Blue skies, a public holiday, 30degC temperatures and the opportunity to give sailing a go proved to be the perfect concoction on Lake Wanaka yesterday.
About 50 people, young and old, attended the Wanaka Yacht Clubs "have-a-go sailing day''.
Wanaka Yacht Club commodore Quentin Smith said the day was about people having an "experience'' on the water.
The free event gave people the opportunity to sail in a variety of boats, from a 31ft (9.5m) trimaran to Optimist sailing dinghies.
"There are a huge range of boats here that are capable of a huge range of speeds,'' Mr Smith said.
He said the open day was a culmination of the work of members of the yacht club, who volunteered their time and boats for the event.
"It is also about showing people what we do at the club so people might want to get involved with our learn-to-sail programme or come and help out and just get involved.''
It was the third year the event had been run.
"The day has certainly generated a lot of interest. The problem that we have, I suppose, is many of our programmes are already running at capacity so we have to try and find space in our learn-to-sail programmes to accommodate the interest that we get, so it is a nice problem to have.''
The club has about 160 members.
