England wins 470 berth

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33817, 14 April 1975, Page 30

England wins 470 berth

(Bp JOHN COFFEY)

The 23-year-old Canterbury yachtsman, Neville England, has been chosen in the New Zealand squad to compete in the pre-Olympic Games regatta at Kingston, Canada, in August,

England will be the helmsman and Andy Knowles (Wellington) the for’ard hand in one of two New Zealand crews to sail in the 470 (class. The other pair are Mark Patterson and Brent Bennett, of Auckland.

Both England and Knowles are former holders of the national J.C. championship and Knowles went on to win the Leander Trophy in the New Zealand R-class contest at the Bay of Islands last year. They., and Patterson and Bennett, qualified for the trip to Canada on their form shown in the last New Zealand 470 contest.

Although the pre-Olympicj regatta is not until August, England and Knowles intend to leave about two months earlier and to compete in events in the United States. They will be chartering a boat overseas and, not having crewed together before, should benefit from the extensive preparation. New Zealand will also be represented in the Finn, Flying Dutchman, Soling and Tornado catamaran sections of the regatta at Kingston, For the first time, the team j will be accompanied by a meteorological expert — Mr H. H. Kingham, of Chrisechurch.

England and Knowles will also have the opportunity to earn places in the world 470 championship fleet when they take part in the national trials at Nelson from May 2 to May 7. They will have their regular provincial crews with them at Nelson. While one young Canterbury skipper has had his promotion to New Zealand status confirmed by the nat-

ional yachting federation, another — Peter Lester — will have to wait until at least late this week to learn whether he is one of three helmsmen to sail in the world O.K. dinghy championship in Finland. At present Lester, in spite of his success in the recent inter-Dominion tn Mel-

bourne, is ranked fourth behind three Auckland! rivals, Graham Woodroffe, Gary Lock and Rex Lamb. Another Auckland helmsman with strong claims, John Douglas, is not available for selection, neither is the former World champion and New Zealand title-holder on 10 occasions, Clive Roberts (Auckland).