Mr Commodore, Mr President, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen
It is a privilege to open the 140th sailing season of RPNYC.
140 years is a daunting number by any measure. An organisation with that longevity cannot have achieved that milestone without resilience, obstinacy and esprit de corps.
The Club was established in 1883 and received the Royal Charter in 1921. Since that time the club and its members have weathered the repercussions of international hostilities, including two world wars, global economic meltdowns, including the great depression and global financial crisis, and natural disasters and disruptions, including the Kaikoura earthquakes and latterly the COVID19 pandemic.
All of these events have in some shape or form affected the club and the club’s sailors. The fact that the club is still here today is testament to the platform on which the club has stood over those 140 years and its ability to refresh itself.
Sailing can be a sport or a way of life or both. It is a leveler. It does not distinguish between status or the lack of it. It is gender blind. It is blind to ethnic differences.
Sometimes it is even blind to age. Look no further than the Club President who has clearly not recently looked at his birth certificate because he is still rocketing around the harbour like someone a fraction of his age. Look no further than Graham McKenzie who is still steering a yacht around the race course at the tender age of 80.
If you can do the job, you will get the job. If you want to improve someone will help you.
Over the years club members have distinguished themselves on the water in many different contexts and in many different events. Club members have represented New Zealand at the Olympics; club members have represented the club in blue water events, including the Sydney to Hobart, the Kenwood Cup, and various Pacific Ocean races; club members have circumnavigated New Zealand and it’s islands.
Not all of us can achieve these heights but the great thing about sailing is that if you want it there will always be a place for you whether you are sailing a bathtub or a foiling monohull in the America’s Cup.
The club has played its part in yachting events which have resonated beyond these shores. Grant Dalton’s New Zealand Endeavour won the 1993-94 Whitbread jointly flagged under the club and the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
In 1994 the club hosted Peter Blake and Robin Knox-Johnston after they had won the Jules Vern Trophy Around the World Race on the catamaran ENZA New Zealand in an elapsed time of 75 days. The scary thing about is that the record time for that circumnavigation now stands at 40 days!
Again in 1994 the club was for the first time, with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, an organising club in a blue water event, the Tasman Triangle. Then in 1995 the club had the privilege of hosting then Governor General Cath Tizard and the then Prime Minister Jim Bolger to celebrate the first time New Zealand won the America’s Cup.
We have done all of these things before and we can do such things again.
The club plays its part in supporting the wider community and providing a pathway for young sailors and new sailors to discover the sport we all love.
The Wellington Ocean Sports Centre, which started life as the RPNYC Sailing Academy, is now 34 years of age and plays a major role in training new sailors and providing a pipeline of talent for the racing fleet.
The club has a long and productive relationship with Wellington City Council which has stood the test of time despite the odd bump in the road. Chaffers Marina opened in 1993 with the club playing a significant part in the development of the facility and populating it with club boats. Lambton Harbour Management, which was the Council’s development arm for the Marina project, kindly provided the initial home for the Academy at the northern end of the then Overseas Passenger Terminal – a stunning location but a challenge to enter in a roaring nor wester.
In 1994 the club and the Wellington City Development Agency successfully bid to host Robin Knox-Johnston’s British Telecom Global Challenge fleet of one-design yachts sailing around the world the wrong way.
This heritage is yours. It is now your turn to write the next chapter.
The club needs you all in order to prosper and grow. The club needs the volunteers who give generously of their time to enable the club to continue to function.
That is not to say you should be captured by the paradigm of the past. Things change. Things have changed. You need to do it your way.
With your support the club will be here for another 140 years and more and will continue to provide you and those who come after you with the enjoyment, the excitement, and the camaraderie you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
I wish you all well for the 140th season of the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club.
I wish you all fair sailing and safe returns.