Pt Chevalier Sailing Club 90 not out

by Stephen Curham on 21 Apr 2009
One of the oldest sailing clubs in the country and certainly one of the most friendly family Clubs too, the Pt Chevalier Sailing Club has celebrated 90 years.

On April 5th the Club Champs (Cup Day) was held celebrating not only a good season but 90 of them in
fact. All the life members were invited especially and there was a big turn out. The club marked the occasion with screen printed felt pennants and all the juniors who sailed were given a pennant in addition to the winners and placegetters.

Cup winners were:

Don Oliver - Sunburst
Tim Snedden - Zephyr
Chris Mitchell - Open Skiff
Sue Town - Laser 4.7
Patrick Moss - Laser.

Conditions on the day were perfect, a lovely late summers day; blue skies and a warm light north easterly breeze.

The Council recently re-sanded Pt Chevalier beach just along from the club, and this has become very popular again as a result. The Course was skewed past the club house and beach. A lot of good sailing was done with a competitive fleet of Zephyrs sailing very closely and followed by an Open Fleet with competition at a number of different levels. 37 boats competed creating a fitting spectacle.

The club has just finished its latest learn-to-sail course (they are run twice yearly) so the timing was great.

A huge thanks to Donna who provided all attending with scones straight from the oven, and fresh cream.

Next up the Club runs its winter series, the costs of this are modest and the series is open to all sailors who might like to consider sailing in the off season if there own club is closed. Pt Chevalier normally features flat water, strong SW breezes, triangular courses with reaching legs, rescues are easy and the upper harbour is not much bigger than good sized lake. Normally the Auckland Area Sea Scout troops also attend the winter series in sea scout cutters and sunbursts too. The car park can get pretty full, but full-is-good, and we try to find a place for everyone.

Next two races:
SUNDAY 3-May-09 Start: 1220 Autumn series day one Tide: 1420
SUNDAY 17-May-09 Start: 1100 Autumn series day two Tide: 1300

What came first, chicken or egg?

The club struggles to create a junior fleet of critical mass, so people tend to pass through to other 'junior' clubs that DO have critical-mass. The winter series is not the best time to jump into junior sailing. But if all the people who passed through the club looking for junior sailing came together at one time we would have one of the biggest junior fleets in the country; let alone the critical mass needed. It is only logical if you look at the enormous number of schools in the club's immediate vicinity. Instead of sailing at home, most drive over the Harbour Bridge in order to sail with each other :)

The club website is: http://sailptchev.org.nz/