Dominant from the start, Meacham and Stone claim the 2026 New Zealand 29er Nationals at Royal Akarana

Will Leech arrived as defending champion and left with second place. Day one was rough, three scores that buried him in the pack. Day two told a different story, and so did day three. He and Tim Howse clawed back hard. But Nelsen Meacham and Oli Stone had already made their move.

The circa 70kg frame makes the under 5-metre 29er sailing skiff exceptionally light. At full pace it skims across the water rather than pushing through it, the asymmetric spinnaker pulling the bow skyward on a downwind run. Mackay Boats, the class’s New Zealand builder, puts it plainly: old or young, big or small, the 29er has a place for you. And, it seems, has a place in building offshore sailors.

New Zealand has been racing 29ers at national level since 2000, and the class has produced a remarkable roll call of Kiwi sailing talent. Blair Tuke and Peter Burling have gone on to SailGP, while the two and Seb Menzies, along with Erica Dawson have also competed at the America’s Cup. Micah Wilkinson now drives for Team Drogba in the E1 electric powerboat series. Will McKenzie has also taken the SailGP pathway. The 29er, it turns out, has a habit of identifying what comes next.

The 2025 nationals at Manly set a high bar. Across a 30-boat fleet in conditions that peaked at 36 knots, William Mason and Will Leech took the overall title. Nelsen Meacham and Joe Leith pushed them hard in second, Hugo Smith and Louis Quéré third. Bella Jenkins and Jess Handley topped the girls fleet.

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This past Thursday (May 28), a year later, a smaller nationals contingent was hosted by the Royal Akarana. The names, familiar. Mason was back, now sailing mixed with Tessa Clinton. Leech was back, with a new crew in Tim Howse. Meacham was back, this time alongside Oli Stone. Jenkins and Handley were back, defending their girls’ title. The question was whether the podium order would look similar or whether someone would reshuffle it.

Day one opened in light and variable conditions, a sharp contrast to the 36-knot weekend that had defined the 2025 event at Manly. Three races were completed, and Meacham and Stone wasted no time. A win in race one, third in race two, then back to the front in race three. Two wins from three starts, with Jenkins and Handley close behind in overall second after staying consistently inside the top three. Blake Batten and Hugo Smith sat third on a 5-2-5 scorecard. Leech and Howse took time to settle, scoring 6-6-(8). James Currell and Robert Abel-Pattinson provided one of the day’s talking points, taking the Race 2 win by reading the variable conditions.

Day two brought more pressure and an upgraded five-race schedule. The shifting conditions reshuffled the fleet, with the points spread tightening across the middle order. Clinton and Mason had a great day scoring 1-2-4 in their first three races before falling off the pace. Leech and Howse delivered too, nothing below fourth. Meacham and Stone were a little variable with a fourth in Race 7, their only score above third in the series, but added two more wins.

The final day pushed crews to the upper wind limits, delivering the kind of high-speed skiff sailing the 29er is built for. Leech and Howse owned it, posting 1-2-1-1 to finish the regatta the way they should have started it.

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When the 12 races were counted and one discard applied, Meacham and Stone held firm at the top on 20 points. Will Leech and Tim Howse finished second on 30, the first day’s deficit too deep to close. Blake Batten and Hugo Smith were third on 41. Matteo Barker and Leo Brown were fourth on 50, and Ewan Brazle and Toby Clark fifth on 56.

For Leech, second place represents a strong return to the nationals podium. He and William Mason won the 2025 overall title together, and the pair also represented New Zealand at the 2025 Youth Sailing World Championships in Vilamoura. Both also competed at the 2025 29er European Championship in Riva del Garda, where they finished eighth after the qualifying series. Leech sailing with a new crew partner in 2026 and landing on the podium again speaks to his consistency across conditions.

Mason, meanwhile, appeared at this regatta in the mixed division alongside Tessa Clinton, finishing eighth overall. Clinton is a multiple national title winner across the 29er and 420.

Meacham’s path to the title also has European context. At the 2025 29er Europeans, he sailed with Joe Leith to seventh place after qualifying, one spot ahead of the Leech/Mason combination. His new partnership with Stone at the 2026 nationals produced the most consistent scorecard in the fleet, with multiple race wins and only one result outside the top three in the counting scores.

In the girls division, Bella Jenkins and Jess Handley claimed the divisional title in sixth overall. The pair are the reigning overall New Zealand 29er national champions, having won the 2025 female title outright. Both also represented New Zealand at the 2025 Youth Worlds in the 29er fleet. Handley is the current New Zealand 29er national girls champion. Sixth overall in a mixed fleet of 19, against sailors with European and world championship experience, is a result that needs no qualification.

The 19-boat fleet included one international entry, with French crew Jules Humez and Oscar Taleb of Cercle Nautique Caledonien finishing 12th.

On-water media coverage was provided by Insight Media, whose photography captured the full range of conditions, from the light tactical racing of the opening day through to the high-pressure finale.