Zoke Kiwi Match. Image copyright Howard Wright/IMAGE Professional Photography
by Logan Fraser
As winter finally starts kicking in back home in New Zealand the team is back off overseas for the start of our Northern Hemisphere tour. The next 3 months are going to be pretty full on as we head around the world, chasing summer and a spot on the Match Racing World Tour.
After a couple of days training in Hong Kong our first stop is in Vladivostok, Russia for the Seven Feet Cup. We then make our way to France for a regatta in Pornichet, before heading back to the USA for our third year in a row, for a number of grade 1 and 2 events. Our ultimate goal at the end of this year is to qualify for a tour card on the World Match Racing Tour. We know that competition for spots is always fierce so doing well in every regatta this year is going to be important.
After a short break back in New Zealand after our Nations Cup victory in Sydney, we're definitely looking forward to kicking things off in Russia. The Seven Feet Cup is run by the Seven Feet Yacht Club on their fleet of Platu 25's. This Grade 2 event has been run since 2009 and continues to attract a really competitive field of teams. Another Kiwi team Full Metal Jacket Racing will also be competing, along with top ranked Russian skipper Andrew Arbuzov and Simone Ferrarese from Italy. Some tough teams stand in our way but we're looking to kick the season off on the right foot and we're rearing to go.
Continuing to support us is the Chinese sportswear company Zoke who are making it possible for us to compete in all these international events. Zoke currently has over 500 points-of-sale across China but their international plans are even bigger. Building on their existing partnership with our team Kiwimatch, they have created Zoke Yachting. Zoke Yachting will become the platform to launch the company's new direction into the marine clothing market. This exciting development is still a work in progress so we'll update you on more news in the near future but we feel the partnership with Zoke is going to be a great fit.
We will continue to update our progress from Russia and beyond as we make our way around the world so be sure to check out our website www.kiwimatch-sailing.com for articles, photos and videos and links to all the important stuff.
Zoke Kiwi Match is Laurie Jury, Logan Fraser, Mike Edmonds and Andrew Lam
