Liquid asset

ROBIN BAILEY talks to three Auckland yachtswomen who plan to auction space on their boat to raise money to compete at the Olympics.

Fundraising. It's the word that blights the lives of top New Zealand sportspeople who need to compete on the world stage to achieve their goals. It's a toss-up between spending time knocking on doors of potential sponsors and putting in the hours necessary to train.

Three Aucklanders - Alesha Thorpe, Michelle Vinsen and Sonya Swinburne, who hope to represent their country in the world women's keelboat class at the 2004 Olympics - have put a new slant on seeking those elusive dollars to pay for their campaign.

Next Wednesday they will be auctioning space on their Yngling keeler at a launch at the Line 7 Wharf Yacht Club on Princes Wharf. The club has a long history of supporting youth yachting and co-founder Mike Clark will be the auctioneer.

"The idea is to get some serious punters - from among our members and the business community at large - down to meet the crew, check out the yacht, and bid for the limited space available according to the international yachting rules on sponsorship," Clark says.

As the manager of two Olympic yachting teams, he knows all about the difficulty of arranging international campaign budgets, which was why he formed the club along with The Wharf restaurant owner Dick Jones and later co-opted Line 7 boss Ross Munro. They hope to ensure the women are properly funded to mount their European campaign.

The three successful and experienced dinghy sailors found the transition to the Yngling challenging.

Thorpe explains: "Three months ago the boat was completely unknown to us. Our first experience was head-on, in strong, blustery winds with 30-knot gusts on Sydney Harbour.

"We all knew we had a lot to learn and a lot of work to do before we could sail the boat competitively. So it was two weeks of solid training every day, no matter what the conditions. We quickly learned about the boat and realised that as a small keeler it acted more like a dinghy, reacting to body movement and waves.

"As single-handed sailors we had to go though a huge team-building phase to coordinate the individual roles needed for a three-person yacht. Our race results show that this first phase of our campaign was successful ... much more so than we imagined when we left New Zealand."

For the record, the Kiwi trio finished third in both the Sydney International regatta and the NSW State Championships. They came fourth in the Australian Yngling Nationals and going into the last race of that regatta they were equal on points with the world's No 1 ranked women's team.

After Sydney the Yngling was shipped back to New Zealand for a sail-tuning and development programme. This involves the student-sailors in a heavy schedule that began in February with the start of a fitness programme, sport psychology work and campaign planning.

This month the emphasis moves to on-the-water training and fine-tuning the boat. While the yacht is on the way to Europe the crew will hone their academic skills at university before leaving to begin their campaign on May 15.

Their first event is the Spa regatta in Holland from May 22-26. After this series they train with European and American Yngling teams, sail a Danish regatta on June 8 and 9, sit their New Zealand university papers in Germany from June 12-16, then get back into racing mode.

They sail the Danish spring regatta from June 20-23, go to Germany for the Kiel Week series from June 26-30, head to Switzerland for more training before contesting the Yngling Worlds at Brunnen from July 19-26.

The three return to New Zealand for a short break before the pre-pre-Olympics in Athens from August 12 to 24. After that they will bring the yacht home.

There's a halt to the competitive programme until the Sydney regatta series begins, which takes them through from early November to the end of December.

It's a tough schedule both on and off the water, but all three are confident their results will justify the effort and see them back to Athens for the big one in 2004.

A lot depends on what happens at the auction from 6 pm on Wednesday.