Cyclone Tam wrecks Taipā Sailing Club, community rallies for rebuild

Members survey the damage at Taipā Sailing Club, in the Far North’s Doubtless Bay. Photo / Supplied, Lester Bridson

By Peter de Graaf - RNZ

A small, cash-strapped sailing club in the Far North is appealing for help to rebuild after former tropical Cyclone Tam ripped the roof off its clubhouse.

Taipā Sailing Club has about 50 members, mostly kids and families. It was hard hit when Tam swept through Doubtless Bay earlier this month.

Captain Lester Bridson said he got a phone call that morning telling him he had better check the clubrooms at Taipā Point.

“The wind had lifted the roof off and folded it right back, and exposed all the ceiling and insulation. A lot of that blew out around the place. And the rain obviously got in and soaked the ceiling, which collapsed, and then the flooring and walls got saturated,” he said.

Cyclone Tam ripped the roof off the clubhouse at Taipā Sailing Club in the Far North. Photo: Supplied / Taipā Sailing Club

Fortunately, the roofing iron was still attached to the building - his worst fear was that it could have become airborne, damaging nearby homes - but the clubroom was a sodden, debris-filled mess.

“After we got the phone call, the team got together and went down there and did what they could to salvage what was inside the building.

“It was still too windy to do anything about the roof, but they managed to retrieve all the historical documents and photos and trophies we had there, and tried to push the furniture out of the worst of the weather,” Bridson said.

It was not until Easter Sunday that the wind died down enough for a working bee.

Local businesses lent a crane and large tarpaulins to keep the rain out, and more than 40 volunteers - locals, tradies, and kids from the sailing club - got stuck in with the clean-up and collected the debris that had blown around the reserve.

Bridson said the clubhouse was insured but the excess for storm damage was $10,000, beyond the club’s means.

“We’re only a wee club and it’s all volunteer-based, so we run on the smell of an oily rag.

“We try to keep our memberships and fees as low as possible to make it accessible for as many people as we can, so we don’t have a massive operating budget.

“The insurance excess is just a bit too far for us, we don’t have the funds for that, so we’ve set up a Givealittle page."

Bridson said the response was immediate and heart-warming, with more than $2000 donated in the first night.

He put that down to “generous people out there” who wanted to support the kids and see the club continue its work.

Bridson said the club ran children’s learn-to-sail programmes as well as adventure sailing for older kids, and had a small group of sailors who competed in regattas around the motu.

However, it was more than just a sailing club, he said.

“It provides an opportunity for kids and adults, but kids especially, to access the sport and get out on the water in a safe environment, to learn water safety and boating responsibility.

“Schools use the clubrooms and we run regattas, we’ve had national events here in the past. So it’s a centre point for the community really.”

Bridson said he was at Bay of Islands Yacht Club with a group of children from Taipā Sailing Club, taking part in a Russell Coutts Sailing Foundation training camp, when he got the call about the torn-off roof.