49er Pair Find Form At Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta

Isaac McHardie says he and William McKenzie have found their "groove" at the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta and it's easy to see why with the pair putting together an almost perfect run of results in the 49er fleet.

McHardie and McKenzie, who was celebrating his 25th birthday today, won the first eight races in the 49er before rounding out the day with a second and third.

Its an impressive score card, especially when you consider the second-placed team of Logan Dunning Beck and Oscar Gunn have finished in the top 10 at their last three world championships and last weekend claimed their fifth-straight 49er national title.

"William and I are locked into our own little groove," McHardie said. "The boat has felt incredibly fast and slippery around the course and tactically we've been pretty smart. We've managed to get our heads around the tricky conditions when some of the others have struggled."

McHardie and McKenzie are looking to make a step up towards the front of the fleet internationally - they were 11th at the 2019 49er world championships in Auckland - and will be intrigued to see how they stack up after two years in the international wilderness.

Their last major regatta was the world championships in Melbourne in February 2020 but will soon compete at various events in Spain, France, Germany and Denmark before their main event of the year, August's 49er world championships in Canada.

"We feel like we've matured a lot since Covid hit and worked a lot on our weak points," McHardie said. "We feel like we've made a pretty good jump and will be a lot more confident in tighter situations going into the European season."

A number of New Zealand sailors will be joining them, including Jo Aleh and Molly Meech who jumped into the lead in the 49erFX fleet today. The pair won two of today's four races sailed in light winds of 8-10 knots to establish an eight-point lead over another new combination, Alex Maloney and Olivia Hobbs.

World champion Tom Saunders continued his dominance of the ILCA 7 fleet and Josh Armit and Veerle ten Have continue to lead in the windfoiling.

Kitefoiling will make its debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics and there was a glimpse of the present and the future on the kitefoiling course today.

Lukas Walton-Kiem and Justina Kitchen both have their sights on competing in Paris and are in prime position to take out the respective open men's and women's titles at the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta but Hugo Wigglesworth has illustrated his potential by splitting the pair overall.

The 15-year-old, who has been kiteboarding since he was seven, won a race today and has finished second on all but one other race across the regatta.

"The regatta has been going pretty well," he said. "Yesterday the conditions were perfect for racing and I executed all the races without crashing. I seem to have good speed.

"I would love to go to the Olympics - maybe not Paris, but the one after that. I just have to keep practicing every time I can and go to lots of regattas to get some more experience."

His main goal this year will be July's youth sailing world championships in the Netherlands and there will be plenty of nervy racing tomorrow in most of the youth fleets with selection for the NZL Sailing Foundation Youth Team up for grabs.

The forecast is once again for light winds at the three race courses on Auckland's North Shore, which will only add to the tension.

Results and standings after day 3 of the Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta and windfoiling national championships today:

49erFX (9 boats)

1st: Jo Aleh / Molly Meech (Torbay Sailing Club / Royal Akarana Yacht Club) 3 3 3 2 2 3 1 1 6 - 19 points
2nd: Alex Maloney / Olivia Hobbs (Murrays Bay Sailing Club / RAYC) (6) 5 1 1 1 5 6 3 2 - 27 pts
3rd: Brayden Hamilton / Henry Haslett (MBSC / Wakatere Boating Club) 2 6 6 3 6 2 (9) 5 3 - 40 pts

49er (5 boats)

1st: Isaac McHardie / William McKenzie (RAYC) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 (3) - 10 pts
2nd: Logan Dunning Beck / Oscar Gunn (WBC / MBSC) 2 4 2 2 2 (6 OCS) 4 2 1 2 - 21 pts
3rd: Sam Bacon / Henry Gautrey (Worser Bay Boating Club / Muritai Yacht Club) (5) 2 4 3 3 2 3 4 3 5 - 29 pts

470 (6 boats)

1st: Paul Snow-Hansen / Rebecca Hume (WBC / MBSC) (7 UFD) 2 1 1 1 1 1 7 UFD 1 - 15 pts
2nd: Brittany Wornall / Sam Street (Naval Point Club Lyttelton / New Plymouth Yacht Club / MBSC) 1 1 (3) 3 2 3 2 1 2 - 15 pts
3rd: Gareth Moore / Megan Thomson (Nelson Yacht Club / Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron) 4 4 2 4 (5) 2 3 3 4 - 26 pts

420 (9 boats)

