Sailors from Luxembourg yacht Songster. From left: Wim Kloek, Jurriaan Kloek, Camila De Conto, two-week-old Juliette Kloek-De Conto and her brother Christopher Kloek-De Conto, and Salete De Conto. Photo / Susan Botting
Sailors from Luxembourg yacht Songster. From left: Wim Kloek, Jurriaan Kloek, Camila De Conto, two-week-old Juliette Kloek-De Conto and her brother Christopher Kloek-De Conto, and Salete De Conto. Photo / Susan Botting
Seven globetrotting families are among the yachties bringing a record number of international kids into the Whangārei Town Basin this summer.
Whangārei Marina assistant manager Sharron Beck said 125 yachts have come to the popular Town Basin and new Okara sites this summer.
Overseas yachties make up more than halfthe Town Basin marina users.
Beck said the record number of children was three or four times more than last summer.
Whangārei Marina’s overseas yachties are expected to contribute $12.5 million to Whangārei’s economy this season, including through yacht maintenance, refits, berthage and services.
The families said Whangārei offered many yachting support facilities and was kid-friendly.
These kids from seven international yachts are boosting what's a record number of children among this year's visiting yachties. Photo / Susan Botting
The tiniest tot in the Town Basin in November lived on another yacht from Luxembourg with her sailing parents, Dutchman Jurriaan Kloek and Brazilian Camila De Conto.
Baby Juliette Kloek-De Conto’s arrival on November 12 made the couple’s visit to Whangārei a family mission.
The couple headed to Whangārei Marina in August (via plane for De Conto) for Juliette’s birth.
Jurriaan Kloek and Camila De Conto with their newborn daughter Juliette Kloek-De Conto, who was two weeks old at the time. Photo / Susan Botting
“We’d heard Whangārei was a great place for our baby to be born,” Kloek said.
Juliette is a new younger sister for Christopher Kloek-De Conto, 4.
De Conto’s mother Salete De Conto flew from Brazil to New Zealand to be with her daughter after Juliette’s birth, as did Kloek’s father Wim Kloek, a Dutchman from Luxembourg who is staying on an adjacent yacht.
Jurriaan said family sailing was a positive.
“Especially when you’re sailing offshore, you get to spend time together as a family without any interruptions, which is very special,” Jurriaan said.
They’ve been sailing with a group of five yachts, four of which also have children.
Meanwhile, Canadian Duncan Copeland, one of the seven families loosely sailing together, said life on the sea was a great way to bring up children.
The Whangārei Town Basin. Photo / NZME
He was once a sailing kid himself and wanted to offer his children that opportunity.
“I loved the independence. I learned a lot about life,” Copeland said of his childhood.
Copeland’s wife, Englishwoman Larissa Clark, started Free Range Ocean in 2023, a citizen science project to inspire action for a healthy ocean among boating and coastal communities worldwide.
Clark said those sailing the ocean with children could help achieve this goal.
Pollution, biodiversity protections, invasive species, microplastics and water quality are among the sciences involved in the project.
Another from the seven families, American Lauren Vanderbilt, said the Whangārei Town Basin was a great place for children.
Bruce (left), Luke and Lauren Vanderbilt sailed into the Town Basin in November on their catamaran Vidorra as part of their three-year sailing stint. Photo / Susan Botting
It was laid out in a way that provided lots of things for them to do.
“It’s like a neighbourhood,” Vanderbilt said.
Many of the sailing children have travelled to more countries than adults visit in a lifetime.
Lauren and Bruce Vanderbilt’s son Luke, 11, has been blue water sailing for more than two-thirds of his life, starting at the age of 1.
American youngster Luke Vanderbilt, 11, has been to 37 countries. Photo / Susan Botting
He is the most-travelled of all the children from the group of seven yachts and has visited 37 countries.
“It’s a cool life. I love seeing new places and people. I’d probably know only about a quarter of what I know if I’d been living [on land] in the United States,” Luke said.
His favourite country so far is the Bahamas.
“All the kids just played together. We played every single day. There was clear water and coral reefs.”
Luke said he also really enjoyed New Zealand.
“I love hikes and the scenery.”
Luke is home-schooled, based on the US education system.
“I get to see other cultures and how different people react to different things.
“This [the sailing life] is the best form of teaching. I probably wouldn’t know the names of half as many sea creatures, or the names of all the oceans [otherwise].”
Whangārei Mayor Ken Couper said it was great to see international yachties in the city.
“We welcome them and hope they return in years to come,” Couper said.
