The 2025 NZL Open Team Racing National Championships wrapped up in thrilling fashion with a new team taking home the Open Team Racing National Championship Title on Sunday as the team of Ship Happens (Beau Utting & Sasha White, Blake McKinnon & Hugh Webber, Sam Clarke & James Davies) emerged victorious from the knockout series after three days of tight racing hosted by Royal Akarana Yacht Club.
Friday opened the regatta under light winds, demanding patience and tactical precision from all crews. Saturday brought a delayed start due to lack of breeze, but with improved afternoon conditions, teams completed the 2nd round robin series. By Sunday, the weather turned on a true spectacle — strong winds set the stage for a high stakes knockout series involving all 9 teams that saw lots of races contested right through to the finish line with shifty & punchy conditions.
Throughout the round robins, Kiwi Team Racing (Reuben Corbett, Matt Bindon, Dylan Wichman, Maeve White, Poppy Hoskin, Natasha Sheldon) emerged dominant, finishing with 15 wins from 16 races and claiming the top round robin spot. RNZYS also performed strongly, taking 12 wins to rank second. Ship Happens, ranked third after the round robins with 11 wins, found their form in the 2nd round robin taking 7 wins from 8 and took that form into the finals when it mattered most. Fourth-ranked Thievery, despite a modest round robin taking 9 from 16 races, proved themselves a serious knockout contender.
The knockout series brought some of the tightest and most dramatic racing of the event. In the early stages Tangled knocked out Hike Her Up 2-0 in the 8th/9th play-off to earn a spot in the 5th-8th repechage. The Wanakans in turn knocked them out 2-0 in that series with the YTP team knocking out Win or Lose We Booze to leave them in 7th & 8th places respectively – with Wanakans & YTP progressing to the 3rd-6th repechage.
Both sides of the next stage were super tight – YTP took the lead against Thievery taking the first race with a comfortable 1,2,3 win. Thievery then fought back to take the series 2-1 to move into the semi-finals. Ship Happens took the first race against Wanakans, but they fought the series back to 1-1 to have a sudden death race which Ship Happens took out with a solid 1,2,4 win.
In the semi-finals, Kiwi Team Racing elected to race Ship Happens and we saw some of the most hotly contested finishes of the whole regatta – with a penalty on the finish line being the deciding vote that gave Ship Happens a 2-1 win in the series to head to the final – an upset that set the tone for the rest of the day. In building breeze Thievery managed to edge past RNZYS in two very tight races to book their spot in the final 2-0.
The grand final was a fiercely fought best-of-five series between Ship Happens and Thievery. Despite Thievery’s momentum, it was Ship Happens who rose to the occasion. Despite Thievery taking the first race with a 1,4,5 win; strong teamwork, clean boat handling, and sharp tactical decisions saw them claim the series 3-1, securing the national title in style with a race to spare.
The win marked a big moment — the youngest team ever to win the Open Team Racing Nationals and only the third team to win the title in the competition history. Huge congratulations to all six of the sailors in the winning team for a well-deserved victory, as they crossed the finish line to take the series huge cheer erupted from the deck in front of the Akarana Eatery as the other teams and unsuspecting patrons found themselves cheering them on.
Meanwhile, Kiwi Team Racing secured third place by defeating RNZYS 2-0 in the petit final, adding to their consistent round robin success. Wanakans rounded out the top five after a strong showing in the early knockout rounds.
RAYC is incredibly proud of Beau, who grew up learning to sail & race out of Royal Akarana Yacht Club and combined with other top sailors to take the title. Himself combined with Sasha & James are also a big part of RAYC’s team racing training program, underscoring the club’s commitment to developing & supporting top-level youth sailors across yachting disciplines.
Behind the scenes, the success of the regatta was made possible by an incredible team of volunteers, race officials, umpires, and support staff. From setting courses in shifty breeze to making complex rules calls & fixing on-water breakages, their dedication ensured fair, safe, and professional racing across all three days. A big thank you to the race officials’ team of Paul Wotton, Martin Keenan, Ann Hatch & Pauline Sutherland as well as the umpire team ably led up by Rob Herries, consisting of Jamie Sutherland, Mark Hatch, Roger Purdy, Blair Park, Sam Kee, Peter Kee, Bernie Goodhart & Craig White. The club is also thankful for the support of the regatta by the NZ Open Team Racing Association. Special thank you as well to Paige Langford for volunteering to do photos for the regatta on Day 1 & 2 and Justin Mitchell for capturing the final day of racing in spectacular fashion.
We look forward to welcoming all the teams & hopefully some more back in 2026 for the next edition of the regatta also to be hosted by Royal Akarana.
| Place | Team Name | Team Members |
| 1st | Ship Happens | Beau Utting, Blake McKinnon, Sam Clarke, Sasha White, Hugh Webber & James Davies |
| 2nd | Thievery | Josh Edmonds, Jamie Catchpole, Harrison Carver, Becca Fleet, Craig Keenan & Anja White |
| 3rd | Kiwi Team Racing | Reuben Corbett, Dylan Wichman, Matt Bindon, Natasha Sheldon, Maeve White, Poppy Hoskin |
| 4th | RNZYS | Jordan Stevenson, George Angus, Mason Mulcahy, Lewis Snape, Zara Scott, Finloe Gaites |
| 5th | Wanakans | Lily Grimshaw, Otis Murphy, Thomas Jurczyluk, Oli Wyeth, Dan Russell, Kate Russell |
| 6th | YTP | Zak Merton, Robbie Wooldridge, Charley Cates, Cullen Russell, Julia Nguyen, Charlotte Handley |
| 7th | Win or Lose We Booze | Ella Arnold, Tony Fitzgerald, Sophia Morgan, Bec Morgan, Matt Metson, Emily Davidson |
| 8th | Tangled | Holly Patterson, Api Baker, Tessa Hayward, Cara Guerin, Ellie Petty, Aria Young |
| 9th | Hike Her Up | Kate Howse, Elbe White, Emma Carran, Florence Sharpe, Mielene Scheutze, Lola Hamilton |
