Family rules the waves

Press, 20 February 1980, Page 26

Family rules the waves

By

JOHN COFFEY

Tom Dodson, the senior, member of a family that•is well represented in the New Zealand squad for the world Finn Gold Cup yachting • championship,. which begins off Taka- • puna, Auckland, today, feels very much at home on . the waters of the Hauraki Gulf. Although tending to understate the worth of his close second placing behind the former world title-holder, John Bertrand (United States), in the much - disrupted Peter Stuyvesant Pacific Cup contest last week. Dodson is obviously very happy to have the chance to challenge the top international helmsmen in conditions with which he is familiar.

Last year he was a surprise winner of the preOlympic trials and he represented New Zealand in the games warm-up series at Tallinn, Soviet Estonia.' To a young man — he is now 22 years of age — making his debut in some of the sport’s most prestigious regattas, his results were probably disappointing.

Tom Dodson was twen-ty-sixth at Tallinp, and while overseas he was a modest fifty-sixth in the world... championship at

Weymouth, England, but a creditable seventeenth in the Helsinki international regatta. Now he has emerged as New Zealand’s top contender for world honours at Auckland. However, it would be a massive step J from fifty-sixth to even finish among the top 10 only 12 months later, and Dodson is approaching the series with a mature attitude. The reigning Cup holder. Cam Lewis (United States), started in all of

the Pacific Cup heats, and it is a moot point that he won the only race that he completed. There is even a hint that some of the .established skippers tend to hide their talents in events that serve as preparation for more important contests. “The world championship should be very close, but it has been good to get up with some of these highly-rated yachtsmen,” Dodson said yesterday. “It certainly makes a difference from having to travel to the other side of the world, borrow a boat and

then get done.” Naturally, he Tates Bertrand — who headed him off by just 1.7 points' in the abbreviated Pacific series , — as one of, the pre-contest favourites. He has the highest respect, though, for his own brother, , Richard Dodson, and also the Deegan brothers, Bruce and Graham. It was an inspired move by the Dodson family to leave Wellington to obtain the more intense competition and longer sailing season available in the north.

Both Tom and Richard Dobson first showed their skills in O.K. dinghies, displaying potential when twenty - seventh and fifteenth, .respectively, in the big fleet which trailed home Peter Lester in the 1977 world series. With his brother out of the way, it was Richard Dodson’s turn to climb the O.K. dinghy ladder last year, and he was to reach the highest rung with his triumph in the world championship, in Norwegian waters. On his : way he had become champion of New Zealand, Germany ■1 '

and Denmark, and he won again at Kiel week.Richard Dodson, a 20-year-old trainee engineer, was third in the Pacific contest and is still developing his potential in the tough sporting pursuit that he has chosen. Had yachting not been his major attraction, he might have been a fine all-roun-der, for Richard Dodson was the runner-up in the last televised New Zealand Superstar competition.

The Dodson success story was completed by a cousin, Harry who slipped into the national team in twentieth place. Only 19, and with a physique which suggests that he would have more than adequately carried out his duties as a lock forward with the Scot’s College first XV in Wellington, Harry Dodson has made quick strides.

He, too, now lives ir Auckland, and it was not long before his cousin: had him with them it road work, at the gymna sium and in sailing train ing. Harry Dodson ha; been at the helm of a fim onlv since last Octobe: and he will benefi markedly from the ex perience to be gained ove: th? next week.