The boys found their way to the podium in Newport, Rhode Island, USA by winning five of their 12 races, including two in the gold fleet. Their margin over the second-placed Spanish team was a massive 48 points.

Remarkably, Menzies is just 13 years old and McGlashan 15, but the boys raced in the open division, having gained entry to the Worlds at the youth sailing world champs at Corpus Christi the month before, where they finished fifth. Menzies and McGlashan were one of five Kiwi teams competing at Newport.

Making their achievement even more laudable is the fact the pair have only been sailing together for a little more than a year.
“It’s almost unbelievable,” McGlashan said on his way to the prizegiving. “We haven’t been in the class that long so we’re pretty new to it. We didn’t really think we could get this far this quickly.”

Past winners of the 420 World Championships include Carl Evans (2006) and Peter Burling (2007), Jo Aleh and Polly Powrie (2007) and Alex Maloney and Bianca Barbarich-Bacher (2009).