Dutch Whitbread contestant seeks attention

Press, 10 February 1986, Page 30

Dutch Whitbread contestant seeks attention

PA Wellington Dirk Nauta, skipper of Philips Innovator, the handicap leader at the halfway stage of the Whitbread round-the-world yacht race, says there is too much emphasis on the maxis taking part. "It is not fair,” Said Nauta, aged 42, of the Netherlands, at Wellington.

“The Whitbread trophy goes to the first yacht into Portsmouth on handicap yet all the attention in New Zealand goes toward the maxis.

“There was a race in Auckland harbour this week for the maxis but nothing for the other yachts." Nauta said that, as New Zealand’s two Whitbread entries, Lion New Zealand and N.Z.I. Enterprise, were both maxis, it was understandable that they should receive plenty of publicity, but he still

found it hard to take.

Unlike the New Zealand yachts, which have been chasing money to finance their racing, Innovator has no such worries.

Nauta said Philips International, which is based in the Netherlands, had underwritten the whole venture. This left Nauta, who was paid, to concentrate on making sure Innovator was still first on handicap at Portsmouth in early May.

He said he was confident that, barring serious mishap, Innovator would be able to build on its 12hour 19-minute handicap lead.

“We will have to be careful all the time but I feel we have a good lead, which we should be able to increase,” he said. After the first leg to Cape Town, Innovator was 11 hours behind the handicap leader L’Esprit d’Equipe, which was now

second, with Fazer Finland, third.

The two most difficult legs were the first and the last from Punta del Este, said Nauta, whose yacht was seventh over all into Auckland.

“They are so tactical. There is so much risk. You have to try and plan even more carefully,” he said.

Nauta, who contested the 1977-78 Whitbread, said he was not too concerned about going around Cape Horn on the third leg.

He had sailed successfully around the notorious stretch of water twice and felt he knew the waters well enough to be confident of a successful third passage.

His yacht had been fortunate so far to have experienced no long-term trouble, he said. On the way to Cape Town it just missed sailing

into a giant whale and on the. way to Auckland it had minor problems with its steering and communications.

Innovator is also leader of the C division. There is no B division.

Nauta started sailing when he was 12. After a career in the merchant navy, he started his own sailing business.

He asked Philips to sponsor Innovator and when he could not find enough experienced sailors for a crew in the Netherlands, he went further afield. He has Americans, Danes and an Irishman on board.

“Apart from the New* Zealand boats, most of the entries have a fair mixture of nationalities on board,” Nauta said. The Whitbread fleet will leave Auckland from 11 a.m. on February 15.