<strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News Wednesday <strong>April</strong> <strong>14</strong> <strong>2021</strong> 18 SPORT Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz Young yachtie cruises to national title • By Chris Barclay ALTHOUGH COVID-19 twice scuttled his plans to represent New Zealand overseas, talented Optimist sailor Will Leech is staying upbeat. After all, the 12-year-old Cobham Intermediate School student and member of the Charteris <strong>Bay</strong> Yacht Club member does have time on his side. By becoming the South Island’s first winner of the Optimist National Championships since fellow Cantabrian Jayvee Buchanan in 2010, Leech should have been setting sail for Lake Garda in Italy, venue of the world optimist championships in June-July. However, the global pandemic means he will stay closer to home in Charteris <strong>Bay</strong> on the southern coast of Lyttelton harbour to continue training while playing rugby over the winter months. “It’s disappointing not to be able to go to Italy, the world championships will be a goal for next season,” he said. Leech expertly improved on last year’s second placing in the Open fleet with a canny display of consistent sailing on the E course used by the America’s Cup and Prada Cup teams in Auckland. He only won one of the 12 races he contested off the Maraetai Sailing Club headquarters last week, but he also only had a solitary double-digit placing, a 10th he was able to discard from his points score. Otherwise he never finished outside the top-six among the 76-strong fleet throughout five days of racing. He finished 15 points clear of Auckland’s Joe Leith from the Murrays <strong>Bay</strong> Boating Club. “What I was focusing on was keeping consistent because one of Dad’s mates was the OK PLAIN SAILING: Talented Christchurch sailor Will Leech won his first Optimist national championships by a comfortable margin in Auckland. PHOTO: YACHTING NEW ZEALAND Dinghy world champion and he only won one race,” Leech said, referencing Christchurch sailor Matt Stechmann’s triumph at Melbourne in 20<strong>14</strong>. “I’m been working really hard over the last few seasons, it’s always been a dream to win it. I’m so stoked to beat all the Aucklanders,” he said. Leech, who claimed the boys title and the overall honours, sails a raft of different boats, including a P Class and an F8 Foiler, which he built with his father Dan. “It’s super competitive at that top level so to go up there and actually win it is a huge achievement,” Leech’s father said. “It’s pretty full on, race days up in Auckland, sometimes you’re on the water for six hours a day.” Each competing country can send their top-five ranked optimist to the global showpiece, so Covid-19 also ruined Leech’s plans to go to Europe last year, where Italy withdrew their bid before the world championships were cancelled. Fortunately Leech, who started sailing at age six, is eligible to compete in the Optimist class for another two years. Leech has already represented New Zealand abroad as a part of a development team to Noumea in 2019 and has sizeable goals on the horizon. “I want to be involved in the Sail GP and the America’s Cup,” he said. ESTUARY MATTERS The Avon-Heathcote Estuary Ihutai Trust is a non-profit organisation formed to protect one of New Zealand’s most important coastal wetlands. Each week, board members will discuss matters regarding the estuary, its rich history and what makes it unique. This week Tanya Jenkins writes about a former salt marsh that is now Charlesworth Reserve FROM WETLAND to industrial area to farmland and now returned to a spectacular wetland. A brain-child by city council ecologist and park ranger Andrew Crossland, this was a restoration plan to return a 20ha of drained salt marsh to its former glory. Once initial design of wet and dry areas were scraped out and walking paths had been constructed, the estuary trust offered, with enthusiasm, to provide the elbow grease to replant and co-ordinate volunteer restoration sessions. September 2004 saw our first involvement in this long road to restore this area divided from the estuary by Humphreys Drive. With soil spoiled after industry and cattle presence for some 150 years, the land required mulching and ‘resting’ to recover before the first hardy plants like flax, cabbage trees, Ngaio, oi oi and saltmarsh ribbonwoods could be planted. Followed by several years of constant weeding of the young plants to prevent being crowded out by grasses, being gutted at times observing plant losses due to either drought, heavy frost, flooding and the occasional plant theft issue, perseverance was rewarded when we started to see some real green growth in 2012. It was only then, we could plant a wider variety of plants incl Kahikatea, Totara, Manuka and Mahoe. In 2015, it was city councillor Sarah Templeton who was given the honour to plant tree seedling number 100,000 in the reserve. Charlesworth Wetland today? A coastal wetland with a large variety of trees and shrubs sheltering and protecting the large numbers of lizards and insects now present again. Small islands provide safe roosting and nesting sanctuaries for a variety of birds. A little gem in Christchurch and proof that with a little bit of assistance, nature is quite capable of healing from damage done by people. The estuary trust would Charlesworth Reserve today. suggest you investigate this spectacular reserve and see for yourself and very likely agree that yes, the annual 1500–1800 hours of voluntary work was (and still is) absolutely worth it. But we are not nearly finished. Supervised by Andrew Crossland, we meet every Sunday at the Charlesworth St car park at 2pm for 2hr. We would sure welcome an extra pair of hands. No need to book, just turn up. 100% Success rate at auctions over the past 12 months. To find out about the marketing process and your selling options, Ask Marilyn. Marilyn Still, <strong>Bay</strong>leys Real Estate 027 229 8769 | marilyn.still@bayleys.co.nz WHALAN AND PARTNERS LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz Wednesday <strong>April</strong> <strong>14</strong> <strong>2021</strong> <strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News 19
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