Posts made in July, 2010

Newsletter Winter 2010

Posted on Jul 13, 2010 in Newsletters | Comments Off

What a difference a year makes!  You may recall that we had survived a very difficult year last year only thanks to the support of a financial underwrite from our new Chair Mike Daniel’s Wairahi Trust, as well as generous donations from a number of individuals who stepped forward to help keep the ship going.  It is thanks to this support that we have been able to turn our situation round.
In the past 12 months we have:

• Doubled the number of youngsters on our youth development voyages, carrying 114 up from 57 last year, thanks to increased funding from Lotteries, donations and MSD;
• Shortened our tourism season to 5 months but increased use of the ship over summer with our Late Afternoon sailings complementing our day sails;
• Increased the number of sailings for school children from 662 to 1203;
• Made good inroads into our major maintenance programme, replacing soles (floor) of the cabin, and repairing the fresh tank tops in the saloon that were know to be leaking, as well as the required sanding, varnish and painting of the ship;
• Replaced our 25 year old squabs thanks to support from Southern Trust.

We have just finished our autumn youth sail training voyages which were a huge success, with good support from sponsors Top Energy, Northpower and Far North Holdings.  We carried youngsters from throughout the region, from Kaitaia, Northland, Whangaroa, Bay of Islands, Okaihau and Ruawai Colleges; Kerikeri, Kamo, Tikipunga, Dargaville, Whangarei Girls and Whangarei Boys High Schools; Tauraroa, Broadwood, Taipa and Opononi Area Schools, and a few home schooled youngsters as well. So it’s been great to see the schools getting behind the programme.

We are now allocating berths for the Spring voyages while the ship is undergoing annual maintenance.  If you have any children, grandchildren or other siblings that may benefit from our 7-day youth development voyages, please just email youth@tucker.co.nz and we can send you out details or alternatively to see the dates and download an application form.

For those of you who would like the opportunity to come sailing yourselves on this wonderful tall ship we have just 5 places left on our spring Historic Northland Voyage.  This is an incredible experience in partnership with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust which tells the fascinating stories of early encounters between local tribes and early European visitors, through Treaty-making to this present day.  It’s well worth it so please email us to reserve your place.

We will be emailing out our Annual Report with full financial details in approximately 3 months but until now, thank you for your support and fair winds!

Kind regards

Jane Hindle