only design but he has quickly adopted it. The Starling group, which is a mixture of newer and more experienced sailors, has really appreciated the training and they are all seeing an improvement in their skills. Recently the club held Starling Match Racing trials. Richard and Heather Burling ran the event in conjunction with judges Gary and Phil Smith, for seven competitors over the course of a day. The standard of racing was very good and required a lot of concentration with many short, high pressure races conducted. Trent Rippey was the winner and will represent Bay of Plenty at the National Starling Match Racing event. If for a split second you see a streak of sail whipping across the harbour it is sure to be one of the club’s many young windsurfers who are loving their sport and doing well both in NZ and overseas. Coral Headey only took up the windsurfer ten months ago and she has just returned from New Caledonia where she benefited from a training camp and went on to win first girl in the regatta. The fact that windsurfing is now back in the Olympic fold was the icing on the cake for the club’s talented young windsurfers. The P class evolved in Tauranga and has many supporters here, particularly Gun Caundle who is writing a book about the P and all the famous sailors, including many of our current Olympians, who have sailed the Mighty P. Jo Aleh referred to it as the Pig but some think it cuts a more beautiful way through the waves. Either way it is a boat that demands quite a bit of its young sailor and is likely to
Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club
tip them out if not treated with respect. The Bay of Plenty /Waikato P Class Tanner Cup trials were held recently in Tauranga. This was a two day regatta to determine our regions’ representatives for the Tanner Cup event next January. Cole Rippey was eventually victorious for Bay of Plenty but not without having to fight off both Jonathon Barnett and Julia Ebert (who won the Waikato Rep). In the end there was only two points in it. The regatta included a number of ‘moments’ such as Cole going the wrong way, Jonathon capsizing on the start line and Julia sailing past both of them as they got caught up in a luffing war. The Mighty P as it’s affectionately known continues to produce stories which will be told for many years to come. Early December will see many TYPBC club sailors heading to Auckland for the Sir Peter Blake Regatta held at Torbay. This regatta is one of the biggest in Australasia and is a very special event which reminds us of the great legacy left by Sir Peter Blake and helps to educate young sailors about his achievements and what he stood for, but also that like many of them he started out sailing a P class. You never know where your sailing may take you but it’s a journey that can definitely make a difference to your life. TYPBC has the following events on over summer: December 17-21: Learn to Sail Learn to Windsurf Open Sailing January 7-18: Learn to Sail Learn to Windsurf Learn to Race Open Sailing For more information on sailing at TYPBC please contact Taylor Chittick at tauranga. coach@gmail.com. By Pauline Barnett