Wellington Ocean Sports is ramping up for summer
Daylight savings marks a shift in focus for Wellington Ocean Sports. Over winter we don’t stop running our intro, racing crew and cruising crew courses – many of you will have seen the boats out on the weekends, but with daylight savings starting and the days getting warmer, our on the water activity really ramps up. We have our first evenings intro class starting on Tuesday 1st October. We also already have a number of schools and corporate groups booked in for mid week sessions. In the weekends the boats will be flat out with intro, racing and cruising courses.
As well as the on the water courses over winter, we have run an advanced sea survival, 2 boatmaster, 2 VHF, 2 inboard engine maintenance, 1 coastal medic, 1 rowing club safety boat and RYA powerboat level 2 for volunteers. In total 169 people have done a course with us since May, with about 50 more having got out on the water for a harbour sail or corporate sail. We have also spent considerable time over winter working on the unseen part of the operation – our safety systems, facility and boat maintenance, marketing, staffing, course offerings and sailing pathways. Over the next couple of months, we will be tidying up the last of this work before getting into our full summer operational mode – expect some more updates on our course offerings and staffing over the next couple of months.
You’ll be seeing the Muirs out more on Friday nights – we are going to be getting as many as possible of our grads as we can in the rum races and down to the bar afterwards. This is an informal opportunity for members to meet them – please take the time to say hi and make them feel welcome.
For those of you who have ever considered throwing it all in and going cruising I’ll be speaking in a couple of weeks (Wednesday 16th October) in the wardroom about purchasing a boat in the Caribbean, transiting the Panama canal, crossing the pacific and arriving back in New Zealand – keep an eye on the social calendar. We’ll be inviting grads along to this so this will be another good opportunity to scope out some new crew.
Finally don’t forget Wellington Ocean Sports is here to help – if you want to learn some new skills or want to get friends or colleagues out on the water be sure to give us a yell.
Craig Ryburn – Ocean Sports Manager