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13 year old with Variant 22.5 foot


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Hi

Just bought our kids 13 (with a day skipper ticket and big boat experience) a Variant.

I'd like 13,10 boys to join a club and race saturday or sunday once they get the hang of it. Then longer races in time. We are only in Auckland on weekends.

Located Hobson Bay,Auckland IMG_20200713_090524_979.jpg.028cbe29e39949bde33f8988395b4c3b.jpg

Please advise clubs that would suit and how to get 'into it'

Thanks in advance

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Find a club that does cruising races .Good starting place to learn how start etc how the boat goes.Throwing money at new sails etc is fine until they suddenly go "Nah dont like racing" or get tangled up in the start area and abuse  is hurlded by some full on racer who doesnt apperciate the also rans.

Been in the also ran division most of the time.But without us theres generally not enough entries for a race.

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Hundreds of kids in Auckland do dinghy racing, so maybe that would be a better option?

Keelboat racing is mainly done by adults.  There were some Variants racing at Milford, and Panmure around 8 years ago, so maybe one of those clubs could be worth trying. Other than that looks like one Variant racing at Evans Bay in Wellington at the moment.

 

 

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So if they raced they would not be included and just be tagging along and not get any results.. ? forgive me I have 50k offshore miles but know nothing of sailing with a club or racing for fun.
Dinghies are no fun sailing to Barrier for a week...or spending the night at Waikheke - Dingy racing looks like its horribly wet and horribly cold .. not our thing in the least which is why we bought a mini keel boat.
Oh well maybe we will just give up on the possibility of racing then if it is pointless.. what a pity .. the child wants to be the youngest to sail around NZ and wants to race single handed keel boats .. its a shame that there is no take up for small keel boat racing :-( 
 

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I wouldn't through the bath water out just yet.

There are pockets around with racing where the Variant would fit in just fine. I am up at Weiti, and that sort of boat is much more common up here than at Westhaven, for example.

Look at the website http://www.weiti.co.nz/#portfolios and look at the type of boats racing. Note the picture of Raffertys Rules, a Ross 780 trailer yacht. Certainly there is not a whole fleet of variants, but they wouldn't be out of place. We have a winter series (combined with Gulf Harbour), I'm in gold division, which is the smaller and older boats. White division is the bigger boats with posher sails.

The Barfoot & Thompson 2 handed series is great, and there is a couple of solo races. The cruising races are popular, and a good place to start.

You and the boys would be more than welcome at Weiti. Strewth, we even let a C class cat race with us, so they don't feel left out. Been doing that for a number of years now. Don't forget these are all handicap races. Once you understand that, you understand that if you sail well you can get a trophy.

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Hi Sea Eagle - Adrian here from Lady Nada - Pity we're all not back at Vuluga like last year. 

Definitely check out Milford Cruising Club. As the fleet is limited in size to what can get in/out of the tidal Milford Marina entrance, the fleet is generally 20-25ft keelers. They also have a big fleet (about 20) of Pied Pipers (a 22ft Townson design)  which are mainly owned by 15-25 year olds. The marina is super cheap but is tidal limited and most keelers can get in/out 2 hours either side of high tide. They have a club haul out and will be a great place for the boys to learn about boat ownership. 

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 Go on line and have a look at Devonport Yacht Club, handy to Hobson Bay, They do cruising races to nearby destination Waiheke Island, Rakino and further etc. for a beach BBQ and over night stay, over the summer months, also some longer races. They have several under 30ft boat sailing in the cruising series. Go visit the club for dinner on a Friday night introduce your self to the duty officer and have a chat to see if sailing with them fits your requirements.

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Or get them signed up as crew on a racing machine. They will be well sought after if they are committed and will learn a lot. Get to do some cool races on hot machines that other people pay for and learn what makes a boat fast, about category safety gear, heavy weather etc. They will learn so much from a regular race crew over a season.

Then the Variant becomes their adventure vehicle.

The Variant will always be slow no matter how well sailed compared to the 30-35ft cruiser racers in most club fleets, and it does suck constantly being a back marker in the fleet.

By crewing on a regular racer they can get the best of both worlds.

 

 

 

 

 

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Are you saying they know how to sail but have never raced?
If that’s the case, there is a benefit in dinghy sailing you won’t get in keelers. Basically, they are geared up for teaching.  Dinghy clubs will have a chase boat, and a learn to sail course which morphs into learn to race and the rules. Once racing, a chase boat can help with basic sailing, and there’s fleets where it’s expected many are still learning rules, so much assistance is offered. Crashes typically aren’t expensive and repairs if required are easy and quick (relatively). In keel boats, there will be less people nearby to help, typically less help offered, and an expectation to know and understand the rules, so as to avoid costly and time consuming repairs - even if insurance covers the cost, no one wants to be without a boat for months awaiting it being fixed. 
 

