Queen Charlotte Yacht Club Splash Newsletter – February 2010
Hello All,
Well can you believe that it is mid February already and we are now winding up for the biggest regatta of the QCYC calendar? Hope you all have yourselves organised and are looking forward to being involved.
Christmas and the holidays are now over and most of the major regattas have been and gone with the Optimist Nationals still to come.
Interisland Optimist Challenge & Top of the South Youth Regatta: Yes its less than a week away now, so I hope all you Optimist sailors are getting prepared to register for the regatta (by Monday to avoid late fee – go to web site and download the entry form) which of course will be held over 3 days (Friday, Saturday & Sunday) with the Green Fleet sailing inside the harbour and all other classes outside.
What a fantastic experience this will be for you, with many of the top New Zealand Optimist sailors coming to Picton for this event. If you have never sailed in a Regatta before, this is such a good chance for you to give it a go, as you are sailing in your ‘home’ water and that does give you an advantage over the sailors from away.
OPENING CEREMONY: The mayor of Marlborough, Alistair Sowman, will officially open the Regatta on Thursday evening at 7pm, followed by the firing of the cannon shortly after that. Then once again the Club will be offering a ‘Taste of Marlborough’ to all our guests and club members, with Marlborough Salmon, Marlborough Mussels and Marlborough Wine etc. Yum!! We’d love as many of our own club members to come along to this evening to join in with our away sailors and make them feel welcome.
HELP: This is a HUGE weekend for the Club as we are expecting a large number of sailors from all over New Zealand, so all the help we can get from parents/grandparents/friends etc will be greatly appreciated. Even if you can give 2 – 3 hours on any day, it all helps to make the regatta successful.
Please contact Graeme Ellis on 029-943-1527 and let him know if you can help in any area at any time. Thanks.
Results: What a year for the Queen Charlotte Sailors again. There have been some amazing results during the season, with more to come we expect, but here is a rundown on just what our local kids have achieved so far. It truly is quite amazing, compared to some larger Clubs from around the country. I do believe that the success of our kids is due to the fantastic parent support you give to your kids, and also the fantastic ongoing coaching provided by the Club, 3 years ago from Tobias, and then for the last 2 years from Neeta.
Just in case you think you haven’t seen some of the junior and youth sailors for a while, read on and you’ll see why!!!
Splash Worlds: Held in Takapuna in early January. Declan Burn 2nd. Fantastic result Declan.
Oliver Clark came in at 21st in the silver fleet, a good effort for an international regatta.
P Class Nationals: Held in Christchurch in mid January. Our only entrant was Taylor Burn who represented the Club in the Tanner Cup, then sailed into 8th place in the Tauranga Cup, so good effort.
Starling Match Racing and Nationals: Held in Christchurch in mid January. Declan won the Match Racing event, well done again Declan, then he went on to get 5th in the Nationals in the gold fleet (49 sailors). Rachel Clark came 21st in the silver fleet with William Gifford in 30th also in the silver fleet (47 sailors). This is a big regatta and tough conditions were experienced, so well done to all.
Australian Laser Nationals: Riley O’Neill headed off over to Adelaide in December to sail in this regatta, which was also a selection regatta for the junior sailing Olympics. A great opportunity for Riley to sail against an international line up. Riley sailed himself into 33rd. Well done and a big effort.
Laser Nationals: Held in Timaru in late January. Declan Burn 10th, Josh Edmonds 17th and Scott Fyfe 24th. A great effort Declan, after non -stop regattas, you showed how your fitness really paid off.
Riley O’Neill also sailed his 4.7 Laser and came in at 14th which was a great effort.
Sail Auckland: Held in Auckland late January. Declan was our only entrant, sailing his Laser Radial, coming in at 5th, so well done again!!
SIAG: Held in Christchurch in early February. These results are overall only, so for a further break down of placings in the age groups, go to our web site. Green Fleet: Stephie Loncar 1st, Grace Hawtin 2nd, Nico van Beek 8th, Kain Greenbank 12th. Open Fleet: Callum Radford 3rd, Alistair Gifford 6th. P. Class: Liesa Belgrave 2nd. Starling: William Gifford 7th. Great going you sailors.
South Island Optimists: Held in Wanaka in mid February. Open Fleet (28 sailors)Alistair Gifford 6th, Hamish Clark 7th, Callum Radford 11th. Green Fleet: (16 sailors) Grace Hawtin 1st, Stephie Loncar 2nd. So QCYC was once again well represented and you can all be proud of all those placings.
Taylor Burn has just come back from 2 weeks in South America, where he was invited to attend a training and International Regatta week. A huge honour to be asked to go, and his results show why he was invited, with an amazing 7th overall, so well done Taylor, a huge trip for you and hope you learnt heaps and can share that knowledge back at home.
Its not eveyones cup of tea to head off to Regattas out of town, but like any sport, you do what you can, and what you enjoy, so whether you stay in Picton sailing all season, or head off to other Regattas, its all good.
Marlborough District Council and Winstanley Kerridge Sponsorship: We have been granted sponsorship from both to enable us to buy 2 new plastic optimists for the club, which is fantastic and will help keep our Learn to Sail running smoothly.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this newsletter, its a bit of a biggie, lots to fill you all in on.
I hear it was pretty awesome sailing conditions on Saturday with a perfect breeze. I also hear that Josh Edmonds gave some of you ‘oldies’ a run for your money in the Laser!!!
See you all Thursday night and lets hope for a weekend like we’ve just had!!!!
Jenny
Ph 0275132716 (for any news or information I might need for next time)
