The New Zealand Masters Games were held in Whanganui in early February where circa 5000 aging weekend warriors descended on the otherwise out of the way city in the Manawatu. The event location alternates each year between Dunedin and Whanganui. The sailing discipline was a nine-race series over three days held downstream in the river out of the well-resourced Whanganui Sailing Club. Long time organiser, Lindsay Stevenson, along with his team, did a fantastic job in making the most of what they had to work with as the river was in flood with all sorts of things careering down the heavily silt laden water way. The Race committee also had the added constraint of having to get races away within a tight window before they ran out of water.

While numbers were significantly down on previous years, the small “laser” fleet punched above its weight with multiple class national champion, David Feek, former YNZ supremo and youth world silver medallist, Craig Gilbert, respected Javelin sailor David Brown and radial sailor Phil Wild, all in the mix. Day One was light air – to the point where out of towners are still trying to figure how the fleet made it around the highly tide affected course. However, the RO and team showed the fleet who’s boss and got in three solid races. The second day was light to moderate with the fleet zipping around the track quick enough to be back on shore in time to go check out some of the other sports going on. The third day was forecast to get hectic with gusts up above 25-30Knots….which did happen over the last few legs of race nine: while the laser fleet got around relatively unscathed, there was carnage at the last turning mark in the paper Tiger Fleet where one boat got stuck upside down and the skipper of another was cleaned out by the boom, requiring medical assistance (thankfully he was fine the following day).

The event will be held in Dunedin next year which is likely to boast a very strong fleet. However, in a couple of years time, if you’re up for something different and would like to check out a classic Kiwi town with good entertainment put on in the evenings, maybe give this a go.

Phil Wild