It’s true that Kiwis and Cook Islanders consider ourselves cousins; and so the Rarotonga Sailing Club (RSC) could be thought of as one of ours. Well, sort of. For there are also distinctive elements of independence about the Muri Lagoon-based club, as we shall see.
Like their unique-in-the-world sailing boats, the Tangaroa class. They could be proas, but they don’t shunt end-to-end like true proas do, instead tacking just like a regular catamaran, with the rudder at one end and the bow always at the other. And the ama to windward on one tack, to leeward on the other. Which must make balancing them, and stacking out for their three-person crew, a tad idiosyncratic.
They can’t be catamarans either, for the two hulls are quite different from one another. The closest description would be to call the Tangaroas ‘sailing outrigger canoes’ – vakareti, or ‘Cooks’ proas’ in local parlance.
But that doesn’t capture it either, for they’re also a mix of traditional Pacific and classic Kiwi forms. The Tangaroas, for instance, carry the mainsail of the New Zealand vintage Idle Along dinghies, on a much more modern-looking aluminium mast. And the boats parked at the Sailing Club’s hardstand also sport the newest, most hi-tech fittings on their plywood hulls and rounded/weathered stacking out wooden seats.
That’s remembering the first Tangaroas actually had dugouts as their main hull. There’s one hanging above the bar in the clubhouse, long since retired. But I reckon it would still float, eh…
“They’re pretty quick too,” Anne and John Tierney, stalwarts of the club tell me. And I immediately promise to be back, to hopefully find a ride in next year’s Tangaroa World Championships.
I do hope I get lucky; as it’s an exclusive event. Naturally. There are only a dozen Tangaraoas in the world – well, let’s say about nine in sailing trim – and only on Rarotonga (though there are some derivatives on Atutaki Island too). And the racing is very competitive.
Rarotonga Sailing Club was established in 1940, by New Zealand expats. Soon the locals joined in too. The establishment of the sailing club was no doubt a relief, a positive diversion, in the desperate years of the Second World War in the Pacific theatre of operations.
The Tangaroa class was designed soon after, by local Thomas Koteka, who is still at work – if you can call it that in the idyllic Cook Islands – as a hotel manager on even-more-idyllic Aututaki. Where they have their own unique regattas.
Which is where we should focus on the independence of the Cook Islands Sailing Association. It’s entirely different and outside the orbit of New Zealand Yachting, and has nine clubs around the nation’s 15 islands.
And they have some serious racing sailors too. At Rarotonga Sailing Club, the Tangaroas and Sunbursts are, of late, taking something of a back seat to a competitive fleet of Lasers and Optimists, with their crews trained by resident coach Jacobo Miquel.
The club has a brightly-coloured fleet of 10 new plastic Optimists (dubbed ‘Jellybeans’ locally) for sail training to junior club members and nearby school kids – the previous fleet is 18 years old and carefully nursed along by members!
The club has found financial support for new race boats and a coaching inflatable from the India Fund and the Cook Islands’ Government’s Social Impact Fund. The arrival of the Optimists shortly after reopening from Covid breathed a fresh breath of air into the junior sailing arena.
Jacobo is an experienced sailing coach from Spain, who as Anne says , “Is hanging around until he wants to go home.” Which doesn’t seem imminent. Of course. He supplements his income by hiring out sail boats, and as a sailing tutor for Rarotonga’s resort hotels.
Cook Islands sailors are not to be taken lightly. They have yachting Olympians amongst them: Turia Vogel raced in the Windsurfer class in Sydney 2008, Helema Williams from Manihiki went to the Olympics in London 2012, and Taua Elisa from Manihiki and Teau McKenzie from Rarotonga went to Rio in 2016.
At the 2009 Pacific Games, hosted by the Cook Islands, and sailed in Aitutaki in Lasers, Hobie 16s and sailboards, the Cook Islands Sailing Team starring these three sailors at the start of their competitive careers won most of the gold medals. This continued to create an amazing legacy for the next three Games.
These days Sailing Cook Islands has sited Optimists in four Northern Group Islands, and the Optis are raced in Aitutaki and of course Rarotonga.
So Rarotonga Sailing Club carries a lovely mix of sailing sensibilities. From the homemade can-do (though fiercely competitive) spirit in the Tangaroa class, to the community learn-to-sail programmes, to the top-end dinghy, sailboard and kite racing of the current sailing cohort.
And, although it has no keelboats among its members’ fleet, the club has had an influence in the Pacific-wide renaissance of vaka moana, traditional ocean voyaging double canoes. Sir Thomas Davis, ex-prime minister of the Cook Islands, was a member of the club and a designer of nation’s vaka moana – one of which was undertaking a voyage to Hawaii while we were visiting Rarotonga in May.
Members of the Rarotonga Sailing Club are movers and shakers everywhere in the Cook islands. John Tierney has been a board member and organiser of Cook Islands Sailing. Anne and some willing friends run the local Muri Environment Care Group, looking after the watershed health of the surrounding hills, wetlands and lagoon.
I reckon all Kiwi sailors of all stripes will immediately find themselves at home at Rarotonga Sailing Club. Just ask for Anne Tierney, and she’ll make you feel welcome!
For further information Rarotonga Sailing Club Facebook page,
Cook Islands Sailing www.sailing.co.ck, Search Vaka Reti O Araura on Facebook for pictures of Aitutaki Tangaroas, a more traditional form.
Words and Photography by Alex Stone
