Chch yachtsman selected

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 22

Chch yachtsman selected

A Christchurch man, Graeme Kendall, has been selected to join N.Z.I. Enterprise for the remainder of the Whitbread round-the-world race. Kendall, aged 39, is one of the most experienced keeler yachtsmen in Canterbury, with almost 70,000 nautical miles of ocean sailing behind him, the equivalent of two-and-a-half journeys around the world. His call-up to Digby Taylor’s 12-man crew

came when an Auckland crewman withdrew at the end of the second leg, but was not officially announced until this week. Kendall flew up to Auckland on Sunday to help prepare the yacht for the race-start on Saturday, when the fleet will head for Punta del Este, in Uruguay, via Cape Horn. He said that, with fresh conditions, he hoped N.Z.I. Enterprise would prove itself the top yacht in the fleet in the remain-

ing two legs. A property developer from Sumner, Kendall participated in his first main series in 1980 when he sailed for the American team in the Clipper Cup at Hawaii. - In that year he also sailed his own yacht, Astral Rose, to and from the series. Since then, he has taken Astral Rose to Tahiti three times and has

done several trans-Tas-man deliveries. Kendall was also a reserve for the New Zealand America’s Cup squad and had been training for that when he was called up to join N.Z.I. Next year he hopes to compete in the Melbourne to Osaka double-handed race and then cruise to Alaska, the west coast of the United States and return home through the Pacific.