28 Women and 4 Men from around New Zealand graduated the Women’s International Match Racing Association (WIMRA) Introduction to Match Racing Clinic, supported by North U.
Instructors Katie Spithill (AUS) and Liz Baylis (USA) arrived in Auckland on Thursday and hosted the 3 day Match Racing Clinic held over the weekend in the Squadron’s Fleet of Elliott 6m training boats. Liz won the Women’s Match Racing World Championships in 2002 and Katie was the runner up at this year’s Women’s Worlds held in France.
The youngest to join the group was 15 year old Hayley Hume-Merry from Wellington’s, Worser Bay, two teams from the Women-on-Water programme out of the Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club, a team from Richmond Yacht Club and a mixture of girls & guys from the wider Auckland region came together to learn or extend their match racing knowledge.
All attendee’s had such an awesome, fun weekend and learned so much from the two fantastic instructors! All agreed that another match racing clinic is a must for next year!...Watch this space
The goal of WIMRA is to promote the women’s match racing around the globe, and this clinic comes at the perfect time to also promote the New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Championships, hosted by the RNZYS from 7 - 9 Match 2008. Plus the Squadron won the bid to host the Women’s Match Racing World Championships in 2008 so all the girls will be able to come to Auckland and watch the best in the world compete in the same boats they just sailed in!
This is the fifth WIMRA Women’s Match Racing Clinic held this year and the next clinic Liz is hosting in St.Maarten, Caribbean.
For further information, photos, more match racing clinic, please contact:
WIMRA – website – www.wimra.org
RNZYS - website - www.rnzys.org.nz
