February 13, 2026 • 8 mins
One of New Zealand's most accomplished sailors is taking on the seas with Sweden this afternoon for the Sail GP.
Andy Maloney has won America's cups, competed in the Olympics and recently switched from the Brazilian team to his current position with Sweden.
He sat down with Piney to discuss his career leading up to this moment, and what it means for him to be sailing on home turf.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Pyne
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
News Talks EDB and Weekend Sport twelve twenty nine coming
to your live from SALEGP. Great to welcome in one
of New Zealand's most accomplished high performance sailors, a world
champion Olympian who's raced at the very top of the sport,
now on board with Artemis after making the move from
the Brazilian sale GP team ahead of this year. Known
for his calm decision making, sharp tactical mind, ability to
(00:33):
perform under enormous pressure, he's built a reputation as one
of the most reliable and skilled sailors on the circuit.
Of course, I'm talking about Artemis Flight controller Andy Maloney.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hello mate, Hey Matte, how are you going very well?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Great to see you. How did the move from the
Brazilian team to Artemis Racing come about?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Yeah, I guess it was around halfway through last season.
Ian and Nathan sort of approached me. You know, I
had a great time helping Brazil sort of fast track
their introduction to SALEGP, but this was sort of a
natural move, joining Nathan and SALGP with everything else we're
doing together, and a super established professional sports team that I
was excited to join.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So the chance to work alongside Nathan Outradge was a
big factor in all of this.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah. Yeah, that was one of the key drivers for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
All Right, has it been an easy transition have you?
Have you found the team an easy one to fit into.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, well, I mean they're a very professional sailing team
that compete in a lot of different sailing leagues, so
you know, everything's very refined in the background, which makes
it really easy for the sailing team to come in
and execute at a really high level from the start,
which is you know, a lot of work went in
behind the scenes ahead of Perth a few weeks back,
and we've done a lot of good work between now
(01:43):
and then, and hopefully we can come here and go
a couple better.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When you look back at your time with Brazil, I
know that's in the past now, but what do you
take away from your time with that team?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:52):
For me, it was an amazing challenge as an athlete.
I think stepping into a totally different scene and trying
to help build a team from scratch, you know, it's
no easy feat within sale GP to come in with
a limited training time and you know, I think that
that team did amazingly well with a limited experience on
board as a whole. Within the team, You've seen teams
like the Black Falls when we first joined the league.
(02:13):
You know, it takes us a whole season to start
being able to podium and win events. So yeah, it's
no easy feat. And you know this itemis group is
a different beast having such a history within the sport
and the group of sailors they've really pulled together. There's
no reason why we can't be fighting for the podium
straight away.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
What's some Nathan outeroks like?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah, he's an amazing mate. He's very calm and composed
on the racetrack. And you know, I think something that
stands out about Nathan is this his colms and ability
to paint the picture really far in advance, which I
think is a really important trait at SALEGP when there's
thirteen boats on very small race tracks, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And just on there with thirteen now, I mean it's
crowded anyway, right with thirteen? How does that change the
dynamic of what happens, particularly around the coms on the boat?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah, I mean the coms loop is really high, and
it becomes more and more cluttered more boats that are
on the race course, so you end up having less
bandwidth for talking about speed and performance and handling, and
that sort of needs to come naturally within the team,
and you know, you've got to be able to sell
the boat at that highest level without talking about it
at all, so that the coms open up for the
tactics and the other boats.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Can I ask you some flight control questions? Slightly more
technical questions perhaps, but one I think which will resonate
with all of our audience. The system, presumably is incredibly sophisticated.
So how much is instinct and how much is automated?
You know, what's the mix? Are you? Is it maybe
what you see or is the system also telling you
(03:42):
what to do?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Now, there's not much you can really see from where
we fly the boats. You know, we're very low down
and we're getting blocked by people in front and behind
us on board, So a lot of it comes down
to feel and the coms that you're listening to from
the other crew members on board who are like heads
out of the boat and really painting the picture with
the breeze and what's coming next. So for us, it's
a lot about anticipation and feeling the boat underneath you.
(04:06):
But we rely on the team around us to really
paint that picture well for us as well.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
How do you keep it stable at high speed?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
You do get you do get used to the high speeds.
