I have spent my life in preparation to race solo offshore. From an early age of seven, I raced in the Optimist class. My boat was lent to me after my brother got hit by the boom and decided not to sail anymore, which I was super happy about (having the boat, not him being hit).
I raced every weekend as much as possible and moved through the classes, racing in the ‘P’ class and the ‘Starling’ class. I was a member of the Tauranga Yacht Power and Boating Club racing against the likes of Peter Burling (Emirates Team New Zealand, Americas Cup Winner 2017). I won an all females regatta at Lake Rotoiti and did quite well in numerous other regattas, including Auckland regattas at Kohimarama, Murrays Bay and Mission Bay. At the age of seventeen years old, I left my home town of Taupo and moved to Auckland to study.
However, I missed sailing incredibly. So much so, that once I had completed University, I enrolled in a Super Yacht School in Warkworth. After finishing the course, I flew over to Spain to find a job on a Super Yacht, so I could be out sailing once again! After two months of job seeking, I was hired as a mate on a 25 meter Ketch Yacht ‘Fruition’, for the summer season. It was one of my aspirations to come true.
At the end of September 2013, I earned my Yacht Master Offshore under Sail Certification from the Seajay Solent Sailing School in Lymington, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. This is one of the highest sailing certificates obtainable today.
I worked on various other super yachts for the next four years. One of the yachts being a 37 meter Ketch Yacht ‘Axia’, which is owned by the same owners as the Maxi72 racing yachts, ‘Proteus’ and 'Shockwave'. Professional sailors were onboard to race both yachts, whereby I was acquainted with some of my sailing idols including New Zealander, Stu Bannatyne (four times Volvo Ocean Racer) and Robert Doyle (Owner of Doyle Sails) and many other expert sailors.
As part of my work, I sailed across the Atlantic Ocean three times and raced with Stu Bannatyne in the Saint Barths Bucket Regatta. My normal work duties included maintaining solo watches, both during the day and night, and being involved in all the aspects of sailing these huge yachts.
During a recent trip home to New Zealand, I connected with James Murchinson, the owner of a Farr 47 Yacht ‘Abracadabra’ and crewed with him in the 2018 Ponant Sydney to Noumea, New Caledonia offshore race (1,024 nautical miles). This race took us a total of six days to complete where I was the only female crew member of the eight onboard. This experience made me realise that my dream to race professionally is still very much alive and I am more determined than ever to race in the Mini Transat in 2019.
Currently, I am now out racing as much as possible in Auckland waters and am a member of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. I spent one season while the yacht I was working on at the time was based in Newport, America, racing in their very competitive fleet of J24s.