Jake Pye finished third at the 2025 Moth World Championships. Photo / Manly Sailing Club
The podium of the Moth World Championships has become a familiar place for Jake Pye.
Over the past few years, the 20-year-old sailor has made a name for himself as one to watch in the foiling class, which attracts some of the world’s top sailors.
In Lake Garda in July, Pye was the top youth sailor in the fleet and finished third overall, just two points behind Australian SailGP and American Magic America’s Cup helmsman Tom Slingsby. Enzo Balanger, who is part of the French SailGP team as a development athlete, won the title.
It came after Pye finished second overall behind fellow Kiwi Mattias Coutts in the 2024 World Championships, after being the unofficial champion in 2023 – leading the fleet after two races before a lack of wind resulted in the regatta being abandoned.
“I’ve had a couple of good results now, which is epic. It’s good to be able to keep pushing the podium,” Pye said.
Among those to compete in the event were Slingsby, Dylan Fletcher, Paul Goodison, Iain Jensen, Phil Robertson and others with America’s Cup and SailGP experience.
Not only did that provide a highly-skilled fleet to test himself against, but Pye also said such events were good for networking and picking the brains of professional sailors, as he hoped to find himself in their shoes one day.
“It was great to be able to meet them all, for one, and learn a lot from them as well. It was great to make relationships with all of them,” Pye said.
“That’s actually one of the great things that they’re really good at helping with, because they’ve done it all before. It’s great to be able to get their thoughts on where the sport’s going and what to aim for in the next years.
“They could potentially also open up opportunities to sail with them or get along with them ... sometimes I guess it’s not about what you know, it’s who you know.”
Pye was able to spend some time at the Emirates Team New Zealand base in 2023 when they were going through trials before selecting the Youth America’s Cup team. Having made the initial shortlist, Pye was invited into the base and put through some tests, but ultimately missed out among a highly competitive field.
Pye said he was happy to have had that opportunity and a glimpse of what he hopes his future has in store.
“I would love to take the next step and get more involved with either the America’s Cup or SailGP or any other professional circuit in sailing,” he said.
“The America’s Cup is the goal, that’s the dream, and it’s amazing to see how far SailGP has come in recent years. It’s growing rapidly and it’s becoming an amazing event.
“SailGP is gonna be massive, so it would be epic to be a part of that in the future as well. I’ve just got to basically try and find a way to get in there. There may be opportunities in the near future with the America’s Cup and the Youth America’s Cup, and I’m sure that opportunities will start opening up in SailGP within the next few years as well.”
As far as opportunities in the sport went, there is more for young sailors to aim for now than there might have been about a decade or two ago, he said.
“There’s definitely going to be more opportunities in the future with SailGP becoming the sailing league.
“They already are paid professional sailors, but it will become, for example, more like basketball, where there’s brands and there’s teams trading players and sportspersons and coaches and so on.
“There will definitely be more opportunities and professional avenues opening up.
“Whereas back 20 years ago, there was more or less just the match-racing world circuit and a few other big boat races around the world that happened during the year, whereas SailGP is becoming every month. It’s a regular thing now and the America’s Cup I would think would start to become more regular as well.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.