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January 18, 2025 • 9 mins

Andy Maloney is relishing the chance to hit the Waitemata Harbour in different colours this weekend.

The Kiwi sailor is the flight controller for the new Brazilian SailGP team, after leaving the New Zealand team in the off-season.

Maloney joined Piney to unpack the challenges that came with the move.

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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Vine
from News Talk zed B Well.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
The biggest off season transfer ahead of season five and
sal GP the move to the new Brazilian team of
New Zealand. Flight controller Andy Maloney a permanent fixture on
the Kiwi team since it's entry into the league in
season two, racing alongside Peter Birling and Blair Chuck and
both sale GP and America's Cup. I know you've talked
a lot about the move, and I don't want to
drill down too much into it and go over old ground,
but could you give us an idea of the main

(00:34):
motivation for looking for a change.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Yeah, I guess anytime I sort of explained the move
to anyone. You know, there's so many factors that come
into making a big decision like this for your career
and for myself. A big big things were the challenge
with the Brazilian team, really exciting project to be a
part of, as the first South American team, first Brazilian team,
with my team leading the team, as the first female

(00:59):
driver in the league. Those were all very motivating things
to be a part of. On top of that, you know,
the people involved the team was bringing the right people
into the project to have the potential and all the
ingredients to become a benchmark team in the league. And
it's just a matter of time. So again that's another
exciting part of the challenge. And then for me, the
timing of my career was right. You know, I'd been

(01:21):
with the Black Furs for a few years and we
had been, you know, through the whole process to get
to the front of the league, and I felt it
was a good time in my career to sort of
step out of that comfort zone and to keep developing
myself as an athlete and as a person as well.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
So yeah, yeah, we had a team owner, Allen Adler,
on the radio yesterday and he spoke in glowing terms
about you, but also about the fact that that was
his view as well, that it couldn't just be about
the money or he's a big paycheck. It had to
be about something that developed you as a sailor, and
he said that was the most important thing to him
as well. So I know it's early in your time
with Brazil, but do you feel like you will be

(01:55):
able to achieve that?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Yeah, one hundred percent. Like I said, you know, we've
got my team leading the team, super capable with all
the right ingredients to become an amazing leader as well
as one of the top drivers in this league. I've
got no doubt in her potential. Then we've got other
people on the boat, you know, coming from Olympic champions
Pan American Champions, America's Cup champions, We've got all the

(02:17):
ingredients there, and it's about jailing as a crew and
all of us learning the boat a little bit better
as a group. And we definitely we've shown a lot
of potential in some of the practice racing. Yesterday, our
potential didn't quite shine through, but I'm hoping today. You know,
it's another opportunity for us as a new team to
sort of show what we're capable of. And you know,
eat race is an opportunity right now for us as
a new team, and we've got to just take it

(02:38):
one race at a time and keep trying to, you know,
get that first win on the board.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
You use the word gelling there, and it's a word
I've heard a lot when talking to the sailors across
the weekend. You know, the gelling, the communication, the culture
on the boat. How challenging is that as a startup
compared to an existing crew.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, for sure, you know you need you need to
know your teammates really well and how they how they
sort of react to different situations. But as well, these
boats really require the six people on board or to
be nailing and executing the to perfection to sell the
boat really well. So you know, part of that gelling
is a crew is all of us learning our roles
on the boat and really nailing them and executing them

(03:14):
and the crucial moments around the race course to do
a good job. And that's what you see the top
teams do racing and race out.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Conditions yesterday, conditions today as she least talk about yesterday
first of all, tenth, ninth, eight to eleventh, what do
you reckon?

Speaker 4 (03:28):
You can make the big improvements today.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Just doing the simple things better today. You know, we
got caught out a few times just maybe getting behind
on our communication and from the practice day. You know,
we had another five boats on the race course yesterday
and that added another level of intensity and another huge
level of complexity to the coms loop that we weren't
used to the day before as a team. So today

(03:51):
it's about sort of painting that picture a bit earlier
in the piece and then letting ourselves, giving ourselves time
to execute around the race course.

Speaker 2 (03:58):
Shifty wins yesterday, I think could probably be a fair description.
How much more challenging does that make it?

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, I mean the first two races were incredibly dynamic.
You know, it was in between foiling and non foiling
conditions depending on where you were in the fleet, a
lot of bad air, and then later in the day
there was a bit more breezing, it was a bit
more simple to get the boat around the racetrack. And
you know, I think coming out of yesterday today is
looking like a much windier, more consistent type of day.
And again that sort of emphasizes doing the basics well,

(04:26):
getting off the start line in decent shape, and then
just executing around the racecourse and chipping your way through
the fleet. We've shown a lot of potential in a
straight line and through the maneuvers, so I think as
a team were really confident that if we can execute
those around the race track, there's no reason why we
can't be clowing away at boats. Even in these early days.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
I get the feeling that there are a lot of
different ways to make improvements in these boats, you know,
and I wonder where you place your focus in order
to get the biggest bang for your buck, if you
know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Yeah, there's always priorities each night as a team and
then in between events as well. And for us as
a new team, we've got probably a lot of experience
in sailing the boat well in a straight line and
how you set the boat up as well as how
you execute the maneuvers. So I think for us right now,
the priority is not maybe so much diving into that
real fine detail of the data of how someone's nailing

