News

TeamVodafoneSailing has finished the Auckland to Musket Cove, Fiji Ocean Race in a new best time of 101 hours, 5 minutes and 5 seconds. The trimaran, owned and skippered by Simon Hull, crossed the finish line in Fiji at 1905hrs today, after 1,150 nautical miles of sailing.

Two of three New Zealand crews competing at May's IFDS Blind Sailing World Championships in Japan have returned home with medals. Together the crew of Kiwis were second best nation overall, again fuelling the proud history that New Zealanders carry on the global scene of Blind Sailing.

If you are still considering how you can best make a contribution to the NZL Sailing Team with Emirates Team New Zealand... good news! We've extended the pledge deadline until 16 July. NEW PERK: Everybody that pledges $150+ goes in the draw to win one of two NZL Sailing SLAM Jackets.

Yachting New Zealand would like to congratulate both Joe Butterfield (YNZ Life Member) and Adrienne Greenwood (former YNZ CEO) who were both named in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list announcements for 2013. Joe Butterfield of Timaru was awarded an MNZM for services to health and the transport industry and Adrienne Greenwood of Auckland was awarded an ONZM for services to sailing.

At 1542hrs yesterday Maritime Radio contacted the RNZYS to advise that Outrageous had withdrawn from the race following an incident onboard. We understand that one crew member had fallen overboard, and that another was injured while rescuing him, and that the first crew member was in the water for 7-10 minutes before he was retrieved.

Mike Sanderson Stratis-Icebreaker was joined by regular crew Will Tiller and also had Matt Steven on the boat for the first time. Brzo, which is a big improver in recent times, was sailed by Class President Nathan Williams, Gill Williams and Phil "Fizzle" Houghton. Class Measurer Dave Cochran was sailing the legendary and always fast Zoot Allures.

It was a question of safety first for the 55' Equilibrium yesterday when they decided to withdraw from the race to Fiji, after the boat's alternator failed. As with many modern and highly technical boats, power is critical to running some of its systems.

Nine skippers are ready to race at the 2013 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship in Busan, Korea from 4-9 June. Set to be held out of Dongbaek Park, Haeundae Beach in Busan, London 2012 Women’s Match Racing gold medallist Tamara Echegoyen (ESP) will be the favourite to add a World title to her Olympic gold.

Been a busy last few weeks, with a lot of freezing a lot of driving… And now finally a few days off!! After Garda, we made our way up to Holland for the Delta Lloyd Regatta, which was the second EuroSaf event of this trip for us. It’s an awesomely run event, with live GPS tracking on all the races, and quick and efficient racing on the water – luckily for us – as this happened to be the coldest Delta Lloyd regatta in forty years. And let me tell you, it really was cold! We had temperatures out on the water of five degrees – that may not sound too bad – and its probably not if you are skiing or something, but sailing??