Sailing club celebrates successful first year

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WORDS & PHOTOS JULIA WADE

11 April, 2022

 

A fleet of young local sailors were justly rewarded recently for their new-found water-skills of gybing and tacking across Mangawhai estuary, in a first-year initiative which is causing ripples even in international waters.

Mangawhai Rotary Club's ‘Learn to Sail’ junior sailors, parents, tutors, supporters as well as Maungaturoto and Districts Rotary Club members, gathered along the Alamar Cres shoreline on March 30 to celebrate the closing of the season of its inaugural year and hold the clubs first awards event to acknowledge attitude, tenacity and skill.

Sailing club initiator and lifelong sailor and boatie, commodore Grahame Carbery says he felt quite emotional to watch the young sailors ‘doing exactly what I started at nine years of age’.

“Just the smiles on all your faces when you come in after a sail is so good to see and I sincerely hope the older team who are moving on will get their own boats and continue sailing in this pristine estuary,” he says. “We have a lot of children and only three top prizes, it was a very difficult thing to choose who would receive them, however all young sailors will be presented with a participation certificate.”

Since forming in May 2021, 28 local youth aged 10-17 signed up to be part of the club’s crew, eager to learn the ropes of navigating the four Optimist and two Starling vessels over Mangawhai’s estuary. One sailing tutor, Wayne MaClennan, says the formation of the club has been a team effort.

“There have been people who just came out of the Mangawhai woodwork to be good sailing tutors, we’ve had people who are experts at accessing funding and others donating money,” he says. “We’ve all got different sets of skills and Grahame has pulled us all together, it’s been really good.”

One of the youth sailing clubs’ major supporters, registered charity group Wright Family Foundation (WFF), represented by co-founder and CEO Chloe Wright and husband Wayne who drove from Tauranga to attend the event, granted $20,000 last July allowing the club to purchase the four new Optimist dinghies, named after the couple’s children Samuel, Chloe, Wayne, and Traci – as well as eight new life jackets.

Along with Carbery, Wright had the honour of handing out the awards – donated by WFF – saying a big thank you ‘from the bottom of my heart for letting us be a part of this’.

“This is such a cool day, all the children here are winners and it also seems we have a bit of girl-power going on which is really great,” said Chloe Wright. “There are champions here, you wouldn’t get me out there in a little boat… we all have our abilities and its good to push ourselves. I hope to see this club grow over the years and we really want to support you all in your learning and who you are going to become.

“There is a great saying and it goes for everything in your life as you grow, ‘a smooth sea never makes a great sailor’, so throw up the bowlines, sail away from a safe harbour, catch the wind in your sails, explore, dream, discover.”

 

 

Giving thanks Mangawhai Rotary spokesperson Dennis Emsley welcomed the crowd at the end-of-season celebration saying it was ‘a great turnout’, and gave a heartfelt acknowledgement to the individuals and businesses who got on board and helped to buoy the ‘Learn to Sail project’ as well as getting involved with Rotary. “Want to thank you all… Mangawhai Heads Four Square co-owner Hamish, a great supporter; Mangawhai Heads Charitable Trust aka ‘The Factory’; Rodney Marine, who provided life jackets as well as other bits and pieces; and initial benefactor when the project first began, Jay Thompson-Milne, for his generous donation of $10,000 which allowed us to buy a rescue boat and outboard motor. “A big thank you to Kaipara District Council, as an organisation they’ve been very supportive, donating funds to buy a shipping container to store equipment over winter and a site for its location. “A very special thank you for Chloe and the Wright Family Foundation, who have been outstanding with their support from the word go. “Thank you to the commodore and the amazing team who have taught these young people to sail, they’ve been absolutely amazing, and all members of the ‘mothership’ Maungaturoto Rotary Club, as we’re a tiny club they are theoretically ‘the boss’… Thank you all very much indeed for your support.”

 

 

“I hope to see this club grow over the years and we really want to support you all in your learning and who you are going to become.”

 

 

When small communities bond together they do amazing things, says Wright Family Foundation CEO Chloe Wright, pictured with winners and organisers of Mangawhai’s Youth Sailing Club. From back left, sailing tutor Wayne MaClennan, Mangawhai Rotary spokesperson Dennis Emsley, Youth Sail Club commodore Grahame Carbery, Chloe Wright and sailing tutor Colin Jackson. Front, Mangawhai Rotary Club member Marion Emsley, ‘Most Outstanding Sailor’ Mosese Hurley-Brown, ‘Most Improved Sailor’ Dallas Fulton and ‘Best Overall Attitude’ Azariah Lamerton. PHOTO/JULIA WADE
 

‘Learn to Sail’ commodore, Grahame Carbery, says the idea for the project came about from seeing very few sails in Mangawhai’s beautiful estuary, a view now changed thanks to the Mangawhai Rotary Club sailing project. PHOTO/JULIA WADE

 

Since forming in May 2021, 28 local youth aged 10-17 have signed up to be part of the club’s crew, eager to learn the ropes of navigating the club’s four Optimist and two Starling vessels around the estuary. PHOTO/JULIA WADE

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