Friday 10 – Saturday 11 July 2026
Hosted by Royal Akarana Yacht Club, Okahu Bay, Auckland
Royal Akarana Yacht Club hosted the NZ Open Team Racing Nationals over the weekend of Friday 10 and Saturday 11 July 2026, welcoming six teams to Okahu Bay for two days of close, high-quality team racing. The regatta ran through a full round-robin qualifying stage, followed by playoffs, semi-finals and a attempted final, with racing ably managed on the water by the Race Committee of Paul Wotton & Martin Keenan
Racing was held against a typically Auckland-winter forecast for the harbour, both days were forecasted to be a shifty southerly direction, with the breeze slowly dropping out through the weekend. Despite requiring a small break in play for the wind to drop, switch 180 degrees and fill in again for the final series! All six teams met twice in the round-robin series, with the bottom four progressing to a playoff round to determine the final two semi-final berths. Kiwi Team Racing and Ship Happens finished the round robin clear at the top of the table, with Thievery and Windy Wellington rounding out the top four.
Thievery managed to take a win off the Kiwi Team Racing in the early stages, but after that they looked the strongest team on the water and took out every other race fairly convincingly. A third round robin was attempted in very soft conditions on Saturday morning but this soon faded away with the breeze and the fleet retired to shore to wait for some more pressure.
Overall Standings After 2 Round Robins
| Pos | Team | Played | Won | Lost | Win % |
| 1 | Kiwi Team Racing | 10 | 9 | 1 | 90% |
| 2 | Ship Happens | 10 | 8 | 2 | 80% |
| 3 | Thievery | 10 | 7 | 3 | 70% |
| 4 | Windy Wellington | 10 | 4 | 6 | 40% |
| 5 | Wide A-Wake | 10 | 2 | 8 | 20% |
| 6 | Tangled | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0% |
The third-to-sixth placed teams from the round robin met in the playoff round, racing best-of-three, to decide who would join Kiwi Team Racing and Ship Happens in the semi-finals. Both Windy Wellington & Thievery progressed in their respective rounds 2-0 in the refilled northerly conditions.
| Thievery | 2 – 0 | Tangled |
| Windy Wellington | 2 – 0 | Wide A-Wake |
The semi-finals were close throughout. Ship Happens overturned an opening loss to Thievery, taking the next two to progress, while Kiwi Team Racing were untroubled in a clean sweep of Windy Wellington.
| Thievery | 1 – 2 | Ship Happens |
| Kiwi Team Racing | 2 – 0 | TBC |
Kiwi Team Racing met Ship Happens in the final on Saturday afternoon. Kiwi Team Racing took the opening race, but with the unexpected northerly continuing to fade through the afternoon the wind dropped out completely before a second race could be completed. With no breeze to sail in, racing was abandoned for the day and Kiwi Team Racing were confirmed as worthy champions.
| Kiwi Team Racing | 1 – 0* | Ship Happens |
*Grand final called after one race when the wind died; Kiwi Team Racing confirmed as champions.
Final Standings
| 1st | Kiwi Team Racing |
| 2nd | Ship Happens |
| 3rd | Thievery |
| 4th | Windy Wellington |
| 5th | Wide A-Wake |
| 6th | Tangled |
A huge thank you is due to the Race Committee of Paul & Martin, the Finish Officer Team of Ann Hatch & Pauline Sutherland & the Umpire Team of: Rob, David, Jamie, Sam, Mark, Bernie, Blair & Craig. The support of the NZ Open Team Racing Association headed up by Craig White is also super important in making this event happen. Congratulations to the Kiwi Team Racing Team for claiming back their title – Reuben Corbett, Mason Mulcahy, Lucas Day, Zara Scott, Maeve White & Rye Brady.
Event portal with results here!
