Yachting website enjoys a tail wind

Zoe Hawkins-Wilde set out to create a forum for her fellow competitive sailors

How many people dream of working in their favourite sport?

Twenty-eight-year-old Zoe Hawkins-Wilde has sailed into just that with her online magazine of all things yachting - crew.org.nz.

Billed as the online home of New Zealand yachting, the site gives yachties the latest sailing news, the chance to chat about what happened out on the race course, buy and sell gear, find a crew or to get information and weather forecasts for events.

A competitive sailor on the Auckland short-handed coastal racing circuit, Hawkins-Wilde started the site as a hobby just over a year ago.

Although busy with communications company The Word People she set up at 22, she found there were no dedicated local sailing magazines or websites providing that sort of forum.

She set up the online magazine for less than $1000, spending $600 on her first website.

"I emailed everyone I knew in sailing to spread the word and it just snowballed."

The site quickly gained a loyal following among competitive keelboat owners and race crew from the main sailing centres in Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington.

Strong interest prompted her to invest more into the brand, relaunching a more professional, commercial website in July.

Last month, crew.org.nz received 8000 visitors, and the site was ranked second in the Hitwise New Zealand 'Sports - Yachting and Boating' category for April to September, based on number of visits, behind Trade-A-Boat's buy-and-sell website.

With the site now well used by keelboat racers - who number about 2000 in Auckland - she is now going after a much bigger slice of the sailing market, targeting those who use cruisers, windsurfers and dinghies.

"I don't see any reason why we can't capture the interest of half the 33,000 yacht club members in the country."

Hawkins-Wilde has never had to chase advertisers or sponsors for the site. Instead they have jumped at the opportunity for direct access to the niche and high-value sailing market.

"If you are a sailing brand and you want to reach sailors, boat owners in particularly, then this is the best value for money," she said.

Hawkins-Wilde also uses her public relations skills to her advantage, offering website sponsors editorial opportunities and naming rights to events and race clinics that crew.org.nz runs in return for their sponsorship.

The site is still a fledgling, but is making a profit - although most of it is going towards growing the site and for event sponsorship.

Financially, Hawkins-Wilde said crew.org.nz was proving the naysayers wrong that web-based publications could not work commercially.

But it is not done and dusted. By this time next year, she would like to have launched two more versions of the site, either offshore or in another sport such as horseriding or golf.

Hawkins-Wilde works 60-hour weeks from her office at the Westhaven Marina, with The Word People still providing half her workload.

But being her own boss means she can still get out on the water where she is one of few female skippers racing the Auckland circuit aboard her 8.5m performance keelboat Cool Change - a top-five boat in its division.

She said nurturing an online community required huge input and energy to make it successful and to keep people returning to the site daily.

Hawkins-Wilde previously worked as an assistant for small marketing business De Beer Marketing.

In the early days of The Word People, she worked as a waitress for up to 20 hours a week to help cover her start-up costs.

Her advice for other young people dreaming about creating a business around something they love doing: "Just do it."