Finn Balchin (left), Jed Potbury, Rose Dickey and Tara Labat are excited to represent New Zealand and Napier in Spain at the 2023 420 sailing World Championships. Photo / Maddisyn Jeffares
Finn Balchin (left), Jed Potbury, Rose Dickey and Tara Labat are excited to represent New Zealand and Napier in Spain at the 2023 420 sailing World Championships. Photo / Maddisyn Jeffares
With the wind in their sails, two Napier sailing teams will be joining two Auckland teams heading to Spain to represent New Zealand at the 420 Class World Championships.
The international sailing class involves teams of two sailing in a 420-centimetre dinghy. This year Jed Potbury, 15, Finn Balchin, 17, Rose Dickey, 15, and Tara Labat, 15, have qualified for the youth section of the World Championships.
The event, in Alicante, involves six days of racing against some of the best young sailors from around the world.
To qualify the teams had to place in the top seven at the 420 Class National Championships, held in March at Evans Bay Yacht Club in Wellington. Potbury and Balchin placed 4th and Dickey and Labat were 5th.
Both female sailors Labat (skipper) and Dickey (crew) are Year 11 students with Dickey at Iona College and Labat at Napier Girls High School and they hope to get a few more years sailing in the 420 class together.
For the male team, there is an age gap between them which has meant that this year is the first and only time the two will get to sail together in the 420 class. Potbury (skipper) is a Year 11 student at Napier Boys High School and Balchin (crew) is Year 13 at Lindisfarne College.
Jed Potbury and Finn Balchin sailing at the 2023 420 National Championships at Evans Bay Yacht Club in Wellington. Photo / Dion Mead
“It’s such a big achievement for two teams from Napier to be going to this event, as nearly all of the training and competition is held up in Auckland for the 420 class, so it is a testament to say that teams from outside of Auckland can still perform at a high level and compete internationally,” Balchin said.
All four teens are excited to head overseas and said competing internationally was something they had all been working towards since they started sailing.
Before competing in 420s, Labat and Potbury spent time racing Optimist, with both heading overseas to compete last year.
Potbury took part in the Optimist World Championships in Turkey and Labat in the Optimist European Championships in Sonderborg, Denmark.
Rose Dickey and Tara Labat sailing at the 2023 420 National Championships at Evans Bay Yacht Club in Wellington. Photo / Dion Mead
Balchin raced in last year’s 420 World Championships at Lake Balaton, Hungary, and loved it. This is his last chance to compete in youth sailing before he turns 18.
Dickey hasn’t had the experience of competing overseas and she said she was “super excited because it’s pretty cool to be going overseas to do something you love”.
Though both teams aim to do well, Balchin said: “Winning is pretty tricky because all of the European teams are training together and they are the best in the world and we are locked away and can’t train with them, and training in a big group is what makes them so good.
“We are left to our own devices down here and then we go over there and get one shot.”
The aim for the New Zealand teams is to place as high as they can, somewhere in the top 10, 15 or 20.
Competing overseas is a big opportunity for the four teens and will help with future sailing opportunities. Potbury said: “Any international sailing with the youth programme helps us get noticed and can lead to other opportunities. The more you travel or compete in big regattas and do well at them, then the more people notice you and offer you better sailing paths to go down.”
The teams will be heading to Spain on July 10 for some pre-training and will be competing from July 21-29.
Getting two sailing teams and their boats to Spain isn’t cheap. Both teams have been fundraising and have sponsors, including the Rodney Green Foundation, NSB Infrastructure, Sainsbury Logan and Williams, and Lions Club International.
