When it started pouring with rain on Saturday, many of the sailors on the banks of Lake Victoria, in Christchurch's Hagley Park, didn’t even flinch.
While their jackets welled up, they kept their eyes on the water, as dozens of tiny model boats jostled for position.
They are no toys: the racing is serious business, a tradition that’s continued for more than a century in Christchurch.
“[You’re always] looking up the course, looking at other boats, where the advantage might be on the start line,” said Graham Parratt, a legendary model sailor known as “Parrot”, who has won the local championship five times.
Saturday’s races were held in honour of the 125th anniversary of the Christchurch Model Yacht Club. Most events involve a miniature boat known as the Canterbury Jay, which is just over a metre in length and has sails controlled by a radio transmitter.
It’s a great passion for the members of the club, who are aged between 40 and 97 years old.
Club secretary Al Ross says many were formerly sailors in their younger days.
“A lot of our sailors are ex-sailors of big boats, and they get a bit sick of having to spend all day of getting cold, and getting hurt, and spending lots of money,” he said.
“They come here, and you get the same satisfaction of sailing around a course, competing around a course according to the rules of sailing, and just the social aspects are very important for these guys too.”
Many are built by hand, with experts like Graeme Raxworthy, a former panel beater, becoming sought after for model boat building prowess.
Raxworthy has now built in excess 40 of the crafts, and jokes he “lives in the shed”.
“There’s great camaraderie here, a good bunch of guys, and if you're down here on a Wednesday and you hear them all arguing and carrying on and half an hour later, they're all best of mates,” he said, laughing.
“It's a hell of a lot of fun, and the rules of racing apply out here, just as they would on Lyttleton Harbour. So we've got people that don't know the rules, people that don't want to know the rules and others that know them very clearly.”
Competition remained fierce as racing got underway on Saturday with “Parrot", the champion model sailor, relegated to the microphone.
Asked whether it was an intentional strategy, to keep him in the commentators box, he joked that it was “fair”.
“My wife says at times, ‘you go down to make friends, stop winning!’”.
A new sailor was soon crowed victor, and there was nothing miniature about the trophy.
The victor held it aloft to rapturous applause from his fellow sailors, his name added to the 125 years of history.
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