PredictWind Wingfoil Nationals Preview - Wakatere BC March 7-9
by Suellen Hurling 5 Mar 20:42 PST
Predictwind's Jon Bilger with the remote controlled marks to be used in PredictWind Wingfoil National Championship © Wakatere Boating Club
Wakatere Boating Club on Auckland's North Shore is about to be bombarded with "wingers" who are chomping at the bit to hit the race course for the 2025 PredictWind Wingfoil National Championship from the 7th to the 9th March 2025.
Wingfoiling has exploded onto the sailing scene, with the professional sailors and social weekend warriors comparing wing size and board design while shouting cheers of encouragement across the boat park.
"Winging" is one of those sailing disciples that can bring all sorts of sailors together, and with its affordability and ease of transporting the equipment to various lakes, estuaries, and open oceans, it's no surprise that it has become the new hot thing to do in the sailing world.
Over three days, Wakatere Boating Club will morph into Wingfoil Central with the national championship set to be hotly contested, and entertaining for all involved.
Even PredictWind founder Jon Bilger will be on the race course, going up against his sporty daughters Lucy and Stella, who are normally seen foiling around with Kites and iQFoils respectively.
"We just love foiling, and winging is something that we can do as a family so I'm pretty excited to be involved with the event, not only as the sponsor but also as a competitor!" said Jon.
"The competition is tough - I'm fairly confident that Lucy and Stella will beat me, but there are so many other awesome sailors taking this on that I'm just happy to be in the mix," continued Jon.
Some of those awesome sailors include names such as Oscar Gunn, Sean Herbert, Huge Wigglesworth, Logan Dunning-Beck, Olympian for Life and New Zealand's most successful Olympian, Barbara Kendall, who will be racing alongside her daughter Aimee Bright and husband Shayne.
PredictWind's support of this event goes beyond naming rights sponsorship. The team is providing four robotic MarkSet Bots with live weather stations on board each unit, giving everyone an insight into exactly what is happening on the race course. This means that the race officials will know exactly what's happening at the top of the course, as well as the bottom. PredictWind will have an expert on hand to "drive" the units. These live weather readings are available to everyone through the Observations section on the PredictWind App.
Racing commences at 1100 hours on Friday 7th March and will wrap up on Sunday afternoon the 9th March. The social "racing" takes place on Saturday and Sunday.
Currently, there are 107 "wingers" across the racing and social divisions - and no matter where each sailor lies, there is guaranteed fun for everyone.
For the latest, tune into the Wakatere Boating Club and PredictWind Facebook and Instagram channels.
Event Website: www.wakatere.org.nz/2025-nz-wingfoil-national-champs