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Jake Pye could be excused for wondering what he did to upset the weather gods.
After all, the rising Kiwi sailing star was only a couple of decent race results away from being crowned as the Moth world champion in the UK when the wind died.
The Auckland schoolboy was one of seven Kiwis in a stacked fleet for the world championships at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy just under a fortnight ago, which were eventually scuppered by a lack of breeze with only two races completed across the seven-day event.
Though Pye finished at the top of the leaderboard - four points ahead of a group of three other sailors after winning both his fleet races - the championship rules require a minimum of four completed races for a valid result.
Jake Pye was leading the fleet at the 2023 Moth world championships when the breeze died. Photos / Mark Jardine
“We only needed two more races for the worlds title to be official and I was feeling pretty confident as the event went on, but unfortunately that’s just how it goes sometimes,” said Pye, who claimed the International Moth UK Open championship title at the same venue only days earlier.
He won the event known as the pre-worlds by one point from Australian Tom Burton with four top-three finishes (including two wins) from five completed races.
Given the form Pye was in, few would have bet against the 17-year-old staying at the top of the world championship leaderboard – and joining an illustrious list of previous winners including Tom Slingsby, Paul Goodison, Nathan Outteridge and Peter Burling.
Burling was the last Kiwi to bag the title with his 2015 triumph in Sorrento, Australia.
Although “very disappointed”, Pye is pleased to have proved to himself that he belongs among the best Moth sailors around.
“I still learnt a lot from the training and the opportunities we had to get out and race against some very tough competition prior to the worlds and the UK nationals," he said.
“From that, it was very satisfying to know that I and the other New Zealanders were very competitive against the rest of the world.”
Pye took out the UK nationals by beating more than 90 boats from 16 nations - with fellow Kiwis Henry Haslett (6th), Seb Menzies (11th), Mattias Coutts (12th), Jack Bennett (27th), Stuart Goodes (56th), and George Lee Rush (81st) also giving a good account of themselves.
Almost 130 boats lined up for the world championships.
Jake Pye won the UK national title only days before the start of the world championships. Photo / Phil Jackson, Digital Sailing
“The standard of the fleet was quite high, and other competitors who had been to previous worlds told me that the top group were all very similar at this event, which made it great competitive racing,” said Pye.
“It was great to have a group of other Kiwis there, we all knew each other and this helped to pass the windless days."
He has only been back in New Zealand for a few days but Pye, who dominated the 2023 New Zealand national Moth championships at Wakatipu in February by winning 13 of 18 races, is already thinking of ways to secure the gold medal at the next class world champs - at his local Manly Sailing Club in December 2024.
“The Moth is still my focus. I still have plenty to learn and to prove and I know that the competition for the next worlds will be a lot stronger."
Hopefully, so will the wind.
