Thames Sailing Club Centreboard and Summer Keeler Race Series Reports.

What a week of wild weather we have had! Thankfully our clubrooms did not suffer any damage. Our thoughts are with those throughout the country who have been impacted by the storm and subsequent events.

In this edition we are including the Summer Keeler Race Series Report.

 Centerboard Sailing Report – January 10th-11th 2026 

 We are in the second half of our current sailing season. There are plenty of opportunities left for practising and racing. As we were able to proceed with every event up to the last sailing weekend, a rupture had to happen eventually: There was no sailing on Saturday, January 10th. Little wind and the holiday season might have been factors contributing to that. In contrast to Saturday, we had strong and competitive racing on Sunday.

Soon we will have a season's highlight with the Frostply regatta coming up. You could use the coming weekend to prepare for it. Hard_Case, L’escargot and Razzel deserve to be taken for a sail.

 In detail:

 Saturday, January 10th:

 I am one of those that did not come along. The club opened its doors, but no sailing took place. We have these non-events in most seasons. Let’s put it behind us and focus on driving the club into the future.

Sunday, January 11th:

A light but fair and steady breeze from north-west welcomed and stayed with us for the day. 6 Lasers (one radial rigged) and a Topaz did not want to miss out. Every sailor was sailing on the edge of his capability. A triangular course was set up: Starting delayed from the beach, we sailed to a buoy straight ahead of the club's tower. From here, we went downwind to a buoy at Kuranui Bay and back to the first buoy. A second round would include the Four-Poster as a wing-mark. The races finished between the club and the first buoy (in close proximity to the buoy). All marks had to be left to port. Our most experienced sailor is starting to feel some serious competition from others. The starting times were brought closer together after each of the first two races. After two races of this format, the course was extended by two crosswind legs between the Four-Poster and the leeward buoy. The finishes changed by only a slight amount. We can see that this is a high standard of performance for our sailors. Next time, we will get even better. I am not quite sure where to see myself in this picture.

Have a look at the results:

https://www.thamessailingclub.co.nz/index.php/centreboard-sailing2/centreboard-sailing-results

 Next up:

 Let’s get a fleet together for the Frostply Regatta. We all can make this the event it deserves to be. Hopefully, we wash off some dust next sailing weekend (first with salt water and then fresh) and check them out for February 7th. By then, we might have our commodore back from his summer vacation. He might want to practise his sailing and barbecuing skills.

 Thanks to Markus for this report and Matt for his work in keeping the results.

Keeler Summer Series Saturday 17th January 2026

Saturday was a perfect day for the start of the summer racing. Considering the weather that followed, we were lucky. Just to give you an idea of rainfall totals, l tipped out 455mls of rain recorded here in Coromandel since I got home on Monday. I had to get a mate to help me get on the mooring as the southeast wind gusts made it really hard with the floats on deck.

We had 6 boats turn up for the start, and I'm sure everybody had a good afternoon. There was a bit of argie bargie on the start line for the first race, and l could hear a bit of shouting going on even with my hearing. Focal point had a great start in the second race and just bolted.

Tony Burton

 Don’t forget to stay up to date : https://www.thamessailingclub.co.nz/

No racing today Sunday 25 January, but three intrepid sailors, Dave, Markus and Matt took to the water in quite gusty condinions for a sail.