HARKEN New Zealand Match Racing Championship profile – Maeve White

After a strong showing at the Auckland Match Racing Championship to end 2021, Maeve White and her crew of Chloe Salthouse on Main, Zoe Dawson on Trim and Brooke Adamson on Bow are looking to kickstart their 2022 and establish themselves as a team to watch by competing in this year’s Harken New Zealand Match Racing Championship.

This crew is a product of the RNZYS’s acclaimed Youth Training Programme with all 4 members recent alumni or currently in the programme. Maeve, Zoe and Brooke come from a 420 Class teams racing background, with Zoe and Chloe also having sailed Optimist’s from a young age. Chloe is the youngest in the team, but has the most recent first hand experience in the Elliott 7’s having been a part of the 2021 Mastercard Youth Training Week at Kawau Island.

White is the most experienced member of her crew, having competed in the NZMRC before as a crew member. However, she will be taking the helm in the NZMRC for the first time in this year’s championship. She is no stranger to national success, having won 3 consecutive national titles at the New Zealand Open Teams Racing Nationals as part of Kiwis Team Racing, beating World Champion, Olympic and America’s Cup sailors in the process.

However, White realises that taking on the NZMRC as the helmswoman, with a new crew and under a match racing format, is a daunting task for any sailor. “Being a relatively new and young team we have been focusing on the basics and getting used to sailing together with little training – the shared mindset is to learn as much as we can and use this experience to establish ourselves”, says Maeve. 

“The results are always important, however as a team the main goal is to focus on what we can learn from the other teams and the experience itself. This will be the second one with a consistent team so the team is very excited for some good racing.”

Maeve has self-admittedly always had a competitive streak, so the racing side of sailing has always been her wheelhouse. “I’ve never sailed without it being competing or training for an event so the competitive aspect of sailing is definitely the biggest thing for me, the team and I all love a bit of competition!”

The crew is looking to 2022 as the year to really cement themselves as a national force in match racing, with their eyes set on competing in Women’s and Youth’s National Championships.

Maeve and the crew are “optimistic that team consistency will influence the results of these events in a really positive way and we as a team are really looking forward to seeing how it comes together”.

However, Maeve, Chloe, Zoe and Brooke aren’t putting too much pressure on themselves as they understand just how competitive this year’s NZMRC is shaping up to be. “The line-up for this event is crazy good so to get to sail against these teams is definitely exciting – it’s going to be really good to get back on the water and get into it!”