Boys

1st: Lucas Day / Sam Scott (MBSC) 3 1 2 2 1 (4) 2 2 3 - 16 pts
2nd: Cameron Brown / Alex Hebberd (WBC / MBSC) (10 UFD) 3 3 1 2 1 1 1 5 SCP - 17 pts
3rd: Joe Leith / Josh Ferrissey (MBSC) 2 2 1 3 (4) 3 4 3 1 - 19 pts

Girls

1st: Nicola Hume / Dani Wooldridge (MBSC / WBC) 1 4 4 4 3 2 (10 UFD) 5 4 - 27 pts
2nd: Vivien Webster Chung / Kiera Sinton (MBSC / WBC) 4 5 5 5 5 (6) 3 4 5 - 36 pts

ILCA 6 (27 boats)

Open women

1st: Olivia Christie (WBBC) 4 4 6 6 1 5 (9) 4 1 - 31 pts
2nd: Annabelle Rennie-Younger (RAYC) 2 2 1 5 (10) 6 4 6 8 - 44 pts
3rd: Greta Pilkington (RNZYS) 9 5 7 8 6 7 (28 BFD) 2 5 - 49 pts

Open men

1st: George Lane (Hamilton Yacht Club) 5 6 3 3 2 13 13 5 (14) - 50 pts

Male youth

1st: Caleb Armit (MBSC) 1 3 2 1 (4) 1 1 3 4 - 16 pts
2nd: Dylan Forsyth (RAYC) 3 1 4 2 3 2 1 (11) - 19 pts
3rd: Zach Stibbe (Otago Yacht Club) 6 7 (10) 9 4 7 10 10 - 60 pts

Female youth

1st: Teaghan Denney (Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club) 18 15 18 14 10 11 16 (22) - 121 pts
2nd: Anna Martin (NPCL) 16 19 16 18 19 14 13 (20) - 133 pts
3rd: Molly Webley (Manly Sailing Club) 17 18 17 17 20 16 18 (28 BFD) - 144 pts

ILCA 7 (7 entries)

1st: Tom Saunders (TYPBC) (2) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 8 pts
2nd: Thomas Mulcahy (MBSC) 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 2 (4) - 20 pts
3rd: Luke Cashmore (WBC) 4 3 (5) 2 3 2 4 4 5 - 27 pts

29er (18 boats)

Male youth

1st: George Lee Rush / Seb Menzies (WBC / MBSC) (2) 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 9 pts
2nd: Kosta Gladiadis / Mattias Coutts (MSC) 1 1 3 3 (9) 2 6 5 2 - 23 pts
3rd: Valentine Kayrouz / Ben Brighouse (MBSC) 4 4 2 5 (10 SCP) 4 2 4 4 - 29 pts

Female youth

1st: Lucy Leith / Lizzie Shapland (MBSC) 3 3 (5) 2 3 3 3 2 5 - 24 pts
2nd: Naiomi Ferrissey / Mia Barker (MBSC) 8 6 (19 UFD) 11 8 6 10 7 13 - 69 pts
3rd: Jess Redpath / Kayla Abbott (MBSC) 12 13 12 14 (15) 14 12 12 11 - 100 pts

Windfoiling

Gold fleet (17 boards)

1st: Josh Armit (TBC) (2) 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 - 8 pts
2nd: Thomas Crook (WBC) 1 1 2 2 (4) 2 3 5 - 16 pts
3rd: Eli Liefting (RAYC) 3 6 3 (18 UFD) 2 3 2 3 - 22 pts

Women

1st: Veerle ten Have (TYPBC) 4 3 6 5 7 (10) 10 8 - 43 pts
2nd: Brianna Orams 10 10 9 8 (12) 11 13 13 - 73 pts

Male youth

1st: Jack Parr (1) 1 1 1 1 1 - 5 pts
2nd: Charles Solly 3 4 2 (6) 3 3 - 15 pts

Female youth

1st: Aimee Bright 2 (6) 4 2 6 2 - 16 pts
2nd: Megan Hume 18 (20 DNF) 15 12 9 11 12 - 59 pts

Kitefoiling (5 boards)

1st: Lukas Walton-Keim (open - Takapuna Boating Club) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (6 DNC) 1 - 9 pts
2nd: Hugo Wigglesworth (youth - MSC) 2 2 2 2 (3) 2 2 2 1 2 - 17 pts
3rd: Justina Kitchen (women - TBC) 3 (6 DNC) 3 3 2 3 3 3 2 3 - 25 pts

Full results

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