Zhik partners with the Live Ocean Racing's ETF26 Team competing on the 2022 Grand Prix circuit
by Liz Rushall 28 Apr 2022 16:39 NZST
28 April 2022
Zhik has partnered with Live Ocean Racing's ETF26 crew - the squad includes several of New Zealand's top sailors including Olympic medalists and World Champions. Most of the squad are campaigning forParis 2024 © Zhik
Zhik's new partnership with Live Ocean Racing supports their first campaign in the 2022 ETF26 Grand Prix in Europe.
This brand new initiative, spearheaded by New Zealand's America's Cup champions and Olympic medallists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, aims to create a platform for diverse and talented sailors to compete at the highest level. Skippered by Liv Mackay, this first campaign is focused on accelerating the pathway for female sailors into professional foiling events such as SailGP and the America's Cup.
Skipper Liv Mackay says, "Sailing is evolving rapidly, with new technology and innovative boat designs dominating professional sailing, Up until now the majority of women have spent their careers in single or double-handed dinghies with very limited opportunities to move beyond that into professional campaigns and foiling boats. The ETF26 Grand Prix offers opportunities for more time training and competing in foiling boats, and with the announcement of SailGP and America's Cup women's programmes, it's exciting to see more opportunities arise."
The announcement is a first for sailing in New Zealand, where Zhik have had a long-term relationship for over 12 years with the Olympic sailing team. The talented lineup of Kiwi women includes Jo Aleh, Molly Meech, Erica Dawson and Alex Maloney, all who have benefited from Zhik's support in their Olympic successes.
Piet Poelmann, Zhik's CEO comments, "Zhik is thrilled by this initiative to create more diversity in sailing, to inspire more sailors across the board and provide the opportunity to compete at the world class events. We are delighted to be extending our 2022 sponsorship programme to support Live Ocean Racing."
Peter Burling explains, "Zhik has been part of our sailing career for many years, and have always been dedicated to helping us achieve our best performance. It's awesome that Zhik will support the Live Ocean Racing team taking on the ETF26 campaign in these dynamic foiling catamarans."
Zhik's Sponsorship Manager, Johnny Rodgers, adds, "It's exciting times. The sailing scene is changing fast with the action driven by world class sailors, such as Pete and Blair, to encourage more opportunites for women in professional sailing and foiling. Zhik is developing a number of new ranges specifically for women, and this campaign will start with a fantastic platform for the team to put our new Eco Spandex and Performance Smock through its paces."
Looking ahead, Live Ocean Racing will take on a range of ambitious racing events in the future. The vision for Live Ocean Racing is to rethink what a professional sports team looks like. With purpose at the heart of the team, Live Ocean Racing will race for Aotearoa taking on challenges at the pinnacle of sport, while championing action for the ocean on the world stage.
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About Zhik:
Zhik is a dynamic Australian based apparel brand, at the forefront of innovation, pushing the boundaries in design and fabric technology for all sailors. Founded in 2003, Zhik's range of wetsuits and dinghy gear completely changed the design approach for performance clothing and have been rapidly adopted by sailors across the globe.
Since then Zhik has taken the same 'clean sheet' approach and is pushing strongly into the yachting apparel, from coastal cruising to extreme ocean range, and also into paddling and water sports.
Tested and proven, Zhik gear is the winning choice of numerous Olympic and World champions. Zhik is the official supplier to the Australian, New Zealand, Singapore and Danish Olympic teams, as well as many renowned, top level international sailors, America's Cup and Vendee teams.
Zhik are the Technical Clothing Partner for AkzoNobel Ocean Racing for The Ocean Race Europe 2021, the prelude to The Ocean Race 2022-23. Australian Skipper Chris Nicholson, who has participated in six editions of The Ocean Race said he was very excited to be working with Zhik again.
"The product innovations and new designs Zhik created for the last race were ground-breaking for the very wet Volvo Ocean 65 yachts."
"Just like competing at top international level you cannot stand still and having the latest clothing technology on board is all part of propelling our team to success."
Zhik technical clothing partnerships include:
- Official Supplier to the Australian Olympic Team 2021
- Official Apparel Partner to Australian Sailing and the Australian Sailing Team 2021-24
- Official Supplier to the Danish Olympic Team 2024
- Technical Clothing Partner for AkzoNobel Ocean Racing for The Ocean Race Europe 2021
- Official Technical Clothing Partner of IMOCA Paprec Arkéa Vendee Globe Challenge 2024
- Official Technical Clothing Supplier to Alex Thomson Racing for the 2020 Vendee Globe Campaign
- Team AkzoNobel and the winners, Dongfeng Race Team, in the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18