It has been a trying week for sailors. RAYC was set to host the 2023 YNZ Youth Champs this weekend however due to the sewage overflow into the harbour caused by a sinkhole collapsing a main Auckland sewer, it was no longer safe to hold the regatta on this side of the city.
As litres of raw sewage were flowing into the harbour, and with sailors already undergoing registration and measurement the call was made to move the regatta to Murrays Bay and postpone the start to Sunday, reducing the regatta to just two days. “We can’t control the weather and we certainly can’t control something like effluent into the harbour, but the team pulled together fantastically to ensure the youth champs went ahead – showing once again how resilient our sailing community is,” said Yachting New Zealand chief executive David Abercrombie.
Photo Credits: SaltyShot Photography
The race committee did a fantastic job getting five races away on Sunday as the wild weather picked back up again on Monday only allowing for a single race.
Eleven sailors from RAYC competed across the 29er and ILCA classes and for many of our sailors this was their first ever Youth Champs. Our ILCA Squad showed some great promise with two sailors Robbie Woolridge and Liam Dimock finishing in the top 10! For both of our 29er teams, this has been the first season in the class and for Louis Quere and Logan Ross their first-ever 29er regatta! Leo Brown and Toby Dunn scored consistently inside the top ten throughout the six-race regatta and finished 9th overall! A fantastic result for the new team.
Thank you to all the coaches who have helped prepare these sailors over the winter months and to head and lead coaches Maria and Nico for getting out on the water this weekend. Fingers crossed the Waitamata Harbour will get cleaned up soon and we will be able to get out on the water very shortly for some Term 4 sailing and some summer racing.
