President elect, Gerald, in order to support Motor Neuron Disease, took part in a cycle ride across the United States. 

 

Members were kept up to date with the huge undertaking in a series of emails that Gerald sent as the ride progressed but at our last meeting we were very pleased to hear from Gerald in person.

 

As he noted- 

New Zealand has retained the Americas Cup for the third successive time. Our sailors, design team and shore crew did a fantastic job to put together a dominant defence.

Up against the money of Sir Jim Ratcliffe and technical support of Formula One Mercedes for Ineos Britannia,  Team NZ sailing Taihoro -“To move swiftly as the sea between both sky and earth,” won the series with a convincing 7-2 result.

 

In the design team for both the last challenge and this one was Simon Corkery. Fresh from a Doctorate in Engineering at Cambridge, Simon joined the last team and then juggled a post doctorate at Cambridge and Team New Zealand for the most recent challenge. Simon started school at Anchorage Park, from there to Pakuranga Intermediate and on to Edgewater College, Auckland University and then a scholarship at Cambridge.

 

Adding further interest to the story,  Simon started school with his friend Hannah Sheahan, went right through the same schools and Universities together and graduated on the same day with the same degree at Cambridge. Following a stint in AI with Google Hannah is now with a new AI company in San Fransico.