The world of competitive keelboat racing can be a tough one to break into. Especially for women and young people who
tend to be under-represented on crews, and struggle to get a foot in the door with limited sailing experience. This
leaves many keen novice sailors in a frustrating catch-22, which is especially prevalent in Northland where the pool of
racing yachts with spaces for new crew is much smaller than in nearby Auckland.
But at this year’s Bay of Islands Sailing Week there’s an entire team of relatively new sailors, who all got the chance
to fast-track their learning thanks to the Whangarei Cruising Club (WCC). The team on Rum Jungle - a modified Elliott
6.5m trailer sailer - is an all-female crew of four, most of whom have just a couple of years’ keelboat sailing under
their belt.
Rum Jungle was purchased by WCC in 2021 to encourage more people into yacht racing, but especially to get more women and
youth involved. Scott Gavin, who serves on the executive committee at WCC, says the idea came about following a surge of
interest from women in trailer yacht sailing at the club, at a time when they were running out of available crew
positions among the existing race fleet.
“We had a lot of new sailors coming through, most of them were women, and our trailer yacht convener said - how are we
going to fit everyone in? We don’t want to say no to anybody.”
So the club - with the help of its sponsors - bought its own boat to help with the increased demand. It’s a racy design
with the potential to be at the front of the fleet, which makes it exciting to sail. But its size makes it easily
manageable by a less experienced or younger crew. It’s the perfect tool to transition sailors out of dinghies and into
keelboats, says Scott, giving them a fun and safe way to develop their sailing skills.
Emily Walker is a regular crew on Rum Jungle for club racing at WCC, and will skipper the team at the 20th Bay of
Islands Sailing Week next week. Despite her fast-track sailing career - she’s been sailing for just four years, and
keelboat racing for only two - she’s not nervous about the prospect of taking part in one of the New Zealand's premier
sailing events.
“It’s good because it's a challenge”, says Emily. “You're going to a different place where you’ve not sailed much
before, but there’s so many people up there and so much support that I think that makes it fine, and you know it’s going
to be a learning experience.”
Entered in the Island Racing division at this year’s Bay of Islands Sailing Week, Rum Jungle has definite potential for
a podium finish. Under previous owners she placed third in E division at the 2021 regatta, while in 2019 she took out
the top spot in Island Racing C. That means the pressure is on for this year’s crew to perform, but they’re taking it in
their stride.
“We’ve probably come up a little bit, at the beginning we were way at the bottom of the fleet”, says Emily, “but for me
personally it’s more just about going out and having fun and getting round, and that’s awesome.”
Registration for the 20th Bay of Islands Sailing Week is on Tuesday 24th January, followed by three days of racing from
Wednesday 25th to Friday 27th January. Entries are still being accepted for the regatta, and will remain open until
close of Registration.