You know, high speeds isn't too big of an issue.
It's more the sea state. So you know, in Perth
a few weeks ago there were some pretty big waves
and that was like the limit in terms of flying
the boat. It was really difficult. Here in Auckland, we're
going to have different challenges. It'll be flat or water,
but it's going to be really hard hitting puffs, so
the boat's going to be accelerating and decelerating really quickly.
(04:38):
So the flight controllers controllers are going to have to
stay super dynamic on the controls that you've got at
your disposal.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
How sensitive is it to making you know, a small error,
like if you if you're to make a small era,
can that have big repercussions?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah? For sure.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It's always just about finding that limit as to how
hard you can push it, and as a flight control,
if you push it slightly too hard in different scenarios.
The foils are going to vent and you're going to
fall out of the sky, you know, or like you
saw in Perth on our first day we had a
bad bottom mine rounding and one of our guys got injured.
So yeah, the consequences can be quite high.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Would you say you're an aggressive or conservative sailor by nature?
Speaker 4 (05:17):
I think my nature is quite conservative, But I think
as a flight controller it's all about picking sort of
that risk reward balance and knowing when to push it
when you have to, and then knowing when to back
that risk off a little bit.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And I've asked a couple of others about the boats
and what their ceiling might be. It's probably impossible to know, right,
But do you think there is more potential to unlock
in the year fifties?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
With the equipment we have now, I don't think the
limit's been quite tapped into. So we're always striving to
try and find something we can do differently to the
others to make that little jump. And you know, as
a league, they're always looking to develop the gear that
we're sailing on and there's a lot further that we
can go with that as well. So the boats will
continue to get faster and higher performance.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And do you have fairly ambitious goals? I mean, you know,
a Newish team, but yourself, Nathan Outrodge, when trom A
Christra on board, this is a you know, this is
a high quality crew. Do you have have ambitions perhaps
which are are further advanced than an ordinary new team
coming into the competition.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
You know, none of us are going to be satisfied
unless we're we're making those top threes at the regular
events and making that Grand Final at the end of
the year. So yeah, I think it's the same with
all the other top teams here. You know, we're striving
to get on the podium as often as we can
and to set ourselves up well for that final race.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
All right, what's the weather telling us this afternoon? What
are we going to see out there this afternoon?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
You know, as a sailor that's grown up in Auckland,
when it's a south southwestern like this and this breezy,
especially on fast boats like this, you sort of get
out of the harbor pretty quickly and you go out
to bigger spaces. So this afternoon. We're being refined to
this really small racecourse on the fastest boats and thirteen
of them, so it's going to be super exciting to watch, and.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, it'll be really cool racing.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Do you get nervous every once in a while, But
I think it's a good thing, you know, like coming
into these events super exciting, and you do get those nerves,
But by the time you get out there on the water,
you're just focusing on the next move and you get
so in the zone with what you're doing on board
that it's all sort of out the window at that stage.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And in between races, can you do much of value
as you're sitting out there, you know, waiting for the
next race, Can you do much of value in that time?
Any adjustments you can make or not?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Really?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, you've really got to make the most of that
sort of it's usually like six or seven minutes. You
have to sort of speak to your coaches in the booth,
try and get a download on maybe what the teams
that won those races did differently to yourselves and make
a few small adjustments to how you're sailing the boat.
But there's not much you can change because it's such
rapid fire racing that you've sort of got to have
done the prep before the day and just.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
To finish Auckland. I mean you must, you must enjoy
being here, are you say? All around the world, you know?
But is it nice to be back?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
It's awesome?
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Yeah, yeah, I can't wait to get out there today
and to soak in that grandstand, in that atmosphere and
see all the friends and family and it's just going
to be best event of the year for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I'm sure other of us will have a few fans,
even though it's not your home order. I'm sure there'll
be a few cheering for yourself and maybe Nathan as well,
although he's Australian.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Isn't he.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, I think he's an adopted period fair enough.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Too great to see you mate it. Thanks for stopping
and all the best for this afternoon, for tomorrow and
for the season as well.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Andy, all right, cheers justin goodness.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
You made things indeed, Andy Maloney there from the Adamis
Team Flight Controller.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Pine, listen live
to news Talks at b weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Pyne
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
News Talks EDB and Weekend Sport twelve twenty nine coming
to your live from SALEGP. Great to welcome in one
of New Zealand's most accomplished high performance sailors, a world
champion Olympian who's raced at the very top of the sport,
now on board with Artemis after making the move from
the Brazilian sale GP team ahead of this year. Known
for his calm decision making, sharp tactical mind, ability to
(00:33):
perform under enormous pressure, he's built a reputation as one
of the most reliable and skilled sailors on the circuit.
