The P Class 2026 Tauranga Cup began yesterday following the completion of the P Class Tanner Cup and Centenary Trophy.
A look down memory lane
In 1940, Ron Nalder won the first Tauranga Cup. Graham Mander, Jimmy Gilpin, Rob Denniston, Wayne Innes, Mark Patterson, Mark Moyes, John Moyes, Terry Nicholas, Jon Bilger, Simon Cooke, Scott Kennedy, Sean Kensington, and Ollie Stone are among sailors who repeatedly appear on the list as having mastered the P Class better than their contemporaries.
David Barnes, Chris Dickson, Leslie Egnot (the first woman to win the Tauranga Cup in its history in 1979), Dean Barker, Paul Snow-Hansen, Leonard Takahashi (there was only one race that year, but there had to be a winner), and more recently, Seb Menzies (who is a new member of the Emirates Team New Zealand crew) are other names that made it to the international scene. Most recently, the Tauranga Cup was won by Blake Batten (2025.)
The opening races
The opening races of the 2026 Tauranga Cup got underway yesterday. At the day’s conclusion, Blake Batten, last year’s winner, led the overall standings.
The in-form Zofia Wells won the first race, followed by Hamish Brown (first overall in the 2026 Centenary Cup) then Lauchy Wills (second overall in the 2026 Tanner Cup). Blake Batten (the current cup holder) finished fourth. With Wells’ win came spectator hopes that both the Tanner Cup and the Tauranga Cup would be won by a woman in the same year, reframing the P Class story yet again.
Blake Batten improved to win the second and third races. Zofia Wells was declared DNF (39) in the second race. Will Fyfe and Hugh Kensington placed second and third, respectively. The Tauranga Cup features nine races, including discards, in contrast to the Tanner Cup six races. In this series, consistent high ranking is crucial, but there is slightly more room to recover from error in the Tauranga Cup.
In the third and last race of the day, Hamish Brown finished second and Lauchy Wills third. After a fourth from Philippa Wiltshire, currently the top woman overall in ninth place, Zofia Wells came fifth.
At day’s end, Blake Batten led the fleet on six nett points, Hamish Brown two points behind, and Lauchy Wills another eight points behind, with respective totals of six, eight, and sixteen nett points (no discards allowed, yet.)
Today’s racing
Today shapes as a game of cat and mouse. Zofia Wells remains in form. Jo Aleh, the first woman to win the Tanner Cup in 2002, told Boating New Zealand she had been “super happy to see” the news of Zofia’s Tanner Cup win, adding that it was “so awesome to see Zofia leading this new generation of amazing young female sailors.”
Blake Batten’s form is comparable. This is shaping up as an exciting contest of skill, guts, and patience. I for one will be watching the results closely.
