For his lifetime, Mattias Coutts has been introduced as “Sir Russell Coutts’ son”, which happens when dad is an Olympic gold medalist and skippered three Americas Cup victories.

Perhaps that will soon change.

At just 19 years of age, Mattias won the 2024 Moth World Championships at his home venue, Manly Sailing Club. Sixty-seven sailors competed in the 17-race series on January 4-9 in Manly, New Zealand.

No, that’s not a typo regarding the year, as no 2024 title was raced for in the 2024 year, so this was it. More so, the 2023 Moth Worlds in England was a non-event due to insufficient wind.

It’d been two years since the trophy was awarded to Dylan Fletcher (GBR)… the same Dylan Fletcher that was helm on the British Challenger for the 2024 America’s Cup. In 2021, the World title went to SailGP and America’s Cup helm Tom Slingsby.

“Hi, this is my dad Russell,” says Mattias in the future.

Coutts had won the pre-worlds, led through qualifying, and was in charge until an incident on the penultimate day put his title quest in jeopardy.

“It was a great day, but pretty stressful for me,” said Coutts. “I hit something in the water on my way out and had to head back in to do some repairs and only just made it back out in time for the second race.”

Coutts missed the first race as it took around 40 minutes to get his Mackay Bieker v3 stitched back up. He flew out to the race course and into the starting sequence of the second race of the day and took the bullet. The missed race was his only discard outside of the top nine.

The final day of the World Championship was unlike any other day the fleet experienced, as it was the only day with sunshine and a consistent nor’eastery. Coutts sealed the victory with 4-2-1-5 in a breeze increasing to around 15 knots.

Coutts won the event by 13 points – only the second Kiwi to win since Peter Burling won the 2015 title… the same Peter Burling that skippered three Americas Cup victories.

The podium was completed by Jacob Pye (NZL) in second and Otto Henry (AUS) in third, with all the top three winners also in the youth division.

At the prize giving, Coutts acknowledged his training partners, Jacob Pye and Jake Bennett, and thanked his grandpa, for whom his boat is named – Pete. Oh yea, he also thanked that guy named Sir Russell.

The Women’s title went to British sailor Hattie Rogers, who was the only woman to qualify for Gold Fleet.

The winners won’t hold on to the perpetuals for long as the 2025 Moth Worlds are July in Lake Garda … as long as there is wind.

Event details – Results – Facebook

Source: https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2025/01/09/hi-my-name-is-mattias-coutts/