Of course, I'm talking about Artemis Flight controller Andy Maloney.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Hello mate, Hey Matte, how are you going very well?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Great to see you. How did the move from the
Brazilian team to Artemis Racing come about?
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Yeah, I guess it was around halfway through last season.
Ian and Nathan sort of approached me. You know, I
had a great time helping Brazil sort of fast track
their introduction to SALEGP, but this was sort of a
natural move, joining Nathan and SALGP with everything else we're
doing together, and a super established professional sports team that I
was excited to join.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
So the chance to work alongside Nathan Outradge was a
big factor in all of this.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah. Yeah, that was one of the key drivers for sure.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
All Right, has it been an easy transition have you?
Have you found the team an easy one to fit into.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Yeah, well, I mean they're a very professional sailing team
that compete in a lot of different sailing leagues, so
you know, everything's very refined in the background, which makes
it really easy for the sailing team to come in
and execute at a really high level from the start,
which is you know, a lot of work went in
behind the scenes ahead of Perth a few weeks back,
and we've done a lot of good work between now
(01:43):
and then, and hopefully we can come here and go
a couple better.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
When you look back at your time with Brazil, I
know that's in the past now, but what do you
take away from your time with that team?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:52):
For me, it was an amazing challenge as an athlete.
I think stepping into a totally different scene and trying
to help build a team from scratch, you know, it's
no easy feat within sale GP to come in with
a limited training time and you know, I think that
that team did amazingly well with a limited experience on
board as a whole. Within the team, You've seen teams
like the Black Falls when we first joined the league.
(02:13):
You know, it takes us a whole season to start
being able to podium and win events. So yeah, it's
no easy feat. And you know this itemis group is
a different beast having such a history within the sport
and the group of sailors they've really pulled together. There's
no reason why we can't be fighting for the podium
straight away.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
What's some Nathan outeroks like?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah, he's an amazing mate. He's very calm and composed
on the racetrack. And you know, I think something that
stands out about Nathan is this his colms and ability
to paint the picture really far in advance, which I
think is a really important trait at SALEGP when there's
thirteen boats on very small race tracks, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
And just on there with thirteen now, I mean it's
crowded anyway, right with thirteen? How does that change the
dynamic of what happens, particularly around the coms on the boat?
Speaker 4 (03:01):
Yeah, I mean the coms loop is really high, and
it becomes more and more cluttered more boats that are
on the race course, so you end up having less
bandwidth for talking about speed and performance and handling, and
that sort of needs to come naturally within the team,
and you know, you've got to be able to sell
the boat at that highest level without talking about it
at all, so that the coms open up for the
tactics and the other boats.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
Can I ask you some flight control questions? Slightly more
technical questions perhaps, but one I think which will resonate
with all of our audience. The system, presumably is incredibly sophisticated.
So how much is instinct and how much is automated?
You know, what's the mix? Are you? Is it maybe
what you see or is the system also telling you
(03:42):
what to do?
Speaker 4 (03:44):
Now, there's not much you can really see from where
we fly the boats. You know, we're very low down
and we're getting blocked by people in front and behind
us on board, So a lot of it comes down
to feel and the coms that you're listening to from
the other crew members on board who are like heads
out of the boat and really painting the picture with
the breeze and what's coming next. So for us, it's
a lot about anticipation and feeling the boat underneath you.
(04:06):
But we rely on the team around us to really
paint that picture well for us as well.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
How do you keep it stable at high speed?
Speaker 4 (04:14):
You do get you do get used to the high speeds.
You know, high speeds isn't too big of an issue.
