Yachting

Introduction

The School’s Yachting team sails in a number of regattas. The first regatta of the season is the Wakatere Regatta held in February. This is followed by the Auckland Cup (otherwise known as the South of the Bridge regatta). The New Zealand Secondary Schools Championships are held in Algies Bay, and the Harken Schools Regatta is sailed in small keel boats that are used by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron to train many of New Zealand’s best keelboat sailors.

The team then competes in the Auckland Secondary Schools Fleet Racing Regatta. This is sailed at Wakatere Yacht Club situated at Narrow Neck Beach. The regatta is for all sailing classes generally sailed with clubs in Auckland. Schools win the regatta by taking the finishing places of four yachts sailed in three different classes.

The major emphasis in schools yachting is on teams racing. Three 420 class yachts from a school race against three yachts from another school. The team with the least number of finishing points wins.

The last regatta of the season is the National Teams Racing Regatta which is sailed in the last week of the Term 1 holiday. The 30 schools that take part are seeded into Gold, Silver and Bronze fleets.

2022 Captain of Yachting Nick Shi first took to an optimist dingy in 2014 despite some initial nerves and he is proud to be captaining a talented squad who have achieved some great individual results this year. He spoke to Headmaster’s Heritage Committee member Jamie Uy de Baron about what is next for him after he graduates at the end of this year – watch the full interview below.