Named Waiti, the $21,000 craft — funded by Sport New Zealand — is the club’s fifth six-man waka, joining one two-man boat and four singles.
Club founder/president Frances Piacun, who at 75 still competes at world champs, most recently in Hawaii, says membership, at 50, has never been higher.
Currently there are five youth crews and three senior crews.
"My goal all along was to introduce [the sport] to the youth in this area, and that’s what’s happened."
Presently there are girls’ crews from Wakatipu High and Queenstown Primary, and a boys’ crew from Shotover Primary.
The sport uses outrigger canoes that are an integral part of Pasifika culture.
Piacun says waka ama’s very values-driven.
"It’s a cultural value of really respecting each other, and respecting our water and our world, if you like."
Though Lake Whakatipu, the club’s home ground, as it were, can get quite rough, she says "you enjoy a bit of chop, you don’t want it dead flat".
Of course, Piacun’s a living example of the sport’s health and fitness benefits — "I think it keeps me mobile, keeps my brain active".
The club’s fortunate to have not only her coaching crews but also her partner and fellow NZ rep, club captain Leon Williams.
Piacun says the local support the club receives is awesome.
Last year she took two Wakatipu High teams to the secondary school nationals, near Rotorua, "and the support I got for fundraising was amazing".
Adult membership’s $150 a year — part of which goes to the yacht club, which supplies a shed — and for kids it’s $40.
"We’d like to turn [the shed] into a clubroom, I’d love that for the kids when it’s too rough to take them out."
While the club enjoys great success when it travels for competition, Piacun’s other aim is host a regatta.
Asked if she could have foreseen, in 2014, how successful the club would become, she replies: "I’m absolutely thrilled but I didn’t know I’d be here in 10 years."
