Turning boys into Burlings
Two school students are set on sailing success. And they’ve managed to gain the attention of Team New Zealand skipper Peter Burling, writes Catherine Groenestein.
Ben Crane and Sam Street have become something of an internet sensation after posting a video of themselves on exercycles, pedalling furiously in front of an Americas Cup race on TV, then switching places at the same time as the Team NZ cyclers.
Their camera skills garnered a bit of attention, including from Team New Zealand skipper Peter Burling, who put their video on his own Facebook page.
‘‘It was really cool that Peter Burling, while he was going through the hard times of battling away, saw the video of the boys in support,’’ Ben’s father Jonathan Crane said.
The two Taranaki 17-year-olds have been shipmates for years. They’re on a similar path to Burling and many other top New Zealand sailors, learning to sail as youngsters with the New Plymouth Yacht Club then moving on to serious training through the sport’s national body.
They spent a season together in New Plymouth and won the 420 class at the regional champs, then qualified for the Yachting NZ Youth programme, which meant trips to Auckland to train and sail.
Crane said the training camps meqant interaction with top notch sailors.
‘‘It has always impressed me how often you will bump into an Olympic sailor or coach at a regatta. Those guys are accessible
If you don’t travel you don’t have the experience of the big fleets. Jason Holdt
and more than willing to give advice and share their wisdom.
‘‘That’s probably the key to our sailors’ success: they can see a path to the very top clearly ahead because of the involvement of those top flight sailors right down at beginner club level.’’
New Plymouth Yacht Club commodore Jason Holdt also started young, first taking up sailing aged six.
‘‘Our whole family has been involved in the yacht club really from way back. We were probably a bit of an exception, but you have to start out young, usually you have to be eight or 10.’’
Living in a smaller centre meant travel to Auckland to sail in regattas once or twice a month to train and get the experience of sailing in a large fleet.
‘‘I did my first regatta at age 9. If you don’t travel you don’t have the experience of the big fleets. There’s only 10 to 15 boats in each class in our club, so as a young guy you have to travel to do any good.’’
There were plenty of opportunities to make a career in yachting and proficient sailors could travel the world, he said.
Learning to sail in less-thanideal conditions helped shape good sailors, he said.
‘‘We wouldn’t get the really nice weather here that often, its often big waves and windy.
‘‘A lot of overseas clubs will cancel racing if it gets too windy and too big, but we carry on.We have a limit of 25 knots, over that we won’t race, but if it’s under that then we’ll go out.’’