Despite the very dramatic looking flooding at the Wānaka Yacht Club, the club’s grounds are likely to come out of the other end with little to no damage. Club commodore Graham Berry said that the club house’s design allows for water to pass through it, “it’s designed for that. It’s got boats in it.”

This fortunate situation didn’t come without preparation, however. Berry said that when the water began to close in, they got a call from the harbourmaster warning them that flooding was looking like a likely scenario. Within 20 minutes of the call, members of the club were turning up to help move boats from the club’s (now completely flooded) small grassy peninsula. However, Berry said that the work was not over, “now we’ve got the next mission to put everything back again. We’ll have a working bee in the next few days... we’ve dodged a bullet, that’s for sure.”

The WYC were already putting plans in place to build a new yacht club, as the current building is rapidly becoming redundant with 250 sailing students. Berry said that even after flooding they didn’t have plans to build the new club any higher or further from the water, “I think it’s the same level. The club didn’t get wet in 1999 or this year. In the new building you’d probably have some new waterproofing. The problem with the current building is it isn’t built for purpose.” The new building is set to have better changing rooms, as well as other upgraded facilities.