Wilkinson replies: "She's the skipper because she has a tad more experience steering a boat."
He says the physical demands of hoisting sails and pulling ropes automatically define job descriptions.
"At times when I'm working hard she gives the orders but we make decisions together."
Auckland sailing coach Jim Maloney had "subtly" suggested the teenagers find common ground in a vessel and they did in Portugal about a year ago.
The evolution to the fastest class boat in the Olympics for the pair stems from contrasting routes.
For Mackay, who started from the traditional Optimist class at Napier club before blossoming into the 420 national champion last year and the year before, the 17-footer Nacra poses its share of challenges.
"It's a steep learning curve for me [in Nacra] because everyone's very good," she says, emphasising that it's a lot faster so sailors have to think more quickly on what seems to be a shrinking course.
"There are people in their 40s in the field."
Wilkinson echoes similar sentiments.
"You can have an older guy who has won multiple medals so it can be intimidating at times but you have to have confidence in your ability to one day knock them off."
He skipped the Optimists as a youngster, finding it too slow so he went through a range of boats to find traction in the P class at 16 and by the following year he was flirting with catamarans.
"I wanted to go faster," says the bloke who booked berths to two Youth World Championships before returning witha crown in 2013 as proof of his mettle.
That paved not only the way to the Youth New Zealand Aon fast track squad but also made his pursuit for Olympic glory a no-brainer.
Mackay, who also is in the youth squad, came sixth at the 420 youth worlds.
"She's coming from a slower boat so it's a steeper learning curve for her but she's very good at it," he says.
With the help of Youth NZ, the high performance level-three athletes have tamed nautical courses in the Netherlands, England, Denmark, Japan and Spain this year.
They were placed 28th at the Delta Lloyd Regatta, 26th at the Weymouth ISAF World Cup, 35th in the Nacra World Championship and 18th at the Nacra Europeans.
Next year's hectic schedule includes the Sailing World Cup in Miami from January 23-30 and the Nacra Worlds in Clearwater, Miami, from February 6-14.
For the Prime Minister's scholarship recipients, who are pursuing degrees at universities in New Zealand, the pressure is on to find a balance between sporting and academic quests.
"That's a bit of a problem so I'll be doing it part-time for a four-year course that'll take me eight years to complete," she says of her degree in commerce at Auckland University, majoring in accounting.
The former Woodford House pupil and Wilkinson, of Naroda Sailing Club, are indebted to the youth squad and its sponsors for their support.
Her parents, Dawn and Hugh Mackay, and his, Linda Civil and Peter Wilkinson, as well as grandfather David Civil, are playing a pivotal role in ensuring they realise their dream of making the cut to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
"They are awesome and a great support and we would not be here without them," he says.
The likely Rio Olympic crew of Gemma Jones, 21, of Auckland, and Jason Saunders, 25, of Tauranga, are world No4 in Nacra 17 and a yardstick for Mackay and Wilkinson who are 37th in the fleet of 117 crews.
It's imperative the aspiring pair make the podium to keep realising the fiscal benefits from the Government.
"It's definitely all your funds based on results," she says, mindful there'll come a time when they will be trying to topple good mates Jones and Saunders for ascendancy.
With the help of nutritionists, video analyses and regimented gym workouts to build upper-body strength, the pair hope to be among the world's top 10 in two years.
Intense training and competing against faster crews around the worlds, she believes, will be the perfect diet to reach their potential.
The pair receive their coaching from America's Cup campaigner Peter Evans, a former Team New Zealand and Alinghi crewman who lives in the United States but catches up with the teenagers at overseas regattas.
As demanding as the sport is, the pair confess they are living an envious dream.
"I don't think it could get any better," she says. "A lot of time we're overseas but we meet some amazing people where everyone's competing against each other."
While she would have loved to have competed at the Napier club's annual New Year's regatta, training and coaching duties beckon at the Milford Sailing Club in Auckland for the pair.
