Napier Sailing Club snares top Peruvian coach Arteaga

Orestes Arteaga (front) with Napier Boys' High School sailors Sam Devine (left) and Harry Stilwell before a coaching session yesterday. Photo / Paul Taylor

Top marks for endurance and honesty in the hunt for a fulltime professional coach go to Napier Sailing Club's coaching co-ordinator Adrian Mannering.

Five years after Mannering first offered highly sought after coach Orestes Arteaga a stint at the Napier club the Peruvian has taken up the offer and will be based at the club until April. Arteaga, 41, has 25 years of coaching experience and will be the club's first fulltime coach.

"I built a pretty good relationship with Adrian when I was here for the 2012 world optimist championships . I loved Hawke's Bay then and it's good to be coaching in New Zealand where sailing is the second biggest sport after rugby," Arteaga said before heading out on the water with a 23-strong Napier Boys' High School contingent yesterday.

In 2012 Arteaga coached the Peru team which finished second to Singapore in the teams section of the Napier-hosted world champs. Since then he has coached in Singapore and Bali.

A more than handy sailor before his focus switched to coaching, Arteaga, has competed at the last four world championships for the J24 class.

"We had top-10 finishes twice and because it's a large international class I was happy with those," Arteaga said.

He has won silver and bronze medals at the world championships for the Laser Radial class, a fifth placing in the South American champs and is a one-time Peru national champion for the class. With such an impressive CV the question had to be asked:

Will he compete for the Napier club this summer?

"No, my focus is solely on coaching this visit," he replied.

However, he will have a day off on Saturday to travel to Wellington and join close to 3000 other Peruvians in supporting their country's soccer team in the first Fifa World Cup Intercontinental Playoff against the All Whites.

"I'll be happy with a 1-0 win to Peru in that one," said the former soccer player.

"My three favourite sports are sailing, surfing and soccer in that order. I hope to get up to Mahia and Raglan for some surfing while I am here ... I hear Raglan has one of the best lefts in the world so I would love to get up there."

After almost two weeks of coaching in Napier Arteaga is full of praise for the squads he has.

"They are super keen to learn and they have super potential. Hopefully we will see some of them represent New Zealand at international regattas," he added.

Mannering agreed it was a huge coup to secure Arteaga's services.

"People might ask why we didn't get a Kiwi. You can't get a top Kiwi coach to give you five months. Coaching sailing is quite complex compared with rugby when you are working on a paddock. In sailing there are so many technical variables and there are a million variables when it comes to sea conditions and wind. Good coaches make it simple and Orestes is one of those."

Club commodore Paul Redman pointed out Arteaga will be available to coach all ages in all classes and will do one-on-one sessions at the club.

"It's good to finally get him. While we have had volunteers and coaching visits in the past it's good to have a fulltime coach for five months.That continuity will prove beneficial."

Redman said Arteaga would be valuable when the club ran business house and learn-to-sail events in four-man keelboats later this month.

"We believe the business house events will take off. Businesses could use them as end-of-year functions or team-building exercises. We will also target sporting groups who may be keen to race against other codes. But it's the youth and school groups we will be targeting the most with Orestes as we look to rebuild our youth base."

■ World champion New Zealand yachtsman and five-time America's Cup winner Russell Coutts will conduct coaching clinics at the Napier Sailing Club from November 24-26. A 1984 Olympic Games gold medallist in the Finn class, Coutts will coach Hawke's Bay sailors while at the club.