The Sail GP season began in May 2022 and included stops around the world (Chicago, Spain, Dubai, etc). Trip preparation and life in general kept me from paying too much attention to races in the winter. In mid-February I noticed a video in my feed for races in Sydney, Australia. While watching Saturday races, I learned that Sail GP would be in Christchurch March 18 and 19. I checked our travel calendar and sure enough, we would be in Christchurch on the 19th! It took about 20 seconds to learn that tickets were long sold-out. Disappointed, yet undeterred, I started to put together a plan that would lead to us watching live racing.
Here are the challenges we needed to overcome:
1. Would the racing happen?
This was entirely out of our control. A major wind storm caused some serious damage to a few boats while they were being removed from the water in February 18 in Sydney. The Canadian boat was the hardest hit and it wasn’t until March 16 that racing in Christchurch was confirmed.
2. Get to the race venue
We had originally planned to take the Intercity bus (like Greyhound) but we’d arrive too late. Our adjusted plan meant we could take the Christchurch city bus, however we’d need to get a ride (about 25 mins) to Rangiora. We asked our host, Angela, about this and she responded, “Oh, no worries, I will take you to Christchurch because I am going to visit my parents”. Too easy! Angela would drop us at the AirBnB and we’d could take a single city bus direct to the race site from there.
3.Two large backpacks
We are travelling for 5 months and have a lot of stuff in 2 - 70 litre backpacks. We didn’t what to have to lug those to the race site. There were two options - one was to check them at the bus station for about $20; the other was to try to drop them off early at our AirBnB. We contacted Sharon, the AirBnB host and she agreed to let us leave our bags.
4. A place to watch from
The harbour where the racing was held in Lyttleton is surrounded by hills. Google maps showed a lookout point about a 15 minute walk up the hill that was directly beside the race “Near Gate” so we planned to watch from there.
In the end, the plan worked almost perfectly. There was a Cruise Ship in the harbour and some port container cranes that obstructed our view. We were able to hike a little further up the hill to find a better view with about 150 locals.
The weather was perfect. The wind was up so the sailing was fast. AND, CANADA WON!
You can imagine the two Canadians clapping at the top of the hill with the rest of the crowd silent until the the New Zealand team crossed the finish line in second place, just a few moments later. “Are you Canadian?”, they asked. Proudly we said “yes”. As true Canadians, though, we qualified our excitement with, “The driver of the Canadian boat is a Kiwi.”