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Matt Blakey will have a silver fern on his sail for Sunday's Zhik Trans-Tasman eSailing Championships and he'll feel a lot more comfortable about that than the livery he was decked out in last year.
Blakey was part of the Australian team who comfortably beat New Zealand in last year's inaugural trans-Tasman challenge but, for someone born and bred in this country, it was a bittersweet victory.
"I didn’t have much choice last time," said Blakey from his home in Melbourne. "By the time it all happened, I had already done the Aussie state champs and the nationals, and then they said there was a trans-Tasman challenge.
"It never sat right with me at the time, racing against the silver fern rather than wearing it. A few people told me a few truths and I got a bit of feedback from friends and family so I obviously took all that on board."
Some of that included his mother, who was less than impressed, but the 'feedback' was still being offered when he took out last week's Zhik New Zealand eSailing Challenge. Blakey took the title by one point ahead of Aidan Gordon, snaring a $500 Zhik voucher for himself and another $500 Zhik voucher for his club, the Tamaki Yacht Club.
He will be one of six Kiwis tackling the Aussies in Sunday night's Zhik Trans-Tasman eSailing Championships, which will be live streamed on the Yachting New Zealand Facebook page at 8pm (NZ time). Five races will be held in five different classes and the combined scores of the top four sailors from each country will determine the overall trans-Tasman champions.
Blakey has been eSailing for some time, and twice been to the world championships, but finds it a lot harder to find the time to race these days given he has a young daughter and recently moved into a new house.
There are also considerably more players globally now, with various lockdowns around the world opening up the sport to a much larger audience, with more and more competitions being added all the time.
"If I had a bit more time I would like to do more but it gets a bit hard to keep up with all the other things going on," he said. "It’s a nice outlet, especially when it’s winter here or you’re in lockdown and you can’t go sailing. You can get it out of your system and it’s nice to engage your brain in sailing tactics."
Blakey, who is a former Laser national champion and attempted to win Olympic selection for New Zealand in the class before relocating to Australia 11 years ago, regularly joins up with many of this country's best eSailors on a Wednesday night. The New Zealand team have also had a couple of practice sessions to try to work on some tactics to topple the Aussies.
It was pretty one-sided last year, with Australians (including Blakey) filling the top four positions, but one sailor will at least feel he's on the right team this time.
New Zealand: Matt Blakey, Aidan Gordon, James Bichener, Justin Mitchell, Jack Fransen, Flinn Olson.
Australia: Liam Millar, Jack Ferguson, Josh Griffith, Ben Hinks, Zac Skulander, Quentin Palmer.
