Commodore makes new record with role
Leading the way is nothing new for a Queensberry woman who has become the first female Commodore of a radio-controlled yacht squadron in New Zealand.
Commodore Alexa Bell said she was the worst of the 13 sailors in the Cromwell Radio Yacht Squadron (CRYS) but was keen to learn and raise the profile of the club.
Radio-controlled yacht racing was not a great spectator sport, Mrs Bell said.
"It's a bit like cricket. You either get it or you don't get it."
However, sailing them was highly competitive.
The Cromwell squadron started with five members post-Covid. While there were a huge variety of vessels to choose from the 95cm ones were the preference at Cromwell. For the technically minded they are DS95 class 1 boats.
Mrs Bell's introduction to the sport was through her husband Roy Goodwin, who was an enthusiast.
The couple, who met on a flight from Auckland to Melbourne, and eventually sailed to New Zealand on a yacht, ending up in Kerikeri.
While Mrs Bell had always been keen to move south, Mr Goodwin was convinced the best sailing in the country was in the Bay of Islands.
However, two trips to cycle the Central Otago trails had him asking why they were not living here, Mrs Bell said.
"I said 'I can fix that'," Mrs Bell said.
Three months later they moved.
Mr Goodwin joined the Cromwell squadron and Mrs Bell was happy to wave him off, she said.
The then Commodore Jamie White, of Cromwell, suggested Mrs Bell give it a go.
"I was like 'OK, then' and I got hooked."
When Mr White decided he was short of time to manage the club he had a solution.
"He told me, didn't ask me, that I was going to be commodore."
A big part of the appeal of sailing was the competitiveness and the banter between the sailors, she said.
"It's just fun. It's technical but it's fun, you know? I'm terrible, I'm the loser. I've just started but it doesn't matter."
With her background it was no surprise competitiveness was the aspect that attracted Mrs Bell.
Hailing from Montreal, Canada, Mrs Bell was a professional equestrian — riding, caring for and training horses, and in 1985 set the world record, which still stands, with a jump of 7ft4.5in (2.25m) for puissance — essentially high jump for horses and riders, she said.
After representing Canada for about 15 years, while on holiday in Australia she landed a job coaching the Australian Showjumping Team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics — the youngest ever coach and first woman to do so.
It was on a flight back to Melbourne from Horse of the Year in Hawke's Bay that she met Mr Goodwin.
"I wasn't in the mood to talk, I thought. I was very tired, very grumpy. We hadn't won, you guys [New Zealand] had beat us, I was going home tail between my legs and this guy starts chatting away and I was like, I just want to go to sleep. But three hours later that was it."
When she gave up working with horses Mrs Bell went to the Le Cordon Bleu school, in Paris and began a new career in food.
She ran Pub Grub in Kerikeri, and brought the business with her to Queensberry. She offers everything from easy meal solutions to full catering service.
CRYS was a young club with many members in their 30s, Mrs Bell said.
That led to meetings on Sundays at 1pm in the winter and 5.15pm on Tuesdays in the summer. They share the Dunstan Boat Club rooms at McNulty Inlet and sail on the water there.
Mrs Bell was keen to increase membership and encouraged more women to join up.
Radio-controlled yachts were sailed all around the world and there were thousands of clubs sailing a huge range of vessels.
"You could travel all over the world and every day go to a different club and sail somewhere. It's really, really large."
The CRYS will host the Otago championships on November 7 and 8.
Anyone wanting to find out more would be welcome at McNulty Inlet on Sundays at 1pm or contact the club at www.crys.co.nz
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