Chris Steele
New Zealand
ISAF Ranking 23
Team: 36 Below Racing

Chris Steele is a talented young Kiwi skipper, a product of the powerhouse Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron training program. He has been match racing in earnest since 2011. A testament to his talent is a record move up the ISAF rankings in just one year, 2012, from 560 to 62.

In 2013 he headed over to race in the USA. He sailed his way from the west coast, in Governors Cup, took a stop off in Canada for a regatta, moved on to the Grand Slam Series, and ended his season in Bermuda at the Gold Cup, his first WMRT event.

2014 was a similar year capped by his second appearance in WMRT event, the Chicago Cup. 2015 was a busy and successful year, starting out with a win in the ISAF Nations Cup Regional Finals and ending 2016 by winning the New Zealand Match Racing Championships. Chris returns this year to shake things up in his fourth Congressional Cup appearance.

In 2017, Steele continued on with the World Match Racing Tour and a few Extreme Sailing Series events. The team achieved a personal best in the open ISAF rankings of 5th, and again finished the year as they did in 2016 with a 4th place overall at the WMRT World Champs in China.

Steele is very grateful to return to Long Beach, his home away from home, and to have a chance to win the esteemed Congressional Cup and the Crimson Blazer.

Anatole Masfen - Pit
Steward Dodson - Trim
Norm Peterson - Trim
Will Tiller - Main
Austin Colpaert - Bow

7th Congressional Cup ’15
6th Congressional Cup ’16
8th Congressional Cup '17

4th WMT World Championship - Shenzhen Match Cup '17 Shenzen, CHN
6th WMRT Chicago Match Cup '17 Chicago, USA
7th World Match Tour - GKSS Match Cup Sweden '17 Marstrand, SWE
5th World Match Tour - Match Cup Australia '17 Freshwater Bay, Perth, AUS
1st Warren Jones International Youth Regatta '17 Royal Perth Yacht Club, AUS