Knight Frank joins the NZ 18ft skiff fleet

by Auckland Sailing Club on 26 Feb 2014
Knight Frank has joined the New Zealand 18ft skiff fleet with the official launch of the team’s brand new boat.

This marks the start of an exciting relationship between the Auckland Sailing Club and Knight Frank which sees another boat added to the Auckland based 18ft skiff fleet. Knight Frank 18ft Skiff Racing is crewed by Riley Dean (helm), Matt Coutts, (sheethand) and John Little (bowman).

Knight Frank is the world's leading independent commercial & residential real estate consultancy. Knight Frank New Zealand has built its foundations in Christchurch over recent years and has now expanded to Auckland. Knight Frank is not new to backing sailing teams or events here in New Zealand with sponsorship of Craig Edward’s Y88 Flying Machine based in Lyttleton and title sponsorship of the Knight Frank Young 88 South Island Championships.

Auckland Sailing Club President Graham Catley hails the addition of Knight Frank to the club and fleet. ‘With another strong sponsor onboard in Knight Frank and with the addition of their brand new boat, the New Zealand fleet has taken another step forward and towards our ultimate competitiveness with the Australians across the board’.

Since late September the campaign has been in full swing with the new boat getting fitted out after arriving as a bare carbon fibre hull. The boat was faired and painted by the sailing team at Core Boatbuilders Composites in Warkworth. World class hardware and braid from Harken and Fineline Marine has been utilised for all the running systems. The horse power comes from a full sail wardrobe from North Sails NZ and rigs by C-tech. Both the big and small rig configurations make use of a mainsail luff pocket which has been showing some early promise amongst the New Zealand fleet, although much development and testing is still to be completed. The team is also kitted out in Line7 Marine shore gear.

The sailing team sees a new combination with Matt Coutts joining Riley Dean and John Little who have sailed together for the past 2 years on the Line7 18ft Skiff. Since the boat first hit the water in late November the team has been busy getting the boat tuned and up to speed. So far the team has placed third in both the Stoke Beer Auckland Champs and the Stoke Beer International Invitational Regatta over New Years.

The team would also like to thank Graham and Anne Catley for their continued support.

Currently the boat is in Sydney with 3 other New Zealand teams competing in the JJ Giltinan starting this Saturday!