Issue date
As far as late entries for a national championships go, it doesn't get much later than a couple of days before the first race.
Josh Junior and his crew of Sam Meech, Jason Saunders and Josh Porebski won the final 3-2. Photo: Andrew Delves / RNZYS.
Josh Junior was hanging out with fellow Olympic campaigners Sam Meech and Jason Saunders when the trio decided to see if they could enter the Yachting Developments New Zealand Match Racing Championships at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron.
"We rang up and luckily there was a spare spot so we just turned up and went for it," Junior said.
They did more than just turn up, beating two-time champion and former world No 5 Chris Steele 3-2 in the final, to deliver Junior's second match racing title to go with the one he collected in 2014. Nick Egnot-Johnson and his crew beat Leonard Takahashi 2-1 in the petit final to finish third.
"I love sailing with a team and sailing with your good mates is even better so it was pretty awesome," Junior said. "It was a good opportunity to do something different away from the Finn and learn some different skills and how other people think about tactics and how they sail a boat. The chance to learn off people like Sam, Jason and Josh Porebski doesn’t happen every day so it was a good opportunity to do that. To win it was a bonus."
There were a few hairy moments, not least of all in his quarterfinal matchup against youngster James Wilson which went to a fifth and deciding race.
"It came back to me slowly," Junior said. "I was pretty lucky to have Sam, Jason and Josh Porebski on the boat. We were a pretty cool team and had a lot of fun. We all had our strengths so it was really cool.
"The regatta started off with fleet racing which is quite familiar. Sam was on tactics and did a pretty awesome job. Once we got into he match racing we just chipped away and kept learning every race and slowly got better and better. As we went along, our boat handling got better and we got faster and the memory came back about what to do. We got stuck in a few situations but by the end we were sailing quite well."
It caps off what has been a successful year for Junior. The 28-year-old jumped back into the Finn after helping Emirates Team New Zealand win last year's America's Cup and achieved some good results with a win at Kiel Week, silver at the World Cup final in Marseille and fourth at the sailing world championships in Aarhus.
Junior was particularly unlucky not to collect a medal in Aarhus, losing out for the bronze on countback but he was also badly affected by a powerful squall that hit the front of the fleet during the penultimate race which dropped him from first overall.
He's worked closely all year with Andy Maloney, who's switched from the Laser after bulking up for the America's Cup and who finished in the top 10 at the world championships in his first attempt in the heavyweight dinghy. Maloney, who won last year's national match racing title, also picked up podium finishes in Palma and Marseille.
The pair know only one of them will be selected to compete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but also need to juggle their Olympic campaigns with their America's Cup commitments.
"Next year is going to be a big year and it's just how we manage it which is going to be quite important," Junior said. "It will all come together in the next few months to give ourselves the best shot of being successful.
"We are looking to build on what we achieved this year, and there are heaps of areas for us to improve, so we will keep taking it forward and hopefully dominate next year."
