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Announcements
  • Member's Opening Hours


    Friday 5.00pm to close Wardroom

    Saturday 9.00am to close Wardroom

    Sunday 9.00am to close  Wardroom

  • MRX's available for charter


    The MRXs are often available for charter for club races. At $250 per race this is a very affordable way to get out on the water. We can supply a skipper if you need one. Contact Matt Wood on 939 6702.
      
      
      
     

Coming Events
September
Major Events Committee Meeting
September 08 (18:00)

Winter Match Racing Series Two
September 11 (08:00)


128th Season Opening Day
September 18 (All Day)


October
New Zealand Business Games
October 11 (15:30)

February

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News
Wellington Spirit finishes 6th at Laser Worlds
Wednesday, 01 September 2010

After seven days and fourteen races Wellington Spirit helmsman Josh Junior has finished in 6th place overall at the 2010 Laser World Championships in Hayling Island England. Stepping up from 11th overall last year, this is Junior's best result to date at the Laser World Championships and sees him on track for selection into the New Zealand Olympic team.

Junior still has some work to do to gain selection as New Zealan Sailing Team mate Andrew Murdoch finished three places ahead of Junior at the event. With Michael Bullot finishing in 14th spot and Andy Maloney in 16th, the New Zealand Sailing Team has a lot of depth in the Laser fleet.

"This regatta has been awesome" said an elated Junior on returning to shore. "We have had really good winds all week ranging from light to fresh and the competition has been super hot."

"The New Zealand Sailing Team has performed very well in this regatta and is looking good for the build up to 2012. Jez (Fanstone, Olympic Director) and Mark (Howard, Laser Coach) have done a great job of getting us to work together as a squad and the work we have been doing together is starting to show in the results" said Junior.

After a brief break in Sydney Junior returns home to compete in the New Zealand Youth Match Racing Championships on Wellington Harbour in late September with fellow Wellington Spirit sailors Matthew Steven and Chris Jones.

"This is our last chance to get our names on the Warren Wolfie Williams trophy as we will all be to old next year," said Junior.

Once the youth nationals regatta is completed the Wellingotn Spirit match racing programme will begin in earnest with a team to be selected to compete at Open Namational Match Racing Champs in Auckland in October

2010 Laser World Championships, 30th August – 5th September
New Zealand’s final results (Total feet: 159)
 
3rd Andrew Murdoch
6th Josh Junior
14th Mike Bullot
16th Andy Maloney
26th Sam Meech
41st Max Andrews
50th James Sandall
 
Josh Cook and team take out 2010 Winter Match Racing Championships Series One.
Monday, 30 August 2010

The Winter Match Racing Programme sailors concluded their winter training on the weekend of the 28 and 29 August, with a Grade 5 match racing regatta held out of the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club. The plan to do a round robin semis and final looked promising with 15 knots expected each day however this did not come to fruition.

The teams went out to do battle on Saturday morning with a shifty Northerly breeze. The wind slowly died and the race committee had to shift the course. While doing this the heavens opened with a downpour of torrential rain which caused the wind to completely die.



As a 10 knot Northeaster filled in racing continued until the round robin was completed. The points were close. Josh Cook and his team of Ollie Rolfe, Isaac Paterson and Hannah Corke were ahead of James McLean, Alex Paterson and Stuart Williams on count-back with 4 wins a piece close behind in third was Nick Thyne, Tom Rowland and Theo deJong.


(L to R: Ollie Rolfe, Hannah Corke, Josh Cook and Isaac Paterson).

Sunday dawned again with the promise of 15 knots, the sailors were excited with Semis and Finals planned. However the wind died a lot earlier than the day before and the chances of getting the full schedule completed was slim. The race committee got away one race. However this was not enough to decide a winner so the results in the round robin stood.

A big thank you to the umpires John Grace, Steve Macris, Phil McDowell and Dave Gautrey along with the volunteers on the start boat Roger Cook and Mike Francis who all braved the wet conditions.

 

 
Rules seminars a great success
Monday, 30 August 2010


Local rules gurus John Grace and Steve Macris delivered two very successful rues seminars for Wellington sailors at Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club during August.

The first rules seminar saw over 100 people turn up to hear Steve and John talk about the rules that apply at the start of races. The second rules evening also went very well with over sixty five people interacting with Steve and John as they delivered a very informative seminar on the rules relating to mark roundings, downward legs and finishing.

At one point, and with the help of volunteers literally standing in for race marks (plus Ken Burt appropriately placed as the committee boat) John ably demonstrated the sailing of a proper race course by trailing a rope behind as he travelled round the mark.

When the quiz session came around on the final night there was a flourishing of rule books as the boat crews tackled the scenarios and the high scores returned demonstrated a clearer understanding of the rules by all.

Steve and John's notes from both racing rules seminars are available for download:

Seminar one: Starts and upwind here
Seminar two: Mark roundings, downwind, the finish here

Copies of the current race rules are available for purchase from the Wardroom. If you want to race close and competitively then you should have a copy- and remember, its not just duty of the skipper to know the rules, if the whole crew know which boat has rights at any given point then decisions are made much sooner and advantage can be gained or collisions avoided.

