Two young Northlanders are preparing to defend New Zealand's title in the World Splash Sailing Championships in the Czech Republic.
Kerikeri sailors O'Shea Butler, 18, and Harris Bindon, 16, are in a four-strong team hoping to defend New Zealand's world title in the week-long competition starting on August 13.
The championships are
being held on Lake Lipno, the largest body of water in the land-locked nation, in the Sumava Mountains near the Austrian border.
The four Kiwis qualified in the nationals held in March at Takapuna (won by O'Shea), and the Sir Peter Blake and Upper North Island regattas held late last year.
Harris flew out last Friday with O'Shea joining him on Sunday.
O'Shea's mother, Wendy Butler, said it was hard to know what the team's chances were, as they would be competing on the Europeans' home patch in winds lighter than they were used to.
"But they're keen to go over there and mix it with the Europeans."
She said the pair were looking forward to their first visit to Central Europe. In the Czech Republic they would visit the Unesco World Heritage site of Cesky Krumlov, a small town barely changed since the late 1700s.
Harris and O'Shea are also in the Kerikeri High School sailing team which won the national Secondary Schools Team Sailing Championships earlier this year.
Splash is a class of sailing dinghy designed for 13-19-year-olds that, at 3.5m long, places it between the Optimist and the Laser in size. As all the boats are identical, winning depends purely on skill.
The class is popular in Europe but New Zealand also has a strong record, taking first place in six of the past 10 years. Previous champions include Northlander Blair Tuke. Last year Kiwis won the top four places at the world champs in Takapuna.
The other team members are Evangeline Masters of Auckland and Taylor Burn of Picton.
