470 Worlds: Young Kiwi crew finishes strongly on Final day
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com 16 Aug 15:59 PDT
Tessa Clinton and Will Mason (NZL) - 470 Worlds - Enoshima - Japan - August 2026 © Junichi Hirai / 470 Worlds 2026
The new Mixed 470 crew of Tessa Clinton and Will Mason (NZL) finished close to the top of the Silver fleet in the 470 Worlds, which finished on Saturday.
Sailing at Enoshima, Japan, the venue for the 1964 and 2020 Olympic Regattas, the venue lived up to its tricky reputation.
New Zealand was not represented in the class at the 2024 Olympic regatta, and the new, young combination had their first outing in Europe at Kiel Week ahead of the Junior Worlds in Gdynia, where they finished 19th overall and 4th U-21 crew in their second regatta together.
They sailed a new M10 470 from Mackay Boats in Europe before switching to a charter boat for the Open Worlds at Enoshima, a month later.
Like many in the 2020 Olympics (sailed in July 2021), reputations crashed and burned on a regular basis, as lead boats got on the wrong side of a breeze which shifted between favouring opposite sides of the course.
There was no racing on the first day due to a lack of wind, which put pressure on all crews to qualify for the Gold fleet.
Clinton and Mason missed the cut for the Gold fleet but dropped onto their feet in the Silver fleet - with the opportunity to sail in a clean breeze and out of the turbulence created by top competitors, more familiar with quickly going through the gears in changing conditions.
On the final day with three races sailed, they won first race by a large margin and rounded out the day with two third places, finishing 5th overall in the Silver fleet, and top Australasian crew.
Full results here: 2026worlds.470.org/en/default/races/race-resultsall