76-year old Northland sailor of the year

An injured 76-year-old who battled 70 knot winds and 15 metre seas returning from last year’s Auckland to Noumea yacht race has been named the Northland Sailor of the Year for 2009. (subs: crrct 2009)


Kerikeri man Ray Lodge was nominated for the annually presented Northland Regional Council award by the Northland Yachting Association.


Northland Regional Council Chairman Mark Farnsworth says Mr Lodge is a vastly experienced yachtsman who since the late 1980s has competed extensively in many well-known offshore events.


These include:
 

• Auckland to Fiji races in 1989, 1993, 2001, 2003 and 2006
• Auckland to Noumea races in 1990, 1992 and 2009;
• Australia’s famed Sydney to Hobart races in 1990, 1992 and 1994

He has also raced from New Zealand to Vanuatu twice (1995 and 2007) and from Auckland to Mooloolaba, Australia in 1988.


Mr Farnsworth says those achievements are all the more remarkable given Mr Lodge, his wife Janice and youngest son Andrew built both the vessels he competed those races in – initially the 13.7m monohull ‘Hijacker’ and then the 15.2m monohull ‘Wildcard’ from 2001.


However, it was Mr Lodge’s performance returning from last year’s Auckland to Noumea race that prompted the Northland Yachting Association’s nomination for the Sailor of the Year Award.


Mr Lodge and the other seven-members of his crew were about 80 to100 miles north of the Three Kings Islands battling 70-knot winds and 15-metre seas when Wildcard was hit by a large wave which almost capsized it.


“We were past horizontal,” Mr Lodge says of the July wave which knocked most of the crew off their feet and propelled him head first into part of the boat, removing skin and leaving him with two black eyes.


Despite painful injuries the 76-year-old and his crew managed to battle out the remainder of the storm and return home safely, earning further respect from their peers in the process.


The trophy Mr Lodge received at a ceremony in Whangarei today (subs: Weds 17 Feburary) was first presented by the Whangarei Harbour Board in 1964 and was then known as the ‘Northland Blue Water Trophy’. It was rededicated in 1995 by the Northland Regional Council as the Northland Sailor of the Year trophy.


Mr Farnsworth says the award can be made “for all or any acts or services, which either directly or indirectly have the effect of promotion, advancement or betterment of the sport of yachting”.


These include:

• Design and building of boats.
• Administrative services to the sport on a regular basis
• Outstanding examples of seamanship or sailing ability in both competitive and non-competitive spheres.
• Outstanding examples of sportsmanship.
• Services in the promotion and encouragement of active participation in the sport of yachting.
• Mr Farnsworth says Mr Lodge - a popular and supportive member of the Kerikeri Cruising Club - ticks many of those boxes and he’s delighted to see him win the award.