Royal Akarana Yacht Club

Harken Fosters is back as a major sponsor of Royal Akarana Yacht Club!

We’re excited to announce the renewal of our partnership with Harken Fosters for the next three years, continuing our shared commitment to quality, performance and supporting sailors at every level.

As part of the partnership, Harken will also be the naming sponsor of the Harken P Class North Island Championships, hosted at RAYC on 24–25 October.

Read more here: https://rayc.co.nz/rayc-x-harken-fosters/

We’d love to see our RAYC members at the Sailability Auckland Movie Night Fundraiser on Thursday 24 September.

Join us for a special screening of Maiden, the inspiring true story of the first all-female crew to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race while having a great night out and support the incredible work Sailability Auckland does.

Thursday 24 September | 6.30pm | Te Kawau Room

We hope to see plenty of our members there supporting this fantastic cause!

Purchase tickets here!
👉 https://akarana.co.nz/event/sailability-movie-night-maiden/

The final race day of the Doyle Sails Icebreaker Series is this!

An exciting forecast is shaping up for the last day of racing, with the series prizegiving taking place straight after racing.

And don’t forget, our End of Season Volunteer Thank You event is also happening after the prizegiving. Come along and celebrate the season with us while we thank the volunteers who make our racing possible.

Enter here: https://rayc.co.nz/event/doyle-sails-icebreaker-series-3/

Eleven RAYC sailors took to the water at the 2026 Zespri AIMS Games in Tauranga, competing across the Gold and Silver Optimist fleets.

In the Gold Fleet, Michael Schierhout finished 16th, Ben Radich 20th, Thomas Earles 28th, Thea Ng 30th, Cosima Young 33rd, Lucas Lee 36th and Theo Davies 38th.

In the Silver Fleet, Amelia McAuley finished 5th, Zara Muir 8th, Heidi Fehsenfeld 19th, and Hana Pinedo Shinohara 24th.

It was a great week of racing and valuable experience for our young sailors!

2026–2027 MATCH & TEAM RACING CALENDAR

Royal Akarana Yacht Club is excited to announce a huge season of Match & Team Racing, bringing top sailors and teams to Ōkahu Bay!

MATCH RACING
12 December 2026 – Starling Auckland Match Racing Trials
6–7 February 2027 – Starling Match Racing Nationals

TEAM RACING
1–3 October 2026 – JetPark Hotels Interdominion Championships
17–19 March 2027 – Auckland Cup Regionals
25–27 June 2027 – NZL Open Team Racing Nationals

Five major events, including two national championships, two regional qualifiers and one international event. It’s set to be a massive season of tactical, boat-on-boat racing!

🙌 Want to volunteer? Get in touch with [email protected].

Read more here 👉 https://rayc.co.nz/royal-akarana-yacht-club-unveils-2026-2027-match-and-team-racing-calendar/

A huge thank you to Andrew Brown and Doyle Sails for coming down to work with our Optimist sailors on sail setup and tuning!

It was an invaluable session for our sailors (and parents), particularly as more of our young sailors are heading away to compete at events around the country. Learning how to get the most out of their sails and equipment is a skill they can take with them to every regatta.

Sessions like this are a fantastic part of the support we receive through our sponsorship with Doyle Sails. We’re incredibly grateful for their continued investment in our sailors and the RAYC Sailing Academy.

Our Opti sailors have been training hard through the tough conditions we’ve been experiencing, making this the perfect time to put all that hard work to the test at AIMS Games in Tauranga this weekend!

Good luck to all our sailors heading down today: Heidi Fehsenfield, Zara Muir, Hana Pinedo, Cosima Young, Theo Davies, Lucas Lee, Amelia McAuley, Thea Ng, Ben Radich, Michael Schierhout and Thomas Earles.

We’ll be cheering you on from Auckland!

Stay tuned for updates from our sailors throughout the week!

Summer programmes starting soon!

Looking for a new adventure? Come learn to sail with us at Royal Akarana Yacht Club!

Our summer sailing programmes are a great way to get out on the water, build confidence and skills, make new friends and have plenty of fun along the way. No sailing experience needed!

Term 4 - October to December
Holiday Programme - December and January

Contact us to find out more or check out our website!
👉 https://rayc.co.nz/academy/

Come down this evening for a Winter Workshop with Andrew Brown from Doyle Sails!

Join Brownie for a hands-on Optimist sail tuning session, covering everything from rig setup and sail controls to getting the most out of your boat in a range of conditions.

With extensive coaching experience from Optimist through to Olympic level, Brownie will share practical tips and tuning knowledge to help you get more out of your sailing.

RSVP here 👉 https://rayc.co.nz/event/academy-winter-workshop-2/

Paid parking will be introduced across the Okahu Bay site from Thursday 3 September, with parking enforced daily from 8am to 7pm.

The new parking arrangements apply across the site, from the Akarana Marine Sports Centre car park through to the southern section of the main car park.

The introduction of paid parking is being implemented by Auckland Council and the Ōrākei Local Board. Royal Akarana Yacht Club does not support this change and is extremely disappointed with the outcome, particularly given the commitments made to the club throughout the consultation process that our members would not be adversely affected.

The club continues to strongly push against the current parking model and will continue to advocate for our members, visitors and the wider boating community to get a better outcome.

Read more here: https://rayc.co.nz/paid-parking-coming-to-okahu-bay/