RNZYS Celebrates Its 2025 Yachting Excellence Award Nominees

With the 2025 Yachting NZ Awards Prize Giving happening at the Squadron tomorrow night, we are beaming with pride!

A remarkable lineup of our sailors and teams has already been announced as early winners of the Barfoot & Thompson Yachting Excellence Awards, and what an impressive year it’s been.

From offshore grit to fleet-racing flair, their passion and performance shine through. Check out which of our members have received awards to date.

Blair is one of our most dedicated on-water volunteers at the RNZYS serving as race officer, umpire, and judge. During the 2024–25 season, he mentored younger sailors through protests with calm, fairness, and experience.

At our RNZYS May 2025 prizegiving, he was honoured as Judge/Umpire of the Year. His dedication, steady presence and commitment to our racing make him a cornerstone of the club, and we’re proud to see him recognised nationally.

Catley has been part of New Zealand skiff sailing since the 1970s, racing 18-foot skiffs himself before switching to 12-foot skiffs in recent years.

For many years, he has been the driving force behind the continued racing of the 18-foot skiff class, owning most of the fleet, funding the class for over 20 years, supporting sailors under 30, and covering costs to send boats to world championships.

Larry is Chairman of the Classic Yacht Charitable Trust and plays a pivotal role in the preservation of classics.

The Trust has preserved, promotes and operates six classic gaff-rigged cutters in Auckland, ensuring our strong maritime heritage is maintained for generations to come.

Ella and Ben are absolutely youth sailors to watch. Earlier this year the duo set out to compete in their first big double handed event, the SSANZ Northern Triangle – where they won the overall race. It was great to see the youngest team competing in the 3 stage race giving the more experienced sailors a run for their money and coming out on top! 

Ella Arnold is also deeply involved in our Mastercard Youth Training Programme (YTP) and competes regularly in youth and women’s match racing where her women’s team YTG racing finished in 2nd place at the Women’s John Messenger Match Racing event in Sydney. Ella was previously recognised in 2024 with the Seamanship Youth Award. Their partnership, drive, and steady progress this season have clearly caught Yachting NZ’s eye.

George has had a standout year, balancing match racing and ILCA 7 fleet racing with confidence. At the UK ILCA 7 National Championships in Wales, he earned bronze overall and was the top under-21 sailor. He kept that momentum at the U21 ILCA 7 World Championships in Ireland in a massive 139-boat fleet, he scored seven top-10 finishes, including a race win on the penultimate day, to finish 5th overall, just five points shy of the podium.

His consistency and results from a great season this year make him a deserving recipient of this Youth Performance Award.

Westlake Girls High School’s premier sailing team – captain Jess Handley, Charlotte Handley, Kiera Dimock, Emily Turner, Bella Jenkins, Danielle Robertson, Gretel Satterthwaite, Julia Nguyen – claimed the female division title at the Interdominion Secondary Schools Team Sailing Championships in Goolwa, Australia, completing a remarkable three-peat. Auckland Grammar School finished second in the open division, flying the Kiwi flag against a strong field. The regatta brought together the top secondary school teams from New Zealand and Australia, with the Aussies taking the overall Interdominion Trophy.

Anna and Aaron are our dynamic double-handed duo, and what a journey they’re having. In 2023, they took out the first mixed double-handed spot in the SSANZ Round the North Island Race. In 2024, they tried out what competing in this class internationally was like, and in 2025, they delivered an incredible performance at the Offshore Double-Handed World Championships in Cowes: they won their repechage in an addicting and grueling race, then followed by sailing their way to a 5th place finish in the competitive Sun Fast 30OD worlds fleet.

Their determination, and ability to turn up and compete against the best in the world at such a high level make them true RNZYS ambassadors having both come through the RNZYS YTP and/or PP programmes.

The 2.0 Racing Team, one of RNZYS’s women’s match-racing teams skippered by Megan Thomson and crewed by Josi Andres, Charlotte Porter, Anna Merchant, Tiana Wittey & Hattie Rogers, has been unstoppable. Over the past year, they claimed silver at the 2024 Match Racing World Championships in Jeddah, and followed that up with another second place at the 2025 World Championships in Chicago showing world-class consistency and speed.

Off the race course, they’re role models: inspiring and mentoring young women in high-performance sailing. Their talent, passion, and leadership make them a standout for this national honour.

Knots Racing, skippered by Nick Egnot-Johnson and crewed by Jack Frewin, Zak Merton and Chris Main, Sam Barnett continue to push the worlds best. In December 2024, they took out silver at the World Match Racing Tour Final in Shenzhen, China, competing against only the best match racers in the world. As a team that has come through the RNZYS YTP and PP programmes their teamwork and ability to keep pushing are second to none a real credit to RNZYS.

We couldn’t be prouder of our two-boat RNZYS Admiral’s Cup team Callisto (James Murray) and Caro (Max Klink). At the 2025 RORC Admiral’s Cup, they raced through a mix of inshore and offshore tests, and after four inshore races they were sitting 3rd overall.

Callisto (a custom Botin IRC 42) and Caro (a custom Botin IRC 52) are stacked with top-tier Kiwi sailing talent, including many graduates from our Mastercard YTP. Their commitment, teamwork, and sheer offshore horsepower represent the best of RNZYS and this award celebrates that historic campaign with pride.