Victory lap continues for TNZ sailor
For as long as he can remember, Josh Junior dreamt of competing at the America’s Cup.
But he never imagined doing it riding a bike. The 27-year-old sailor, who learnt his craft at the Worser Bay Boating Club in Wellington, did the leg work as one of the cyclors on board Emirates Team New Zealand.
The way Junior described it, he would pedal full gas for the length of each race, which was generally around 20 minutes.
‘‘We’ve got a couple of things called accumulators on the boat that store the energy and we’re constantly topping those up and the boat keeps using them,’’ said Junior, who has spent the past week back in Worser Bay coaching the next generation of Wellington sailors.
‘‘Basically you just ride as hard as you can so you could get as much power in the boat so Pete [Burling] could steer it and Blair [Tuke] could trim the foils.’’
Junior joined Team New Zealand following last year’s Olympic Games, where he finished seventh in the men’s Finn class.
At that stage it had already been decided that they would utilise leg power, although that is expected to change for the next regatta, in 2021.
‘‘For me it was completely different. I haven’t spent that much time on a bike and all of a sudden I had to train five days a week to get good at cycling. My role on the boat was predominantly just to ride a bike. There wasn’t a whole lot of sailing involved so it was a big change.
‘‘It certainly had its benefits. Your leg muscles are a lot stronger than your arm muscles so you can put out a lot more power.
I think either way is great. If it’s going to be grinding then that’s cool as well.’’
Junior has confirmed that his next move is a return to the Finn class, where he hopes to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
‘‘The time is quite tight so it’s just about managing that and I don’t even know if it’s going to work yet but hopefully over the next six months we’ll find a way to make it work and be able to do both,’’ said Junior of the quick turnaround between the Olympics and America’s Cup.
‘‘At the end of the day keeping the America’s Cup here in New Zealand has got to be one of the bigger goals.’’
Junior said a return to dinghy racing had a lot of appeal, particular as he would be responsible for managing his entire campaign, working alongside only one coach and one training partner.
‘‘I guess the difference is when you’re in your Olympic thing you’re looking after your whole campaign from your fitness, the technology, the development, the sailing skills.
‘‘When you go into the America’s Cup you end up focussed on one small area and there’s a whole lot of speciality people looking after their own areas.’’
Although the America’s Cup regatta wrapped up in June, the victory lap has continued long into the year. Junior said the response has been ‘‘overwhelming’’.
The celebrations are still going now that awards season is upon us. Junior recently scooped the sports gong at the Welly Awards, while Team New Zealand is now a favourite for team of the year at the Halberg Awards.
Team New Zealand opted against nominating any individuals for sportsman of the year though but Junior said he understood the reasoning behind that decision.
‘‘The America’s Cup is quite a different thing. It’s not just the sailors on the boat.
‘‘There’s obviously the management team and there’s a huge design team of about 30 people, then there’s another shore crew who end up building the boat and there’s 30 of those people, then there’s the specialists around hydraulics and electrical systems so it is true that the whole team is involved,’’ he said.
‘‘There’s about 90 people and without any one of them we couldn’t have won the America’s Cup and that’s what they’re trying to say, and I think that’s fair enough.’’