SAILING: Dad's the word for Logan

ANENDRA SINGH
Teenager Logan Dunning Beck's nerves were jangling when he got up yesterday morning for the final three races of the Toyota Optimist Nationals in Napier.
He was worried about fickle winds and fellow Aucklander Alexandra Maloney (Murrays Bay) nipping at his heels, with just a six-point gap between them.
But despite the delay in start due to light winds Beck, 13, of Wakatere Sailing Club, didn't despair. He picked up some smooth pebbles at the Ahuriri waterfront, where the home of Napier Sailing Club is, and skipped them across the water to keep his mind off the racing.
"I kind of stay on my own and try to work on something else. I was just skimming rocks on the water."
Of course, there's also mum Anthea's chicken breadrolls and dried fruit that do wonders for him during lunchbreak in the water.
But the Takapuna Grammar School pupil had another trick up his sleeve. He had also had a chat with his father, Grant, who is in Spain with the Team New Zealand crew, who have just topped the table after 13 Acts of the Louis Vuitton yachting series off Valencia.
"I spoke to dad day and night over the past five days and last night he wished me good luck and told me not to worry and to just sail like I normally do," a delighted Beck told SportToday last night after becoming the national champion in the 15-and-under regatta.
Grant Beck (pictured above) is the Team NZ weather guru and an Olympic sailboarding coach who has guided the likes of Barbara and Bruce Kendall in windsurfing.
But it was Logan's run yesterday as the teenager clinched the title in the penultimate race with second and third placings, shrugging off a disqualification for surging over the line in the 15th and final race.
Weighing 40.5kg, Beck sailed superbly in breezes that struggled to pick up above 10 knots throughout the five days.
In the final race he found himself sandwiched between two Australian optimists, who carried him over the start line before the hooter. He continued sailing, finishing in first position but aware protests would result in a disqualification.
"He prefers sailing in light to moderate conditions and puts his success today down to picking the shifts correctly in the fickle breezes," Napier club manager Lyle Tresadern told SportToday.
Beck said his win in similar conditions during the North Island Championship on Lake Taupo late last year proved useful.
With the seventh placing in last year's nationals fresh in his mind, Beck said yesterday's win was a "great weight off my chest". He missed out on the world champs and had to settle for the North American Championship in Puerto Rico, where he finished a "disastrous 63rd position".
"It was very windy and I was only 39 kilos, and I got smashed," he said with hopes of finishing among the top 40-50 sailors at the world champs in Sardinia, off the coast of Italy, in July.
While he and brother Hamish, 11, have been sailing with their father since he was about four years old, Beck has no intentions of clambering into the Black Boat.
"It doesn't appeal to me because I prefer to be on my own. Besides, it's not as exciting as being offshore," said Beck, who dreams of competing in the Volvo 70 Ocean Race in a decade or 15 years.
It was another countback setback for Maloney, the best female finisher, who slipped to third spot behind clubmate James Turner after the pair were tied in second spot. Media-shy Maloney missed out in last year's five-member national team to the world champs on a countback for the fifth place. Beck's Wakatere clubmate, Chris Steele, improved his standing to finish fourth.
Aucklander Andrew McKenzie (Kohimarama), in seventh place, was the fifth Kiwi qualifier for the world champs yesterday. Lindisfarne College pupil Sam Mackay, in 10th place, missed out as the sixth Kiwi while Napier Girls' High pupil Naomi Mannering was 16th overall but was the 10th Kiwi. The Bay pair have booked their flights to the North American Championship in Mexico from July 7-15.
Three Singaporeans and one from Noumea were among the top 10 place-getters.