Kendall and Sellers team up for Qingdao in Tornado

by Bruce Kendall and Sail-World on 21 Feb 2007

Aaron McIntosh is stepping aside from his Olympic Tornado campaign with Bruce Kendall. Bruce Kendall will continue as skipper with Brett Sellers as crew.

A statement issued by Bruce Kendall says 'Bruce is disappointed and is sorry for Aaron that Aaron cannot continue with him at this stage and is thankful Aaron has to foresight to see the advantages of the campaign continuing.

'Aaron does plan to climb back into the Tornado in October as a build up to the NZL Worlds off Takapuna in February 2008.'

In the statement McIntosh says: 'To campaign this class and feed a family is expensive and the reality of it is I have to earn money for the time being. We pushed hard last year, but a best place in 12th in the South Americans was not enough to secure Olympic Squad funding. A disappointing 30th at the World Champs was a tough pill to swallow.

'I am not giving up just stepping aside for a few months. 'Tornado To Beijing' will continue with me in the back ground. I love campaigning and sailing these boats so I will be back and really can't wait.'

Bruce Kendall competed in Sail Auckland with Hayden Whitburn as crew and finished a close second to Brett Sellers and Nigel Williams. Now, Brett and Bruce will head to Europe for the Tornado European champs and the Hyeres regatta.

The statement says that Kendall and McIntosh are unsure if they will sail on the same boat in October. If the Kendall/Sellers combination works 'it would be silly to break that partnership'.

The immediate task is to qualify the class at one of the two Qualifying Regattas/World Championships in either Cascais, Portugual in 2007 or Takapuna in 2008, and then impress the Olympic Selectors sufficiently to represent New Zealand in Qingdao at the 2008 Olympics.

In a related story, very reliable sources told Sail-World last week that McIntosh would be stepping across to coach the Star boat campaign of Hamish Pepper and Carl Williams, after Andrew Escourt, their coach of the past few months had decided to take other offers to coach and sail professionally. The move by Escourt was unexpected, and was driven by financial considerations only, according to our source.

The interim crew/coach relationship with Pepper and David Giles will continue while regular crew Carl Williams is otherwise engaged on America's Cup business, and it is thought that McIntosh will provide mainly on the water support at key regattas and see how the chemistry evolves.

In other changes on the Olympic coaching scene, NZ Olympic Laser coach, Ian Neeley is understood to have signed with Australian interests, and that his two proteges Andrew Murdoch and Jo Aleh will be working with new coaches this season. No formal announcement has been made by Yachting New Zealand on this point, and it is expected that new coach competitor relationships will be trialed to check the performance and chemistry before final decisions are made in regard to the 2008 Olympics.

First task however, for all classes, is to qualify for the 2008 Olympics for which 75% of the places will be allocated at the combined world championships in Cascais starting in late July 2007