Menzies and Lee Rush lead a memorable night at the 2026 Yachting Excellence Awards

The youngest 49er world champions in history went home from Ōkahu Bay with three trophies and Rebecca Gmuer-Hornell was named Female Sailor of the Year, on a night that also belonged to the sport’s young sailors and the volunteers behind them.

Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush went home from Royal Akarana Yacht Club on Friday night with three trophies from the 2026 Yachting Excellence Awards, among them the Sir Bernard Fergusson Trophy, New Zealand sailing’s top prize since 1963.

The 49er pair were named Orbit World Travel Sailor of the Year, and also collected the Barfoot & Thompson Male Sailor of the Year award and a Radix Nutrition Performance Award.

Menzies and Lee Rush’s world title came down to the final run of the final race in Quiberon, France. They had fought back to fifth at the top mark, then slipped to ninth by the last turn, with German, Dutch and Austrian crews all in a position to win. Rather than follow the fleet, they gybe-set away at the mark, found new breeze and carried it to the finish in fifth, enough for the title.

“That final gybe set away from the fleet made the difference,” Lee Rush said afterwards.

At 21, they became the youngest 49er world champions in the class’s history and New Zealand’s first Olympic-class world champions since 2021. They went on to defend their European title in Germany, and are finalists for Team of the Year at the World Sailing Awards.

“There’s a crazy list of people on this trophy,” Lee Rush said on Friday. “Sailors across many decades, that Seb and I have both looked up to, have won this award. So it’s an absolute honour.”

Lee Rush also thanked their coaches, among them Andrew Brown, who has worked with the pair since their youth campaigns and was named a B&G Performance Coach of the Year on the night.

Around the world without stopping

Bay of Islands sailor Rebecca Gmuer-Hornell, of Opua Cruising Club, was named Barfoot & Thompson Female Sailor of the Year. She learned to sail with her father and now works internationally as both an offshore sailor and a rigger.

This year she was part of the first all-female crew to sail non-stop around the world. The multinational crew aboard IDEC SPORT crossed the Jules Verne Trophy line off Ushant after 57 days, 21 hours and 20 minutes, coming through heavy Southern Ocean weather, gear failures and significant damage to the boat. It wasn’t an outright round-the-world record, but it was more than 16 days quicker than the benchmark Sir Peter Blake set in 1994.

“It’s a massive honour to be here tonight,” she said, thanking her family first and Yachting New Zealand next.

Four decades of race management and service

John and Linda Parrish of Gulf Harbour Yacht Club received the Peter Lester Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sailing, supported by Lawson’s Dry Hills. In more than 40 years of race management they have officiated at upwards of 120 national regattas, six Olympic Games and more than 30 world championships, and since 2003 they have run 79 training courses for race officers.

John finished with a plea to the younger sailors in the room. “We need you in race management,” he said, adding that there are rewards “from just doing something you love doing.”

Designer Alan Wright, still working on new projects and sailing in his 90s, took the Kiwi Yachting & Baltic Lifejackets Cruising Award and admitted he hadn’t seen it coming. Looking down the ramp outside, he remembered launching his first race yacht there, a Z-class, in 1947. “That was 79 years ago,” he said.

Chris Bouzaid, who won the One Ton Cup in 1969, sent a video from Maine after an unbeaten season of classic yacht racing aboard Bijou II. He still races most summer weekends, he said, and plans to be in Auckland next year to sail his father’s old boat, the 1898 Rainbow.

The service awards recognised the people who spend their evenings and weekends keeping clubs and regattas running. Whangārei Cruising Club’s Alan Barker, known as ‘Womble’, puts in around 30 hours a week. Tash Brasell of Lake Taupo Yacht Club manages two school teams and will run the national event in Taupō next year. Torbay’s Jonathan Olds has spent more than 30 years repairing boats at regattas around the country so sailors can get back out on the water.

