Knots Racing unbeatable at 2019 Theland NZ Open Keelboat Nationals
by Andrew Delves – RNZYS PR & Communications Manager 28 Apr 2019 19:21 PDT
29 April 2019
Theland NZ Open Keelboat National Championships - April 2019 © Andrew Delves
Nick Egnot-Johnson and his RNZYS Performance Programme Knots Racing team have been crowned the champions of the 2019 Theland New Zealand Open Keelboat National Championships at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Knots racing were unbeatable throughout the entire two day regatta, winning eight out of eight races to finish with a perfect record.
Racing was sailed in fairly light conditions on Saturday, but with large windward leeward courses set by the Race Management team it meant for some nice long races that involved plenty of lead changes and kept it interesting for the fleet. Sunday saw a bit more breeze and plenty of squally rain showers which made it a bit more difficult for the fleet who had to deal with limited visibility and a shifty winds.
However no matter what the weather was doing Egnot-Johnson and his team were all class, and even though they fell behind a few times they always managed to get themselves back ahead and win the race.
The team have just returned from a match racing focused trip to America, including the Congressional Cup in California where they finished in a very respectable fifth place overall.
Egnot-Johnson enjoyed the weekends racing and was pretty happy to come away with such a decisive victory - “It’s great to come back home and get back out on the water straight away. We did a lot of match racing training in the MRX’s before we went to the US so as a team we know the boat well, and it was a nice challenge doing some fleet racing.”
“We really enjoyed the regatta, there was some great racing out there. It’s pretty cool to come away with eight wins from eight races. I’m really proud of the boys and how well we sailed this weekend in some ever changing conditions. Thank you to the RNZYS for putting the event on and to the sponsor Theland for fuelling us up all weekend!”
The final results included Matt Bouzaid’s RNZYS team finishing in second place, past Women’s Keelboat National Champion Melinda Henshaw in third, AJ Reid and his Anarchy Racing Team finishing fourth, and Mark Forsyth from the Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club in fifth.