The 13-year-old Maraetai sailing duo of Callum Hyde and Callum Noyer have won the World Junior title at the RS Feva World Championships.
The World Championships were held over five days in Follonica, Italy last month.
The Callums, as they are often referred to, sailed away with the World Junior title and finished fourth overall in a huge fleet.
The conditions in Follonica provided a perfect mix of blustery wind to light and shifty, testing the skill and tactics of the 209-boat fleet over the five-day regatta.
Sailing in a heat wave of temperatures of up to 40 degrees on some days had its challenges, but the boys managed to stay well hydrated.
Hyde and Noyer recorded two first-place finishes in their qualifying races on days one and two, leading them into the race series in the gold fleet.
Out of the total 209 boats sailing in the regatta, the top 70 boats made up the gold fleet. Over the final three days, the boys fought hard and got another first place win, which was one of their highlights of the regatta.
During the final days of the regatta, Hyde and Noyer experienced a range of conditions and eventually finished fourth overall out of all categories (Open- Over 18, Youth- 18 and under and Junior- 13 and under).
They also won the Junior World title, finishing 347 points ahead of second place.
Noyer says it was an amazing experience to sail against so many other competitors from around the world.
“We worked hard to get good clean starts to help us get off the line with speed, which at times was hard given the amount of boats on the line,” Hyde says.