Interim chair Jason Shoebridge used his welcome to thank outgoing chair Greg Knowles, a two-time Olympian who spent a decade on the Yachting New Zealand board. Chief executive Steve Armitage then spoke plainly about the pressures on the sport. Kiwi campaigns start with boats shipped halfway round the world before a race is sailed, he said, and costs are climbing for clubs, families and sponsors.

He saved his warmest thanks for parents, for the 5am alarms and the rigging in the dark and the rain. “Results open doors,” he said, “but character is what people remember when you walk through them.”

The next generation takes the stage

Zofia Wells of Glendowie Boating Club won the Tanner Cup in the P class, only the third girl to do so in more than 80 years, then became the first girl to win the overall Optimist national title.

The New Zealand 29er squad won the Nations Cup at the world championship in Kiel, Germany, finishing as the top nation from close to 300 entries. Bella Jenkins and Jess Handley took the under-19 female world title there, along with silver among female crews overall, and were named NZL Sailing Foundation Young Female Sailor of the Year. Nelsen Meacham and Oli Stone, seven months into their partnership, finished fourth.

Stone had already medalled in another boat. He and Cam Brown came from seventh to third on the final day of the 2025 Youth Sailing World Championships in Portugal, with three second places, to take bronze in the boys’ 420. Tessa Clinton and Amelia Higson won bronze in the girls’ 420 at the same regatta, and Toby Wigglesworth took silver in the boys’ kitefoil. Wigglesworth, 16 at the time, was named NZL Sailing Foundation Young Male Sailor of the Year.

A large group of young sailors filled the stage for the youth awards, and several of the service winners were being thanked for the work that gets them there: running school teams, coaching learn-to-sail and fixing boats on regatta beaches.

Aurora Edhouse, who came to the sport from a non-sailing family, shared the PredictWind Emerging Talent Award with Nathan Soper. Paige Mia Langford won the MAST Academy Young Leadership Award but never made it to the night. Weather grounded her flight from Nelson, so Tuke asked the room to clap loud enough for her to hear.

Three Murrays Bay Optimist sailors, Tom Hall, Tom Sanderson and Sam Francis-Stead, took the North Sails Sportsmanship Award for something nobody asked them to do. After beating a younger, less experienced team at a regatta on Lake Pupuke, they went over and gave them tips for the next race.

Complete 2026 Yachting Excellence Awards winners

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Major awards

Orbit World Travel Sailor of the Year (Sir Bernard Fergusson Trophy): Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush (Murrays Bay Sailing Club and Wakatere Boating Club)

Barfoot & Thompson Male Sailor of the Year: Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush

Barfoot & Thompson Female Sailor of the Year: Rebecca Gmuer-Hornell (Opua Cruising Club)

NZL Sailing Foundation Young Female Sailor of the Year: Bella Jenkins and Jess Handley (Kohimarama Yacht Club and Murrays Bay Sailing Club)

NZL Sailing Foundation Young Male Sailor of the Year: Toby Wigglesworth (Manly Sailing Club)

Lawson’s Dry Hills Peter Lester Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sailing: John and Linda Parrish (Gulf Harbour Yacht Club)

Radix Nutrition Performance Awards

Presented by Micah Wilkinson, the Nacra 17 Olympic medallist turned E1 pilot. Tuke reckoned he’d got the job for bringing more protein than any other sailor this year.

