It was there, last year in the South Island championships, that he beat Murray Philpott, of Christchurch, the undisputed New Zealand champion of A-class catamarans for several years.
Next week, Urquhart gets another chance to take on the Barcelona reserve Olympian in the national A-class championships, being held on Lake Wanaka for the first time.
Urquhart has been runner-up to Philpott at the nationals two years running and describes his main rival as "certainly not unbeatable, but he's a lot better".
"He has been the national champion for many years and is still ranked [in the] top 10 in the world. Obviously, he is the man to beat but that is probably unrealistic . . .
"There are three or four contenders for the second spot. On the day, anything can happen.
"This is a development class, so it is the state of the equipment as much as the skill of the sailor," Urquhart said.
Urquhart is in good form as he goes into the nationals after competing earlier this week in the World A-class championships in Sydney, where he was placed 56th of 97 competitors.
The mid-fleet result was pleasing for the sailor who has raced at four world competitions and describes himself as "tourist-class".
Wanaka Yacht Club commodore Chris Conroy said Urquhart's result was "pretty good" in a world contest racing against people "who are really very serious".
Conroy described Urquhart as a modest "dark horse" who would often let his clubmates find out on the grapevine how he had fared in national competition.
Urquhart supported young club-members, whom he had been coaching for three years, Mr Conroy said.
"Ken does all the Optimist training every Saturday. He sits on the rocks, starts and finishes the races and putts behind them in the boat.
"Last year, Ken was training the kids here and disappeared just before Christmas to Auckland to the New Zealand A-class nationals and got second.
"He then reappeared and no-one realised he had gone. He didn't mention it to anyone."
Urquhart said because the A-class catamaran competition was a development class, many boats were technologically "cutting-edge".
The boats were light, about 75kg, and could reach very high speeds.
The races will take place in Roys Bay in winds of between four and 22 knots.
Urquhart may be one of few people happy with Wanaka's windy spell: he described Thursday's 19kmh southwesterly breeze as "absolutely perfect".
He was excited about racing in the field of 16 entrants, which is about the same number who raced in last year's nationals in Auckland.
Racing will take place between January 19 and 23.
The winner is determined by an aggregate score over eight races.
