Team NZ’s monohull magic
Team New Zealand have shown their versatility in monohulls by winning the China Cup from a large international fleet.
A strong final day in Shenzhen saw Emirates Team New Zealand take the title sailed in the Beneteau 40.7 one-design boats.
America’s Cup winners Josh Junior and Andy Maloney were part of the crew, having helped Team New Zealand win back the Auld Mug in foiling catamarans in Bermuda in June.
With the next America’s Cup moving away from multihulls, getting experience in large, fast monohulls will be vital to Kiwi hopes of retaining yachting’s biggest trophy.
A third and first in the final two races on the last day saw the Kiwis overhaul China’s Vanhang Longcheer and win the elusive trophy with hot competition from My Side from South Africa and Team Hollywood from Australia.
‘‘It’s taken us three years to do it, but we’ve finally won the event,’’ Junior, who was on the helm with Maloney on the mainsheet, said as they ended Vanhang Longcheer’s four-year reign.
‘‘We knew that if we sailed well we could win it today. We’ve been making a few mistakes around the race course this week but today we kept improving like we have all regatta. We got a couple of great starts and sailed really well.’’
The regatta also featured the finals of the world match racing tour with Australia’s Torvar Mirsky causing an upset by beating the event favourite and defending champion Phil Robertson from New Zealand. Mirsky won the final 3-1 sailed in the M32 catamarans.
‘‘We were out-sailed, it’s a oneevent world championships and Torvar did a fantastic job today,’’ Robertson said.