Aimee Bright (Manly Sailing Club): iQFOiL silver at the Europeans and the Olympic Classes Regatta, and the New Zealand title

Chris Bouzaid (RNZYS): unbeaten Maine classic yacht season aboard Bijou II

Don Cowie and Murray Jones (Milford Cruising Club and Royal Akarana Yacht Club): Rolex TP52 world champions aboard Sled

George Gautrey (Muritai Yacht Club): ILCA 7 European bronze, top non-European

Rebecca Gmuer-Hornell (Opua Cruising Club)

Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush (Murrays Bay Sailing Club and Wakatere Boating Club)

Karl Purdie (Plimmerton Boating Club): Finn Great Grand Master world champion, the first New Zealander to win it

Dave Shaw (Nelson Yacht Club): Paper Tiger, A Class and Tornado national titles, unbeaten in all three

Veerle ten Have (Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club): fifth at the iQFOiL worlds in Weymouth, her best result

Hugo Wigglesworth (Kohimarama Yacht Club): defended his Hydrofoil Big Air world title in Sylt, Germany

Appliances Online Youth Performance Awards

Cam Brown and Oli Stone (Murrays Bay Sailing Club and Kohimarama Yacht Club): boys’ 420 bronze, 2025 Youth Worlds

Tessa Clinton and Amelia Higson (Wakatere Boating Club and Kohimarama Yacht Club): girls’ 420 bronze, 2025 Youth Worlds

Kosta Gladiadis (Manly Sailing Club): second straight silver at the Formula Wing Youth Worlds

Charlotte Handley (Murrays Bay Sailing Club): national female titles in the 420, Starling and match racing

Bella Jenkins and Jess Handley (Kohimarama Yacht Club and Murrays Bay Sailing Club)

Nelsen Meacham and Oli Stone (Wakatere Boating Club and Kohimarama Yacht Club): fourth at the 29er worlds

New Zealand 29er squad: Bella Jenkins, Jess Handley, Nelsen Meacham, Oli Stone, Matteo Barker, Leo Brown, Blake Batten, Hugo Smith, Ewan Brazle and Toby Clark

Chloe Turner (Murrays Bay Sailing Club): ILCA 6 bronze at the Youth Europeans and Youth Worlds

Zofia Wells (Glendowie Boating Club)

Toby Wigglesworth (Manly Sailing Club)

Yamaha Motor NZ Service Awards

Alan Barker (Whangārei Cruising Club)

Tash Brasell (Lake Taupo Yacht Club)

Geoff Herd (SSANZ): race and safety officer for seven Round North Island races

Tim Harris (Murrays Bay Sailing Club): led the clubhouse’s code compliance process

Ann Hamilton (RNZYS): race management since 2020

Pamela Lilley (Panmure Yacht and Boating Club): social committee lead and former club captain

John and Linda Macduff (Sailability Nelson): led Sailability Nelson for 12 years

Kerry O’Brien (Waimakariri Sailing Club): former commodore and life member

Jonathan Olds (Torbay Sailing Club)

Lynn Porter (Lowry Bay Yacht Club): long-time bosun at Sailability Wellington

Vanessa Robson (Maraetai Sailing Club): RS Feva Association president, with a record 48 crews at the 2024 nationals

Kiwi Yachting & Baltic Lifejackets Cruising Award

Alan Wright (Gulf Harbour Yacht Club)

Coaching, officiating and community awards

B&G Performance Coach of the Year: Jenny Armstrong (Otago Yacht Club) and Andrew Brown (Wakatere Boating Club)

Yachting New Zealand Emerging Coach of the Year: Noah Kota (Tauranga Yacht and Powerboat Club)

Millennium Hotels and Resorts NZ Official of the Year: Blair Park (RNZYS)

PredictWind Emerging Talent Award: Aurora Edhouse and Nathan Soper (Murrays Bay Sailing Club)

MAST Academy Young Leadership Award: Paige Mia Langford (Nelson Yacht Club)

Hesketh Henry Inclusive Sailing Award (inaugural): Remy Thomassen (Evans Bay Yacht and Motorboat Club), for 30 years at the club, his Sailability work and helping develop the Parable class yacht

AON Sustainability Award: Dean Stanley (Worser Bay Boating Club), for his work on the RŪNĀ schools programme

North Sails Sportsmanship Award: Tom Hall, Tom Sanderson and Sam Francis-Stead (Murrays Bay Sailing Club)