14 WATERLINE
DECEMBER 2012
CLUB NEWS
Straight into internationals Coral Headey’s success in her first international is an indicator of the success the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club is achieving through its training programme and coaching. Coral had just turned 14 when the Year 9 Otumoetai College student won her first major windsurfing regatta. Coral was First Girl in an 18 board fleet at the New Caledonian Youth Windsurfing Championships on the Bic Techno T293 onedesign race board. Racing took place from November 2-4 over a tough three days which followed on from a four day training clinic with top level French Olympic Coaches for the group of 10-16 year olds. Coral competed as part of a five member New Zealand team of two boys and three girls. She was representing Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club where she learnt to windsurf over ten months, and benefitted from BoPSAT and the club’s extensive training programme. The regatta was over range of conditions with up to six races a day. Noumea enjoys regular sea breezes of 15-25 knots, forcing the young sailors to rely on good technique to handle their large 6.8m and 7.8m rigs in conditions where most adult windsurfers would change down to smaller sails. Techno windsurfers can be sailed in 3-25 knots with one design equipment and sails and has well attended regattas all over New Zealand. “Today I saw a sea snake, a dolphin and a flying fish,” says Coral after her last race. “We did this really long race, the upwind was around 1.5 kilometres and we had to do a slalom downwind and then up to the finish. It counted as double points. “All races we did today had two slalom legs then a downwind and we had to pass through gates at certain times, it was so confusing but
Coral racing in Noumea.
nonetheless, I did well enough to win.” A learn to windsurf course costs $200 for 20 hours. Next step is the Learn to Race course. Techno sailors have the option of hiring one of the six Bopsat boards, instead of paying $1500-$2000 to buy a board a sails. “And we have got a range of sail sizes so we can pick them up and put them on a smaller sail, and they can move up through the sails as they improve,” says Bopsat chairman Stuart Pedersen. “They come with two sails so they always have a choice of sail depending on the wind.” The boards and rigs can be chartered for $100 a month, just to make sure the windsurfers are going to stick with the sport before the face the cost of buying their own gear. “That’s what Coral’s been doing. The courses are run by the yacht club. She did a course Nov December I think, and then she chartered from Jan or Feb and she’s still chartering
now,” says Stuart. “It’s first class gear. In the photo her sail has the name ‘Aaron’ on it. All the Bopsat boards are named after windsurfing legends, that’s Aaron MacIntosh.” Bopsat is in the process of arranging the funding to buy a small fleet of fibreglass Optimists, so they can provide the same opportunity for young dinghy sailors. “At the moment if you come out of learn to sail and want to do the Learn to Race programme in Optis, you have got to buy. And the popularity of the techno charters has been such that it’s blindingly obvious we should be doing the same.” Bopsat is hoping to pick up the Optimists used in the Optim Worlds in Napier in January 2012. They were just used for that regatta and have been stored since then. The next Learn to Windsurf course is 17-21 December at Kulim Park, contact the TYPBC.