I. M. Pryde's Fine Record In Yachting

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30218, 24 August 1963, Page 9

I. M. Pryde's Fine Record In Yachting

VEW New Zealanders 1 attack their sport with the intensity of preparation and knowledge of I. M. Pryde. the 36-year • old Aucklander, who last week won the Swedish open Flying Dutchman championship. Pryde’s yachts are always among the finest in the fleet They are beautifully finished, and are well equipped. Pryde is regarded as the finest builder of wooden masts in Auckland and his friendship with Roily Tasker has assured him of good sails. His knowledge of winds and tides conditions and variations are among the finest among New Zealand yachtsmen. His tactics are good (except, perhaps, in light weather), his preparation is intense and detailed, and his enthusiasm is tremendous. Why then has Pryde not scooped every pool that he has entered? The answer can only be that his temperament is liable to overcome him in the stress of the vital occasion. Last year, for instance, Pryde had carried everything before him in Auckland FD yachting until it came to the final test—the world championship trials —when B L Skinner, who had never sailed an FD before. sailed brilliantly in heavy weather. Pryde was visibly upset when the officials decided to proceed with the seventh •nd final race, notwithstanding the high seas. Still

annoyed as he launched his yacht, Pryde scraped the rudder gudgeon on the concrete slipway—a needless error—which prevented him from even contesting the race with Skinner. Then, last summer, Pryde had won 23 out of 30 club FD races in Auckland and had taken the inter-Domin-ion title from a field of 38, which included both Tasker and his understudy, N. W. Brooks, of Victoria. But in the world championship trials, J. V. Bilger's slight dominance in light weather brought from Pryde a number of tactical gambles w’hich paid off poorly, and Bilger amassed enough points to win nomination, even though Pryde comfortably won the last two races when the wind freshened. Bilger, however, has stated that if Pryde should consistently thrash him on their pre-championship circuit of Europe, then it could be Pryde who would contest the world championship at Sternberg, near Munich, in Southern Germany, next month. This is Pryde’s third trip overseas. In 1958, after having twice won the New Zealand Cherub championship, he was a member of the six-man New Zealand team which did well in the International 14 contest at Cowes. On the way home, Pryde and F. Sumich acquired an FD in Austria, and after a

week’s practice, came fifteenth out of 22 in the first world championship. Pryde was runner-up to R. J. Watson in the 1960 Olympic FD trials—and, in fact, has been runner-up on each of the three occasions that New Zealand has held trials to find an FD representative for international competition. Last season, he travelled to Florida as reserve to Skinner, and came second in the “senior B” section of the world championships —an event he will again contest this year. Since 1961, Pryde’s forward hand has been J. D. Hansen, a husky 25-year-old carpenter, who also came from the Cherubs.