PredictWind Moth World Championship at Manly Sailing Club Day 2
by Suellen Hurling for Live Sail Die & PredictWind 5 Jan 08:01 UTC
4-9 January 2025
Day 2 - 2024 PredictWind Moth Worlds. Manly Sailing Club. January 5, 2025 © Suellen Hurling / Live Sail Die
An earlier start didn't bother the young Kiwis who were the first out of the boat park for Day 2 of the PredictWind Moth World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand.
The home advantage is making waves on the scoreboard with Mattias Coutts (NZL) now leading the 74 strong fleet after an impressive line up of results. Coutts has had a 1, 2, 1, 1, 3 putting him on eight points overall, with training partner Jacob Pye (NZL) in second with a 1, 1, 10, 1, 1 and 14 points overall. The two 19 year olds definitely have the home advantage with Manly Sailing Club, the host for the PredictWind Moth World Championships, their backyard.
Harry Melges (USA) rounds out the top three after fives races with a 2, 5, 5, 5, 6 putting him on 23 points. Jack Bennett (NZL) is fourth overall after four races, with a 4, 3, 1, 8, 9 putting him on 25 points.
The youth are leading the charge with the top six all 21 years or younger. The top Open Division sailor is former two-time WASZP Games Champion Sam Street, also from New Zealand and he sits 7th overall.
"It was great to get four races [on the Bravo Course] in today in very streaky conditions," said Street.
"I'm just trying to keep the races really simple. The fleet is very quick and making little mistakes very costly. Definitely looking forward to some more racing tomorrow," continued Street.
It was another challenging day of racing for the fleet, split across two courses. Coutts and Pye are also split, with Coutts on the Alpha Course (yellow) and Pye on the Bravo Course (blue). There is excitement building across their fan bases to see these two line up on the same race course once the finals start on Wednesday 8th January.
Hattie Rogers (GBR) is leading the charge in the women's division sitting 35th overall with Sinem Kurtbay (FIN) in second (46th overall) and Nicole van der Velden (ESP) in third (52nd overall)
Oscillating breeze, 20 degree wind shifts, with the wind going from 12 knots to 20 knots in seconds with the squalls falling over the cliffs and onto the race course.
Bravo Course (blue) headed out to their course area for an 1100 hour start, with the race getting away roughly on time. However there was a massive delay between the first and second race of the day due to the changing conditions, and once the race finally started, unfortunately it was blown up half way through thanks to the conditions going well above the Moth class upper limit meaning it was unsafe for the sailors to continue.
The fleet headed back to shore to wait it out, before heading out again, this time with Alpha Course (yellow) in tow, with the races across both courses now insync.
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team and Olympic Gold Medal winning coach, Hamish Willcox, spoke at a North Sails sponsored post-race debrief and promtpted the sailors to focus on their strategy, plan, and stick to it. He also reminded sailors to not only just look at the water, but at the clouds, which greatly assist with understanding where to place yourself on the course.
Five qualifying races have now been completed, with one more day of qualifying to go before a well deserved reserve day kicks in on Tuesday 7th January. The PredictWind Moth World Championships wraps up with two days of finals racing, with the fleets split into gold and silver, before a world champion can be confirmed.
Since being recognised as an international class, only one Kiwi has ever won the Moth World Championship. Peter Burling won the event back in 2015 in Sorrento, Australia, and while Jacob Pye won the only two races of the 2023 World Championship in Weymouth UK, the lack of races due to the lack of wind meant the event never crowned an official world champion.
Full results available here.