Are you intending to race with them, or drop them off at the marina with their lunch? Your post is unclear. 

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 Have to agree with that mattm, i sailed on  keelers as crew with a bit of racing aswell  , i  later joined Waiuku yacht club and raced a Laser, then moved up to a Finn, you sure do learn the rules quick when  converging on the bottom mark in a big breeze and there is a lot of yelling for bouy room lol,

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1 hour ago, Adrianp said:

Hi Sea Eagle - Adrian here from Lady Nada - Pity we're all not back at Vuluga like last year.

Hey Hey !! Yea!100% we scheming already !! bloody cold .. dream of being back in those blue water and warm weather! lucky we did it last year !!!
Thanks for that I will check them out and see how far the club is from Hobson Bay 💫 I think racing with other keen people will teach loads :-)

 

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37 minutes ago, mattm said:

Are you saying they know how to sail but have never raced?
If that’s the case, there is a benefit in dinghy sailing you won’t get in keelers. Basically, they are geared up for teaching.  Dinghy clubs will have a chase boat, and a learn to sail course which morphs into learn to race and the rules. Once racing, a chase boat can help with basic sailing, and there’s fleets where it’s expected many are still learning rules, so much assistance is offered. Crashes typically aren’t expensive and repairs if required are easy and quick (relatively). In keel boats, there will be less people nearby to help, typically less help offered, and an expectation to know and understand the rules, so as to avoid costly and time consuming repairs - even if insurance covers the cost, no one wants to be without a boat for months awaiting it being fixed. 
 

Are you intending to race with them, or drop them off at the marina with their lunch? Your post is unclear. 

We sail around in our 41 footer, they will sail around with us. They have done opti sailing. We want them to be able to cruise and once they are confident then we thought racing for fun would be a great way to sharpen the skills. The 13 year old has a day skippers ticket, VHF and HF licence and 8000+ cruising miles at least and is a well competent crew on the 41 footer. We are not aiming for a racing career but only to be good sea men and sailors and well ready to inherit the 41 footer so that they can feel competent to sail anywhere in the world they wish to go with the ability to maintain the boat well. That is our aim.

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1 hour ago, whitepointer said:

Be sure to have a good read of the fine print with insurance policy, ie racing cover, wouldnt want to T bone an expensive racing yacht. 

Yea .. but by the time they race I hope they will be skilled enough to have a good time and not go around ramming boats. We are fully insured with the little boat insured for 5 mill libility and compensation.. We will be adequately insured and a skill set capable of being as safe as they can be in a fun competing way .. 

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1 hour ago, Fish said:

You and the boys would be more than welcome at Weiti. Strewth, we even let a C class cat race with us, so they don't feel left out. Been doing that for a number of years now. Don't forget these are all handicap races. Once you understand that, you understand that if you sail well you can get a trophy.

Sounds really great ! Bit of a sail from Hobson but if they get into it enough could be a possibility to move the boat. We have both the boats together in Auckland and we live in Raglan area so the drive is not too hectic. Thanks for the info!

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TazzyDevil
That is a great idea! yea!  He did crew for a short time from Hobsonville while we were refitting the big boat and did enjoy that.
The only issue I see is the inability to commit to every weekend as we live a few hours away and are not there every weekend.

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Hobsonville YC have some racing also. I understand it is suitably relaxed.

At this risk of ruffling a few feathers around here, there is often a perception that the only 'racing' in Auckland is out of Westhaven. That is not the case. There are horses for every course. Some people think Windward Leewards is the only form of true racing. Some people think you need gazzillion dollar carbon sails to be able to race. That is all fine in its own context, but there is still racing about in older boats and with dacron sails etc. Personally I find reachign up and down the ditch outside Westhaven tactically mind numbing, and prefer racing in good water off of Gulf Harbour.

But if I understand your objectives of racing, you wont have any problem finding good events to get your boys engaged and fired up. The most obvious is probably the SSANZ short handed tripple series. Loads of boats grouped into similar types doing challenging but achievable Hauraki Gulf courses. (ran in winter, first race was the other weekend).

The Barfoot & Thompson 2 handed series is ran in summer out of Weiti / Gulf Harbour. Good fleet of mixed boats, good harbour courses.

Bay of Island Sailing Week, Island Cruising Division - this is the gold standard for summer sailing fun.

Cruising races are destination races, generally no spinakers, but a social catch up on a beach or bay somewhere. Weiti / Gulf Harbour do those, I'm fairly sure Hobsonville do as well. Then there are other events like the Night Race to Kawau, which could grab the attention of boys.

If your 13 has aspirations of solo RNZ, then there is a good solo series run by Richmond. This culminates in the Route 66 race to Marsden Cove. Wont be ready for that now, but something for a young man to aspire to, and most likely perfectly achievable if he has done a lot of offshore passages etc.

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