Zoke Kiwi Match has qualified for the Nations Cup Grand Final having just won the Oceania Regional Final in Australia last week. The event was hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia which is based on Sydney harbor.  The team produced a convincing performance losing only 1 race in the 3 days of competition. The Grand Final, to be run by the US Sailing Centre in Sheboygan, Wisconson, USA in September will see all the regional final winners compete for the ISAF Nations Cup trophy.

The ISAF Nations Cup is a global competition first introduced in 1991. Its goal is to find the world's top match racing nations in both open and women's divisions with a series of Regional Finals. The top crews from each region then go on to compete at the Grand Final. The aim of the event is to broaden the availability of match racing and provide international match racing competition for national authorities and sailors at a reasonable cost, whilst acting as an incentive for national match racing programmes.

The regional final, sailed on the CYCA’s fleet of Elliott 6m was a blast from the past for us, not having really sailed the boats since our Youth Scheme days at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. Even if the boats felt a bit smaller than they used to, it didn’t take us long to get back up to speed and to figure out all the tricks we learnt all those years ago. The shifty South Westerly breeze on Sydney harbor ensured the racing was always interesting, with no lead, no matter how big, ever being safe. We really managed to get our heads around the conditions though, and being able to pick the first shift off the start line enabled us to establish early leads that we could then defend around the course.

The finals turned into a trans-Tasman battle as local sailor Evan Walker also qualified for the best of 5 final. His team had been sailing well all week and had produced some tough battles in the early stages of the regatta. We were confident in how we had been sailing during the week and knew we just had do produce much of the same to walk away with the title. In the end we made it look easy taking out the finals 3-0. It was great to once again put together a complete performance and we’re definitely excited at the opportunity of taking on the other Nations at the World Final.

We now head back to New Zealand as we work up to our Northern Hemisphere tour kicking off later this year. We’re also continuing to develop our relationship with Zoke, a Chinese based clothing company looking to expand its current product line and its markets.  In the meantime we would like to thank Zoke for continuing to support us and our friends and family for sticking with us. We will be announcing exciting developments shortly so stay tuned for more.

Australia and New Zealand have secured a place at the Nations Cup Grand Final in Sheboygan this September following the Oceania Regional Final held at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia this week.

Olivia Price and her team of Nina Curtis, Sophie Lahey and Rayshele Martin represented Australia in the Women’s division and took on Olivia Powrie (NZL) in the final today.  While the Open Finals were decided yesterday, Price had to wait for the last race of the round robins to be sailed this morning before she knew who would be her opponent.  Powrie and her crew enjoyed the fresh 12-15 knot sou’westerly, handling the gusts of up to 20 knots better than Maiko Sato (JPN) in what proved to be the decider for a finals berth.  

In the Open Division, Laurie Jury and his team of Logan Fraser and Michael Edmonds took out his finals against Evan Walker (AUS) to give New Zealand the Open place in the Grand Final.  Jury and Walker started the finals with aggressive moves in the prestart with three penalties given prior to the start. The first penalty was on Walker who tacked too close to Jury.  Leading into the start in the last minute, Jury got too low on the pin lay and Walker blocked him from tacking back on to port.  Both boats then went head to wind and Jury fell back and contacted Walker’s boat receiving a double penalty.  

With the first penalty cancelling out Walker’s penalty, Jury began the race with one outstanding penalty and chose to take it almost immediately.  He then took Walker’s stern and crossed to the left side of the course and was rewarded with a nice shift which lifted the team significantly and gave him the lead which he held to the finish.  Jury went on to win the next two races to taking the final 3-0.  

‘My crew did really well adapting to the Elliott 6.0m which we have not sailed for five years.  The conditions were really shifty today and the Race Committee and umpires did a really good job, the organisation and management was spot on,” Jury said. 