It's more the sea state. So you know, in Perth
a few weeks ago there were some pretty big waves
and that was like the limit in terms of flying
the boat. It was really difficult. Here in Auckland, we're
going to have different challenges. It'll be flat or water,
but it's going to be really hard hitting puffs, so
the boat's going to be accelerating and decelerating really quickly.
(04:38):
So the flight controllers controllers are going to have to
stay super dynamic on the controls that you've got at
your disposal.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
How sensitive is it to making you know, a small error,
like if you if you're to make a small era,
can that have big repercussions?
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Yeah? For sure.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It's always just about finding that limit as to how
hard you can push it, and as a flight control,
if you push it slightly too hard in different scenarios.
The foils are going to vent and you're going to
fall out of the sky, you know, or like you
saw in Perth on our first day we had a
bad bottom mine rounding and one of our guys got injured.
So yeah, the consequences can be quite high.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Would you say you're an aggressive or conservative sailor by nature?
Speaker 4 (05:17):
I think my nature is quite conservative, But I think
as a flight controller it's all about picking sort of
that risk reward balance and knowing when to push it
when you have to, and then knowing when to back
that risk off a little bit.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And I've asked a couple of others about the boats
and what their ceiling might be. It's probably impossible to know, right,
But do you think there is more potential to unlock
in the year fifties?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
With the equipment we have now, I don't think the
limit's been quite tapped into. So we're always striving to
try and find something we can do differently to the
others to make that little jump. And you know, as
a league, they're always looking to develop the gear that
we're sailing on and there's a lot further that we
can go with that as well. So the boats will
continue to get faster and higher performance.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
And do you have fairly ambitious goals? I mean, you know,
a Newish team, but yourself, Nathan Outrodge, when trom A
Christra on board, this is a you know, this is
a high quality crew. Do you have have ambitions perhaps
which are are further advanced than an ordinary new team
coming into the competition.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
You know, none of us are going to be satisfied
unless we're we're making those top threes at the regular
events and making that Grand Final at the end of
the year. So yeah, I think it's the same with
all the other top teams here. You know, we're striving
to get on the podium as often as we can
and to set ourselves up well for that final race.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
All right, what's the weather telling us this afternoon? What
are we going to see out there this afternoon?
Speaker 3 (06:37):
It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
You know, as a sailor that's grown up in Auckland,
when it's a south southwestern like this and this breezy,
especially on fast boats like this, you sort of get
out of the harbor pretty quickly and you go out
to bigger spaces. So this afternoon. We're being refined to
this really small racecourse on the fastest boats and thirteen
of them, so it's going to be super exciting to watch, and.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah, it'll be really cool racing.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Do you get nervous every once in a while, But
I think it's a good thing, you know, like coming
into these events super exciting, and you do get those nerves,
But by the time you get out there on the water,
you're just focusing on the next move and you get
so in the zone with what you're doing on board
that it's all sort of out the window at that stage.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
And in between races, can you do much of value
as you're sitting out there, you know, waiting for the
next race, Can you do much of value in that time?
Any adjustments you can make or not?
Speaker 3 (07:26):
Really?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Yeah, you've really got to make the most of that
sort of it's usually like six or seven minutes. You
have to sort of speak to your coaches in the booth,
try and get a download on maybe what the teams
that won those races did differently to yourselves and make
a few small adjustments to how you're sailing the boat.
But there's not much you can change because it's such
rapid fire racing that you've sort of got to have
done the prep before the day and just.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
To finish Auckland. I mean you must, you must enjoy
being here, are you say? All around the world, you know?
But is it nice to be back?
Speaker 3 (07:54):
It's awesome?
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Yeah, yeah, I can't wait to get out there today
and to soak in that grandstand, in that atmosphere and
see all the friends and family and it's just going
to be best event of the year for sure.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
I'm sure other of us will have a few fans,
even though it's not your home order. I'm sure there'll
be a few cheering for yourself and maybe Nathan as well,
although he's Australian.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
Isn't he.
Speaker 4 (08:12):
Yeah, I think he's an adopted period fair enough.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Too great to see you mate it. Thanks for stopping
and all the best for this afternoon, for tomorrow and
for the season as well.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Andy, all right, cheers justin goodness.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
You made things indeed, Andy Maloney there from the Adamis
Team Flight Controller.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Pine, listen live
to news Talks at b weekends from midday, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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