Yachting: Boat goes missing for 470 Olympic hopeful

The boat of 470 sailor Simon Cooke has boat mysteriously vanished from its Marseilles base in France.

The boat had been freighted there to prepare for any possible regattas in which he and new partner Alistair Gair might have to sail to try and confirm a place at the Athens Olympics.

On top of that, Cooke says his finances have reached rock bottom.

This comes after Cooke and Gair gained a reprieve for Olympic selection by winning their appeal to the Sports Disputes Tribunal last week.

The duo finished third in the national 470 trials won by Andrew Brown and Jamie Hunt but the tribunal suggested Yachting New Zealand reconsider what team to send to Athens.

Cooke says he and Gair now have to make some huge calls over their immediate future and Yachting New Zealand is not even talking to him after the tribunal's decision.

He says he and Gair will simply have to fund their own trip to France and cross their fingers that the boat turns up.

Cooke still part owns the missing boat with ex-sailing partner and former 470s world champion Peter Nicholas, and says he has been unsuccessfully trying to purchase it outright for four months.

Cooke says he has spent countless hours fine-tuning the boat, so this news is a major stress.

- Newstalk ZB