Price (AUS) did a similar job on her opponent, Powrie (NZL) taking out the final 3-0. ‘It was the first regatta that my crew have done together and a special thanks to Sophie for joining us at very late notice.  It was a week full of learning and we enjoyed the way the regatta was run.  Thank you to all the competitors who came such a long way for the event’.

For full results log on to http://www.cyca.com.au/editorial.asp?key=5272

By Pam Scrivenor

Article Courtesy of the CYCA

Six teams will gather tomorrow at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia for their practice session for the ISAF Nations Cup 2011 Regional Final Oceania, sailing in the Elliott 6.0m boats. Racing commences on Thursday 12 May and concludes on Saturday 14 May. Three teams representing Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia will compete in the Open division, with three teams from Australia, New Zealand and Japan competing in the Women’s division.

Laurie Jury (NZL) and his crew of Logan Fraser and Michael Edmonds are the highest ISAF ranked open team (29). Jury recently finished fourth in the Korea Match Cup qualifier earlier this month and placed first in the New Zealand qualifier in March this year. He has also competed in several European regattas last year. Evan Walker (AUS) is the highest ranked Australian and second highest ranked for this event (43). Walker qualified for this event after winning the Australian Match Racing Championship in November last year with a mixed crew that included Olivia Price, Amanda Scrivenor and Jack Hubbard. Walker stamped himself as one of the nation’s outstanding young match racing  helmsmen after that win. He then went on to win the Colin Mullins International Youth Regatta and Warren Jones International Youth Regatta that provide him entry into some of the most high profile international match racing events throughout this year; including the Korea Match Cup where Walker finished third and the Open de Espana where he placed seventh. Representing New Caledonia, Tugdual Piriou and his team of Remy Desbordes, Josselin Dupont and Alexandre Plantey are the only non ranked team competing in the Open division.

Olivia Price (AUS) is the highest ranked women’s skipper currently ranked 61, and will sail with Nina Curtis, Haylee Outteridge and Rayshele Martin for
this event. Price is a member of the Australian Women’s Match Racing team in training for the 2012 Olympics, and won the CYCA’s Marinassess Women’s Match Racing regatta with fellow AWMRT team members Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis and Olympian Karyn Gojnich in February this year. Price qualified for this event after finishing second in the Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship to New Zealand’s Stephanie Hazard. Maiko Sata and her crew of Makiko Matsuishi, Chie Takeuchi and Satsuki Ogawa will represent Japan in the womens division. An Olympian in 2000 and 2004, Sata is also an accomplished Laser sailor and has been competing recently in open match racing events in Japan. Olivia Powrie and her crew of Miranda Powrie, Jo Aleh and Merran Walbridge will represent New Zealand after qualifying first in the New Zealand Women’s Match Racing Championship in March this year. Powrie is also an accomplished 470 sailor placing second in the 470 world championships last year.

The winner of each division receives an invitation to Nations Cup Final to be held in Sheboygan, USA in September 2011. The ISAF Nations Cup was first introduced to the world in 1991 as an Open event, with the Women’s division being added in 1993. The Cup is based on a series of Regional Finals with the top crews meeting at the Grand Final. Following on from earlier editions in 1991, 1993 and 1995, the ISAF Nations Cup was successfully re-launched in 2006 with over 50 nations competing. Eight Regional Finals decided the line up for the Grand Final at the Royal Cork Yacht Club, where France completed a double triumph in the open and women's events with teams led by skippers Mathieu Richard and Claire Leroy. Leroy and Damien Iehl again triumphed for France in the ISAF Nations Cup 2009 held in Brazil.

Racing commences in the ISAF Nations Cup 2011 Regional Final Oceania on Thursday 12 May at 1015hrs with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting west to south westerly wind of 15 to 20 knots decreasing to 10 to 15 knots during the afternoon and will be sailed in the vicinity of Rushcutters Bay. The event will conclude on Saturday 14 May 2011 when the finals will be conducted.

By Jennifer Crooks

Article Courtesy of the CYCA