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Keelboat nationals

Knots Racing clean up at NZ keelboat champs

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Nick Egnot-Johnson and his Knots Racing team showed the value of their recent experiences competing in the United States by dominating the Theland New Zealand Open Keelboat Championships last weekend.

Egnot-Johnson and his crew of Sam Barnett, Zak Merton, Bradley McLaughlin, James Jennings and Angus Adamson won all eight races at the open championships, finishing 12 points ahead of Matt Bouzaid with Melinda Henshaw third.

Knots Racing recently returned from competing in the US, where they were fifth at both the Congressional Cup in Long Beach and Nations Cup in San Francisco.

They found themselves behind at times last weekend but always managed to find a way through the fleet to win all eight races.

“It’s great to come back home and get back out on the water straight away," Egnot-Johnson said. "We did a lot of match racing training in the MRXs before we went to the US so, as a team, we know the boat well and it was a nice challenge doing some fleet racing.

“We really enjoyed the regatta. There was some great racing out there. It’s pretty cool to come away with eight wins from eight races. I’m really proud of the boys and how well we sailed this weekend in some ever-changing conditions. Thank you to the RNZYS for putting the event on and to the sponsor Theland for fuelling us up all weekend."

Racing was sailed in fairly light conditions on Saturday but, with large windward leeward courses, it meant for some long races that involved plenty of lead changes. There was more breeze on Sunday and plenty of squally rain showers which made it a bit more difficult for the fleet who had to deal with limited visibility and shifty winds.

national keelboat championships

Results from the 2019 Theland New Zealand Open Keelboat Championships at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron:

1st: Nick Egnot-Johnson (RNZYS) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 8 points
2nd: Matt Bouzaid (RNZYS) 3 2 2 2 4 2 3 2 - 20 pts
3rd: Melinda Henshaw (RNYS) 2 3 3 3 3 3 5 4 - 26 pts
4th: AJ Reid (RNZYS) 4 5 5 5 2 5 2 3 - 31 pts
5th: Mike Forsyth (TYPBC) 6 4 4 4 5 4 4 5 - 36 pts