Optimist conquers Cook Strait

by Karen Goodger, The Nelson Daily Mail on 16 Jun 2008 For someone who had just set a record by sailing the notorious Cook Strait in a 2.3m dinghy, 14-year-old Hope schoolgirl Phillippa Wood was pretty blase.

She said the five and a half hour crossing from the outer Marlborough Sounds took as long as she had expected but was 'quite hard towards the end'.

'I'm a bit tired still.'

The Waimea College student dreams of skippering an all-women America's Cup yacht and tackled the strait crossing in her Optimist dinghy to fundraise towards attending regattas and coaching clinics over the next two years.

She has raised enough money now to attend two more regattas and hasn't yet planned her next mission.

Sunday's sailing started at 7am. There wasn't much wind but plenty of waves, which left Phillippa 'bobbing' along. 'I was a bit seasick so that was a bit interesting.'

The nausea disappeared as the wind picked up.

Phillippa's father, Dave Wood, accompanied her in a support boat and said they had 'totally underestimated' the strength of the tidal currents and 'got pushed way south'.

Phillipa twice tried to head towards Cable Bay near Wellington, where her mother and other family members were waiting.

'Every time she made a bit of headway, she lost it. That's when we decided it would probably be better just to hit the shore somewhere,' said Mr Wood.

They found a little piece of beach with black sand to land on. Mr Wood believes they could have shaved an hour off the trip if they had just gone straight to it in the first place.

He said he was 'very, very proud' of his daughter who, like his other children, put 110 percent into achieving their goals. 'What more could you ask for?'

For the rest of this story http://www.stuff.co.nz/4586094a11.html!click_here

And to see the report from TVNZ, first screened on the prime time Close Up http://tvnz.co.nz/view/video_popup_windows_skin/1849863!click_here