Two Tauranga sailors are national title holders after they won their respective divisions at the NZ Windsurfing National Championships held at the weekend.
Sven Pedersen won the under-19 NZ RS:X Youth Men event and Abbey Borman has won the NZ Techno Open Women over-16 event.

Sven Pedersen is off to the youth world champs for windsurfing after winning the national under-19 event at Whangaparoa at the weekend.

The pair both sail for Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club and these wins are the first major successes from the establishment of youth windsurfing in Tauranga last summer.
Altogether five Tauranga sailors competed at the nationals; two on RS:X and three on Techno.

They were Bradley Nixon, Brandon Hailwood and Alex Hart.

RS:X is the Olympic and youth class, and Techno is the junior class with under-15, under-17 and open divisions.
'It was a great regatta with beautiful weather for all four days but a lack of wind on Saturday and Sunday,” says Sven.

'There was no racing on Saturday due to the calm conditions, and the forecast was the same for Sunday, but fortunately there was enough breeze to complete three races for Techno and two for RS:X.

'So that was seven races total for us over the four days and I was first youth in every race, which was great.

'I got a fright in the last race when Nick Croft from Manly was ahead of me at the last mark, but I pumped like crazy and passed him on the last leg – I was absolutely shattered at the end!
'The NZ youth coach has confirmed that I have qualified for the NZ youth sailing team to go to the world champs in Croatia in July, which is awesome.

'Last year our club had an excellent three sailors qualify for the worlds, and this year it looks like we'll have at least two.”