KZ Marine is pleased to announce the appointment of James Gordon to the team, with James coming on board as KZ Racefurlers Brand Manager, responsible for international sales and support for the KZ Racefurlers line.

James joins KZ Marine from a rigging background, bringing a wealth of knowledge and experience from within the sailing industry that will hugely benefit all of KZ Marine's customers. Having previously worked for some of the world’s most prestigious sailing teams including the Camper Volvo Ocean Race Challenge, before four years in the TP52 Super Series circuit with Ran and then Provezza, James has also spent time working for Team New Zealand in the AC45 World Series events. Prior to joining KZ Marine James worked for the offshore Maxi Rambler 88.

James will be the point of contact for all sales and support for the KZ Racefurlers brand - please update your records accordingly.

JAMES GORDON
EMAIL: James@kzmarine.co.nz
MOBILE: +64 21804227
SKYPE: KZMarine
​
For more information on the KZ Racefurlers range click here or download the KZ Racefurlers Brochure.

KZ Racefurlers is proud to have been confirmed as the official furler supplier to the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018. "This news builds on our longstanding relationship with the Race and we look forward to working with Race organisers and the teams again to ensure that they have the best furling gear available to take them around the world with confidence," says Keryn McMaster, KZ Racefurlers Brand Manager.

"KZ Marine have been part of the Volvo Ocean Race for many years now and with the transition to the Volvo Ocean 65 they were an obvious choice to be furler supplier," says Nick Bice, Head of The Boatyard for the Volvo OCean Race 2017-2018. "The Volvo Ocean 65 had a few pre requisites that were required to become a supplier, no more so than reliability and that is what we got. With over 350.000 miles accumulated between the fleet of 7 boats, the performance of the furling systems were second to none in both ease of use and reliability. The Boatyard and The Volvo Ocean Race look forward to continuing our relationship with KZ Marine as fuller supplier for the next edition of the race which will also be a very popular choice amongst the teams”

KZ Racefurlers is pleased to announce that we are officially supporting the new FAST40+ Class and FAST40+ Race Circuit, which officially launched on the 14th of January at the London Boat Show. Defined as light displacement race boats, with an IRC TCC of between 1.210 and 1.270, the FAST40+ boats will deliver close and exciting inshore racing.
 
“The FAST40+ Class is an ideal fit for KZ Racefurlers, with its emphasis on high performance and exciting racing,” says Keryn McMaster, Brand Manager of KZ Racefurlers. “We are proud to be supporting the Class right from it’s inaugural season and looking forward to seeing the Class continue to grow.”

Having been in the making since 2013 this new class has already seen great interest with 12 teams from six nations entered in the Race Circuit and more set to sign up. So far the fleet is made up of two Carkeek 40 MKIIs, three Ker 40+ boats, five GP42’s, one highly optimised Ker 40 and an HH42.

The Race Circuit will see competition based around five key Solent-based events including Cowes Week and the FAST40+ UK National Championship, as well as the RORC Easter Challenge, Warsash Spring Championships, JP Morgan Round the Island Race and Garmin Hamble Big Boat Championships, with Class Starts at each event. The points series will commence in May 2016 at the Vice Admiral’s Cup event.

As well as sponsoring the class, KZ Racefurlers is also sponsoring one of the fleet, GP42 42 South. Owned by London based Kiwi Mark Rijkse the yacht is currently undergoing a refit ahead of the upcoming racing season. “We are kitting the boat out in the best KZ Racefurler equipment and are looking forward to following 42 South’s progress throughout the upcoming season,” says McMaster.

KZ Racefurlers has just completed work on our largest ever furlers: our new KZ25 furler and KZ25 Xtreme Head Swivel 25T furler. The first set, ordered by Mike Toppa of North Sails Florida, has just been completed for a new build Nautor's Swan yacht and is on its way to the yard in Finland.

The launch of these new models expands our range out to 25T safe working load (SWL) with a break load (BL) of 45T. The KZ25 Head Swivel is an 'Xtreme' version with all stainless steel replaced with titanium to save weight.  This unit weighs only 3540gm, compared to a standard version at 5420gm, giving a saving of almost 2kgs.

February was an exciting time for the KZ Marine Group team with the Volvo Auckland Stopover in town. We have a long-standing relationship with the race and are official furler suppliers to the boats. Not to mention two of our team – Keryn McMaster and Marleen Cleyndert – have completed four Volvo/Whitbread races between them!

We took advantage of the fleet being in town to offer all the yachts a full service on their furlers and head swivels – over 60 units between them – and were delighted to have positive feedback and how the furling systems had been performing. "It was a pleasure to work with the KZ team again during Team SCA's time in New Zealand for the 2014/2015 Volvo Ocean Race Auckland Stopover," said Richard Mason, Shore Manager for Team SCA. "The team did an amazing job for us, fully servicing our furler parts and systems."