Another good year for top N.Z. yachtsmen

Press, 26 December 1979, Page 12

Another good year for top N.Z. yachtsmen

By

JOHN COFFEY

Yachting was once again the sport in which New Zealanders most frequently headed off the best of their overseas rivals during 1979. Three world championships and a string of other notable accomplishments enhanced the already high standing of this country’s crews.

Richard Dodson had a massive winning margin of 28 points to become the third New Zealand helmsman to gain possession of the world O.K. dinghy title; Tony Bouzaid and his

team-mates 'retained the World Half-Ton Cup; and Chris Dickson, for the second time, and Hamish Willcox were too skilful for their opponents in the world two-man youth contest.

Of equal standing with those feats was the victory of Mark Paterson and David Mackay in the 470 division of the pre-Olympic regatta. A repetition of that performance on the same course at Tallinn, Soviet

Estonia, next year would provide Paterson with the Games gold which eluded him in Canada in 1976. Further confidence that New Zealand is capable of mounting a formidable Olympic Challenge was derived from the successes of Bret de Thier and Steve Moffatt in the Tornado catamaran class at the famous Kiel Week regatta, and by Murray Jones and Andy

Knowles topping the points table in the 470 section of the Travemunde International Olympic regatta. In addition, Jock Bilger and Muray Ross are quickly regaining the smooth combination which has made them a threat to t'ne top Flying Dutchman crews, and, with Rex Sellers and Gerald Sly (Tornado), they were in the first 10 in pre-Olympic regatta rankings.

There were otherachievements of note. Dodson claimed the O.K. titles of Germany and Denmark and also won at Kiel Week on his way to world honours, and Russell Coutts overcame illness to be the runner-up in the world youth monotype event.

An imposing list, one made all the more memorable because New Zealanders continue to face the

handicaps of having to meet the traditionally strong Europeans, Scandinavians and Americans at unfamiliar venues and in the Southern Hemisphere winter. Often boats have to be borrowed and it is taken for granted that the home nation has the pick of the fleet. It will be a luxury for the New Zealand Finn and Tornado crews to have had |heir 1980 world champion-

ships allocated to venues near Auckland, and high placings would be a valuable psychological advantage leading up to the Olympic series. Paterson and Mackay have already made their mark in the minds of a majority of their probable opponents at Tallinn. But such is the depth of talent in the Olympic classes at present that there is no guarantee that they will even earn a Games nomination.

To do so, Paterson and Mackay will need, in the trials, to improve on their third placing of the last national championship. They have no simple task in overcoming such well-per-formed pairs as Jones and Knowles, Dickson and Willcox, and Paul Francis and Kevin Welsh. Similarly, the tussle between de Thier and Moffatt, Chris Timms and Laurie Hope, and Sellers and Rob Preston for the Tornado nomination should

be no less absorbing, and Bilger and Ross have to stay in front of Gary Wiig and Lasse Ressen, who were dominant in Flying Dutchmans when Bilger and Ross temporarily turned their attention to other classes. The Finn class has even more candidates. Tom Dodson was the pre-Olympic representative, Graeme Deegan has returned from England in a bid to repeat his win in the 1979 New Zealand championship, Jonty Farmer has the experience of three previous Olympic regattas, Peter Lester and Richard Dodson have been world O.K. dinghy winners, and Graeme Woodroffe is a former world Quarter-Ton champion. Only the three-man Soling class has yet to prove that it is fully competitive at Olympic level.