Young Taupo¯ sailor representing NZ
Taupo¯ ’s Sydney Cunliffe [15] is in Hong Kong, representing the Taupo¯ Yacht Club against sailors from 17 other countries.
She is one of 10 New Zealand sailors taking on the Asia/ Oceania championships.
Sydney first got into sailing when she was 10-years-old after seeing the boats out on the lake and deciding it was for her.
‘‘I’ve never looked back since,’’ she said.
‘‘I spent the first year learning to sail, the second year [sailing] in a few smaller ‘green fleet’ regattas and from the third year, I went on to compete in Open fleet rankings.’’
Cunliffe is now sailing an Optimist, which is a small fibreglass single-handed sailing dinghy. In this class, young sailors compete against each other in the same races on the same courses over a number of days. There are usually three or four 40 minute races per day.
During the past few years, Sydney spent a lot of time improving her skills by getting as much time on the water as possible.
In 2016, she qualified to be included in the NZ Optimist Girls’ teams, where the top 10 ranked girls got to be part of a development squad, who attended training sessions and got to represent New Zealand at the Sailing World Cup in Melbourne in December last year and was also coached by Rio Olympic nacra sailer, Gemma Jones.
For the 2016/17 season, Sydney said she joined a coaching program run by the Tauranga Yacht Club. She competed in the 2017 Optimist Nationals in Napier over Easter Weekend and ended up the 21st in New Zealand and the the third girl overall.
‘‘I had final ranking of 25th in the country, making the 2017 New Zealand Optimist Squad which qualified me to represent New Zealand in the Asian/Oceanian Championships,’’ she said.
Since qualifying in May, Sydney has had a number of training sessions with some of the top sailing coaches in the country.
‘‘This has meant many trips to Auckland on the weekends and selling hundreds of sausages to fundraise,’’ she said.
Sydney said her goals for the Asian Championships in Hong Kong is to finish in the top 25 overall, first three girls and be the best New Zealand sailer at the regatta.
Sydney started the championship September 30 and will be back early October.