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A healthy dose of local sailing intel was key to their podium push at the recent 420 world championships in Rio de Janeiro, says Joe Leith.
The 16-year-old Auckland helm and crew Josh Ferrissey claimed the biggest prize of their young sailing careers so far when they won bronze in a near-80-boat fleet in the Brazilian city - their first world champs medal at their third attempt.
The pair sailed consistently well in challenging conditions, bagging five top-three finishes in 12 races - including a bullet to finish only two points shy of second-placed Italians Lisa Vucetti and Vittorio Bonifacio.
Another mixed crew, Brazil's Lucas Freitas and Victoria Back, won the gold medal.
"It was a pretty good week of racing - six days, two races a day, in some pretty good wind strength [of] eight to 15 knots most of the time, but really tricky conditions," Leith said.
Brushing up on their knowledge of conditions was important in conditions which were a world away from their home waters.
"There were some big shifts coming down from underneath Sugarloaf Mountain and it was really tidal as well, which we're not so used to sailing off of Murrays Bay.
"Luckily, we had Tiago [Brito], a Brazilian coach, who had sailed at the same venue multiple times, so he could help decipher what was going on on the course and help us out there."
Josh Ferrissey (left) and Joe Leith (right) with coach Tiago Brito. Photo / Supplied
Their bronze capped a prolific 12 months for the talented teens which saw them make New Zealand history by winning all 12 races en route to the crown at the national championships in Wellington in March and comfortably winning the youth trials in late September to book their spot at the youth sailing world championships in Buzios last month.
Leith and Ferrissey were the best performers at the youth worlds, finishing fifth overall before securing a podium spot in Rio just under a month later.
They started sailing together two years ago and have gradually improved their standing among the world's best 420 teams after spending a slot of time working on their starts. They finished 75th at the world champs in Alsoors, Hungary in 2022 and led early at last year's event in Alicante, Spain before light airs and a few mistakes saw them drop back to 38th.
"Going into the regatta, we knew it was going to be tough as the competition gets harder every year," said Ferrissey.
"This was proven as last year's world champions from Spain [Pol Mateu Badia and Alejandro de Maqua Xalabarder] got 10th overall this time."
Ferrissey was full of praise for fellow Kiwi Nicola Hume, who was forced to change her sailing partner at the last minute after Tessa Clinton was injured shortly before the event.
Hume teamed up with young Brazilian Alex Kuhl and managed an impressive 36th place.
"It was nice to have Nicola and Alex as part of the NZL team as the Brazilians and Italians have such large and strong teams.
"We're also very lucky to have such an amazing team leader [Scott Leith] and thanks to [Yachting New Zealand youth and events manager] Sam Mackay and the rest of the coaching staff at YNZ for the great lead-up in New Zealand.
"We're really proud of what we have achieved."
Leith and Ferrissey on the podium in Rio. Photo / Supplied
Meanwhile, another leading Kiwi crew have beaten 18 other teams to win the 420 Australian championships in Largs Bay, South Australia.
Cam Brown and Alex Norman won an impressive seven of 10 completed races, to take the overall title by seven points from Will Wilkinson and Luca Alexander.
Final results and standings from the 420 world championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1. Lucas Freitas/Victoria Back (Bra) 1 2 4 (29) 4 9 6.33RDG 4 5 10 16 10 - 71.33 points
2. Lisa Vucetti/Vittorio Bonifacio (Ita) 7 5 9 1 20 3 1 2 17 2 11 (32) - 78 pts
3. Joe Leith/Josh Ferrissey (NZ) 5 6 3 3 17 1 10 18 2 3 (32) 12 - 80 pts
36. Alex Kuhl (Bra)/Nicola Hume (NZ) 19STP 19 27 (40RET) 6 4 2 32 36 32 21 21 25 - 225 pts
Full results here.
