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The country’s top young sailors have been making waves internationally over the past weeks, competing in major regattas in Italy, Spain, Germany, England, Poland and Greece - with some securing podium spots.
Few have impressed more than O’pen Skiff sailor Ewan Brazle and RS: Feva pair Callum Hyde and Callum Noyer – both winning age-group world titles in Europe.
Despite being only 13, Brazle took out the under-15 title at the O’pen Skiff world championships in Rimini, Italy a fortnight ago – overcoming equipment failure to win the last of 14 races and see off a strong challenge from Spanish youngsters Pepe Garcia and Oriol Costabella.
Brazle had earlier also won an international ranking regatta in Cagliari to head into the worlds as one of the favourites in his division.
Teammate Hugo Smith finished ninth in the same fleet featuring more than 160 boats, followed by Orlando Botha (31st) and Robert Abel-Pattinson (70th).
Oliver Tiedemann came fourth in the under-12 category at the same regatta, with Storm Douwes 39th in the under-17 competition.
Callum Hyde and Callum Noyer are under-13 world champions in the RS: Feva class.
Hyde and Noyer, who won the junior category at the 2023 NZ RS: Feva nationals, were crowned under-13 champions at the world championships in Follonica, Italy last week.
The Maraetai Sailing Club duo finished an impressive fourth overall with four top-10 results across the 10 races, including a bullet in their sixth race of the regatta.
Hot on their heels were David and Cameron Ferris, finishing sixth overall and first in the family competition, followed by Erin and Isla Kee (21st overall, third family).
Full results from the 2023 RS: Feva world championships here.
Meanwhile, Seb Menzies and George Lee Rush led the Kiwi charge with an overall ninth place at the 49er junior world championships in Travemunder, Germany.
They were among the top 10 in the fleet in nine of the 14 races, with a best result of second but couldn’t chase down runaway leaders Jack Ferguson and Jack Hildebrand of Australia.
Three other Kiwi crews also finished in the top 20 with Francesco Kayrouz and Hamish McLaren 11th, Sam Bacon and Cailen Rochford 14th, and Campbell Stanton and Will Shapland 20th.
Bacon and Rochford and Stanton and Shapland will next join the rest of the NZL Sailing Team in The Hague, for the 2023 Sailing World Championships.
Full results from the 49er Junior World Championships here.
Staying with the skiffs, where Sean and Rowan Kensington have had a somewhat erratic start to the 29er world championships in Weymouth.
The brothers, who dominated the class in New Zealand last season, finished second in the first race of their flight in a fleet of more than 200 boats.
They followed it up with scores of 9, 26 and 19 to drop to 44th overall after the first two days – 27 points behind the leading Australian crew of Ben Crafoord and Jacob Marks.
Kiwis Lucy Leith and Chloe Turner sit just outside the top 25 in the female division and are 141st overall.
Latest results from the 2023 29er World Championships here.
Cam Brown and Alex Norman couldn’t quite capitalise on a promising start in their first 420 World Championships in Alicante, Spain.
Light-air struggles during gold fleet racing saw the 2023 Oceanbridge NZL Sailing Regatta winners drop to 25th overall, with compatriots Joe Leith and Joshua Ferrissey finishing 38th.
Cam Brown and Alex Norman couldn't capitalise on a strong start at the 420 world championships.
Brown and Norman, and Leith and Ferrissey managed similar results at the 420 Junior European Championships in Gdynia, Poland only weeks earlier – finishing 27th and 31st respectively.
Jed Potbury and Finn Balchin failed to qualify for the gold fleet in Alicante, finishing 75th in the 130-boat fleet. Tara Labat and Rose Dickey were 56th in the female category.
Full results from the 2023 420 World Championships here.
Elsewhere, Kate Rasmussen finished 106th in the ILCA 4 Youth World Championships in Volos Greece, while the Wigglesworth brothers Hugo and Toby had a tough Formula Kite Youth World Championships in Gizzeria, Italy.
Hugo Wigglesworth, a former NZL Youth squad member in 2022 and this year’s Oceanbridge champion finished 29th out of 64 competitors, while younger brother Toby was 55th.
Lucy Bilger was 16th in the 23-board girls fleet.
Full results from the 2023 ILCA 4 Youth World Championships here.
Full results from the 2023 Formula Kite Youth World Championships here.
Matteo Barker (39th), Isaac Gaites (42nd), Charlie Bridger (50th), Ekhi de Jager (103rd), and Nathan Soper (177th) battled bravely against some 240 other competitors at the 2023 Optimist World Championships in Costa Brava, Spain in late June.
