New Zealand - Training ground for the world's best sailors
‘I don’t know exactly why Kiwis are so good at yachting,’ muses Mike Quilter, a New Zealand veteran of six America’s Cup campaigns and five round-the-world races.
‘But it’s something to do with being brought up on a boat in a place like Auckland, sailing barefoot, then scrubbing the boat down afterwards. It’s about the David Endeans and the Barry McKays of the world - who can sail them and fix them. Kiwis know how to be part of a team.’
Grant Dalton, who has sailed around the world four times with Quilter, agrees.
‘It’s about our geographic proximity to the sea - we have the best sailing grounds in the world. And it’s a sport that’s financially in reach for pretty much anybody,’ says Dalton.
There’s no doubt that New Zealand sailors are regarded among the best in the world. They are in demand for every crew - be it on board a professional race boat in Europe, or a cruising yacht in the Caribbean.
There are few sailing events around the world that a Kiwi hasn’t conquered. Take the last 12 months - success has been across the board. Former Team New Zealand sailors Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams won the Star World Championship in their first season in the class; young sailors Carl Evans and Peter Burling won gold at the 420 World Championships. Mike Sanderson skippered ABN Amro One to victory in the Volvo Ocean Race and was named ISAF Sailor of the Year.
Teenagers Cushla Hume-Merry, Blair McLay and Blair Tuke won world titles in the Laser Radial Youth and Splash classes.
Flick through the team lists in Valencia and there are Kiwis everywhere - sailors, designers, boat-builders and riggers. In the last Act in Valencia, Alinghi had eight New Zealanders in their sailing crew, BMW Oracle had 11 and Emirates Team New Zealand, 14.
Mascalzone Latino, Luna Rossa, Victory, Desafio Espanol and Team Germany have Kiwis among their ranks; even the South African Team Shosholoza had a New Zealander, Tony Evans, managing the building of their boat.
Peter Lester, a respected New Zealand yachting coach, puts the development of top New Zealand sailors down to three factors - a vast coastline, a temperate climate and easy access to the water and boats.
‘It’s a very natural part of the New Zealand experience to go to the beach and play in or on the water,’ he says. It’s not unusual for kids who grow up on boats from the moment they can walk, to go on to success in the youth classes and continue through to elite levels of the sport.
Often their roots can be tracked back to a little Kiwi dinghy called the P-class. It’s unique to New Zealand, designed in 1920 by a Northland weekend sailor called Harry Highet, who wanted a single-handed dinghy children could sail without capsizing.
Today, the P-class is sailed in almost every yacht club in the country, and at national championships, you will see more than 100 boys and girls battling it out in the boxy, snub-nosed boats - the next generation of world beaters.
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