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Effective as of 14 April 2016 Keryn McMaster, KZ Racefurlers Brand Manager, is leaving her role at KZ Marine Group. Keryn will be taking a year out to travel with her family, undertaking an extended world trip, before returning to New Zealand in 2017. Keryn joined the company five years ago, following a highly successful professional racing career and time out to start her family. One of the world’s most respected female sailors her accolades include two Volvo Ocean Race campaigns.  A restructure moving forward sees Rick Hackett, Managing Director of KZ Marine Group, take up the sales and service role, building on the current high standards of service, whilst Greg East will fully take over the design and production team. Rick has always worked closely alongside Keryn whilst being involved in design and production, so a seamless handover of operations is anticipated.
“We are, of course, very sorry to see Keryn go, but pleased that her departure is for all the right reasons and we look forward to hearing about her travels,” says Hackett. “Keryn’s significant experience has proved invaluable to the Racefurlers brand and we thank her for all her efforts, dedication and hard work during her time here.”
KZ Racefurlers continues to strengthen as the furler brand of choice for the performance-focused yachts and superyachts. In demonstration of the line's reliability and high service standards in February 2016 Volvo Ocean Race announced that KZ Racefurlers would continue as the official furler supplier to the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-2018.
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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.  Photo by Matt Knighton on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race "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”  Nick Bice To stay on the water longer, keep your equipment functioning the way it should do. We recommend every season that furlers and head swivels should be stripped and cleaned, spindles should be crack tested, pin holes checked for elongation and new bearings fitted with new grease. At the recent Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Auckland, we saw a huge difference between well maintained furlers and those that had received little love on the long ocean stretches. Teams which had a good maintenance schedule ultimately spent less on their equipment, as the only thing needing to be done was a clean, regrease and reassemble. Poor maintenance resulted in not only needing new bearings but in some cases, new spindles and housings as well.  Pictured here, above and below, is a poorly serviced unit from one of the Volvo Ocean Race teams. When we collected it for servicing, the bearing was in pieces and ceased into the housing. This furler had done 15,000 NM with no servicing. In these conditions we would expect the furlers to be checked and re-greased every 5000NM !   Talk to one of the team today about scheduling in a service for your KZ parts.
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."  (l to r) Keryn McMcMaster, Richard Mason - Team SCA, Rick Hackett & Richard Kilgour  Marleen Cleyndert & Keryn McMaster enjoying a day on the water with Team SCA  Farewelling the fleet as they depart on Leg 5 The Auckland leg of the Volvo stopover is fast approaching, and with the full fleet carrying KZ 10T offshore Racefurlers we are looking forward to seeing our gear back on home soil. The race village opens on February 27th, with the fleet in town until 15 March before the start of Leg 5. While the fleet is in Auckland we will be taking the opportunity to fully service all the Volvo fleet furlers to make sure they are in pristine condition ready for the remaining legs of the race. Stay posted for our activity surrounding the Stopover.  |
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