Events Clothing sponsors five new yacht racing teams

Five new yacht racing teams from New Zealand have gained a technical edge and enhanced team profiles with sponsorship from marine apparel specialist, Events Clothing.

Wearing uniforms in specially-developed fabrics, Waka Racing, KiwiMatch, Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) Racing and 36 Below are competing in various world match racing regattas.

Owen Rutter, managing director of Events Clothing, says top quality sportswear allows athletes to perform at their absolute best.

“We rigorously develop and test the fabrics to ensure they move freely with the sailors and keep moisture away from their bodies,” he says. “When crew are comfortable, they can concentrate one hundred per cent on winning.”

Rutter, who is also chairman of New Zealand Marine Export Group, says that when athletes are representing their country, their uniforms should exude confidence.

“Looking good when you win means more photos, more media coverage and more return for sponsors.”

Waka Racing and KiwiMatch are among only nine teams internationally to have qualified for a world match racing tour card. They are competing in the 2012 Alpari World Match Racing Tour (MWRT) which began with the German Match Cup at the end of May and takes teams to Korea, Sweden, USA, Switzerland, France, Bermuda and Malaysia.

Waka Racing, headed by Kiwi skipper Phil Robertson, have been racing the AC45, Extreme 40 and M2 classes with the Chinese America’s Cup team, as well as the WMRT.

KiwiMatch is led by helmsman New Zealander Laurie Jury who was 2009 Telecom New Zealand national match racing champion and skippered KiwiMatch to win the 2010 Mumbai International Match Race. Like Waka Racing, the crew from KiwiMatch contests many other top class events around the world, taking first place in the 2011 Nations Cup Grand Final, USA Grand Slam, Knickerbocker Cup, Oakcliff Match Race and the Qatar Match Race.

Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) Racing is determined to gain accreditation to the tour to join their fellow Kiwis and the crew headed by Will Tiller, currently has a ranking of 15th in world match racing.

The members of these teams are graduates of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Youth Training Programme which produced the BlackMatch team, the 2009 world match racing champions, and previous New Zealand champions Russell Coutts, Chris Dickson, Dean Barker and Adam Minoprio.

36 Below Racing is a new team is skippered by Chris Steele.

Also cutting a coordinated dash on the water is TeamVodafone Sailing, the fastest sailboat in New Zealand. At 18m (60 ft) long and 18m wide, the bright-red trimaran can sustain speeds of 40 knots – more than 74 kilometres an hour. It has just set a new record for fastest multihull in the Auckland to Noumea Race.

Events Clothing has supplied smart, technically superior uniforms, ready-to-wear and custom-made, to superyacht crews for nearly 20 years; and now skippers and crews can select gear direct from a new showroom in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Events Clothing recently opened its first European showroom in partnership with Evolution Yacht Agents at Avd. Garbriel Roca, 46 (Paseo Maritimo), Palma, just across from the Club de Mar complex on the waterfront.