Show Notes
Elana Connor’s story is a remarkable and powerful one. Born into a violent family where she feared for her life, she ran away from home as a teenager and bounced around foster homes until she reached 18 and was told to fend for herself. By accident, she discovered sailing and it’s given her purpose and direction.
Elana arrived in New Zealand at the end of 2019 as she circumnavigated the globe and has been here ever since. She’s now close to finishing a figure eight of New Zealand and along the way has been casting light on the 6000 children in care and raising money for them to participate in a Spirit of New Zealand adventure. It’s a programme that is gaining traction and momentum and Elana would love nothing more than to see this develop into something much broader.
Elana tells her amazing story on this podcast, from the trauma of her childhood and seemingly hopeless situation she found herself in, to suddenly sailing solo around the world. She talks about the challenges she’s faced along the way, including being in New Zealand when Covid-19 hit, the impact her journey around the country has had so far, what Kiwis, including yacht clubs, can do to make sailing more inclusive and how she’s been able to rebuild her own life.
More from Broad Reach Radio - The Yachting New Zealand Podcast
The number 202.9 might not mean a lot to most but is a figure Glenn Ashby has become obsessed about. The two-time America’s Cup winner is now leading a group from Emirates Team New Zealand trying to break the wind powered land speed record. They need to go faster than 202.9km/h on the salt flats of Lake Gairdner in South Australia to do it.
New Zealand has a proud tradition in the round the world race and a lot of that started with Ceramco New Zealand in the early 1980s – the first New Zealand-flagged boat to compete in the gruelling event. It was a campaign headed up by Sir Peter Blake and something that captured the imagination of Kiwis everywhere. But disaster struck on the first leg of the race when the boat’s mast came down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as the team were vying for the lead. It was a devastating blow for the crew, including Simon Gundry who is today’s guest on Broad Reach Radio.
Karl Budge doesn’t purport to be much of a sailor, but he is one of this country’s leading event organisers having previously turned the ASB Classic into one of the world’s best tennis tournaments. He consistently attracted some of the world’s top tennis players to this country and now he’s looking to sprinkle his magic dust on the New Zealand leg of SailGP.
Karl Budge doesn’t purport to be much of a sailor, but he is one of this country’s leading event organisers having previously turned the ASB Classic into one of the world’s best tennis tournaments. He consistently attracted some of the world’s top tennis players to this country and now he’s looking to sprinkle his magic dust on the New Zealand leg of SailGP.
Mike Sanderson is one of the most successful sailors of his generation. He’s a former World Sailor of the Year, two-time winner of the round the world race including when he skippered ABN Amro to victory in the 2005/06 Volvo Ocean Race, been involved in multiple America’s Cup campaigns, a record breaker, a successful maxi yacht skipper and now co-owner and CEO of Doyle Sails.