Young boaties ensure the future of yachting

Anniversary weekend culminates on Monday with the New Zealand Herald Auckland Anniversary regatta, one of the highlights of the maritime calendar. David Eames concludes our series on the City's love affair with the water.

The America's Cup may have gone but the sport of yachting is in good hands.

New generations of boaties are taking to the water. At least five yacht clubs provide training for children in numerous boat classes.

Kohimarama Yacht Club takes about 40 young would-be sailors a year, in two intakes.

Youngsters receive a 10-week learn-to-sail programme, then spend another 10 weeks learning to race their yachts.

With class intakes in October and February, there is inevitable competition with other sports, particularly rowing, cycling and, to a lesser extent, cricket, says club commodore Alan Bilkey.

"The kids ... tend to go either one way or the other," Mr Bilkey says.

"If kids are trying to do both ... they just lose it."

Fortunately, most of the budding sailors stick with the sport. The Kohimarama club has a retention rate of about 75 per cent.

Mr Bilkey has lost only one would-be sailor to cricket, but he became a "top level" player, which made it an acceptable loss.

Young sailors who continue in the sport, moving eventually into regatta sailing, will find their weekends fully spoken for.

A family with one junior looking to learn to sail can join Kohimarama for $210 a year, with the 10-week programmes each costing $100.

Boats can be used at a cost of $100 a half season (about three months), though parents will eventually have to bite the bullet and buy their darling a boat of his own, Mr Bilkey says.

A top-of-the-line beginner's Optimist-class yacht could cost up to $6000 new, though secondhand boats are generally priced up to $4000. A new basic-model Optimist can be bought for $2500 to $3000.

Yachting New Zealand works closely with the city's clubs to ensure the sport gets regular infusions of new blood.

YNZ communications and event manager Jodie Perkins says she has heard "fairly mixed" estimates of young sailor numbers.

The latest two-yearly club survey showed numbers of juniors taking up the sport have been "holding steady", with results "pretty much unchanged" from the previous survey.

The organisation has just been granted money from Team New Zealand 2000 trust coffers, to provide a trailer unit carrying three Optimist-class yachts and an instructor around the Auckland area.

The project introduced children to sailing by putting them out on the water for a day.

Torbay Yacht Club commodore Keith Auld is optimistic about the sport's future, at least in Auckland.

His club, "basically a kids' club", has 100 members, sailing Optimist, P, Starling and splash-class vessels.

Members include a number of champion sailors, including Laser-radial class World Youth Championship winner Blair McLay.

Twenty-four junior sailors turned up for classes before Christmas and numbers are expected to be similar for the next series of classes.

"These are kids who have never sailed before, who are starting out fresh," says Mr Auld

What's more, sailing is being taken up by the masses, after years of being a hobby for a privileged few.

"There's a lot of people getting involved," Mr Auld says. "We are getting a lot of new people into the sport, not just the old sailing families."