In May 2024, I wrote up the IOM ICA Application for New Zealand to host the first ever IOM Oceania Continental Championship.
For much of it I sat in my car on Lakeside Drive to visualise the event. I imagined international flags hoisted high, gazebos up, vehicles parked, skippers setting their boats up from the boots of their cars, and groups of people chatting over their hot drinks and food in the hospitality space, while boat crews laid marks and invited guests watched the whole spectacle of IOMs racing on our lake with technical team, race officers, judges, scorers and marshals organising fair and testing racing.
Yesterday, my wife drove me into Pegasus just after 9:30 am. We stopped on Lakeside Drive where I parked 16 months ago. The view of ‘Oceania Village’ through the flag poles across the lake sparkling in the sun was skin tinglingly special.
What the officials and volunteers achieved yesterday is absolutely inspiring. It is wonderful to reflect on 31 people working so smoothly together on the first day of an international competition to complete 16 heats in winds from the light northerly A rig to the strong north westerly B and C rig.
I returned to my park at 4:30 pm and watched the last heat of the day with NZL 61 in a B rig rounding the bottom mark and heading to the finish. NZL 171 in a C rig rounded second 20 metres behind. Full on gusts hit both and the C rig powered up the final beat with the B rig feathering and heeling. NZL 171 took the win. Nice one Rick CB and PRSC.
Paul Johnson
Hot off the press today:The Woodpecker – October 2025 by The Woodpecker – Issuu
Pages 40 to 41.
And go to IOM Oceania Championship Race 1 – Heat 4
For Day 1’s footage. Check out the rest of the races as well as the Opening Day’s Ceremony.
Live results on Anzam Systems EVENT Results