Yachting president won't be desk-bound | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Provincial sports chiefs have usually left their competitive days long behind them.

Not so the Canterbury Yachting Association's new president Brett Willcock.

One of the youngest people to hold this office at only 34, Willcock is a successful skipper in the Flying 15 class.

And he doesn't intend to let his administrative responsibilities stop him still messing about in boats.

Willcock has sailed five world Flying 15 championships, and is also lining up the 2009 worlds in Melbourne - which requires making the top six at this summer's nationals.

From Timaru, Willcock learned his yachting with America's Cup sailors Gavin Brady and Ian Baker. His father Colin had been a keen glider pilot but decided yachting was a more sociable sport for the family, and Willcock started in Opties when he was six or seven.

When he was 16 he bought an old Cortina so he could come up here regularly to race Lasers, and also sailed a 15 with his father.

He's also had spells sailing Hobie 16s and, while he was working in Taupo for nearly two years, quarter-tonners and trailer yachts.

However, for the last 10 years or so he's concentrated on 15s after sailing the 1994 worlds in Timaru and 1996 worlds in Cowes with his father. The latter had a fleet of 200 15s - "we met the Duke of Edinburgh and shook hands over a Pimms in Uffa Fox's house!"

He sailed a third worlds with his father at Esperance, Western Australia, in 1997, where they won the silver fleet division for older boats. He's sailed with David Pearson since 2000, including the 2002 worlds at Dun Laoghaire and, with a new boat, 2004 in Auckland.

Locally, he and Pearson are the closest rivals of top local F15 sailors Alister Rowlands and Aaron Goodmanson, who were third at the last worlds, and have beaten the ace pair for club and South Island titles. But while they can find similar boat speed in club races, the tactical ability of Rowlands and Goodmanson is at another level in international competition, he said.

"Flying 15s are a relatively easy boat to sail - they're a bit forgiving - but they're not an easy boat to sail fast," he said.

"They're quite technical, and there's a challenge which I enjoy, and essentially it's one-design racing."

Willcock's administrative involvement began when he became the F15 fleet captain while still in his teens, and editor of the national F15 newsletter. He was elected to the committee at his club Charteris Bay about 10 years ago and about seven years ago shanghaied as the CYA delegate - a job no one wanted because the meetings went so late.

As the new CYA president, Willcock has made a commitment to go to a meeting of every club's committee before Christmas, "which has made me a semi-professional meeting goer."

Willcock points out one or two clubs in Auckland have more sailing members than all Canterbury's combined, "so in a national sense we box above our weight."

Christchurch people all had a yacht club close to them, all with a particular niche, and all run by dedicated, passionate people, he said.

He wants to get better communication between clubs and the CYA and Yachting NZ, and with a review of the CYA structure having been made would like to see it adopted and finalised ASAP.

In addition Pat Barwick at Sport Canterbury has done a review of youth yachting, and Willcock is chairing a sub-committee looking at her findings.

Willcock brings the same energy to administration that he does to his sailing, but said his big message is "get out and go sailing and enjoy yourself."

It's something he intends to do himself while he keeps the sport on an even keel.