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The Villa Sailing team - Future Champions Sponsors

The 2008 - 2009 sailing season was another good one for Declan and Taylor.

The 2008 - 2009 sailing season has been the best ever for Declan and Taylor. They both achieved their goals set for themselves for this season.
Declan is the 2009 Splash class National Champion and Taylor is the 2009 Optimist Champ....the first ever South Islander and and the youngest.

Declan started the season well with a second in the South Island Starling Champs in the home waters of Queen Charlotte Sound, He was 19th in the Starling Nationals, won Junior Sail Auckland in Splash then became National Champ in Picton at the Queen Charlotte Yacht Club major regatta of the year, the Splash National Champs, the InterIslander Optimist Challenge and South Island Optimist Champs ....167 boats all together over three days, end of Feb 2009.

Pre season Declan had competed in the Splash World Champs in Tavira, Portugal, as part of the New Zealand Team. After three days and nine races with two flights, he had won 5 and had 2 seconds, and 1 point separated 1st from 4th. Day four saw some heavy winds that pushed him back a little and the final day had him slip back to 16th overall with 2 OCS disqualifications ...even though our video footage showed it wasn't him over the start line. At least a Team member, Ben Lutz, won the World Champs and the whole Team won the Nations Trophy, the best National team overall.

Taylor was at the Asian Optimist Champs in Doha, Qatar, straight after our return from Portugal. He was 18th overall in a hugely competitive fleet and the 1st New Zealander. He had one day back in NZ then flew out to New Caledonia for the New Caledonian Sailing Champs, another 15 race series. He was second overall and had a great time with his French friends and members of the NZ Optimist Development Team.

The racing set him up for the season, he was 5th in the Winter Champs in Auckland, 4th in the North Island Optimist Champs, Taupo, and won the South Island P Class Champs here in Picton.
The Sir Peter Blake Memorial Regatta was a major win for him in a very large fleet, and he followed on from Declan's win at the same event in 2005.

Taylor was 5th in the Tanner Cup and 9th in the Tauranga Cup, P Class National Champs in Whangarei, winning the Bruce Farr Trophy for the youngest sailor in the top 10 placings.

Back in the Optimist he won the Auckland Anniversary Day regatta and placed in the top ten in every regatta leading up to the NZ Optimist Nationals, Worser Bay, Wellington, Easter 2009.
The Opti Nats was a study in consistancy, Taylor didn't win a race but won the 14 race Regatta by 8 points ...it did go down to the last race to do it, though. A special thanks to QCYC club Coach, Neeta, for her help leading up to the Nats and to Chris Steele, 2007 Optimist World Champion for his coaching and mentoring during the events.

He also took out the Open Optimist title, with the top sailors from New Caledonia, Australia, Tahiti and Singapore contesting our Nationals.

Taylor is sailing in the Singapore Open Optimist Champs at the time of writing as a great build up to the World Champs in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Carolyn and Taylor fly out July 28th to Rio, Declan and Rob leave the same day to the Splash World Champs in Pwllheli, Wales.

Both sailors are very keen to win their respective events and are training hard as they can. Down South, here in Picton, there is very little wind in Winter ...the water is cold and they have to make the most of every opportunity.
A special thanks to NZSail.com, Linda and Steve, for the provision of Drysuits and great Hey Oi thermals to keep the boys toastie.

Both boys are members of the Marlborough Boys College sailing Team, Declan was the Team Captain this year. They had a great National secondary schools Team sailing regatta, just missing out on a spot in the finals ...mainly due to a admin error unrealised until too late.
Declan then went on to the NZ Open Team Sailing Nats, part of a team of six and one of the youngest teams competing, finishing 4th.

The boys have had a great year, their goals have been set and they are working strongly towards them.
Declan will do the Splash Worlds in Takapuna, Jan 2010, then on to the Lasers ....he should be big enough by then.
University studies in Architecture or Design at Victoria, Wellington, for 2010 and sailing in the Academy for the Royal Port Nicholson Yacht club and Worser Bay. A Laser campaign would definitely be on the cards as well.

Taylor has one more year in the Optimist and will probably have another crack at winning the Tanner and Tauranga Cup for the P Class as well as keeping is Opti Title and getting back into the NZ World Championship Team ....and winning the 2010 Worlds in Malaysia.

Representing New Zealand at the highest level is the aim of both.
Sponsorship is always needed and there will always be room to add to the boys wonderful supporters. If anyone wants to help with their campaigns, please get in touch through The Villa website.

We are always looking for additional sponsors so if you want to help the boys achieve please contact us.

Thanks to our sponsors

Coaching and training is a real problem as they are quite isolated from competition which is in the major population centres, particularly Auckland so we are very grateful to our sponsor, Interislander (www.interislander.co.nz) who allow the boys to travel frequently to compete.

Interislander sponsorship is great for us, we are very enthusiatic about their service and they have been so helpful giving us travel with vehicle and trailer with boats on .... this gives us a chance as sailors from a small Club with very limited resources to travel to compete with the best sailors around.

At the away regattas now we have the Interislander banner flying and the boys have their Interislander hats to wear, plus stickers etc ....

They usually train on our beautiful Queen Charlotte Sound at their home club - Queen Charlotte Yacht Club (www.QCYC.org.nz) by themselves or our club Coach, Neeta. They also sail out of Murray's Bay Sailing Club (www.murraysbay.org), Auckland and are very happy and grateful for Murray's Bay support in the major regattas'.

NZSail.com, are the suppliers of Winner Optimists, Taylor's boat of choice, North Sails and Lasers, plus a fab range of sailing gear and clothing.

Sounds Air provide great flights across Cook Strait for Taylor when speed is of the essence.

Port Marlborough willing help for the boys to get to their Worlds

New Zealand King Salmon helped the boys travelling. Fabulous, locally grown salmon from Queen Charlotte Sound, we love it!