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Celia Willison

Willison looking to hold Edge at world champs

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Celia Willison wasn't really enjoying 'having an adult job' so headed to Europe earlier this year in an attempt to crack the professional sailing world.

She's already bagged one world title this year and this week will look to add another when she leads the Edge Women's Match team at the Barfoot & Thompson Women’s Match Racing World Championships in Auckland.

They will head into the event in good form, having finished second overall in last weekend's New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Championships when they were pipped 3-2 by four-time world champion Pauline Courtois and her Match in Pink by Normandy Elite team. As the top Kiwi team, Edge Women's Match claimed the national title and they now want to add the world title.

"We are aiming to win," Willison said. "We think we can. It will just be a matter of taking it one move at a time and we proved last week we can beat the top dogs so we just have to do it again."

Three New Zealand teams will line up in the 14-strong fleet when racing starts on Thursday, with Megan Thomson and her 2.0 Women's Racing Team joined by Samantha Norman's Sailing Mum's Team who claimed the wildcard as the highest placed Kiwi boat at the nationals who hadn't already qualified for the world championships.

For Willison, the world champs has been a long time coming given it's twice been cancelled due to Covid-19 but a lot has changed in those two years.

She essentially put her nursing career on hold earlier this year and headed overseas to join the professional ranks.

"It was a case of if not now, then when," she said. "It's a matter of who you know, not what you know and you have to make a good impression when you get a chance.

"Most people seem to like Kiwis and the reputation of the [Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's] youth programme has really helped me get a few rides.

"Getting involved in the Cape 31 fleet was pretty awesome. It's the newest and greatest thing at the moment and everyone is learning the boats at the same time so it's really fun to be involved."

Willison also got asked when at the Etchells world championships to join a team at the J70 world championships in Monaco, which they duly won, and more recently teamed up with some core members of Edge Women's Match to finish second at the Corfu Match regatta and fourth at the EUROSAF Women’s Championship at the same venue.

Celia Willison
Edge Women's Match in action last weekend. Photos: RNZYS

The Women's World Match Racing Tour was launched in 2022 to take over from the WIM Series (Women's International Match Racing Series) and there are plans for the tour to expand in coming years.

Willison is looking to be involved in the tour, on top of more Cape 31 and J70 racing, but for now the focus is on this week's world championships.

She knows it's an advantage to be racing at her home club and on boats she's very familiar with (Elliott 7s) and she also has the original team back together - Paige Cook (trim), Charlotte Porter (main), Alison Kent (bow) and Serena Woodall (float).

"It's a bit like getting the band back together," she said. "We are all super-excited to go."

  • Follow the racing on the Women's World Match Racing Tour website here and live scoring will be on the match racing results website here.