Dave Ridley tops Rod Davis and John Cutler at record 31-boat Turangi OK Regatta

Six decades of racing on the same stretch of water is no small achievement. The Turangi Yacht Club has been sailing out of Stump Bay since 1966, and this March the club marked that milestone with what is already being spoken of as the finest regatta in its history.

The celebrations unfolded across 21 and 22 March, bringing together a commemorative dinner at the Waiotaka Reserve clubrooms and the annual OK Dinghy Regatta. Once the last competitor was home and the venue secured, Commodore Wally van der Aa sat down to tell the story. It reads like exactly what it is: grassroots New Zealand sailing at its absolute best.

The regatta carried additional competitive weight as a World Championship qualifier, with 10 New Zealand selection spots at stake ahead of next year's Worlds in Thailand. That drew a field of genuine quality, including America's Cup sailors Rod Davis and John Cutler. When the seven-race series was complete, it was Dave Ridley who stood atop the results, ahead of those international names and a highly competitive fleet.

Thirty-one entries arrived from across the country, the largest turnout the club had seen at any event in many years, and one that caught even the organisers off guard. Wally is direct about what that number represents: "Thirty-one entries is very rewarding for the crew who worked all weekend feeding and cleaning up after the OK fleet."

The budget had been drawn up with 20 competitors in mind, based on the previous year's attendance and the broader economic climate. As Wally noted, scaling from five to thirty on the water creates little extra work in practice, and the additional entries caused no real difficulty. Three patrol boats managed starts, finishes, and mark-laying, with considerable assistance from Matuku, the patrol tender belonging to the Tokaanu Maritime Trust. Having Matuku available proved particularly useful given Stump Bay's famously shifty conditions: with the tender on hand, the top and bottom marks could be repositioned simultaneously whenever the wind swung.

The wind did not disappoint. While much of Lake Taupō lay glassy over the weekend, Stump Bay produced a building northerly of 15 to 20 km/h through Saturday, allowing five clean, fair races to be completed. The fleet had opted for a gate configuration at the bottom mark, giving competitors the choice of going left or right and easing congestion. Races were kept short, and the spread between first and last never exceeded three minutes. As Wally put it, "there were no slowpokes."

On the start boat, Wally managed each race start with what he describes as pinpoint accuracy, placing particular importance on capturing finishing results reliably. Back ashore, Annette and Martyn updated standings race by race, transferring each result onto the traditional blackboard by hand, with paper originals maintained throughout. Wally's position on the matter is straightforward: "I don't trust electronics to keep this information safe and lost results mean a wasted weekend for all."

Saturday evening brought the anniversary barbecue, along with a celebration cake made especially for the occasion by local cake maker James MacGilloway. The club runs on a cashless, no-bar model, with entries paid in advance and catering arranged beforehand. Wally regards that structure as a genuine strength. "We knew exactly what we were dealing with, and our caterers put on an impressive range of meals, including breakfast burritos, sandwiches, and rolls for lunch and a barbecue dinner. After the National Champs, this is the largest OK Regatta of the season and is very rewarding for our club. It also exercises all our equipment from rescue boats to our brains."

Among the individual highlights of the weekend was 14-year-old Alex Hoskin from Waitara, the youngest competitor in the fleet. Alex received a medal recognising that distinction, and was also presented with the Emrys Tangiora Memorial Shield for Pluck and Courage, a junior trophy first awarded in 1970, not long after the tragic death of Emrys Tangiora. The shield had gone unpresented for many years. "It had not been presented in many years, although I saw my name on it in the early 90s!" said Wally. "It was well deserved by Alex."

The weekend also carried a note of absence alongside the celebration. "Sadly we were missing Peter Lester, who passed away tragically young last year. Peter had won the World OK title in the 70s on Lyttelton Harbour and was still actively involved with the OK fleet. He was a frequent entrant to the Turangi Regatta in years gone by."

Now in its 28th year, the Turangi OK Regatta is the club's longest-running event. Wally reflects on the philosophy behind it: "The regatta is for the sailors, and we make the course as fair and easy as possible for the sailors to comply with the rules. The cream always rises to the top. I wait until the first race is over and then write the entrants on the scoreboard in that order. The results of the first race are fairly closely aligned with the overall regatta results at the end, unsurprisingly. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for the overall results came in 1st, 3rd, and 4th in race 1."

As the club's longest-standing member, having joined in 1978 and raced his NZ Moth, sail number 150, through the club's heyday, Wally cut the anniversary cake and took the first piece. As Toad of Toad Hall might say, "There is nothing quite so much fun as mucking around in small boats."

Sunday's pack-down ran smoothly, described by Wally as a well-oiled machine. All competitors were home before dark on 22 March, a stated objective of the club, and the venue was fully secured by 2.30pm.

The club's thanks are extensive. The Tokaanu Maritime Trust received particular recognition for the use of Matuku, set up by Turangi Marine, for their contribution to the BBQ meal, and for sponsoring a mark update for the club this year. The Turangi-Tongariro Sports Foundation provided access to their new 6m x 3m gazebo and several SUP boards for recreational use, and the club purchased event signage flags. The Turangi office of the Taupo District Council opened and cleaned the changing rooms for competitors and attended to the toilets daily. On the subject of facilities, Wally offered a characteristically direct observation: "Despite being the modern equivalent of a 'long drop', the toilet is perfectly acceptable for the reserve's needs, although one more would be nice for when the tourist buses stop in, hint hint."

21–22 March 2026, Turangi, Lake Taupō

Scores in parentheses are discards. DNC = Did Not Compete.