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regatta as ‘a bit of an unnerving week with all the uncertainty’, Steven said: ‘Every day we didn’t know what was going to happen by the end of the day. It was a massive relief at the end. ‘We are stoked. It was a pretty special moment. We were still
buzzing off it for sure. It’s a bit different, a bit weird, but finishing racing we were really happy.’ Even as the regatta progressed Sydney was progressively shutting
down until the racing on the harbour was ‘pretty much the only thing running’, according to Steven. Unusually, the course was clear of the customary crowd of
spectator boats, although the Sydney ferries continued to plough their way through the fleet, bossily asserting their right of way. If one of the competing skiffs provoked as much as a toot from a ferry, it faced instant disqualification – motivation enough to slam on the brakes and keep a wide berth. Three titles in succession would seem sufficient reason to shift
the venue for next year’s regatta to Auckland – with the added incen- tive of the America’s Cup to sweeten the deal. In earlier times the venue did move around, but there is strong resistance from the Australians to give up home advantage in Sydney, although some discussions are taking place. The champions returned home to a New Zealand that is very
different from the one they left two weeks before, with the govern- ment imposing a strict universal lockdown that will continue for at least a month. Just a day before the lockdown announcement high- performance racing continued to be the theme as the foiling Moths staged their national championships at Algies Bay, a picturesque location an hour north of Auckland. Twenty-two moths turned out in light to moderate conditions. As
with the Sydney event, the Moth Nationals were eerily devoid of spectator boats. Typically on a sunny late-summer Sunday these waters would be buzzing with boats, but there was barely any action apart from the racing. The shadow of the pandemic was obvious on the beach as well,
as competitors and supporters maintained the requisite social distancing and greeted each other with elbow bumps. Graeme Sutherland, who emerged as national champion, said afterwards, ‘We were pretty socially aware of what we needed to do. We looked
22 SEAHORSE
at cancelling, but also looked at the fact we are a singlehanded class and did all our briefings and notices through the WhatsApp group. Everyone was quite stand-offish and kept their distance onshore. ‘I think everyone was quite relieved to get out on the water and
do their own thing. There wasn’t too much hindrance to what we were doing. Everyone just got on with their job.’ In the small flotilla of support RIBs Sir Russell Coutts and Leslie
Egnot were among those watching over their respective offspring. Coutts and Egnot of course hold high positions in the pantheon of New Zealand sailing achievements, both having earned Olympic medals and helmed America’s Cup yachts. Yet, in this environment, it was all about the next generation. Clearly, whether by nurture or nature, the talent genes in both cases are strong. Matthias Coutts, at just 14 years old, put together an outstanding
series to finish third in the open championship, just a single point behind Olympic Laser sailor Sam Meech. Nick Egnot-Johnson finished in the top 10 and is carving out a strong career on the world match race circuit. While these championships squeaked in just before the
clampdown, on a wider scale sport everywhere was grinding to a halt. Coutts said that, with the SailGP programme stalled, the fleet of foiling catamarans had been diverted back to New Zealand where they will remain, undergoing maintenance and repairs until normal service resumes. The cancellation of the America’s Cup World Series regattas in
Cagliari and Portsmouth left Emirates Team New Zealand’s AC75 yacht circling the globe. When the Sardinia regatta’s fate was finally sealed the ETNZ yacht was aboard ship in the Arabian Sea, heading towards Europe. The subsequent inevitable cancellation of the English series meant having to make arrangements to get their boat back again – an exercise that will prove very costly both financially and in lost time. The current shutdown for a month at least also means construction of the team’s second boat is on hold – which will further compress testing and development times, once it does get finished. While Olympic chief Thomas Bach repeatedly insisted that the Tokyo Olympics would proceed as scheduled, the world athletes
FRANK QUEALEY
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