P Class: PredictWind Tauranga Cup - Blake Batten wins - Day 3
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 9 Jan 13:32 GMT
Blake Batten - Day 2 - PredictWind Tauranga Cup - January 8, 2026 - Kohimarama Yacht Club © Suellen Hurling / Live Sail Die for PredictWind
Murrays Bay SC's Blake Batten has won the PredictWind Tauranga Cup, rounding out the Final day of racing with back-to-back wins in the final two races.
He joins an elite group of now just 10 sailors in the event's 86-year history, who have scored back-to-back wins.
Batten won by a 6-point margin from Lauchy Wills (Glendowie/Howick/Bucklands Beach), with Canterbury's Luca Blundell (Charteris Bay) third 9pts astern.
Greta Hutton (Murrays Bay) had a consistent day to finish 6th in the Open fleet and win the Naomi James trophy for top female sailor.
The Tauranga Cup is the most prestigious dinghy trophy in New Zealand. The 2026 event - its 83rd edition was hosted by the Kohimarama Yacht Club. (The regatta was first sailed in 1940, but missed three years during World War II and the polio epidemic of 1948.)
Batten defended the title he won in January 2025 at Charteris Bay, Christchurch. Unlike several of the competitors near the top of the fleet, who were on their third Tauranga Cup, Batten's win in 2025 was his first foray at this level of the competition. Several sailors in this year’s event were competing for the third successive year.
Fresh SW winds of 20-25kts prevailed for the third successive day on the Waitemata Harbour.
In hindsight, Batten's smartest move was accepting the arbitration panel's decision following an incident in Race 4. While he carried a score of 13pts, he was only slightly worse off than one of the top four competitors, with the others carrying a 15th and a DSQ from another incident in Race 6. Obviously, all would be discard places. However, Batten's move lifted some of the competitive pressure from him, and he was in a similar or better position to his immediate competitors in that regard, who all had likely discard races from the first three races.
That issue aside, Batten hit his stride in the fresher breezes of the Tauranga Cup, recovering well after finishing 6th overall in the Tanner Cup, an inter-regional competition sailed in lighter winds earlier in the week.
The winner of the Tanner Cup, Zofia Wells, had her Tauranga Cup bid unravel after breaking a stay in Races 2 and 4, and had a long way to come back in this regatta.
She started well with a win in Race 1, and bounced back with a fifth place in Race 3. Another broken stay in the next race effectively put an end to her regatta, but that should not detract from her Tanner Cup win against all the top sailors in the Tauranga Cup.
Lauchy Wills responded well under pressure in the final day of the Tanner Cup, turning in a consistent performance at the front of the fleet to move from 4th to be runner-up. It was the same today on the Final day of the Tauranga Cup, scoring two seconds and a third. He stayed out of the protest room on the fractious Day 2, moving from third to second overall. His consistent sailing at the front of the fleet served him well. Wills finished 4pts off first place.
Canterbury's Luca Blundell got his regatta back on track after a tough start in Race 1, placing 15th, which ultimately proved to be his discard. He was not helped by a 6th and 7th in the next two races. But in the three races on Day 2, he pulled up to fourth. With the slightly lighter breeze on the Final day, Blundell won Race 7, backed up with a second and third places in the final two races. It was enough to get him up into third overall.
Greta Hutton made a nice gain from her 15th overall in the 2024 and 2025 Tauranga Cups to finish 10th overall in 2026 in the Open fleet contesting the Tauranga Cup.
The 2027 event will be held in Tauranga, the home of the class.
For full results: www.sailwave.com/results/KYC/PClassTaurangaCup2026.htm
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