(05:15):
an attack slightly better than us. It's more about looking
at the bigger picture, and it's still laying the foundation
of a communication playbook and tactics around the race track
and who says what at different moments. You know, those
sort of big ticket items are low hanging fruit that
we can make really big gains if we make improvements
there day in and day out.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
The t foils, how did you enjoy sailing on those?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:38):
I've been loving them. You know. They were a real challenge,
especially the first couple of days, But I feel like
as a team we're getting to grips with them pretty
quickly and don't feel too uncomfortable on them at all,
and I'm excited by them. I think it's another cool
dynamic that the flight controllers have to deal with in
the league and I really like it.

Speaker 4 (05:58):
Does it feel like a different boat?

Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeah, in situations it does, especially how you control the boat.
I think if you're doing a good job of it,
the boat's probably don't look too dissimilar from the outside,
But because everyone's still getting to terms with those slight differences,
it looks probably a bit looser and a little bit
different at the moment.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
So when you look ahead and look at the season
as a whole. I'm sure you've discussed this internally, but
in terms of success for Brazil in your first cele
GP season, what are the metrics that you're going to
use to judge that?

Speaker 3 (06:29):
Yeah? I think right now it's all about progression as
a team and just really trying to steep in that
curve as much as possible and you know, improve our
understanding of the boat and all those sort of fundamentals
laying the foundation still. But in terms of results as
a team personally, I think it's too early to set
a sort of a level we want to get to

(06:51):
I think I think the potential is extremely high. And
you know, I wouldn't want to say a good season
for us will be coming seventh or eighth in this fleet,
because because I want to be winning events by the
end of the season, you know, And I do think
the potential is there. We've got so many good sailors
in the group, and my teen's got all the qualities
needed to be as good as these other drivers in

(07:11):
the fleet. So yeah, that's part of the challenge, you know.
That's why I took this up, because it's just unknown
where we're going to get to, and I've got a
lot of hope for the team, and everyone's putting in
the hours needed to try and get us to the front.
So we just got to stick at it. It's not
going to be an easy trip to the front of
the fleet. It hasn't. It wasn't for anyone, including the
Black Foils. Took us a long time to get there

(07:32):
in that team as well. So I've been there before,
and you just got to keep sticking at it and
keep trusting yourself and the people around you and know
that it'll come.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Martin Grail, I saw some footage and the latest racing
on the edge dock ow and it gives you a
fantastic insight. She seems like a terrific sailor. What have
you found in terms of working alongside her?

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, it was funny. I think after that, after the
first event in Dubai, I had a phone call with
my team and I was just sort of saying to
how pleased I was coming out of that event. A
lot of her qualities and traits are very similar to
other top helmsman's that I've sailed with, including Pete himself,
and we had a discussion about how cool that is
and then also the challenges that come with some of

(08:17):
those qualities of being a top helmsman and driver. You know. Yeah,
but she's extremely determined, super motivated, and she's a really
fierce competitor, you know, and she wants to win for sure,
so I know she's not going to settle for anything
less than that.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
And sol GP goes to Rio as well this year.
Can you imagine what that's going to be like?

Speaker 3 (08:37):
Yeah, I think it's like a fifth event on the calendar. Yeah,
it's going to be awesome. All the Brazilians and the team,
you know, they're super excited, for he and they say,
you know, they say, wait till you get to Reo.
It's just going to be crazy there on the beach
off a sugar loaf, and yeah, it'll be a really
cool event.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Is it quite nice for you or is it handy
for you that the New Zealand League is early on
on the piece. You can get this out of the way.
You're not going to walk into the wrong tent that
sort of thing, you know. Is it quite nice to
have this out of the way early.

Speaker 4 (09:05):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (09:05):
And no, you know I would have you know, it
would have been great as a team to have a
few more events under a belt before before the Offland event,
I guess in one respect. But I mean it's always
such a privilege to race in front of family, friends
and the key We crowd, you know, they're so passionate,
and everyone here in sale GP is just you know,
you're walking around the viaduct when you're caught area and

(09:25):
there's just sailing fans everywhere and the boats and the
basin there, there's people on along the fence lines just
cheering for the different teams and then seeing the crowd
in the grandstand yesterday was just unreal. So yeah, I
can't wait to get out there today with this forecast
and put on a really good show for them.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
Yeah, we can't wait either, Andy, thanks for our stopping
and all the best today and for the rest of
the sale GP season. Congrats on a great move. I
think it's terrific. Man.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
It says a lot about you. But yeah, thanks for
stopping for a chat.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Chure, Thanks for more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine.
Listen live to news Talk said Be weekends from midday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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