The Ngaroto Sailing Club

During the summer months, (Oct -Mar), we organize regular regattas on Sundays. There were also sailing lessons conducted by Ross Wrenn at 9 am. just prior to the start of the regattas.

International Optimist

This is the most stable sailing dinghy, suitable for beginners and very young children from age 6 years. It is a flat bottomed pram-bow dinghy with a tiny spritsail. It has 3 flotation chambers so that it cannot sink even when filled completely with water.

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P-class

The P-class fills a gap between the Opti and higher performance one man dinghies like the Starling, Zephyr, Laser, F.D.,3.7's, 505's and Paper Tiger.

This 3.7 comes complete with a trapeze for hiking out.

Starling

This boat is slightly faster than the Opti or P-class. Starlings are mostly made from marine ply. They are very light and easy to sail. Many are now made of fibre glass.

Zephyr, 11 ft dinghy

The Zephyr is a one man version of the high performance Mistral class dinghy, designed by Des Townsend. It is confined mainly to the Auckland area. Zephyr have since been overshadowed and replaced by the International Laser which is made of fibre glass and requires little maintenance. These photos were taken at Hamilton lake.

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International Lasers

Most of the centre boarders at Ngaroto are Lasers. These are very fast, one-man dinghies which planes easily at 10 knots or more. However it also capsizes easily in wind gusts so that it is practical to wear a wet suit while on the water.

I used to sail a Laser in Borneo, an island 400 km east of Singapore. The northern part of this island consists of Sabah, Brunei and Sarawak; the rest, 80% is Indonesian Borneo. I lived in Sarawak until 1995 and did most of my sailing in the sea off Miri. The water was warm unlike NZ where a wet suit is necessary, especially in winter.