Guests on my boat.

I had the pleasure of showing many of my friends how to handle a boat, running on wind power. For most of them, it was their first time on a sailing yacht which has no engine. If they can get used to the heeling of the boat, most of them can steer the boat within 5 minutes. My instruction was very simple: imagine that you are driving a car; but you are steering the back wheels!

David Jin

David Jin was a golf partner from the Narrows Golf Club. David was teaching Orrin to play golf when he was told about me hitting buckets of balls daily at the driving range. He invited me to play a round on the golf course with him and I have been there ever since. That was more than 5 years ago.

David Jin

Huang family

John Huang was another golfer whom I met at the Park International golf course. He was playing alone there for some years. Later he joined the Hamilton Golf Club where we met again in 2008. Together with Kevin Lee we formed a threesome which lasts until today. We have played over 380 rounds together.

Charlie and his angels

Charlie was a golfer I met at the Narrows. One day, I invited him and his two children to go sailing with me at Lake Ngaroto. They just loved it.

David Jin

Albert, Wen-wen and Ting-ting

Albert Chow is my nephew. He lives in New Plymouth, NZ. I always carry enough  life jackets for every one. It is always good practice to train kids to get used to wearing  them while on a boat.

Thomas and his dad

Sherina

Sherina was the unlucky one. She came with me to Lake Ngaroto for a day's sailing. That day, the lake was like a mirror with not a breathe of wind. As you can see, the main was still furled around the boom.

Christine

Christine rarely came with me to Tauranga for sailing; but she asked to come along that day. I took her to Amokoroa where I launched the boat. We dropped anchor and stayed one night on the boat.

Alex Kraayenhof

Alex Kraayenhof

Alex sailed a Paper Tiger, a catamaran,at the Ngaroto Sailing Club. He just loved to run circles around us on the lake during race days on Sundays. One time I invited him to be my crew on the Nanook.

Ng Tsun Kong

Tsun Kong and I  went sailing at the Bay of Islands. I towed my boat to Auckland where I picked him up. We used the ferry at Opua to cross over to Russel where we stayed one night on the boat. The second night we checked into a back packer for a hot shower and a warm bed.

May and Margaret

May

May and Margaret were friends from Hamilton East. We met at the ESOL class run by Nancy Rounthwaite. I invited them to come sailing with me. Margaret was very brave because she was on crutches at the time.

Kevin's friends

Four of Kevin's friends from Malaysia paid him a visit at the Gold Coast. He brought them home to Hamilton. I agreed to take them sailing at Tauranga harbour for the day. They all enjoyed the outing very much because it was their first time on a yacht.

Brazilian

This guy stepped off the plane at 9 a.m. at Auckland. By 11a.m. he was crewing for me at Lake Ngaroto! He arrived from Brazil to take up a one year training position on a Waikato dairy farm arranged by Ross Wrenn.

in-laws

One year all my relatives and in-laws came to visit us in Hamilton. Naturally I entertained them by taking them sailing in my boat.

Orrin

This is Orrin, a young golfer from China.  He helped me to stop going to the driving range. It was a long story. If you are interested, you can read it up on one of my blogs. Orrin helped me to change from a ball hitter into a real golfer. I am very grateful to him.

As you can see here, I have tried my best to convert some of my golfing friends into yachties. As far as I know, no one has yet bought a trailer yacht. I wonder why none of the people I know are sailors. I think all of them have the wrong idea, assuming that it is expensive to play golf or sail. I have been sailing for over 25 years. The wind has always been free of charge. I sailed a dinghy in Malaysia for many years before I came to NZ. Apparently I was very lucky to have the right hobbies to blend in as a permanent resident in this country. None of my other Malaysian friends are interested to own a yacht or learn to play golf.