The summer season has started with a bang this year at the Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat  Club Sailing School.

The weather has been a bit shaky with all the crazy wind and rain we’ve been having, but it hasn’t stopped the sailors from pouring in.

We had 20 sailors in total come through our Spring Holiday Learn to Sail Program, with our second week at capacity with 12 Level 1 sailors taking the course. Our Term Four program is now in full swing, with lots of children and an awesome team of coaches new and old.

Two months ago, we had four of our older sailors take a Learn to Sail Coaching Course, along with their VHF course and First Aid course in order to continue their careers and give back to the community by taking up some coaching as well.

Jack, Rury, Joel and Braedyn are all super-keen and ready to take on responsibility and learn more while also using their vast amount of sailing knowledge to teach some of our Learn to Sail courses alongside our older coaches, Niamh, Sam, and Elly.

All of our new coaches have been sailing 420 for several years representing their school teams, as well as participating in Starling Open Fleet, Wednesday night keeler races, and competing in national regattas. We are so happy to have them on board our ever-expanding coaching team.

A shout out and congratulations to all of our sailors who competed in the regatta in Taupo on the weekend of November 10-12. In the Bayleys Opti North Island Championships we had 11 sailors competing in both Open Fleet and Green Fleet.

Our top three sailors in the Open Fleet were Anya Pearce, coming 17th, Teaghan Denney, with a 25th and Monty Carter coming 43rd in a fleet totalling 114 Optis. In Green Fleet we had Jack Wilkins coming through with a 2nd place finish, Leighton Simmons with a 9th and Luca Palairet coming 23rd out of  29 boats.

In the Bayleys Starling Travellers Regatta, also taking place at Lake Taupo Yacht Club, we had five competitors coming from our club, and a couple of others who sail with us frequently, and we are just as proud of them. Our top three Starlings were Lachlan Dillon with a 2nd place, Joel Kennedy close behind in 4th and Josh coming in with an 11th place finish out of 30 boats.

To everyone who represented the Tauranga Yacht Club at this event - awesome job! You all did us so proud.

Coming up we have a very busy schedule. We will be running a Holiday Program both the week before Christmas (December 18-22) and the week before Term 1 starts (January 22-26). Following that, our regular Term Courses will begin right at the start of Term 1. In Term 1 our courses will run throughout the week with Level 1 kids’ courses on either Monday after school from 4-7pm, or Saturday morning from 9.30am-12.30pm, or Saturday afternoon from 1-4pm at a cost of $320 for 10 weeks.

Our Level 2/3 courses will be running on either Sunday morning from 9.30am-12.30pm or Tuesday afternoon from 4-7pm at a cost of $300 for the 10 week course. No sailing experience is required for our Learn to Sail courses, however we do require an age of at least eight and the ability to swim 50 metres confidently.

The course encompasses the beginnings of how to sail an Optimist dinghy, instructed by our fully-qualified Yachting New Zealand Coaches, and at the end of the course, if you complete your level, you get a Yachting New Zealand official certificate.

We also offer Learn to Sail for adults. Our adult dinghy courses run on Saturdays starting at the beginning of February for five weeks at a time, with the Level One course running from 9:30am-12:30pm and the Level 2/3 course running from 1-4pm.