19 March, 2012

Ngaroto sailing Club

Owen Johnston bought a Hartley 16, making 3 in the Ngaroto fleet. The others belong to Thomas and Gordon Wallis. Peter van der Stap is looking for one to replace his Joker 6.7 which he sold recently to a buyer from Auckland. The Joker fleet at Ngaroto Sailing Club is now down to one, ResiVor. I have the only Noelex 22 and Alex Kraayenhof, the lone Paper Tiger (catamaran). The rest are dinghies: Laser, Starling, P-class and Optimist. Some dinghies are club owned, for use by new members until they decide to buy their own boat. I think there is a nominal charge for hiring a club boat for the day.

I noticed that at the start of the regatta yesterday for dinghies, the numbers are down compared to previous years when Ross Wrenn ran the regular sailing class for juniors on Sundays in the summer months. Murray Wall obtained funding for a fleet of six 420's for older juniors (teenagers). The club is now down to less than 10 regular sailors. Last year, the lake was closed for half the year due to green algae growth and the sailing activities stopped.

Ross Wrenn conducting sailing lessons at the club on Sundays.
Ross Wrenn
Various types of trailer yachts were seen at the club: Jokers, Kestrels, Noelex, Hartleys, Caribou 20's, Monarch 17's, Elliots and a great variety of dinghies: Optimists, Starlings, P-class, Lasers, Phase Two, 420's, Sunburst and Paper Tigers.

Starling sailed by Melissa Wall.
A fleet of six 420's organized by our commodore, Murray Wall and funded by Yachting NZ. These are available for use by most of the clubs in the Waikato region. Now I see why NZ, a small country can win the America's cup. We have made the efforts to train young sailors from age 10 or even younger!
Alex Kraayenhof on his catamaran, a Paper Tiger, a very fast sailing vessel.
Paper Tiger
Gordon Wallis owned the largest boat ever to sail Lake Ngaroto,
Elliot 7.4
an Elliot 7.4 which required a crew of 3 strong men. The centre board (wing-keel) was lowered by using a hydraulic mechanism.spinnaker up for the downwind leg.

My boat is the only Noelex 22 sailing Lake Ngaroto.
Nanook
I have been a regular sailor there for more than 10 years; known especially for playing a bamboo flute while sailing on calm days.



Among other things, my hobby is playing a bamboo flute and sailing a yacht. Hence my internet profile is this on my blogs, FaceBook and other places on the world wide web. I leave quite large foot prints on the internet. Search engines just love me!

5 comments:

  1. 72 blogs. Later I will expand this post into blog 73!

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  2. Good review of the Ngaroto Sailing Club. Just got to correct you on the Elliot 7.4 of Gordon's being the largest boat on Ngaroto. There use to be a couple of Ross 780's in the club. Terry Brennan with Carabella and Brett Goddard who had Vanity Faire and then Loaded Hog. There also use to be regular visits from a few of the Joker 820 boys. I have great memories of the trailer yachting on Ngaroto and the away events we used to go to. Sad to see the numbers dropping of and the John Dixon winter series being canceled due to lack of numbers. Great to see the club still strong in other classes.

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  3. http://slater.co.nz/blogs/slater-chartered-accountants/44066689-walking-waikatos-lake-ngaroto
    Here is a recent article on Lake Ngaroto with some pictures and information about the recent works there, thanks

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Brett for your input. I will also add this article link to my FaceBook.

    ReplyDelete

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