Fong completes the comeback to claim the 2026 NZ Keelboat National Championships

The RNZYS youth sailor wins four of the final five races to overhaul a Day 1 deficit and take the title on the Waitematā.

Ethan Fong won the 2026 Akarana Eatery NZ Keelboat National Championships at Royal Akarana Yacht Club on Sunday. Fourth after Day 1, he won three of the final five races to finish on a nett score of 20, six points clear of Open division winner Luke Cashmore in second and seven ahead of youth rival Josh Hyde in third. Sally Garrett finished fourth overall and first in the Women’s division.

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Fong arrived at this regatta as the form sailor of the New Zealand youth match racing circuit. Earlier this year he won the Hardy Cup in Sydney, then took the NZ Youth Match Racing Trials title in a five-race final on the Waitematā. This time the format was different, fleet racing on Farr MRX keelboats rather than the match racing he knows best. The result was another title.

Day 1: Garrett leads, Fong finds his feet

Sally Garrett (Jenny Price, Emma Stenhouse, Julia Hamilton, Cynthia Waru, Sarah Reynolds) set the pace from the gun, winning Race 1. After that opening race, the top three positions were held entirely by the regatta’s three female skippers: Garrett first, Kylie Jameson (Sara Tucker, Paula Satterthwaite, Raynor Hagg, Jen Jamison, Joanna Wilce, Jenny Egnot) second, and Ella Arnold (Harry Butler, Bec Morgan, Yi Shun Thong, Maya Ottmann, Sally Roff, Harry Wilson, Rylen Schussler) third.

The fleet reshuffled as the day progressed. Josh Hyde (Nick Drummond, Braydon Hamilton, Ben Crawford, Crue Ellis, Cody Coughlan, Luca Smith) won Race 2 to move into contention. Guy Pilkington (Dwayne McGorman, Garth McKilliam, Ewen Thorpe, Paul Groom, George Pilkington) took Race 3. Luke Cashmore (Peter Soosalu, Alex Edwards, Mateusz Jamkowski, Monty Alderson, Marcus Van Dam, Josh Holder) won Race 4. Ethan Fong (Lucas Day, Harry McMullen, Hugo McMullen, Amelia Angus, Tim Howse, Sam Clark) took Race 5, his first win of the regatta, but was already carrying an 8-point from Race 3. Garrett closed out Day 1 with another top-two finish, leaving her clear on 14 points.

End of Day 1 standings

Day 2: Fong takes over

Fong won Race 6. Then Race 7. Back-to-back wins at the start of Day 2 hauled him level with Garrett on 25 points. The regatta had a new shape. Pilkington won Race 8 to claim his second race win of the weekend, but it was Fong who led overall for the first time, with Garrett second and Cashmore moving into third. Hyde won Race 9, his second race win, setting up a final race with the top four separated by just seven points. Fong led on 32, Garrett and Cashmore tied on 35, Hyde on 36.

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Fong won Race 10 to seal it. Three race wins in the final three races of the regatta, four from the last five. His back-five scorecard of 1, 1, 4, 3, 1 told the story of a sailor who had found his rhythm and was not letting it go.

End of Day 2 standings (raw totals)

Cashmore, Pilkington and Fraser

The Open division title went to Luke Cashmore of the Shorthanded Sailing Association. He won Race 4, posted nothing worse than fifth across the middle of the regatta, and absorbed a ninth in the final race without it costing him the podium. With two discards applied his nett score of 26 was the most consistent campaign in the fleet.

Guy Pilkington of RNZYS won two races outright, Race 3 and Race 8, but carried a wider spread of results to finish fifth overall on 32 points. Andrew Fraser (Alex Webster, Brendan Sneddan, Helen Evans, Bruno Page, Oleg Smirnov, James West), also of the Shorthanded Sailing Association, finished ninth overall on 49 points, his best result a second in Race 2.

Hyde, Scott, and Fong

Hyde’s third place overall (second in youth) was a strong result but will carry the familiar sting. He won two races, remained in contention throughout, and went into the final race with a genuine chance of winning the regatta. Sam Scott (Finn Balchin, Tim McCulloch, Ben Roff, Noah Malpot, James Blyth, Mason Mulcahy, Rose Dickey), who finished second overall at last year’s Nationals, ended the regatta seventh, unable to replicate his 2025 form despite a race win mid-series. Ella Arnold finished eighth overall, the fourth and final Youth division entry.

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It is worth noting that Hyde and Fong have met in the Hardy Cup in February and the NZ Youth Match Racing Trials in March, and Fong won both.

Garrett and Jameson

Garrett led the regatta outright after Day 1 and remained in contention deep into Day 2, her scorecard showing nothing worse than 7 across ten races. Winning the outright Open title has been a goal for women’s crews. Earlier Garrett had mentioned “I hope this can be the year,” she said ahead of the regatta. “There is no reason why not with one design boats and a weight limit, the women’s teams certainly have talent.” It was not to be this year, and right until the final race it looked remarkably close.

Kylie Jameson finished sixth overall and second in the Women’s division on a nett score of 39.

Final results

Results provisional as of 14:18 on May 3, 2026. Sailed: 10, Discards: 2, To count: 8, Entries: 9, Scoring system: Appendix A.