Yachting New Zealand appoints three High Performance Coaches

by Virginia Stracey-Clitherow on 9 Feb 2001 'Yachting New Zealand has appointed double Olympic medallist Bruce Kendall as one of
three high performance yachting coaches in the first of a series of coaching and
development initiatives to maintain New Zealand's competitiveness in Olympic and
international dinghy sailing' says YNZ chief executive Simon Wickham.
Kendall joins highly experienced double-handed sailor and Sydney 2000 Olympic coach
John Clinton and world ranked and Olympic Laser sailor Peter Fox to make up the trio of
coaches who will work with Yachting New Zealand for the next three months. Kendall's
appointment has been made in conjunction with Auckland's Millennium Centre as an
ongoing partnership to foster windsurfing.

Double-handed specialist Clinton (38yrs) has specific expertise in the research &
development side of yachting encompassing Olympic and America's Cup sailing. This
complements the significant experience amassed by boardsailing's Kendall (36yrs) and
single-handed expert Fox (33yrs) in their lifetime yachting careers.

The appointments have been welcomed by YNZ High Performance Manager Peter Lester
who will work closely with the three coaches.

Says Lester, 'up until now, Olympic yachting coaching in New Zealand has relied
predominantly on volunteer effort, but now the game has changed. You only have to cast
your eyes around Auckland's Viaduct Basin to see the significant support and resources
required to perform at a professional level. We are trying to replicate this at the amateur
level of the game so New Zealand can keep up with the rest of the world.'

Continues Lester, 'Australia and Great Britain have had the significant advantage of
having full time coaches working with their Olympic sailors on a squad basis in the 4
year period leading up to Sydney 2000, and their sailors have certainly reaped the
rewards.'

Says YNZ Chief Executive Simon Wickham, 'the recent Ministerial Review of Sport
highlighted the much-discussed need for investment in coaching resources. We hope
this will form a significant component of the proposed structure for NZ sport.

Continues Wickham 'these initial short-term appointments have been made with the
assistance of the NZ Sports Foundation. However, we're hopeful that we can secure
additional funding in the near future to provide a more robust development for our future
yachting champions and stimulate the growth of NZ 's dinghy sailing fleets'

Yachting is an equipment-intensive sport, and Yachting New Zealand is grateful for the
support of the NZ Sports FOundation and Hillary Commission and the YNZ gold
sponsors: Line 7, Toyota New Zealand, P&O Nedlloyd, ANZDL.

Yachting New Zealand would also like to thank Aquapro New Zealand and Moller
Yamaha (NZ) in their ongoing and generous assistance with the YNZ coach boats. The
newest YNZ coach boat will be launched at Sail Auckland this weekend.

For specific information about the Yachting New Zealand coaching programme, see High
Performance News on the YNZ website www.yachtingnz.org.nz