North Sails Dominates Gold Cup Series Results

The Gold Cup series is an annual event on the Auckland racing calendar. It is a combined collaboration between the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, Richmond Yacht Club, and Buckland’s Beach Yacht Club.

Five races are held over the summer racing season, with four of those races counting towards the overall result.

With races between 44nm and 89nm in length, the series provides an opportunity for all yachts to stretch their legs throughout a variety of courses, offering many twists and turns along the way.

North Sails powered yachts dominated the PHRF results, with Sassinate taking out the series. Owned and skippered by Mikayla Plaw, Sassinate won four of the five races, with their drop being a DNS in race four.Sassinate, a Melges 40, runs a full North Sails inventory, with Auckland-based North Sails experts Andrew Wills and Ben Costello as members of the core crew.

"The great thing about working with North Sails is that they are willing to collaborate with the onboard trimmer to ensure a perfect fit. If we ever need to make adjustments to maximise sail shape to the way we have tuned the rig, North experts are there to assist,” said Plaw.

"Having the North crew on board has been awesome to maintain and make improvements to the sails. We have tuned our inventory to work better with the New Zealand conditions and the sort of racing we do here, which is more reaching and less windward/leeward racing!”

Andrew Wills, who proudly wears the Sassinate North Sails apparel crew gear, is proud to support the local yachting community.

"It is great to support so many local yachts dominating quintessential Kiwi yacht racing, such as the Gold Cup. We power so many top international grand prix programs, and these local results are really heartening and mean a lot to all of us here at North Sails NZ. It's great to get out on board and give some of our local customers a hand and have some fun racing with them,” said Wills.

Sassinate boat captain Scott Beavis went on to say, “Having good sails have been helpful in helping Mikayla (Plaw) learn the nuances of driving a boat. With 3Di the sail stays in shape and don’t distort which can disrupt the balance of the boat. Having the right sail made the Melges 40 easier to stay in the groove. Our jibs are Helix so the shape stays where it was designed to be. Norths were open to adopt our ideas and create the right sail for what we were trying to do. We weren’t afraid to start again with the rig tune and try and simplify the rig setup.”

The Farr 36OD Kaizen, owned by Simon Manning and Andy Robertson, with Manning at the helm, was second overall on PHRF. With a North Sails main, J1, A2, A3, and A5, the team won Race 4, which Sassinate missed.

There’s hardly a series that Kaizen misses, with the co-owners keen as mustard to get on as many start lines as possible. The Gold Cup Series is an event in which Manning himself is an integral part of the organising team through his role on the RAYC Offshore Racing Committee.

Talking about the Farr 36OD, Manning was quick to say, “The boat is very basic. It’s definitely not a cruiser!”

“We bought her to race, so that’s what we do. The Gold Cup brings clubs and boats together that we don’t see too often which is really enjoyable. And we get to race around lots of islands which is pretty cool. We do as many races as possible, and we have a great team on board, many of whom raced with us on our previous boats,” said Manning.

“We renamed the boat Kaizen, which translates to ‘change for good’ and has always been our approach to sailing. One example is the recent addition of a North Sails inshore main and J1, which saved something like 30kg over our coastal sails. We are learning some new techniques, such as more frequent adjustments to jib halyard tension, that really work to optimise these new sails. It’s changed how we sail the boat, and we think we’re quicker for it,” continued Manning.

Sassinate is a strong competitor for Kaizen, and the two have gone head-to-head on multiple occasions. Manning went on to say, “Congratulations to Sassinate on a dominant performance - they deserved the win.”

Third overall on PHRF was the Ker40 Carrera. Owned and skippered by John Meadowcroft, the Carrera crew includes North Sails team member Magnus Doole. Carrera added to their existing sail wardrobe by introducing a North Sails main, J2, A2, A1.5 and GS.

"When I decided to get a new set of sails, I scoped the market but ultimately decided to go with North Sails. I believe they provide an edge in performance and are unique with their technology of light yet hardy sail. Having Magnus (Doole) on board also helps with our performance!” said Meadowcroft.

“One of North Sails' points of difference is their edge in technology with the single piece of 3Di. In my opinion, this put them ahead,” continued Meadowcroft.

Brian Petersen’s TP52 V5 is a regular across all race courses in Auckland and was the biggest boat to race in the fleet of 24 keelboats that made at least one of the five-race start lines. V5 was fourth overall on PHRF and took out Line Honours across the series results.

Petersen intends on racing in the upcoming Helly Hansen Three Kings Race (~500nm), hosted by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, and the Auckland Noumea Yacht Race (~1000nm), organised by the Royal Akarana Yacht Club, also took out the Ran Tan II Memorial Blue Water Championship. This trophy was donated to RAYC by Petersen in memory of his Elliott 50 Ran Tan II, which lost its keel en route to California for the Transpac Race back in June 2019 and was abandoned, never to be seen again.

"I’ve been racing in the local Auckland scene for 40 years now and always keep coming back for more. It’s a disease, I think! The races on offer provide a bit of everything, that’s why we are keen to get on as many start lines as possible,” said Petersen. “We are so fortunate in Auckland and New Zealand to have such a beautiful and varied playground to sail in – so many interesting islands, headlands and bays to check out!”

“North Sails has been my sail maker of choice since about 1986 when I purchased a spinnaker for Dictator through Simon Daubney. A well-used sail in the Auckland to Fukuoka Race and many others. North Sails has returned the favour by nearly always having someone on board who knows a lot more about yachts and sail trim than I do! Bicky (Richard Bicknell) has been part of the Maverick 2, Ran Tan II and V5 crews for 20-plus years. He definitely helps with our configuration and set-up. He’s also pretty handy on the helm and great company!” continued Petersen.

V5 is a staunch North Sails supporter, rocking a full inventory of sails. North Sails General Manager Richard Bicknell is a frequent crew member on V5 and is often seen at the helm of the 52-footer. There’s hardly a race this crew misses!

The Sunfast 3300 Indis, owned and skippered by Andy Benton, took out the two-handed division overall on PHRF. The production boat runs a full North Sails wardrobe. It is regularly seen on various startlines, including the day races across various clubs throughout Auckland, including the Richmond Yacht Club Solo Series, and the Shorthanded Sailing Association of New Zealand two-handed races. Indis has entered the RNZYS Three Kings Race in the two-handed division.

“Willzy (Andrew WIlls) has been really good to me over the years setting up the sail inventory for the New Zealand conditions. Once I worked out how to get the boat going, with his guidance on sail selection, I definitely feel that the boat has improved from where we were a year ago,” said Benton.

North Sails actively supports sailing in New Zealand, sponsoring a number of events from grassroots through to high-performance racing. In addition, North Sails is now the exclusive sail supplier of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and is also a sponsor of Boat 9 in the brand-new fleet of Emirates Team New Zealand Elliott 7s, which were launched at RNZYS on February 27th.

2023 / 2024 Gold Cup Series PHRF Results

1. Sassinate - Melges 40 (Mikayla Plaw)

2. Kaizen - Farr 36OD (Simon Manning / Andy Robertson)

3. Carerra - Ker 40 (John Meadowcroft)

4. V5 - TP52 (Brian Petersen)

5. Indis - Sunfast 3300 (Andy Benton)

Full Results

By Suellen Hurling