CUP BLOG: WHO ARE SEB MENZIES & CHRIS DRAPER - THE CO-HELMS WITH SKIPPER NATHAN OUTTERIDGE ON TAIHORO?
With Emirates Team New Zealand unveiling their striking, upgraded, AC75 ‘Taihoro’ down at the team’s Wynyard Point base, complete with its new Naples-blue foil arms as a nod to the ‘Road to Naples’ in 2027, all the talk dockside was about who will co-helm alongside Nathan Outteridge.
In a TV interview, the skipper let it be known that Seb Menzies and Chris Draper will be getting plenty of wheel time over the coming planned training block out on the Hauraki Gulf, Auckland, as the team makes one of the most crucial decisions of their defence of the Louis Vuitton 38th America’s Cup.
So who are the two highly talented sailors that will be making a claim for the most coveted seat in the America's Cup? Let’s take a deep-dive...
Seb Menzies
After bursting on to the sailing radar in New Zealand by winning the Optimist class national championships in 2017, Seb’s rise through the youth classes has been stellar. In 2018, sailing with Blake McGlashan, the pair went to Newport, Rhode Island for the 420 World Open Championships and aced a fleet of 167 boats from 18 countries, a feat they nearly repeated in 2019 where they scored a silver.
That year though (2019) they won the coveted Hempel Youth Sailing World Championships in Gdynia, Poland. After a transition to the 29er skiff class, by 2022, Seb was European Champion and the logical step was to move up to the Olympic 49er class where today they are one of the top-ranked teams in the world and eyeing the gold medal in Los Angeles in 2028.
Sailing with crew George Lee Rush, the team are the current European 49er European Champions, having won in Thessaloniki, Greece in 2025. Seb has also competed in the highly competitive International Moth single-handed foiling dinghy and placed a respectable 4th at the 2024 World Championships in Manly, New Zealand.
In mid-2023, Emirates Team New Zealand announced a selection process for the Youth and Women's America's Cup events in Barcelona, with Seb (then 19) identified as a top young talent following success in the ETF26 series with Live Ocean Racing. Seb was highlighted as a standout young sailor, known for his technical skill, and was part of the lineup announced in December 2023 to represent the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
Now with the chance of being co-helm alongside Nathan Outteridge in what could be an unprecedented fourth defence of the America’s Cup, Seb is ready to step up and helm the AC75 whilst keeping his Olympic ambitions alive. Speaking recently, he said: “We are learning so much off the more senior guys already. It is cool to be amongst them and getting stuck into the simulator and really looking forward to getting into the AC75. Just being able to sail the boat that defended the America's Cup is going to be a big thing, and I’m very excited about it.”
Chris Draper
Right up until Barcelona 2024, Chris Draper held a unique record in yachting being the only helmsman from Great Britain ever to contest a Louis Vuitton Cup Final. Back in 2013, on the tempestuous waters of San Francisco Bay, Chris helmed the Luna Rossa AC72 catamaran, ultimately being defeated by his current employer, Emirates Team New Zealand. The journey to the America’s Cup has been one of international success for Chris who started sailing at a young age and quickly found himself in the RYA Youth programme in the UK, run by Jim Saltonstall. He was rapid in 420 dinghies, winning both the Youth & Senior National Championships in 1996.
Having transitioned from the youth dinghies up into the Olympic 49er Class, he was the ISA Sailing World Champion in 2003, followed up by European Champion in the class by 2004. In that same year, sailing with Simon Hiscocks, Chris scored the Bronze Medal at the Athens Olympic Games. His sailing journey didn’t stop there, and in 2006 he was crowned world 49er champion, as well as winning the Mumm 30 world championships.
Further successes followed, including a 49er European championship win in 2010, and inevitably he caught the eye of the America’s Cup world. In 2011 was brought into the Team Korea America’s Cup challenge, helming all the events in the AC45 World Series in 2011. With the America’s Cup World Series in place for 2012, Chris joined the two-boat catamaran programme of Luna Rossa as helmsman. Success came quickly with the
Luna Rossa Piranha team winning the first ACWS fleet racing event in Naples, followed by a second in the Venice regatta match-racing soon after. The ‘Piranhas’ went on to win the fleet racing in Newport, Rhode Island that year and placed second in San Francisco.
The following year, Chris was the defeated finalist in the Louis Vuitton Cup and stayed with the Luna Rossa team until their eventual withdrawal from the 35th America’s Cup in 2015. Thereafter he joined the Softbank Team Japan as Sailing Team Manager, Tactician and Wing Trimmer for the America’s Cup World Series leading into the 2017 America’s Cup in Bermuda.
After several years on the global foiling circuit, Chris returned to the America’s Cup in 2023 when he was appointed as Head of Performance for Athena Pathway, a program dedicated to preparing British Youth and Women's teams for the 2024 America's Cup regattas. In May 2025, Chris joined Emirates Team New Zealand for the Louis Vuitton 38thAmerica’s Cup in Naples and will contest the ci-helm spot as one of two non-nationals permitted.
The co-helm spot on Taihoro is one of the most talked-about positions in the Louis Vuitton 38th America's Cup and both Seb and Chris will be giving it everything out on the Hauraki Gulf in Auckland from Tuesday 10th March, the first planned training day.
Who do you think will be on the starting line for Emirates Team New Zealand alongside Nathan Outteridge come Naples on the 10th July 2027?
Magnus Wheatley