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Chris Steele is looking to win a third Yachting Developments New Zealand Match Racing Championships in four years this weekend but will face some stiff opposition from 19 other teams battling for the national title.
Chris Steele and his crew of Josh Salthouse, Harry Hull and Harry Thurston took out the 2016 title. Photo: Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Steele, who is now 37th in the world match racing rankings but was as high as fifth in 2017, won in 2015 and 2016 but didn't compete last year when Andy Maloney and his crew took the title.
“After winning in 2016, I missed out on competing last year so I’m definitely looking forward to coming home and trying to get my name back on that trophy,” Steele told rnzys.org.nz.
Twenty teams will line up when racing gets underway tomorrow, including five international teams.
The top ranked of those will be Nespresso Youth International Match Racing Champion Leonard Takahashi, who was third last year and is now 25th in the world rankings. Takahashi, who is a member of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's performance programme, was recently a beaten finalist at the Govenor's Cup in California and is also campaigning for Japan in the 49er.
“I am looking forward to getting back out on the water in the Elliot 7s to take on what is shaping up to be a really competitive fleet,” he said.
Other notable entrants include Nick Egnot-Johnson, who skippered the New Zealand team who recently won the US match racing grand slam, as well as George Anyon, Jordan Stevenson and the NZ Women’s Match Racing Team helmed by Celia Willison.
Fleet racing early in the regatta will determine the seeding for the match racing component.
Skippers for this year's Yachting Developments New Zealand Match Racing Championships at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron:
Chris Steele – NZL
Leonard Takahashi – JPN
Nick Egnot-Johnson – NZL
James Wilson – NZL
Laurie Jury – NZL
Jordan Stevenson – NZL
Frankie Dair – USA
Patrick Harris – NZL
Celia Willison – NZL
Megan Thomson – NZL
Nicholas Gardiner – NZL
Yann Rigal – TAH
Colman O’Riordan – IRL
Arnau Farras-Knowles – ESP
Eli Liefting – NZL
Callum Radford – NZL
Oakley Marsh – NZL
Dylan McKinley – NZL
Josh Berry – NZL
Brian Trubovich – NZL
