40 Breeze Magazine race they did, notching up two wins and two second place finishes to pounce to the top of the standings and secure a seventh title by a slender one-point margin. For Henshaw, that made it four second place finishes in a row as she and her crew couldn’t quite do enough to hold off the storming Dixon. They will no doubt be back again in 2022 for another go. Megan Thomson and her much younger team managed to stay near the front of the fleet throughout the final day, earning a well-deserved place on the podium. “It was a pretty sweet victory,” Dixon said. “Last year was super-windy and it was nice to do it back-to-back in completely different conditions. For anyone who thought we won last year just because it was windy, we showed that we could do it in the light as well, so it was really nice.” Next up in the national championship stakes was another long-standing event, the Harken National Secondary Schools Keelboat Championship sailed in the Elliott 7’s on the following weekend (7th – 9th May), under the watchful eye of Brian Trubovich and his Race Management team. This year saw 18 young crews converge on the RNZYS from right around the country, including from as far north as Keri Keri High School and as far south as the South Island Combined Team. The fleet was split into two qualifying pools, with one racing on Friday and one on Saturday. The top half of each pool then qualified for Gold Fleet racing on Sunday, and the rest moved into the Silver Fleet. With plenty of close racing on Sunday, the Gold Fleet morphed into the now-dubbed ‘Battle of Westlake’, with two Westlake Boys High School teams, led by Brayden Hamilton and Josh Hyde, duking it out for the title. Heading into the fourth and final race, either of them just needed to beat the other over the finish line to claim regatta honours. With the best breeze of the day the stage was set for a Titanic battle between fellow school mates. Hamilton and his crew set off like a bat out of hell off the start, picking the shifts and staying in front of the fleet for the first few legs. Finding form in the clutch time, they built a huge lead and sailed away with the regatta, leaving their school counterparts, and the rest of the fleet, in their wake. As the results were so tight, Hamilton and his team didn’t actually know they had won
Above: The Harken National Secondary Schools Keelboard Championships were won by Brayden Hamilton and his Westlake Boys High crew. when they crossed the line. However, seconds later the news came in that they had in fact won on countback, instigating huge cheers and celebrations on board. Speaking on the dock, Hamilton was thrilled to get the win. “We were so stoked when we found out we had won! It was a great competition out there and to come down to countback in the final race shows how close the racing was. A big thanks to my team, our school, and to the RNZYS for putting on a fun regatta.” After two such epic national championships,
the Theland NZ Open National Keelboat Championship didn’t disappoint on 15th & 16th May. Like the women’s event, the racing was in the MRXs, and this time 11 keen teams were chasing glory. Nick Egnot-Johnson and his Knots Racing team of Graeme Sutherland, Zak Merton, Alastair Gifford, Sam Barnett, and Bradley McLaughlin were the leaders after sailing five exceptional races on day one, claiming four wins and one third place finish. The Knots Racing team came into the final day with a fivepoint lead over Chris Steele and his Theland
