Please select your home edition
Edition
Leaderboard FD July August September 2023

PredictWind Moth World Championship at Manly Sailing Club Day 3

by Suellen Hurling LiveSailDie & PredictWind 5 Jan 21:30 PST 4-9 January 2025
Day 3 - 2024 PredictWind Moth Worlds. Manly Sailing Club. January 6, 2025 © Suellen Hurling, Live Sail Die

After nine races across three days, the qualifying series for the PredictWind Moth World Championships is now complete, with the fleets heading into two days of finals racing from Wednesday 8th January at Manly Sailing Club in New Zealand.

Those nine races were intense, with conditions ranging from 10 knots to 25+ knots, creating carnage across both fleets and defining who made it into the gold fleet, and who resides in silver.

Mattias Coutts (NZL / Youth) has made his presence known, dominating his fleet and finishing the qualifying series on 11 points, with a seventh being his worst race, and subsequently, his drop. Coutts does have the hometown advantage with Manly Sailing Club being his local hangout and training base. At just 19 years of age, Coutts has a long future ahead of him, and there’s no doubt, no matter what happens in this event, that we will be seeing his name in lights in the years to come.

Jake Pye (NZL / Youth), who was the “unofficial” world champion after the Weymouth event back in 2023, goes into the finals on 16 points and in second place to Coutts. The 2023 Moth World Championship in Weymouth wasn’t able to be awarded with only two races completed due to a lack of wind. Pye won both those races and was cheered by his peers as the champion, however, his name was never engraved on the trophy. Now he’s up against his former training partner Coutts and is determined to take the top spot.

“Honestly, it’s just a honour to be here racing against the best sailors in the world! To be honest I’m in awe of the whole thing, and being able to race at home just tops it off. It’s awesome. Shout out to all the Manly Sailing Club volunteers - they rock!”

Richard Didham (USA / Open) rounds out the qualifying series in third place with 28 points, equal with Jack Bennett (NZL / Youth) who is technically fourth. Didham drops a DNC while Bennett’s worst score was a ninth.

The top-ranked master is John Harris (AUS / Master), who is mixing it up amongst the youth sailors sitting seventh overall.

Hattie Rogers (GBR / Open) leads the women’s division finishing 37th overall from a fleet of 66 racing entries.

The final day of the qualifying series saw a change in conditions with the breeze shifting from southwest to south meaning much flatter water conditions across both courses. Offshore the fleets saw gusts of 22 knots, but closer to land when heading upwind, they saw everything from 10-12 knots. The day has been described as “mint” by both race management and sailors alike.

Regarding the conditions, Diego Bottin (ESP / Open) said “I love the offshore strong breeze that we have been getting and I hope it lasts, but the forecast has it changing for the last day!”

Correct - south westerlies have dominated the conditions, and while the southerly came through today, for the final day of racing, the PredictWind forecast is showing a might lighter nor’easterly to wrap up the regatta.

Everyone gets a day off tomorrow to reset and recover (and conduct some much-needed repairs in some cases) before finals racing kicks into gear on Wednesday 8th January. Two days of finals racing will then determine who will be crowned the PredictWind Moth World Champion.

Full results available here.

Related Articles

International Moth Worlds at Lake Garda Day 3
Big breeze in the morning, calm in the afternoon The third day of racing at the 2025 Moth World Championship kicked off early, with the first warning signal for the Blue fleet scheduled for 8:30 AM. Due to strong northerly winds, however, the fleet's departure was postponed to 9:00. Posted on 10 Jul
International Moth Worlds at Lake Garda Day 2
A day of waiting with no racing held The second day of racing at the 2025 Moth World Championship began with high hopes: as early as 10:00 a.m., a promising southerly breeze began to build on Lake Garda, hinting at ideal conditions for a full day on the water. Posted on 9 Jul
International Moth Worlds at Lake Garda Day 1
Storm cells circling Lake Garda lead to atypical and tricky conditions The 137 sailors representing 25 nations faced the first day of racing in conditions that were anything but typical for Malcesine, with unstable weather creating a complex, yet exciting, opening. Posted on 8 Jul
International Moth Worlds Opening Ceremony
137 sailors from 25 nations have gathered, featuring some of the biggest names in sailing After weeks of preparation and an intense lead-up, the 2025 Moth World Championship is ready to get under way. Official racing begins tomorrow, 8 July, on the waters of Lake Garda, with the event hosted by Fraglia Vela Malcesine. Posted on 7 Jul
Foiling Frenzy at Fraglia Vela Malcesine
The Moth Worlds at Lake Garda are something else! The Moth Worlds at Lake Garda are something else! Regardless of where sailors are in their careers, or the reputation they have, everyone wants to be there and have a tilt at the title. Posted on 7 Jul
Red Bull Sailing Academy Opens
A new hub for current and future superstars to reach the top of their sport Marina Monfalcone, North Italy, made waves yesterday, as sports superstars gathered to open the Red Bull Sailing Academy, marking the beginning of a new era in the sport. Posted on 6 Jul
The oldest video footage of Moth sailing
A look back into our video archive, to when the name of this class first settled down We delve into our video archive to find the oldest possible videos that show Moth racing. Are these International Moths, British Moths... or was the name still Olive, Inverloch 11ft, National Moth or Brent One-Design?! Posted on 6 Jul
International Moth Worlds begin this weekend
Pre-Worlds are under way at Malcesine From 6 to 13 July 2025, the 2025 Moth World Championship officially gets under way, hosted by Fraglia Vela Malcesine and preceded by the Pre-Worlds on 4 and 5 July. The event marks the culmination of three weeks entirely dedicated to foiling. Posted on 4 Jul
Dylan Fletcher joins #TeamMusto
The Olympian and 2022 Moth World Champion will become an ambassador for performance clothing brand The Olympian and 2022 Moth World Champion will become an ambassador for the performance clothing brand, with a specific focus on his Moth campaign. Posted on 3 Jul
Foiling Week Malcesine 2025 concludes
Champions crowned and records set during the twelfth edition The twelfth edition of Foiling Week came to an end today in Malcesine with the awarding of the first BirdyFish World Championship title, showing the largest fleet ever for the occasion. Posted on 29 Jun
Doyle_SailWorld_728X90px_GP BOTTOMSea Sure 2025RS Sailing 2021 - FOOTER