Issue date
The 2021 Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards are just around the corner and some winners have already been announced. In the third of a three-part series, meet the winners in the Yachting New Zealand performance category.
Unfortunately we have had to cancel this year's Volvo Yachting Excellence Awards dinner, which was due to be held at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron on November 12, because of the ongoing lockdown in Auckland. We still think it's important to recognise all of this year's winners so will be hosting online awards on our Facebook and YouTube pages at 6pm on November 12.
Jo Aleh (Takapuna Boating Club)
Jo Aleh had never sailed a Moth before heading to Italy for this year's world championships but showed her class by finishing second overall in the women's competition. The former Olympic and world 470 champion has spent the last few years more focused on coaching, guiding Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson to 12th in the Nacra 17 at this year's Tokyo Olympics, but travelled to Lake Garda after the Games to compete at the Moth worlds. She was one of only 12 women to qualify for gold fleet among the 130 boats overall, and feels she has plenty of room for improvement in the foiling class.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke (RNZYS, RAYC, Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club, Kerikeri Cruising Club)
Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.
Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have created plenty of records in their time sailing together and added another earlier this year at the Tokyo Games when they joined windsurfer Barbara Kendall as the only Kiwi sailors to win three Olympic medals. It wasn't quite the gold they were chasing, with Great Britain pipping Germany on the line to win a dramatic 49er medal race and the Olympic title, but Burling and Tuke added silver to their silver in London in 2012 and gold in Rio in 2016. Of course, the pair were also instrumental in Emirates Team New Zealand's defence of the America's Cup and also led New Zealand's entry in their first season of the SailGP.
Erica Dawson (Murrays Bay Sailing Club, RAYC)
Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.
Erica Dawson had a year of big highs and lows in 2021. Her Olympic dreams were nearly shattered along with her fractured leg in a training accident only five weeks before the Tokyo Games but she healed quickly to take her place alongside Micah Wilkinson in the Nacra 17. The pair were a little underdone in Tokyo and finished 12th and Dawson then rejoined the New Zealand SailGP Team, quickly becoming the first Kiwi female to race in the high-octane series. Interestingly, the New Zealand team won their first race, and second of the year, with Dawson on board.
Emirates Team New Zealand (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
Photo: America's Cup.
Team New Zealand can now claim to being the most successful America's Cup team in modern history after defending the Auld Mug in 2021. It was an America's Cup with the difference, being held under the spectre of Copvid-19, but it was a spectacular regatta sailed in the high-speed AC75s and watched by huge crowds of Kiwis supporters on the Hauraki Gulf. Team New Zealand came under some pressure in the America's Cup match - the Italians led 3-2 after five races - but showed superior boat speed and crew work to prevail 7-3 and become only the second nation to successfully challenge and defend the America’s Cup twice.
Alastair Gifford, Max South, Frankie Dair (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
Alastair Gifford and his crew carried on a fine recent tradition for teams out of the Royal New Zealand yacht Squadron by winning the 2021 US Grand Slam. Gifford’s success in the match racing series followed that of Nick Egnot Johnson and Knots Racing (2018) and Jordan Stevenson and Vento Racing (2019). The 2020 series was cancelled due to Covid-19. Gifford won both the Chicago Cup and Detroit Cup, finished third in the Thompson Cup, and was sixth at the Oakcliff International to claim the series overall and earn an invitation to next year’s Congressional Cup.
Josh Junior (RNZYS, RAYC, Worser Bay Boating Cub, Weiti Boating Club)
Photo: Robert Deaves.
Josh Junior confirmed his standing as one of the world's best Finn sailors when he finished third at this year's Finn Gold Cup. That result was impressive, especially as it was at his first Finn regatta since winning the 2019 Finn Gold Cup, and helped him earn selection for the Tokyo Olympics where he finished fifth. Junior was also a key member of Team New Zealand's America's Cup-winning crew and the New Zealand SailGP Team.
Knots Racing - Nick Egnot Johnson, Zak Merton, Sam Barnett, Bradley McLaughlin (Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron)
Photo: Andrew Delves / RNZYS.
Nick Egnot Johnson and his Knots Racing team's international ambitions over the last 12 months were largely thwarted by Covid-19 but they still put together an impressive domestic record. They won the 2021 Theland New Zealand Open National Keelboat Championships and 2021 Harken Youth International Match Racing Championships and were second at the 2020 Harken New Zealand Match Racing Championships. They are still third on the match racing world rankings and this year gained their tour card to the World Match Racing Tour.
Liv Mackay (Napier Sailing Club)
Photo: New Zealand SailGP Team.
Liv Mackay joined Erica Dawson in winning selection as part of the female development programme for the New Zealand SailGP Team in 2021 and has been an integral member both on and off the water. She's been involved in every regatta so far this year and helmed the boat on numerous occasions in training and has also played a key role in communications and analysis to help the team get every ounce of speed out of their F50.
Andy Maloney (RNZYS, RAYC, Murrays Bay Sailing Club)
Photo: Robert Deaves.
It was a bit like waiting for a bus - New Zealand waited nearly 60 years to win the Finn Gold Cup and then two came along one after the other. Earlier this year, Andy Maloney matched Josh Junior's achievement in 2019 of winning the Finn world championships and ensuring the famous trophy stayed in this country for another year (the 2020 Finn Gold Cup was cancelled due to Covid-19). Maloney led from virtually start to finish in Porto, revelling in the often big waves and strong breezes, to finish ahead of Spain's Joan Cardona with great mate Junior in third. Maloney was also a key member of Team New Zealand's America's Cup-winning crew and the New Zealand SailGP Team.
Sam Meech (Tauranga Yacht & Power Boat Club)
Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.
A 10th-placed finish at the Tokyo Olympics might not have been the result Sam Meech was after at the Games but that didn't tell the full story of his regatta. The Rio bronze medallist went in as one of the favourites in the Laser but woke up with an infected knee on the eve of the event. Not only was it painful but it also severely restricted his movement which made a top-10 finish in the most competitive of the Olympic classes a notable achievement.
Paul Snow-Hansen and Daniel Willcox (Wakatere Boating Club and Murrays Bay Sailing Club)
Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing.
Finishing fourth at an Olympic Games is never easy but Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox can look back on their Tokyo campaign with immense pride. The pair sailed consistently well throughout the event in sometimes treacherous conditions but fell agonisingly short of a spot on the podium, finishing two points off third. They had gone into the Olympics with a realistic shot of a medal after winning the European championships earlier in the year in their first international regatta in more than 12 months.
Lukas Walton-Keim (Takapuna Boating Club)
Photo: Foil Bay of Islands.
Kitefoiler Lukas Walton-Keim was untouchable on the domestic front over the last 12 months, winning everything he entered from the national championships and Foil Bay of Islands to the King of the Waitemata. At Foil Bay of Islands, for instance, he won all 10 races. Walton-Keim has his sights on the 2024 Paris Olympics, when kitefoiling will be on the programme for the first time, and showed some promise at the recent world championships by finishing 25th in his first international competition in two years.
Catch up on the youth performance award winners here
AND service and cruising award winners here
