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Yachting NZ: Broadreach Radio - Martin Tasker looks back on 5,500 mostly yachting stories

by Michael Brown/Yachting NZ 4 Nov 2021 04:22 GMT 4 November 2021
Martin Tasker - reports from the 2013 America's Cup, San Francisco © Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com

Martin Tasker spent most of his time behind a microphone, having commentated and presented news stories on anything from the America’s and Admiral's Cup to the Ocean Race and Olympics.

In fact, in his time as a reporter with TVNZ, he produced close to 5500 stories, many of them about yachting. He lifted the lid on a number of news breaks, like the time Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth were lured to Alinghi, but was equally happy telling the story about something happening at grassroots level.

Martin talks about his career as both a yachting reporter and commentator in this podcast and tells the stories about how he and Peter Lester were threatened by Oracle with expulsion from not only the America’s Cup but also the country, what it was like to be on the inside with Team New Zealand in Bermuda in 2017, the lengths he would go to for a story, and the time he became the story after a seemingly innocent comment picked up when he thought he was off air caused a huge controversy.