Molly Meech and Jo Aleh sailing the AC40 on the Hauraki Gulf. Photo / James Somerset, ETNZ
Suzanne McFadden for LockerRoom
New Zealand sport has been blessed with some dynamic sister and brother duos.
Athletes Dame Yvette and Roy Williams; windsurfing Olympic champions Barbara and Bruce Kendall; sevens stars Niall and Sonny Bill Williams.
And sailors Molly and Sam Meech – the first sister and brother to win medals for New Zealand at the same Olympic Games. Now, they’re attempting to become the first sister and brother to win America’s Cup titles, and at the same regatta.
“I hadn’t really thought about that, but yeah, it’s very special,” Molly Meech says.
Molly, 31, is a trimmer in the first Emirates Team New Zealand women’s crew who’ll race in the inaugural Women’s America’s Cup in Barcelona in October.
And older brother Sam is a cyclor in the Team NZ men’s crew, who over the past month, has been showing his sister and her crewmates the ropes on the AC40 foiling monohull they’ll race in Barcelona.
The siblings have a tight-knit relationship – they spent seven years of their childhood living on a 52-foot yacht, sailing around the world with their parents. Nowadays, they share a house in Auckland with their partners, and for a few weeks, were heading off to work together.
“Growing up on a boat, we had very little space to get away from each other,” Meech laughs. “Mum and Dad were pretty brave and incredible.”
Molly was only 3, and Sam 5, when they left Kerikeri to sail through the Pacific Ocean to the Red Sea, motoring through the French canals with the mast down, and spending time in England before returning home through the Panama Canal.
“Sam and I are obviously very close,” she says. “He got into sailing first, and I’ve been following him around for the past 12 years. It’s been awesome being in the same work environment as him again.”
The pair went to the Rio Olympics together, where Sam won bronze in the Laser, and Molly won silver in the 49erFX with Alex Maloney. They were also in the New Zealand team at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
While Molly switched crew and will compete at the Paris Olympics with her Team NZ crewmate Jo Aleh, Sam has left the Olympic arena in favour of a sailing role in his first America’s Cup campaign.
“It’s been awesome to see everything Sam knows and all the information and knowledge that he’s passing on to us,” she says. “I’m really impressed with the way he can communicate with us and get us up to speed in the AC40. It’s been pretty special, to be honest.
“It’s cool to go through the adventures of the Olympics and the America’s Cup with him.”
Molly Meech gives kudos to the whole Team NZ organisation for helping the women’s crew master the nuances of the quick and lively AC40 during their recent stretch of training in Auckland.
“We’ve been really fortunate with the whole team, who’ve been really supportive getting us up to speed, and teaching us what the important things are,” she says.
Right now, Meech is in Marseille with Aleh training on the 49erFX, preparing for the Olympics in just over a month.
Competing in arguably the two glamour events of world sailing in the space of three months is something the former world champion is taking in her stride.
“It’s definitely added to the schedule,” says Meech, who’s paused the final semester of study towards her degree in environmental sustainability. “But both campaigns are incredible opportunities, and two very different sailing events. I think what we learn from the Olympic sailing will help us race in the America’s Cup, and what we’re learning on the AC40 is only improving our 49erFX sailing.
“We just want to try to do our best and put as much energy and enthusiasm into both campaigns. The hardest part is that we want to be in both places at once.”
The America’s Cup isn’t a regatta Meech had ever pictured herself sailing in.
“I didn’t think I’d be in this position, so I’m really thankful for the situation that we’re in,” says Meech, whose first memory of the America’s Cup was sailing back into New Zealand with her family just before the start of the 2003 regatta in Auckland.
“This is not only an incredible opportunity for the group of women who are involved now, but for the future generations. It’s just the start of a really cool progression for women’s sailing.”
As one of two trimmers on the four-women AC40 crew, Meech is finding the concentration needed to learn the button and toggles on a panel in front of her has been “full-on.
“Just getting used to how quick the movements are and what the toggles and what the buttons are doing. It’s a lot of focusing on how the boat’s going to react or when the pressure hits what’s going to happen. But it’s coming quickly.”
After initially learning how to control the AC40′s sails on a simulator Team NZ built, Meech found actually sailing on the boat to be “a surreal feeling”.
“It was really interesting when I hopped on the boat, and we started foiling, I had to look at our speed to see we were sailing really fast. The sensation of speed was hard to get used to,” she says.
“When you’re watching from the coach boat, you can see the boat is ripping along. But onboard I was so focused on my job and what I needed to do to keep the boat foiling.”
With the crew sitting in their cockpits for the entire race, two on each side of the boat, communication via headsets and earpieces is key.
“Coming from a double-handed team, you’re get used to the chatter so that hasn’t been too hard to get used to,” Meech says.
“I have to remind myself sometimes that even the chase boat is listening as well, so you have to be very clear and concise about what you’re saying. Whereas maybe in the FX, Jo and I say a few things that probably aren’t necessary.
“As the trimmer, my focus is on keeping the boat going fast and with the right heel, so the comms may be more between the two helms.”
Being part of Team NZ, Meech has discovered the work that goes on in the background of a campaign “that probably most people wouldn’t understand or comprehend.
“The teamwork, the organisation and the effort that everyone puts into these boats to get them on the water is amazing to see and something I never really noticed,” she says. “We’re trying to help out as much as possible, figuring out our roles to get the boat on the water every day.
“We’re definitely getting a lot of support from Team NZ, who really want us to do well in Barcelona. It’s been neat to be involved in the whole process of a campaign this size.”
The next time Meech, Aleh and fellow Olympian Erica Dawson will be back in the Cup campaign will be in Barcelona.
Once the Women’s America’s Cup is complete, Meech can turn her attention to her next big goal – to complete her Master’s degree in sustainable development goals, based on environmental sustainability. She’s just one semester away and put it on hold once she had two major yachting events running simultaneously.
“That’s the 2025 project,” she says. “The environment is something I’m really passionate about, and I’m looking forward to diving into that next.”
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
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