Child & Youth Learn to Sail (LTS) Levels1,2,3 and Teams Sailing

Book Now for Term1 2025!

After school LTS lessons have been a feature of Wanaka Yacht Club for many years.  However we have limited resources and instructors who usually have careers to juggle as well! Please bear with us while we work through learn to sail offerings for Term 1 2025.

At a more advanced level, requiring significant skill we continue to offer Wednesday training “420 teams sailing” ( aka “MAC” ) in sociable two person boats. This type of sailing is a worldwide phenomenon for high school age young adults. A couple of times of year our teams travel to inter-school competitions where we are required to compete under the banner of a school.  Hence why we call this session “MAC” training.  You don’t need to be at Mt Aspiring College (“MAC”) to train with us.

To bridge the skill gap between learn to sail graduates and “MAC” we offer a “Pre-MAC” group which runs concurrently.

About our fleet

That’s a question of matching the ability of the sailor, to the wind conditions, to the difficulty level of the boat and the weight of the sailor. With all these variables, please trust the coach to make a pragmatic decision! 

Our single handed boats are as follows:

Optimists  massive weight range, especially ideal for learning if you’re about 8-12

O’pen skiffs also known as “Bics”. Ideal weight 45Kg. Sporty boats!

Starlings. Ideal weight range 40-70Kg. A kiwi “institution” 

Lasers (not usually a learn-to-sail boat). Great for skilled older youth and adults all the way to Olympic level. 

Our two person boats include

RS Quests (can seat up to 4, or 2-3 adults. Great for LTS with a coach on board)

RS Fevas sporty plastic boats for 2 people, with 2 sails and a genneker. Suit youth / light adults.

420’s which we mostly use for Teams Sailing. Sporty nimble 2 person 2 sail boats with a larger weight range than the Feva. Great class for Thursday night racing!