Cole Tapper’s journey from school sailor to champion match racer

For those plugged into the match racing world, the name Cole Tapper would be familiar, having featured prominently in sailing results and on news websites and social media.

Tapper, the Kairos Racing skipper, has led his crew of Hamish Vass (bow person), George Richardson (mainsail trimmer), Max Brennan (trimmer), Nathan Gulliksen (pit/offside trimmer) and Jack Frewin (tactician) to victory in several prestigious match racing events.

Kairos Racing’s titles include 2024 World Sailing Youth Match Racing championship and two-time Governor’s Cup champions. In May 2026, they became only the second Australian team to win the Congressional Cup since the event commenced in 1965. Tapper is ranked second to the USA’s Christopher Poole in World Sailing’s match racing rankings.

How did the CYCA’S Youth Sailing Academy (YSA) alumni sailor go from sailing as a school activity to one of the best match racers on the international circuit? Cole sat down with Offshore Online to talk about his love of sailing, the key to building a successful team, future sailing ambitions, and the dedication required to become one of the most talked-about match racing sailors of the year.

From dinghy sailing to match racing

How did you get involved in sailing?

Neither of my parents sail, but my dad was big into fishing, so we were always around the water.

I actually got into sailing through school at the Scots College when I was 10. My older brother Finn, sailed in an after-school program and came back and said it was pretty good. I was in the bottom grade cricket team, so I switched to sailing and really enjoyed it from the start. I started in the Optimist class.

I was at the back of the fleet for a long time. But eventually I started to get better. I had a few people take leaps of faith in me, which was nice. I got selected into the state Optimist squad when I probably was objectively the worst sailor… by like a lot. So, I think people taking chances on me, like Scots Sailing Director Beau Junk, in that respect really helped me catch up to the others.

I then did teams racing in high school on Pacers, which was lots of fun. That introduced me to good people who were older, like [CYCA YSA alumni] Harry Price who went to the same school as me. That flowed into me attending the CYCA’s Youth Sailing Academy because Harry had done it as well. So, it lined up nicely, having those people around.

But teams racing is my favourite – I love it, you know all the carnage and near crashes. That’s why match racing felt like a natural progression after that.

What is it about match racing that gives it the edge over fleet racing?

I like being able to play out the scenarios, like, “If they do this, then we do this” and “If this happens, we set up in this way.” I like the theory about how to react to moves and predict what the other person’s going to do. The mental challenge of it is really fun. You get that in fleet racing too, but I think match racing is more like direct combat. It’s more on the aggressive manoeuvres side than the finesse side.

What do you love about sailing?

I love sailing in a team. I enjoy sailing by myself, but nowhere near as much as sailing in a team. Building a good team and working on how you complement each other is the most rewarding thing, more than the physical act of sailing. And sailing in Sydney Harbour – we’re pretty lucky.

How did Kairos Racing form?

My first season where we started getting some decent results was in 2022.

My older brother Finn was finishing up youth match racing. He sailed with George Richardson, who’s our mainsail trimmer. George and Finn had aged out, but they offered to crew in the US Grand Slam series for me. Hamish, our bowman, was already sailing with me at the time, but we were both very inexperienced. Nathan Gulliksen has also sailed with us for a long time as well.

George and Finn mentored us through four events and essentially carried the team because we were very green. We didn’t really know what was happening, and it was our first time racing a boat that wasn’t an Elliott 7. We did well and learnt heaps.

Meet the team

Max Brennan (trimmer)

Off the back of that, Max Brennan, who is American, had been stuck in the US studying online with the University of Sydney. He couldn’t move to Australia because of Covid-19. At the time, we didn’t know he was a crew member on board the winning 2022 Youth Worlds match racing team. We met him in America and he said, “Hey, I’m coming to Australia, are you guys doing some racing?” We somehow convinced him to join a team that was composed of people who had never done anything half-decent. And he was a world champion. He said yes and that levelled up the team quickly. Getting him was a huge win.

Jack Frewin (tactician)

Max agreed to race in all the Australian events with us, except for his home event, the Governor’s Cup (held in California). We were like, “Shit, who are we going to get?” We’d raced a lot against Jack Frewin, who’s a Kiwi, and knew he was good. We sort of poached him from New Zealand for that one event in 2024 and did better than we thought we would. It worked out that Jack was a great fit as well.

George Richardson (mainsail trimmer)

George went from sailing with my brother to sailing with me. He brings his big boat experience to the table. He’s done a lot of yacht sailing and has a good technical approach. He’s got the ability to tell me off when needed, which is good.

We had a group of six great people. Different events require different body weights and different crew numbers. We were lucky to have enough crew for each event.

We have done a lot of racing together for the past three or four years. And we love the Congressional Cup because all six of us are on the one boat, which is cool.

I know I would struggle to race with confidence with people I didn’t feel comfortable around. It’s nice to sail with people who have inspired me to become better at what I do.

What goes into the preparation to achieve this level of success?

It’s become harder to organise training together over the years, what with everyone finishing university, getting jobs and Jack living in New Zealand. So, we’ve resorted to intensive camps out of the CYCA.

We re-watch our racing from the year before and read over our notes. We analyse the videos and observe the boat handling, speed, and tactics. And then we come together for a weekend training camp against any other good sailors we can get. Often that’s our coach Jordan Reece, the CYCA Head Coach. We race against him and train together intensively for a weekend, have a debrief, a break, and then go into the event shortly after. That’s the way to get the team locked in on one type of boat for one event.

