The Royal Papua Yacht Club (RPYC) successfully hosted the annual International 3 Peaks competition on Saturday October 17, bringing together both expatriates and young local sailors to showcase their competitiveness in a series of challenges.
Representatives from international corporations and business houses participated in 8 teams for the A class division of the tri-sport competition that involves sailing, swimming and running, in the race against time.
In the junior division, the Hobie 16s, there were 10 teams made of crews of two to four young sailors, who sailed on the fast, mini twin-hulled and lightweight sail boats called Hobie Cats.
For the platinum sponsor of the junior fleet’s participation in the 3 Peaks, Steamships, this competition is all about upskilling and providing the experience for young sailors with inherited traditional sailing abilities to become professional sailors, qualified to participate in international sailing events.
CEO Steamships Properties, Mr Allan Heyns who was the skipper of Team Star Dust, the champions of International 3 Peak Race 2026, highlighted that the competition underscored the aim to upskill and build the potential of the next generation of sailors to compete in major international events.
“Steamships would like to support the young cadets to grow as we hope to see some really strong Papua New Guineans coming through in the sailing ranks and we’re happy to continue supporting them,” said Mr Heyns.
According to the Royal Papua Yacht Club, who have been long-time supporters of the junior division sailors’ training programme, this competition serves as the training ground that will help young sailors develop their skills and represent Papua New Guinea in international competitions.
The training programme includes three sailing classes: Optis, Lasers and Hobie 16s.
The children start with the Optis and progresses to other classes as they develop and when they are in the Hobie 16s class, the young sailors are sponsored by Steamships to compete in the junior division of the annual 3 Peak competitions.
For young Gari Morea, who was instrumental in his crew’s victory to secure first place in the Hobie 16s for this year, the competition was quite the learning experience and victory would not be possible without the helping words of his parents and coach.
“When I woke up this morning, mum and dad prepared me breakfast and we sat together and they gave me words of motivation,” he said.
When we started the competition, we were trailing behind and that pushed me to run as fast as I could and I was able to beat the other teams and that gave us the lead we need to complete the competition in the shortest time.”
Each crew from both divisions had swimmers and runners who were part of the sail crew but the main test for the Hobie 16s was to impress their trainer, sailing instructor Upu Kila in the water.
Sailing Instructor, Upu Kila from Hula village in Central province, said the cadet programme for young sailors has been ongoing since the 90s and the Royal Papua Yacht Club has been actively supporting this programme.
Kila said the current cadets are very much into sailing and they have the natural skills to sail.
“The main aim of the RPYC sailing programme is to take local sailors to international experiences and next year we are looking forward to the Pacific Games.”
Right now, I have so many potential young sailors with consistent sailing interest so its going to be tough to make the selections and because all our current young sailors have no international experience, we are trying our best to get them to take part in international sailing in Australia before taking part in the upcoming Pacific Games, Kila said.
The sailing programme is open to all young Papua New Guineans with the keen interest and passion for sailing.