This Sunday Australia’s best eSailors will be taking on the best of the Kiwis in the inaugural Zhik trans-Tasman eSailing Championships.

The top six finishers from last week’s Zhik Australian eSailing Challenge Final will be taking on the top six from the Zhik New Zealand eSailing Challenge Final to decide once and for all who is the region’s eSailing powerhouse.

Australian Sailing would like to thank our Major Partners at Zhik who have offered a $500 Zhik voucher for the winner, a $300 voucher for 2nd place and $200 for the third-place finisher. There will also be a teams challenge, with the top five net scores from each country added together to decide which nation claims the teams title.

You will be able to watch a live stream of the event on the Australian Sailing Facebook page this Sunday, with racing scheduled to commence at 6pm AEST.

Over the next three days we will get to meet all of the competitors through their eSailor profiles, today we meet the two Queenslanders that qualified to represent Australia as well as a couple of their kiwi rivals.

Australia

Liam Millar (above)
Age: 15
Club: Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, QLD AU
E-sailing boat name: I’m Sinking
Finishing position in Zhik Australian eSailing Challenge: 7
Regular sailing experience: currently sailing a 29’er with Finn Meehan called WHAT
Best result: 2019 - 2nd flying 11 Qld Youth Week
Sailing Ambition: Solo foiling boat

Quentin Palmer (above)
Age: 43
Club: Brisbane 18 Footers Sailing Club, QLD AU
eSailing boat name: Q47
Finishing position in Zhik Australian eSailing Challenge: 6
eSailing experience:  12 months with a covid inspired improvement
Regular sailing experience: 18ft skiff 
Best result: Most recently, sailing yacht in Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island 2019 race weeks, finishing 4th in our division at both. 
Sailing ambition:  Getting back up to Hamilton Island in our new J122 and getting on the podium!

New Zealand

Seb Menzies (above)
Age: 15
Club: Murrays Bay Sailing Club, NZ
eSailing boat name: Seb Menzies
Finishing position in Zhik New Zealand eSailing Challenge: 5
eSailing experience: 1 year
Regular sailing experience: I now sail a 29er and Waszp but started sailing when I was 8
Best result: My best result was winning the 2018 420 world championships with Blake McGlashan. We also won the boy’s 420 at the 2019 youth sailing world championships
Sailing ambition: To go to the Olympics
 

Ryan Tait (Above)
Age: 18
Club: Paremata Boating Club, NZ
eSailing boat name: rynosailor
Finishing position in Zhik New Zealand eSailing Challenge: 6
eSailing experience: On and off for a few years. I played Sailx when it was around and joined Virtual Regatta a couple of years ago but have only really played it regularly in the last couple of months
Regular sailing experience: I started sailing an Optimist when I was 11 and have since sailed a Starling, 420 and E6 match racing and have since dabbled in Lasers and other boats.
Best result: Competing in the 2017 420 open world championships in Fremantle, when we came 39th overall. The experience of representing New Zealand after years of learning and improvement makes it my highlight.
Sailing ambition: My current focus is multisport (primarily training for the Coast to Coast) but I hope to get back to competitive sailing one day. For now I am coaching sailing instead and my sailing ambition at the moment is to provide young people in my area with the opportunities and experiences that I have been lucky enough to receive in my sailing life, by coaching and mentoring them.