Training for the international circuit

Congressional Cup, Long Beach, USA (May)

We’re super lucky to have CYCA members loan us Sydney 38s for training.

In Long Beach the breeze basically blows from the same direction every day, it’s remarkably reliable. They set the start line about 100 metres away from a pier where the spectators hang out. In the pre-start before every race, there’s a few different moves you can do with the pier to kill time or control the other boat. It’s unique to that event.

When we did our training camp this year, we laid out a pretend pier with marks in Rushcutters Bay and then simulated the different things you can do with it. Doing that made the biggest difference because we felt really strong going into this year’s event. If we could lead to the pier and be the first one to get there, we always felt comfortable. That was gratifying. We put in the work, and it worked out. Stuff like that [our pretend pier] is not perfect, but you do what you can.

Ahead of the event, we’re lucky that our coach Jordan Reece was willing to help out and a lot of the sailors from the YSA Advanced Squad program crewed on the other boat. They came out for the weekend and raced against us. Everyone’s willing to help each other out, which is cool. Everyone wins, right?

Congressional Cup win

The Congressional Cup – what a win. You were 2-0 down in the semi-final before clawing your way back to win the whole regatta. How did you do that?

The year prior [2025 Congressional Cup] we had done a lot of training, but we were still pretty fresh. With all these events, we are sailing in boats that are different to the boats we race at home in Australia.

The Catalina 37 (the boat in at the Congressional Cup) – is massive and heavy, and all the default moves change based on the boat. The year before we felt like we’d made a big step up and we ended up losing three-nil to Chris Poole in the semi-finals. To be honest with you, that was a great result for us. For only our second time in Long Beach, California, we were happy with that.

We came back to the Congressional Cup this year having done even more work. Through the week of the event we felt like we were gaining momentum. Each day we came in, we were like, “Yeah, that was better than the day before.” We were fixing mistakes; our boat handling and our speed were improving.

All the signs were really positive. Then suddenly we’re in the semis and down two-nil again. We were in the same spot as the year before. It was frustrating. But we knew we were in a better spot than last year even though we were in the same spot, if that makes sense? We held onto the belief that we could do it. It’s not a good thing to be down two-nil in a final series two years running, but we’re working on fixing that.

When we were down two-nil in the semis, we went home for the night, and the team vibe was good. That vibe continued into the final day. The pressure was off because we’d already put ourselves in the worst possible position, so what else could go wrong?

We knew not to do anything crazily different in the final race of the semis. We set out to minimise risk and to make level-headed decisions. We went on to win the semis 3-2.

We were so focused on the semi-final fight-back that we rolled into the finals without thinking too much about it and just continued to build the momentum. We didn’t have a chance to stop and go, “Oh shit, we’re in the finals now.”

What was going through your mind when you crossed the finish line of the final race of the series?

In the last race we got a penalty on Switzerland at the bottom mark, so we had a little bit of distance. On our boat, everyone was making sure there was no stone unturned, the boat handling had to be perfect. We crossed the line and I took a deep breath and went, “Oh, thank God for that.” It took a while before we realised, “It’s done.”

How were the post-race celebrations?

Earlier in the week, I’d come into Long Beach Yacht Club and someone heard me singing Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond. And they forced me to do karaoke mid-week. So, me and Hamish sang Sweet Caroline to 200 people, which was my worst nightmare. I did not want to do that but there was no getting out of it. And on the last day when we were coming in, all the members were standing up on the deck as we sailed by, blaring Sweet Caroline. It was a nice moment for the team.

I understand that Jordan was coaching you from the pier during this event?

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to call him from the boat, so we did a flyby of the pier after every race. He’s been coaching me and the team for so long now that he knows what to say at the right time and he keeps us honest. He knows that just hearing positive feedback doesn’t work sometimes, we need something to work on.

That’s the vibe of the whole team, we go better when we’re chipping away at something, a little project to work on. Jordan kept giving us good advice throughout the day, like a few more moves to execute better while making sure we still felt good. It was good to have him there the whole time. It was a nice moment when we got back to the dock after the last race. He’s done as much work for that win as any of us, he’s part of the team.

Your parents must be proud of your Congressional Cup win?

They were up watching the semis back in Sydney, which, to be honest, I was surprised by. I think a lot of people had probably written us off when we were down in the semis. It’s nice they had enough faith to watch.

I spoke to them when I got in briefly, and they were stoked. But I tried to keep my phone off me because I knew I was going to get thrown in the pool.

Plan for back half of the year

Next on the calendar is the Match Cup Sweden, Bermuda Gold Cup, the WMRT Final. Can you talk us through those campaigns?

We’ll compete in the Match Cup Sweden in June and we’re working to include the Bermuda Gold Cup in October in our schedules. Both will be sailed in Fareast boats, which will provide us with excellent preparation for the World Championships in Saudi Arabia at the year’s end—also raced in the Fareast class.

Have you won Worlds before?

No, not an open one. We haven’t historically performed very well at worlds. The last two in Shenzhen, China, I think we finished eighth and sixth. It’s an event that we feel like we haven’t really executed. Last year we went down two-nil to Ian Williams (GBR), came back to two-all, and then lost the final race because of this nail-biter penalty killer at the finish. We did all the hard work to come back and then lost, and then he eventually won. Ian Williams is the benchmark. He’s won nine world titles.

What are your long-term goals?

I think anyone would love to be a part of SailGP or the America’s Cup. Particularly the America’s Cup, which I’ve followed forever. Seeing the new Australian America’s Cup team is pretty exciting for any young, aspiring sailor in Australia. That’s definitely a goal for a lot of us.

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