northcote birkenhead yacht club

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Aon Club of the Month - Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club

On one side is the Chelsea sugar factory, on the other the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

The yacht club is perched on the foreshore with the Chelsea sugar factory in the background. 

The Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club is not nearly as prominent as these two major landmarks but it has been an important part of the Northcote and Birkenhead communities for the last century.

One of the biggest contributions they have made is through their learn to sail programmes but they have had to diversify in more recent times and that has brought both rewards and challenges.

The club raised close to $1.5 million to build new clubrooms and it is widely used by community groups from waka ama and rotary to real estate agents and Waterwise.

The club had been in a bad state – the building purchased from the wharves about 30 years previously had reached the end of its life - and they were virtually on the edge of folding with dwindling membership of less than 20.

They identified the need to arrest this and the work done by some on the previous committee was recognised when club stalwarts Graham Thow and Des Rouse received service awards at the 2016 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards.

On top of that, the club also recognised the need to be more than a learn-to-sail club and raised about $75,000 to purchase a handful of new boats including a fleet of RS Fevas and RS Quests in an effort to recruit and retain members.

These were seen as ideal boats to help transition youngsters into bigger boats, especially as it allowed them to have an older sailor alongside them. It's also meant they've had as many adults through their learn to sail programme as children.

“The club was always strong in learn to sail so there were always kids coming through but membership was quite low and there wasn’t really a racing programme because most of the effort was going into the clubrooms,” commodore Chris Bowman said.

“We bought some new boats and that’s made a huge difference to the club. It’s rejuvenated the sailing programme and membership so we seem to be achieving our objectives on that front.”

The fleet of RS Quests has been a big hit. 

The club have also built a new website and recruited some new committee members to help keep things fresh and they received another boost by hosting this year’s Feva national championships, the first major regatta they had hosted since the 2011 Secondary Schools teams racing national championships.

More than 30 crews from as far afield as Wanganui competed, although the second day was lost due to a lack of wind, and it has encouraged the club to look into hosting more big events in the future.

“It was a really good event for us to do,” Bowman said. “A lot of the club members stepped up to help, from food and race management to rubbish and traffic so it helped bring everyone together.

“We had some really positive feedback and the event was a great success, apart from no wind on the Sunday and we can't do much about that. It would be good for NBYC to do more regattas in the future. The issue for us was the cost of it, particularly the cost to block off the road to traffic so we would look into whether we would have to do that in the future.”

The balance sheet, as it is for most clubs, is a constant consideration, and the Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club rely heavily on income generated from hiring out the clubrooms.

"Because our new clubrooms are so well designed and appointed over the harbour, the venue-hire aspect of the club plays a very large part in keeping us afloat financially," Bowman said. "The clubrooms are booked out most weekends, and this revenue is absolutely vital to the club remaining in business.

"There are challenges that go with running a yacht club and, although it is an ongoing job, it is great to be an active participant in our local community and we are looking forward to increasing our membership over the coming years." 

It will help them remain a part of the landscape for another 100 years.

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Northcote & Birkenhead Yacht Club

Commodore: Merv Hunter | Treasurer: Dave West Main Activity: Junior, youth and adults centreboards, race and recreational sailing. Learn to sail & race YNZ L1, L2, L3 centreboards. High school 420 teams sailing programme Main Classes: Multiple classes, Fevas, Lasers, Quests. Club boats  available for members, as well as for hire.  Club racing Sundays.

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Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club

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1 Hinemoa St

Auckland 0626

New Zealand

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waitematawoodys.com #1 for classic wooden boat stories, info, advice & news – updated daily

Dedicated to the study & appreciation of wooden boats. waitematawoodys® was founded upon a desire to tell the stories & a need to archive the history of our classic wooden boats, the craftsman who built them & characters that owned & crewed on them. to share – email your photos, video's & stories to flora mckenzie at [email protected] – special thanks to marine author & historian harold kidd. click the follow button at the bottom right of the page to get email alerts on new & updated stories. ww gets a lot of emails every day – we like that, but sometimes we just can't answer them all, it's not that we're lazy or rude – just busy working on the next story :-) alan houghton – ww founder ©2024.

Sailing Sunday – Northcote & Birkenhead Yacht Club Regatta

Sailing Sunday – Northcote & Birkenhead Yacht Club Regatta Yesterdays (01/11/14) regatta marked the official opening of the Northcote & Birkenhead Yacht Club’s new clubroom. A selection of photos below – not my best, I took the wrong camera lens……………….. 😦 Nice to see the Idle Alongs in amongst the classic fleet, even had to help out one that had an oops 🙂 As always – click photos to enlarge – enjoy.

Local resident Bill Belton also had his camera & long lens out & for those that can view the link – there are 182 photos at the link below

https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=e34dd24c5782a45c&id=E34DD24C5782A45C!172&ithint=folder,JPG&authkey=!AA9DDLHqhVeL6iE

Mondays ww post is a goodie – the latest classic launch to join the CYA fleet – Arohanui, owned by CYA Chairman Rod Marler, a big day for the launch group i.e. the Classic Yacht Association’s top man is now a launch owner 🙂 Must be time for a name change –  Wooden Boat Club……………….. 😉

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2 thoughts on “ sailing sunday – northcote & birkenhead yacht club regatta ”.

Solid day by the looks- gutted I had appointments and couldn’t race! Sailing like this is what keeps these classic yachts relevant and interesting when they are able to still have close competition. I hear Jonquil ran her engine a lot during the race.

Wow! So much beautiful canvas. Gotta love it! Photos are beautiful .

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Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club

HISTORY OF THE CLUB

A brief History... as the NBYC has several lineages - none of which is fully documented!

The Northcote Birkenhead Regatta started in 1910 and was a major local social event - becoming one of the premiere Auckland Regattas of the day. By the 1920's and 1930's most popular centreboard classes, including Mulleties, were represented. Our Lepper Cup carries many names of the victors in these races.

The Little Shoal Bay Yacht Club sailed from Halls Beach. Their 'home' days were often hosted by the Baileys, whose boat building shed stood on the foreshore. Photographs show Zeddies and other classes less familiar today: L, S, T, V and X classes. Later, a strong fleet of P classes was built up.

The Northcote and Birkenhead Yacht Club didn't launch until the 1940's. Unfortunately the old records were lost, but we hope that research may one day help to pin point the exact start date of our Club. NBYC embraced both centreboards and keelers. Sometimes the committee business covered both centreboard racing, and planning for the winter haul out. The Club developed the Northcote Point haul out area and for many years there was a strong, close-knit group of cruising boat keelers flying the Club pennant. The Birkenhead Boating Club is believed to have started around eh 1950's and soon after, merged with the Northcote Club.

The Northcote Birkenhead Yacht Club centreboard activity was initially focussed around the 'Gold Hole' - near what is now the Auckland Harbour Bridge approaches. However, the  eventual bridge development and the spread of moorings, forced the Club to move to Needles Eye, then to the shingle wharf in front of Hinemoa Park - and finally to its present location on Birkenhead Wharf.

Members share their memories ...

Warren Stewart

Ron Patterson

Phil Coveny