Yachting: Kiwi influence still strong

As the gleaming fleet in the Volvo Ocean Race gathers in Southampton ready to sail around the globe, Kiwi sailors are beavering away on the decks of every boat.

Yet there is no New Zealand flag fluttering from any of the eight Volvo60 yachts preparing to take to sea on September 23.

It is one of the great ironies that even without a New Zealand boat at the startline, the world's greatest ocean race probably would not go on without the all-pervading Kiwi influence.

The face of the race has changed dramatically since Sir Peter Blake roused the interest of the nation with our first entry, Ceramco, in the 1981 Whitbread race.

The latest race has an unmistakable Viking presence - and not only in the form of the new race sponsor, Volvo. More than half of the fleet are Scandinavian boats - two from Sweden, two backed by a Finnish yacht club and one from Norway.

But all of them have New Zealanders thick in their mix - either behind the wheel, driving the syndicate or drawing the lines of their boats.

There are at least 28 New Zealand sailors spread across the eight yachts. Two New Zealanders will skipper boats - six-time veteran Grant Dalton, on Amer Sports One, and his old sailing partner, Kevin Shoebridge, at the wheel of Tyco.

Former race winner Ross Field heads the Team Newscorp syndicate, which boasts no less than seven Kiwis in its crew.

Seven of the eight boats have been designed by New Zealanders. Bruce Farr, the man behind the V60 prototype, drew up six, while America's Cup champion designer Laurie Davidson was called on to come up with a race winner for the Norwegian Djuice Dragons campaign.

Dalton returns to the Southern Ocean heading a two-boat Finnish-Italian syndicate, but is still very aware of his sailing roots.

"While we haven't had a yacht funded at home since the New Zealand Endeavour campaign in 1993-94, Kiwis still have a big influence," Dalton said.

The all-women's crew sailing as part of Dalton's Nautor syndicate on Amer Sports Too include three New Zealanders.

Keryn Henderson and Bridget Suckling circumnavigated the globe on EF Education in the last race, and Sharon Ferris was part of the female Royal Sun Alliance crew that made an aborted attempt on the non-stop round-the-world record.

Going into the nine-leg, 32,700-mile odyssey, the German Illbruck campaign is pre-race favourites. The campaign, which has been on the go for the past two years, has six experienced Kiwi sailors on board - among them watch captains Stu Bannatyne and Mark Christensen, who was on board Paul Cayard's winning EF Language last time.

A number of America's Cup syndicates had expressed interest in entering the Volvo, but with it finishing in June and the challenger series of the cup starting in Auckland four months later, the dates were just too close.

There is a change in the route. The fleet still heads for Cape Town on the first leg, but now bypasses Fremantle and stops in Sydney at the end of the second stretch.

Then the race takes a novel twist - the fleet joins in the classic Sydney-Hobart race on Boxing Day before continuing to Auckland.

During the three-and-a-half week stopover, the boats will be at the centre of a non-stop festival in the Viaduct Basin, kicking off with an eight-hour free concert.

The boats will virtually always be in public view, either in the water or on the hard at one of the America's Cup syndicate bases in the sailing village.

The fleet leaves Auckland on January 27, bound for the new stopover of Rio de Janeiro, before the shorter legs to Miami, Baltimore, La Rochelle, Gotenberg and the 250-mile all-out end sprint to Kiel in June.

New Zealand sailors on board Volvo 60 yachts:

Assa Abloy (Sweden): Stu Wilson, Richard Mason.

Amer Sport One (Finland-Italy): Grant Dalton, Phil Airey.

Amer Sport Too (Finland-Italy): Sharon Ferris, Keryn Henderson, Bridget Suckling.

Djuice Dragons (Norway): Erle Williams.

Illbruck (Germany): Ross Halcrow, Mark Christensen, Stu Bannatyne, Ray Davies, Stu Bettany, Jamie Gale.

Team Newscorp (Australia): Ross Field, Steve Cotton, Nick White, Joe Spooner, Jeff Scott, Jeremy Smith, Craig Smith.

Team SEB (Sweden): Rodney Ardern, Tony Mutter, David Rolfe, Gareth Cooke.

Tyco (Bermuda): Kevin Shoebridge, Brad Jackson, Robert Salthouse.