The Wellington Institution of the Tuesday twilight kayak series kicked off with it's usual early January start last evening.
While just a dozen people rolled up to turn their arms over following the Christmas New Year break, the Organisers were not let down with an absolutely stunning night to kick the 2013 season off.
An absolute pearler of an evening was enjoyed by the kayakers, very warm with a nice little 25 kmh Northerly breeze and some nice downwind mini swells and some upwind head breezes to cool off a little, all this on a nice little three lap boomerang shaped course.
The series post New Year is run by the Kupe Canoe Club, which is based inside of Greta Point in Evans Bay, while the pre Christmas series is run by the Mana Kayak Racing Club (based in Porirua) but they also run the series in Evans Bay also. To make this series a little less daunting for many there are three start times, so effectively they have an A, B and C grade start.
The great thing about Wellington is that we get stacks of wind, but we also have some good shelter in Evans Bay to run a weekly series, and with this venue being so close to the City it's an easy commute for many of the paddlers that work in the City.........so it all makes sense that this is the centrum for Wellington kayakers.
The event tonight was ably run by Sandy Winterton and Katherine Allan, which is good that the Kupe People are able to run a roster of sorts so they can also get out on the water themselves in the coming weeks also.
Normally we get a good spread of adventure racing doubles, surf skis and multisport kayaks, both fat and skinny, turning up every week and when the weather is good there can be as many as 40 (on the fine weather days)..........................and down to around 15 to 20 when the wind gets up or when it's slightly inclement.
There's no need for the locals to fear the conditions, as there are four course options to cater for the range of competencies of paddlers who turn up each night, and if it's a messy Southerly the start and course is about 3 km down the road on Oriental Parade. In Wellington it pays to have two boat choices at least one of them should be a surf ski :-)
We all look forward to everyone returning back to work next week........... so we have more people to paddle with.
The basics:
Kupe Canoe Club, Evans Bay Parade, Wellington
Every Tuesday through to March 26
Start time 6.30pm
distances: between 5km and 7km
courses shallow harbour areas reasonably close to the shoreline
www.kupe.org.nz
Click on any photo to enlarge
While just a dozen people rolled up to turn their arms over following the Christmas New Year break, the Organisers were not let down with an absolutely stunning night to kick the 2013 season off.
The series post New Year is run by the Kupe Canoe Club, which is based inside of Greta Point in Evans Bay, while the pre Christmas series is run by the Mana Kayak Racing Club (based in Porirua) but they also run the series in Evans Bay also. To make this series a little less daunting for many there are three start times, so effectively they have an A, B and C grade start.
The event tonight was ably run by Sandy Winterton and Katherine Allan, which is good that the Kupe People are able to run a roster of sorts so they can also get out on the water themselves in the coming weeks also.
Normally we get a good spread of adventure racing doubles, surf skis and multisport kayaks, both fat and skinny, turning up every week and when the weather is good there can be as many as 40 (on the fine weather days)..........................and down to around 15 to 20 when the wind gets up or when it's slightly inclement.
There's no need for the locals to fear the conditions, as there are four course options to cater for the range of competencies of paddlers who turn up each night, and if it's a messy Southerly the start and course is about 3 km down the road on Oriental Parade. In Wellington it pays to have two boat choices at least one of them should be a surf ski :-)
We all look forward to everyone returning back to work next week........... so we have more people to paddle with.
The basics:
Kupe Canoe Club, Evans Bay Parade, Wellington
Every Tuesday through to March 26
Start time 6.30pm
distances: between 5km and 7km
courses shallow harbour areas reasonably close to the shoreline
www.kupe.org.nz
Click on any photo to enlarge
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