New Zealand's brightest young sailors claimed recognition at the 2025 Barfoot and Thompson Yachting Excellence Awards, with the Appliances Online Youth Performance Awards honouring a dozen individuals and one school team for results that turned heads at home and on the world stage. The category sits within Yachting New Zealand's long-running Excellence Awards programme and is backed by Appliances Online to support the next generation of high-performance talent.
Ella Arnold and Ben Roff were among those recognised, their award stemming from an overall victory in the SSANZ Northern Triangle Race. Sailing Flaming Lips, a Ross 830 and the smallest boat in the fleet, they beat far more experienced crews to take first place on PHRF. Both sailors are active in RNZYS youth programmes, and the combination of thorough campaign preparation, technical skill, and resilience under pressure marked them as names to watch in New Zealand offshore sailing.
Murrays Bay sailor Matteo Barker had a year that reinforced his reputation as one of the country's most promising young talents. His 10th place at the 2025 Optimist Worlds was the best result by a New Zealander since 2019. He backed that up by defending his national Optimist title and taking out both the North Island and Auckland championships. Barker also finished fourth at his first ever 29er Nationals, signalling a step up in class.
In Portugal, Stella Bilger produced one of the performances of the year when she won the iQFOiL Under 23 World Championship. Sitting fourth after qualifying, she executed a bold tactical move in the final to claim gold, leading a New Zealand one-two finish with teammate Aimee Bright. The Wakatere sailor is part of the national windfoiling programme and also recorded a top-ten finish at the European Championships. She was also named Young Female Sailor of the Year.
Bright's own season was equally strong. Her silver medal at the Under 23 Worlds in Portugal was followed by a 15th place finish at the senior Worlds in Aarhus, along with podium results at Sail Melbourne and the New Zealand nationals. A member of Manly Sailing Club and a coach with the Russell Coutts Sailing Foundation, she has established herself as a genuine force in the iQFOiL class.
Mattias Coutts made his mark in the Moth class with a run of results that left little doubt about his standing in the fleet. He won the 2024 PredictWind Moth Worlds at Manly, then added the 2025 Moth Nationals and STACK Winter Champs to his collection. Top results at major foiling regattas and the start of a promising 49er campaign alongside Oscar Gunn rounded out the year. His rise stood out in part because it came without the traditional youth-class development pathway behind him.
At just 17, Xervier Doney became a double world champion in para sailing at the 2025 Para Sailing International Championships. He won both the Hansa 303 one-person and two-person titles, competing in the latter event with his father. A member of Sailability Wellington, Doney also claimed the Ability Cup at the New Zealand nationals and made history as the first New Zealander with Down syndrome to win at that level.
George Pilkington had a season that strengthened his credentials as an emerging international performer. He finished fifth at the U21 ILCA 7 Worlds in Ireland, winning one race outright and recording seven top-ten results across the regatta. A bronze at the UK Nationals, where he was the top U21 finisher, added further weight to his campaign. Like Bright, Pilkington also works as a coach with the Russell Coutts Sailing Foundation.
Jake Pye cemented his place among the world's best young Moth sailors with a bronze medal at the 2025 Moth Worlds in Garda, finishing as the top Under 23 competitor. That result followed a silver at the 2024 Worlds, and Pye also placed second at Foiling Week. A multiple New Zealand national champion, his performances earned him selection as the youngest member of Emirates Team New Zealand for the next America's Cup cycle.
Summer Torbet was only 12 years old when she travelled to Japan for the Open Skiff Worlds and returned with the U13 Female World title, as well as an overall bronze in the mixed fleet. Nine top-five finishes and two outright race wins reflected the consistency behind that result. The Manly sailor had made her debut at the event only in 2024, and the jump to world medallist in a single year reflected her commitment to daily training and rapid development.
Chloe Turner added New Zealand's name to the ILCA 6 record books by winning the Under 17 female world title in Los Angeles, finishing 13th overall in an 81-boat fleet and taking the U17 crown by 14 points. A two-time first girl at the New Zealand ILCA Nationals and a member of the NZL Sailing Foundation Youth Team, the Murrays Bay sailor has set her sights firmly on Olympic competition.
In France, Zofia Wells and Charlotte Handley won the RS Feva female world title and finished second overall in the 168-boat open fleet, falling just two points short of the top spot. A run of four consecutive race wins on the second day of competition illustrated the form they were in. The Glendowie and Murrays Bay pair had been sailing together for less than a year when they claimed that result, and they also received the PredictWind Emerging Talent Award.
Rounding out the awards, the Westlake Girls High School sailing team earned collective recognition after completing a third consecutive season sweep of the Interdominion and New Zealand Secondary Schools titles. They also took the Harken and Girls NZ Keelboat crowns. The 2025 crew consisted of Jess Handley, Charlotte Handley, Kiera Dimock, Emily Turner, Bella Jenkins, Danielle Robertson, Gretel Satterthwaite, and Julia Nguyen, coached throughout by Robbie Wooldridge.
