Sunday, 6 December 2020

2020 Kapiti Regatta

The weather could not have been more friendly, even it it did only last for half a day, it was the right half of the day! Sunshine and mild winds in the morning picked up to overcast and moderate winds for the long race which most of us finished pretty quickly. Certainly I was back in just over an hour and a half and I was near the back of the field.

As results go we did reasonably well on Sunday, getting some good positions and seeing some very good sailing from the scouts. We had no venturers so some of our older scouts took on the role and sailed in their classes.

Well done to Sean, Matt, Xavier and Hamish for helming successful boats. Will and his crew got a win in their cutter in the Tokomapuna (Airplane island) race and Xavier got a second in the open class with me as crew. Sean and Matt had two placings.

GROUP POINTS


Group Scout Points Venturer Points Open Points
Britannia 5 4
Eastern Bays
St James 10 12 18
Ngati Toa 8 4 10
Paraparaumu Beach 3 4
Kotuku 1 4
Westshore

INSHORE RACE


SUNBURST 1st 2nd 3rd
Scout St James Britannia Ngāti Toa
Senior
Open Ngāti Toa

CUTTER 1st 2nd 3rd
Scout
Venturer St James Paraparaumu Beach Ngāti Toa
Open St James Kotuku

OFFSHORE RACE (AIRPLANE ISLAND)


SUNBURST 1st 2nd 3rd
Scout
Venturer St James Britannia Ngāti Toa
Open St James Ngāti Toa

CUTTER 1st 2nd 3rd
Scout Ngāti Toa St James Paraparaumu Beach
Venturer
Open St James

Thursday, 3 December 2020

Cycling trip to Hongoeka Bay

by Alfie


We met at the Den and the weather was perfect for our bike ride. The high winds and rain had died away and the sun was out. Before we set off we did a short presentation about bicycle maintenance and road safety. We then went outside to check everyone's bikes. Lucky everyone's bikes were in perfect order. We then set off in our patrols across the domain.


We set off down the Ara Harakeke pathway towards Plimmerton. During this trip, everyone stayed together in their patrols. We followed this pathway until we reached Plimmerton. When we reached Plimmerton we moved from the walkway to riding on the side of the road. We continued along the side of the road until we reached the pathway alongside the ocean at which point cars were coming regularly along the road. At this point, we switched back to the walkway all the way to the Marae. 

Hannah near the Plimmerton Firestation


Liam, Ruby and Ciara bringing up the rear

When we reached the marae we waited for everyone to catch up. Since we were ahead of schedule, we decided to go further than planned and went to the headland further along the path. We stopped here for a bit. Hamish and Will went out onto the rocks and sang songs while Zoe and her friends caught crabs. While we were having a break, a group of scouts climbed a large rock, despite being told not to. Jesse fell off the rock and had to be sent to the hospital as he had sliced his knee open on a rock.

Hanging around at the point

Jesses knee (He had 11 stitches later!)

After Jesse had been driven to the hospital, we set off back to the den. There was no incident on the way back. When we got back to the den, we had a game of infection tag, then a game of poison ivy. We then had flag down and left for the night.

A few more pictures are available here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/xke93nmSjcfMU11a7

Monday, 16 November 2020

2020 Swamp tests

Last Sunday we revised our Sunday Sailing practice to being swamp testing and safety drills.  The low tide that was coming in meant the channel was running at full speed and causing a strong rip in the area outside the den.  For that reason we decided sailing was not feasible, but we decided we could do our annual swamp test of the cutters.  This is a fun activity that requires scouts to sink the cutters and then leave them to float.  Flotation in the cutters ensures that they float quite high out of the water and we have to maintain these to ensure this height out of the water.

219 showing water just above the centre case

146 sitting only a little deeper than 219

83 failed.  This is not how a cutter should look in the water.

For completeness we put 83 through the same test and this result was expected.  New flotation is currently being made for it and should be installed in the next weeks.

The scouts also had some fun doing some safety drills:

  • Pulling scouts out of the water and onto the boat
  • Swimming under a kayak with your life jacket on
  • Swimming and coming up underneath an overturned boat
  • Swimming underneath a sail on the water


Alfie heading under the boat

Rose coming out from swimming under the sail

More pictures are available here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/G941fFuvVXteDGnv7


Friday, 13 November 2020

2020 Levin Regatta

Lake Horowhenua was a blast!  During some times of the day that was literal.  The weather was a mix up of just about everything you can get up there.  We arrived to drizzle and a reasonably strong Northerly which felt like it was dying.  We got boats on the water and started sailing and it dropped to almost nothing.  After about half an hour of drifting around trying to find wind, we found some coming up from the South that grew into something quite strong.  Most of the boats went in after about an hour on the water.  

We all then settled down to have some sausages and hot drinks with Kotuku.  They were fantastic hosts and brought a great scouting spirit to what would otherwise have been a pretty non-descript event.

Special mention to Magnus, who lead the younger scouts through rigging, sailing and derigging with great maturity and attitude.

Racing across the lake

Magnus showing Zoe how to enjoy sailing

Calvin and Rose "Rowing under sail" during the lull

What it's all about!

More pictures here:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z5zy8PiPTeyWZmQK8

Wednesday, 28 October 2020

Onepoto Regatta 2020

 First regatta of the season!  What a brilliant start to the season.  And the weather?  Randall put it well : "The weather for Onepoto was best described as 'Wellington' with Saturday being just shy of perfect, Sunday being a drizzly mess and Monday a bit of both."

Our Juniors produced some really memorable results, including winning the Seamanship event on their first time out (a credit especially to their coxswain Matt).  And our intermediates who won Iron Scout, Rowing and Cutter Sailing.  

I was especially proud of the way Ngati Toa as a troop got together to get boats ready and put away afterwards.  This was something I witnessed that was missing in the other troops.  It makes me very proud.  Thank you.

I have included a few pictures below.  More are available here. 

Grant and the watch leaders deciding the crews

Adam and Phoebe heading out to race

Our winning seamanship crew

The results look pretty good for us.  We achieved a solid second over the whole weekend with St James taking weekend honours.  Some very good individual performances and a strong showing from our intermediates, made up a little for the small turnout amongst our seniors.

SAILING


SUNBURST1st2nd3rd
JuniorParaparaumu BeachSt JamesBritannia
IntermediateSt JamesNgati ToaBritannia
SeniorSt JamesNgati ToaBritannia
OpenSt JamesBritanniaNgati Toa

CUTTER1st2nd3rd
JuniorSt JamesParaparaumu BeachBritannia
IntermediateNgati ToaSt JamesBritannia
SeniorSt JamesBritanniaNgati Toa
OpenSt JamesBounty RoversNgati Toa

ROWING


1st2nd3rd
JuniorSt JamesBritanniaNgati Toa
IntermediateNgati ToaSt JamesBritannia
SeniorSt JamesNgati ToaBritannia
OpenSt JamesBounty RoversNgati Toa

KAYAKING


1st2nd3rd
JuniorSt JamesNgati ToaBritannia
IntermediateBritanniaNgati ToaSt James
SeniorSt JamesBritanniaNgati Toa

IRON SCOUT


1st2nd3rd
JuniorBritanniaNgati ToaSt James
IntermediateNgati ToaBritanniaSt James
SeniorBritanniaNgati ToaSt James
Open---

SEAMANSHIP


1st2nd3rd
JuniorNgati ToaSt James
IntermediateBritanniaSt JamesNgati Toa
SeniorSt JamesBritanniaNgati Toa


Overall results

PointsGroup
100St James
70Ngati Toa
66Britannia
17Paraparaumu Beach
8Bounty Rovers