A diagram was eliminated from the first question in last week's Win-a-Boat contest. At the suggestion of the Maritime Safety Authority, this question will be dropped to ensure no entrant is disadvantaged.
Memento hunt
It's coming up 50 years since the first New Zealand Boat Show in Auckland and the exhibition
organisers want mementoes and memorabilia from the first shows. Now sponsored by Hutchwilco, the 50th 2002 show runs from May 30 to June 3. Manager Dave Gibbs wants old photographs, examples of early marine or fishing gear, home movies and even old boats. Call him on (09) 529 9435.
Boat checks
The Okahu Bay mooring group in Auckland has started a neighbourhood watch type of surveillance system. Members check on sectors of the mooring area they can see to try to halt a spate of boat burglaries. The maritime police unit asks that all boat-owners report break-ins and thefts.Officer in charge Senior-Sergeant Martin Paget says his team can put other owners with boats on moorings in touch with the boat-watch groups similar to the one in Okahu Bay.
Wrist computer
The Finnish instrument company Suunto has unveiled a satellite-controlled wrist computer it describes as a new generation personal sailing instrument. Called M9, it can give a 10-year-old Optimist sailor the same standard of sailing data Grant Dalton gets from the one he is using on Amer Sports One in the Volvo Ocean Race. The instrument can give the helmsman the sequence for start-line positioning and the best course. With the position of the first buoy logged in, the M9 will offer VMG, wind shifts, tacking averages, time and distance to the lay line. It even has a man overboard function. The New Zealand agents are A Foster and Co.
