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Liv Mackay's development as a top-level helm continues apace with some impressive form at the latest round of the World Match Racing Tour in Croatia over the weekend.
Liv Mackay won five of six races on the second day of the Croatia Match Racing Cup over the weekend. Photo: World Match Racing Tour)
Mackay, who is putting together an Olympic campaign in the foiling Nacra with Micah Wilkinson, was invited to helm the all-women's team Magenta Project at the Croatia Match Racing Cup. She had previously crewed in the series in Perth and Miami but this was the first time she had helmed and it didn't take long for her to get to grips with the M32.
She posted the equal-best number of wins on the second day of racing, with five from six races, but missed out on the playoffs because of results on the first day. You can catch one of her races here.
"Moving from crew to skipper has been a bit more stressful but I like the pressure," Mackay said. "The crew are great and made the sailing really fun. The biggest learning point was the pre-start. A few times I thought, 'we're definitely not supposed to be here'."
The World Match Race Tour is the longest running, global, professional sailing series and, for the first time in its 22-year history, has awarded a place to an all-female team of elite professional sailors to compete in the series.
Double Olympic medallist Jo Aleh has been involved as well as fellow NZL Sailing team members Molly Meech, Alex Maloney and Gemma Jones.
Mackay, like most Nacra sailors, is playing a bit of a waiting game with the first batch of about 35 foiling Nacras due to be delivered at the end of June. Mackay and Wilkinson, who are members of the Aon Fast Track programme which aims to accelerate the best young sailors up to Olympic standard, aren't due to get their hands on their's until August, which has allowed the pair to explore different projects.
"The idea is to expose Liv to other forms of international sailing where she can find out how good she really is," Yachting New Zealand acting high performance director Ian Neely said. "It's really encouraging to see how well she did in the second round and shows how quickly she can adapt to a new boat."
Wilkinson is a member of the NZL Sailing Team who are looking to follow in the footsteps of the class of 2013 who won the inaugural Red Bull Youth America's Cup and will fly out to Bermuda later this week.
Mackay and Wilkinson won the 2016 Red Bull Foiling Generation world title together.
Liv Mackay. Photo: World Match Racing Tour
