Gallagher Insurance Port Nicholson Regatta

At RPNYC, we offer free water refills at the bar and always have a few carafes with water and spare glasses on the bar counter whenever the bar is open, and the Regatta weekend was no different. We welcomed sailors into the kitchen during the morning to wash and refill drink bottles. The Regatta volunteers were asked to bring their own reusable water bottles during the event. We have outdoor taps where our sailors and the public can source water from. We have communicated this via our Newsletter and Facebook.

We eliminated plastic straws over a year ago, paper straws are used very sparingly and only on request.

For this year’s Regatta we have used our porcelain plates and stainless steel cutlery to cater for the nibbles and dinners served between Thursday and Saturday night. On Saturday night, we had to fall back to using a few compostable plates as our sterilizer and volunteers could not keep up at peak demand with cleaning dishes. We would have used less than 20 compostable plates and cutlery during this time. We have also set up a return table for the reusable plates and cutlery.

So far we used to provide a goodie bag at Regattas to skippers with the race documentation and some small give-aways from sponsors. This year we entirely scrapped this, and have provided all the information online (https://portnicholsonregatta.org.nz/). We also encouraged our crews to reuse bags via comms (see Best Practice 1)

Our Club is always awarding silver trophies of which most have been in the Club’s possession for decades. For the Regatta Classic Race, the prestigious 1891 Jessie Logan Trophy, a coveted award that reflects the long history of the sport in Wellington, was awarded to the winner of that special race, together with prize money and a bottle of bubbles. For the overall winner of the Regatta, the Ross Telford Memorial Trophy was awarded, together with a Mount Gay Chilly bin, which we are sure will get a lot of use over the coming years!

The Notice of Race clearly stated the Clean Regatta approach. We also have created a comms plan for the Regatta focused on Clean Club, and have published weekly tips in January and February, mostly via our weekly Newsletter but also through Facebook posts and via our websites Regatta Information and Clean Club Resources. The comms snippets are shown under each relevant activity heading.

We have tried to organise another clean up with our friends from Ghost Diving NZ, however the timing did not work out and we will deliver this in May 2025. To trial a composting option, we have involved the local organisation called Kaicycle. More under Best Practice 12.

With the limited number of volunteers, we focused our effort on sharing this information via email newsletter, Facebook and our website. We have created reusable signs for the different bins (see 2nd photo under Best Practice 3) and also for the water refill stations (see photos under Best Practice 1).

All products purchased were made in New Zealand and purchased through local businesses. We did not offer Seafood.

While comms have been shared, we have not been able to engage any other volunteers in addition to the Clean Club Committee made of 3 volunteers.

We have organised rubbish, recycling and compost bins for the Regatta (see images under Best Practice 3). Most of our members are used to returning their bottles, cans etc to the counter, where the bar team sorts glass, cans, other recyclables, and during the Regatta, compostables.

During our normal Club operations, our menu is mostly made up of ingredients that are long-lasting (frozen), or we request pre-orders and can reduce food waste significantly this way. During the Regatta, we have used the offering of a local composting organisation called Kaicyle and used only one 20lt bin used over the weekend. This was again due to preorders being asked for, as well as having used leftovers for the following days meal, volunteer lunches and sailor snacks. Preparation of menu and food was well organised pre-event, looking at exact food costs per serve and ordering based on numbers, minimising food wastage and leftovers. There was $88 of leftover food from the regatta, which was purchased by members or given away.

At Port Nic, we have a number of WhatsApp groups in place to communicate with our sailing community, and additional Regatta groups were set up to communicate to volunteers as well as competitors. No results were printed but were published online and read out at the end of the day. There were no regatta programmes printed this year nor were paper copies of the NoR or SI’s provided to the competitors.

As mentioned under Best Practice 7, the timing did not work out to organise the Clyde Quay Clean up in collaboration with GDNZ. With the lack of additional volunteers (Green Team), we were only able to promote a local clean-up via Facebook and Newsletter.

We have promoted reef-save sunscreen in the past, and have reminded people again via Facebook post and Newsletter. We have also promoted the Slip area of the nearby marina via Newsletter on the 18 February: In addition, the Green Boating guide was promoted via Facebook post 19 January below and Newsletter under Best Practice 20.

We have not had the bandwidth to share specific messages around this topic. However, we were lucky enough to encounter a number of dolphin pods on both days of the Regatta and were pleased that our sailors were aware of their presence and respectful, observing them from a distance.

The Social team provided vegetarian and vegan alternatives for each part of the Regatta. These included: Finger food for the welcome function (eg. vege samosas, spring rolls, etc.) Breakfasts Friday evening meal (eg. falafel balls, couscous & other salads) Saturday evening function (eg. stuffed mushrooms, couscous & other salads) Lunches as ordered or provided for volunteers (eg. haloumi, couscous & other salads).

We have encouraged our members to car pool via Newsletter (see Best Practice 12). As nearly half of the participants were from other clubs, a lot returned via boat to their club/berth or chose to stay on their boat for the event.

N/A - was not in our toolkit

N/A - was not in our toolkit