Swinging in behind the talent

The Line 7 Wharf Yacht Club has taken an inventive approach to raising support for promising young sailors, writes ROBIN BAILEY.

When it comes to raising money for sport, a little lateral thinking goes a long way. Certainly operating well outside the square has proved successful for Mike Clark, Dick Jones and Ross Munro.

Last week their Line 7 Wharf Yacht Club collected more than $30,000 for youth yachting by tempting a bunch of business people to play golf.

That figure will rise as the final accounts for the tournament at Huapai Golf Club are settled, leaving another substantial donation to be added to the $179,000 the club has already given to help to support our young sailors.

Yachting New Zealand high performance manager Peter Lester was among those who turned out at Huapai. His brief was to emphasise to anyone who showed an interest the importance of the sort of fundraising the wharf club is doing.

"Mike and Dick have been toiling away for years now helping promising youngsters at the beginning of their careers," he says. "They lifted their game a lot after Mike managed the Olympic yachting teams of 1988 and 1992 and realised just how tough it was for sailing even at that level. Now they also have Ross Munro on board and he has added the support - and the clout of Line 7 - to the exercise."

After sailing with Chris Dickson's America's Cup campaign in San Diego in 1995, Lester was recruited the following year to help Yachting New Zealand to prepare our sailors for the Sydney Olympics.

"Seventeen sports were selected for a coaching academy programme under the New Zealand Sports Foundation umbrella," said Lester. "The aim was to provide high performance coaching to prepare our would-be Olympians. The scheme was working well for yachting, but there were doubts that it was proving successful across all the sports involved and it was felt that perhaps the money could be spent more productively.

"The result is that we are now in a sort of holding pattern as the Hillary Commission and Sports Foundation are being merged. The combined organisation hasn't been named yet, but the high performance end will probably be something like a New Zealand Academy of Sport.

"Eventually everything will fall into place, but in the meantime it's a matter of supporting efforts like the Huapai fund-raiser that helps our promising youngsters to compete internationally."

Last year a summer coaching programme was set up at Okahu Bay with support from the Auckland Sailing Club that ensured an intensive four months of training for a bunch of promising young sailors. One was Michael Bullot, who went on to compete at the Youth Worlds in France in July, then won the Laser Radial World Championships with a double victory, taking both the Open and Youth titles. His success earned him the Young Sailor of the Year title for 2001.

Others on the programme included Hobie stars Chris Kitchen and Mark Overington and Kohimarama Laser radial international Kate O'Brien.

Lester emphasises that raising money for yachting at junior level is not easy. Club members each pay a levy that goes to help to run the national body, Yachting New Zealand. Youth sailors depend on parents and individual clubs, plus any sponsorship they can raise personally.

This is why YNZ helps youngsters seeking sponsorship to brush up on their public speaking skills and assists with putting sponsorship pitches together to show how they can deliver a commercial return on the company's investment. This aspect of the support programme even extends to media training so the young sailors can make the most of public appearances.

There is also a segment that covers personal endorsement for products and services. It is a far cry from the days when Lester was chasing funding for his own international and Olympic campaigns.

This week he has confirmed an arrangement with Royal Akarana Yacht Club to base the Future Champions Academy training programme out of that club for the coming summer. This decision could well lead to Okahu Bay becoming the permanent home of the region's quest for on-the-water excellence.