NZL Sailing Team - Gold and Silver at Sailing World Cup Weymouth

by Jodie Bakewell-White, Yachting NZ on 13 Jun 2016 New Zealand has won gold and silver at Sailing World Cup Regatta with young crew Logan Dunning Beck and Jack Simpson taking the 49er victory and their best ever international performance.

Alexandra Maloney and Molly Meech will go to Rio 2016 in less than two months buoyed by a superb medal race win and a silver medal in the 49erFX class.

49er:

Dunning Beck and Simspon, both from the Wakatere Boating Club, went into the final race with an eight point leading margin after sailing consistently well through the qualifying days of the regatta which were hampered by light winds.

Today Weymouth turned the breeze on and the kiwi pair secured the overall victory after placing sixth in the top ten double-points medal race.

Winning in Weymouth the pair has beaten the two powerhouse local crews of Dylan Fletcher-Scott and Alain Sign, who won silver and will represent Great Britain at Rio 2016 this August, and John Pink and Stuart Bithell, who won bronze.

Dunning Beck and Simpson’s previous best performance in the Olympic 49er class was a win at 2015 Sailing World Cup Melbourne, and this result against a stronger fleet heading into Rio 2016 is a marker that these kiwi men are on the rise.

“It feels pretty good eh! Not a bad way to finish the regatta,” said Jack Simpson immediately after the medal race.

Dunning Beck added, “It [winning] is a bit foreign for us,' said Dunning Beck. 'We're usually chasing at the back of the pack. It's awesome.”

Dunning Beck and Simpson are training partners to Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who were not competing at Sailing World Cup Weymouth and are in Chicago competing in the Louis Vuittton World Series Regatta with Emirates Team New Zealand.

With aspirational role models in classes like the 49er skiff New Zealand’s up-and-comers are looking to follow in their footsteps and Dunning Beck affirmed that.

“Peter and Blair are great role models back at home, everyone knows where the bar is and you’ve always got something to work on when they’re around.”

Simpson says, “New Zealand yachting is in a pretty good place, with crews pushing each other in can only help.”

Asked if they have Olympic aspirations Dunning Beck says, “Yes, you know we’d like to think that 2020 is for us – we’ve still got a heck of a long way to go, but yes.”

49erFX:

Alex Maloney and Molly Meech were delighted today when they took a classy medal race win in foggy, but windy conditions off Weymouth bumping them up the ranks to claim the silver medal in the 49erFX event.

Lying seventh overall after racing on day two of the regatta, the pair climbed into medal contention on the penultimate day of the regatta lying third ahead of today’s final top ten double-points race.

The Kiwis demonstrated excellent teamwork today and once they grabbed the lead it never looked like they would relinquish it. They came through 21 seconds clear of their rivals and then had to wait patiently to see where Dobson and Ainsworth finished.

The pair was all smiles;'It was really cool to come out here and execute our plan,' said Maloney.

Meech added, 'We're stoked with second but we were really close to first and that would have been nice but we're happy with the day.'

The title went to Charlotte Dobson and Sophie Ainsworth of Great Britain.

2016 Sailing World Cup Weymouth - New Zealand’s Final Results

1st Logan Dunning Beck & Jack Simpson – 49er
2nd Alex Maloney & Molly Meech – 49erFX
11th Gemma Jones & Jason Saunders – Nacra 17
13th Olivia Mackay & Micah Wilkinson – Nacra 17
14th Sam Meech – Laser
31st Susannah Pyatt – Radial