The New Zealand Match Racing Championship (NZMRC) will start racing today Thursday 14th November at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in the fleet of Emirates Team New Zealand Elliott 7’s.
16 teams have been awarded entries showcasing home grown talent and international competitors with representation from Australia, New Caledonia, Ireland & Great Brittain. In the last week, the entry list has undergone some interesting changes, and we can’t wait to see how this unfolds on the water.
The format to accommodate the 16 teams will consist of two separate round robins scheduled Thursday and Friday then a super sixteen, quarter finals before the finals on Sunday 17th November.
Former match racing world champion and NZMRC’s reigning champion, and World No.4 Nick Egnot-Johnson has formed an alliance with World No. 6 Gavin Brady, a two-time NZMRC champion himself. Egnot-Johnson and Brady teamed up earlier in the week and will be joined by Women’s World Match Racing No. 2 Megan Thomson along with Josh Wijohn.
Egnot-Johnson and Brady are not the only returning reigning champs – this years’ entry list is a return of the greats. Since 2019, Nick Egnot Johnosn and Reuben Corbett have dominated the top spot. Corbett returns after a year off will be eager to reclaim his title. With both skippers in separate round robin pools, chances of a show down look imminent. Chris Steele, two-time NZMRC Champion also returns to the event, sailing with Robbie McCutcheon.
While the greats bring years of experience to the battlefield, we’re willing to hedge a bet that World No. 1 ranked Youth Match Racer, Josh Hyde, representing the RNZYS Performance Programme will place high on the leaderboard and bring an exciting element to the competition. Hyde and his crew, consisting of, Zach Fong, Cody Coughlan, Mason Mulcahy and Sofia Higgott, have gone through the highly respected RNZYS Mastercard Youth Training Programme, and have been undertaking intense training leading up to the event.
The team took out the Hardy Cup in Sydney and the NZ Youth Match Racing Championship which qualified Hyde and crew to represent New Zealand at the Youth Match Racing World Championship due to take place at Jeddah Yacht Club in December.
“The New Zealand Match Racing Championship this weekend will kick off our season which we will use as our main build up event to the Youth Worlds in Jeddah the following week. This will be excellent training for the Worlds with many top open match racers competing to challenge and push us to the next level,” said Hyde.
Another local skipper looking to use this event as a warmup for his Youth Match Racing World Championship campaign is NZ’s second representative skipper Noah Malpot. Malpot is sailing this event with an open crew and pulling on the expertise of Olympic ILCA 7 sailor Tom Saunders, and 49er sailor Logan Dunning-Beck.
Looking to our international competitors, CYCA’s Cole Tapper, World Youth Match Racing No.2, returns to challenge the 2024 NZMRC title after losing to Egnot-Johnson in 2023 in a thrilling 3-2 final. We expect to see some more close racing between these Trans-Tasman rivals. New Caledonian Tom Picot representing Cercle Nautique Calédonien brings with him strong international match racing experience. Picot also has experience on the waters of the Waitematā having competed at last years’ NZMRC and event, and the 2019 edition making him a formidable competitor.
A thrilling team to watch will be team of accomplished ILCA sailors George Pilkington’s crew made up of sister and 2024 Olympian Greta Pilkington, brother Tom Pilkington and fellow ILCA sailor Dylan Forsyth. While this team is new to the Match Racing scene, their experience in high level international sailing is sure to pose a challenge and make for interesting match ups.
To view the full entry list, stay up to date event news and live results head to our website or follow us on social media.
