Young up and coming sailors Andy Maloney and Josh Junior have joined the Team New Zeland America's Cup team.
The pair both 26 year olds are internationally recognized dinghy sailors in the Laser and Finn classes respectively.
Maloney described making the team as a dream come true.
"It's been awesome watching the America's Cup evolve over the past few cycles, and now to be sailing on the high performance foiling machines for this 35th America's Cup is just epic."
Andy Maloney Photo: Photosport
Maloney has spent most of his life in the Laser class winning multiple medals at World Cup events and narrowly missed out on the final selection for the Rio Olympics 2016, with Sam Meech selected and going onto win a bronze medal.
"We are flying around the Auckland Harbour at more than 30 knots, going 20 knots seems slow these days, which is pretty unreal coming from a Laser a few months ago. I'm loving every minute of it," said Maloney.
Maloney is yet another member of the winning New Zealand Red Bull Youth America's Cup Team from San Francisco in 2013, now joining Peter Burling, Blair Tuke and Guy Endean as part of the New Zealand America's Cup sailing team.
Josh Junior competing at the Rio Olympics in August. Photo: Photosport
Josh Junior campaigned in the Laser class for London 2012, before going on to switch to the heavy-weight men's Finn class where he finished seventh in Rio.
Emirates Team New Zealand chief executive Grant Dalton said it's vital to continue to bring some of the huge pool of young New Zealand sailing talent through the ranks if the team wanted to stay at the forefront of world sailing.
"Experience remains a crucial ingredient of this America's Cup but these catamarans are also incredibly demanding physically. These guys are young and powerful....they have the raw talent and motivation as well as some valuable experienced guys like Glenn Ashby and Ray Davies to guide them."
Junior knows they are on a steep learning curve.
"We are not just involved in the sailing side; 10% of our time is on the water, the remaining 90% we are in the shed, in the gym or helping out the boat builders. Learning everyday from the best guys in their respective fields be it engineers, designers or sailors is just awesome."
