New Zealand Nacra 17 sailors Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson in their state-of-the-art foiling catamaran. Photo / Sailing NZ
Most days a bunch of sailors head out off the waters of Torbay and hurtle around in state-of-the-art foiling catamarans.
They just go quietly about their business, except for the incessant whistle as the wind passes through the boat, but are all hoping to make a noise at the 2020
Tokyo Olympics.
New Zealand's top two Nacra 17 crews have been joined by three international combinations in Auckland this summer in a remarkable show of allegiance. They all want to be the best and believe they need to work together to achieve that, even if that means sharing secrets.
Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders were fourth last year's Nacra world championships as well as the 2016 Rio Olympics and have found genuine competition in the form of youngsters Liv Mackay and Micah Wilkinson, who were 10th at the world championships. The two NZL Sailing Team crews have been joined for training in Auckland this summer by two teams from France as well as the top Danish combination.
It helped that there was already a connection - French crew Manon Audinet is Saunders' partner - but all three international crews saw obvious advantages in training in New Zealand during the northern winter. It's a common scenario overseas to train in numbers, where more teams are based, but rare for New Zealand, particularly the level of information sharing.
