Yachting: Riding life’s stormy seas

Team New Zealand navigator, Kevin Hall, has beaten testicular cancer - twice. Picture / Martin Sykes

In a letter to a young cancer sufferer cycling legend Lance Armstrong once wrote: "Cancer, get out of my life, I am a busy guy."

Staunch advice which could easily have come from Team New Zealand's new navigator Kevin Hall.

Like Armstrong, he's a cancer survivor.

Diagnosed with testicular cancer in his senior year at university, Hall was fortunate it was identified early.

"It was an obvious path forward, surgery and the removal of the testicle," Hall said.

He was clear for two years then his blood levels went up and he was told "we didn't quite get all of it".

His lymph nodes were then removed but nothing was found. Two weeks later they found out it was his other testicle.

"So I had the second one removed."

While sailing was the last thing on his mind during those dark days, it was something Hall showed a knack for early on - and was by no means ready to surrender.

His passion for the sport began when his family moved back to the United States. Hall was born in Germany on a US Army base where his parents were doctors. They spent a year in Africa before returning to America where they lived for a short time in Illinois in the Midwest before moving to Ventura, California.

"I am pretty grateful about that looking back because I became a sailor, otherwise I might have been, I don't know, a wrestler or something - which is what they do in the Midwest."

His love for the sport was further enhanced when, as a 16-year-old, he spent a year in France's city of sails La Rochelle and continued through university, where he studied maths and French literature back in the States.

After three attempts to qualify for the Olympics, Hall finally succeeded in the Finn class, earning a place in last year's Athens Games. However, what should have been a time of happiness turned into a nightmare as he battled bureaucracy to get to the start line.

As a result of his cancer Hall is required to inject himself weekly with testosterone, a banned substance in worldwide sport.

"They test to see if there is any other testosterone in your body that has come from outside. All mine does so I fail a regular drug test. It is not that my levels are high, it is just that it comes from outside."

Getting a handful of agencies to approve his request and grant him a "therapeutic use exemption" for last year's Games proved an ordeal.

"I didn't choose the surgery so I maybe could win a gold medal by shooting up on testosterone."

Three weeks before the games Hall still didn't know if he could compete. Even after he was finally granted permission it wasn't exactly plain sailing for the man in his dinghy.

"It carried on through the Games with not being able to get my medicine. They didn't want me to give it to myself so I had to get a doctor to give it to me. Then the doctor didn't show up on the morning of the race ... it was definitely frustrating."

Hall finished 11th in the class. Fellow Team New Zealand sailor Ben Ainslie clinched the gold medal and skipper Dean Barker finished 13th.

While his Olympic campaign may have been more frustrating than anything else, Hall's America's Cup campaigns appear to have been more enjoyable.

He comes to Team New Zealand with two campaigns behind him. His first was with America One in 1995 where he was a sailing coach and "back then I guess what you would call a spy".

Hall watched the other teams and provided information to his team and made suggestions about boat handling based on what the opposition were doing.

At OneWorld he sailed as a navigator and helped with the testing programme, working as a kind of liaison between the sailors and designers - roles which he has maintained at Team New Zealand.

Hall is enjoying being back here but misses wife Amanda, an emergency room doctor finishing her residency in the US, and adopted baby son Rainer.

Kevin Hall

Born: Germany
Lives: United States.
Age: 35
Status: Married to Amanda with son Rainer.
Position: Navigator

Career highlights:
2005: Emirates Team New Zealand
2004: Athens Olympics, 11th in Finn class
2002: OneWorld
1995: America One