The new sailing season is upon us - time to race hard, race close and most importantly race safe!


 
Busy Month ahead for Youth Scheme
Thursday, 26 August 2010


The Youth Scheme has a very busy month ahead. There are regattas being run in the Elliot 6's every weekend back to back until the end of September. Although challenging it will be a great kick start to the season for the sailors.

First up this weekend is the Winter Match Racing Series One regatta. This regatta is run for the Winter Match Racing Programme which has introduced 23 young dinghy sailors to the match racing format of sailing. It is a ISAF grade 5 event which means the young skippers will leave the event with a world ranking.

Next up is the Central Region Interclub Regatta on the 4 and 5 September where Youth Scheme Sailors will be featuring in both the RPNYC and Worser Bay teams to take on the talent from the greater Wellington Region.

The Under 21 and Women's Squads will then have a Grade 5 event on the 11 and 12 September which will be great practice leading up to the NZ Youth Nationals.

Then it will be the turn for the Wellington Secondary Schools to go head to head to decide the College Sport Wellington Match Racing Champs. These teams have been training weekly in preparation for this event on the 18 and 19 September.

Lastly is the big one the 2010 NZ Youth Match Racing National Champs. With teams from Christchurch, Marlborough, Wellington, Auckland, and Napier all expressing interest for an invitation you can be sure the best Youth Match Racers will be in town to have a shot at the title. So come down and support the RPNYC teams who are vying to win back the Warren 'Wolfie' Williams memorial trophy which was won by RPNYC in 2007 and 2008.

All racing will held in the inner harbour so make sure you check out the action.
 
Welcome to Wellington Lady Liz IV
Thursday, 26 August 2010


The new Lady Liz arrived in Wellington on Saturday to be greated by a group of local Wellington boaties. She is a catamaran and is slightly larger than the previos Lady Liz. Capable of speeds in excess of 30 knots she looks set to provide a great platform for the Wellington Harbour Police to continue their outstanding service to the Wellignton commnuity. She will be officially welcomed to the city at a function at Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club later this month.





 
Sailing Academy safety boat course a success
Thursday, 19 August 2010
On Thursday 12 and Friday 13 August Academy Manager Matt Wood ran a two day Royal Yachting Association (RYA) powerboat level 2 course on the Club rescue boat Te Ruru. Participant’s on the course included Russell Brooking, Ian Dewhurst and Graeme Mercer.
 
The course content was really an RYA – Club Safety boat hybrid. Over the first day of the course all of the safety and boat handling components of the RYA course were completed. Then on the second day rescue components such as towing and pushing alongside another vessel were covered.
 

Ian, Russell and Graeme in Chaffers marina
 
Some of the specific topics covered on the first day of the course included approaching and leaving the dock in both forward and reverse, slow speed manoeuvring, turning in a confined space, picking up a mooring and high speed manoeuvring. It is really important to be proficient at these key competencies before moving on to the rescue components of the course, as these are the skills that are used when attempting to assist others.
 
The RYA course is designed to be suitable for students with little or no previous experience, so the skills and knowledge of Te Ruru that Ian and Russell brought enabled the course to progress at a faster rate and made room for the rescue components. It is also important to note that Te Ruru is not the type of vessel that you would teach someone in who had no previous power boating experience. Te Ruru is relatively long as far as RIB’s go and turns in a wide arc. The twin engines also cause the boat to swing further from its pivot point than many expect and as both props are right hand (and not offset) there is no reduction in prop walk.
 
First task on the second day of the course involved all participants completing the RYA assessment. This involved leaving the dock at Clyde Quay, picking up a mooring, moving into the harbour and executing figure of 8 turns, retrieving a man over board, moving into Chaffers Marina and pulling into a berth forwards, reversing off before returning to the berth in reverse, completing a 360 degree turn in the boats own length and returning to the berth at Clyde Quay.
 
We then spent the remainder of the day both towing and pushing alongside a keelboat off Oriental Bay. This proved to be a very valuable exercise and something that everyone appreciated doing before it was actually needed.
 

Russell secures a line from Port Nic 2
 
While completing the towing exercises we had a northerly wind averaging about 25 knots. Although this did help keep things reasonably realistic, it did help everyone realise how important things such as having the correct type and length of rope would be in the conditions likely to be encountered when rescue is required. Again these were good things to sort out before it actually matters.
 
The final drill we completed was pushing alongside a keelboat. This exercise is all about positioning the towed and towing boat correctly and all those on the course benefited in having completed the exercise.
 

Setting up lines to push along side.
 
By the end of the two day course Russell, Ian and Graeme had all successfully completed the RYA assessment and had the opportunity to put those skills into action in a rescue context. It’s also really good from a risk management point of view to now have qualified rescue boat operators at the Club.
 
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