Interview with Des Brennan

Yachting Must Help Itself

Des Brennan is the new chief executive of Yachting New Zealand. Installed in the role in February 2005, he has so far been a name without a face for those of us in the keelboat/multihull brigade.

I was lucky enough to spend an hour with Des finding out about what Yachting NZ have planned for us, and learning about how he thinks we can make this sport greater.

One of my first impressions was that this man does not mince words. He also has a strong commercial background, and his real-world approach is going to be a great asset for our sport.

Des started his career as an industrial chemist. He progressed through the ranks of the international cosmetics business with Max Factor UK, and worked within New Zealand’s dairy industry before taking on the senoir marketing role with TVNZ as it entered competition with TV3 approximately fifteen years ago. Since then has been involved with Fletcher Wood Panels and Montana Wines.

His sailing CV is a little less illustrious. Thanks to a sailing course he does know a mainsheet from a jib sheet, and has always felt an affinity with the sea but has never been a competitive sailor. His distance from the sport, however, is possibly an asset, and his experience on the sponsorship management side of yachting is extensive.

Des was working with TVNZ at the time that Grant Dalton was campaigning the Endeavour, and when Michael Fay pledged his first $35 million to America’s Cup sailing. He was closely involved with implementing the campaign sponsorships and he vividly recalls the disappointment of San Diego in 1992 when New Zealand in the final, failed to win the Louis Vutton Cup, and the excitement several months later when Peter Blake arrived on the scene and the ‘family of five’ commercial sponsorship was created to make one further attempt on the America’s Cup in 1995 – ‘bringing the cup home’.

“Yachting is the only sport I would have applied to be CEO of,” says Des. “I can’t explain why I like it but there is something about the people you meet,” he explains, naming the likes of Barbara Kendall, Leslie Egnot, Grant Dalton and Sir Peter Blake. “If I can contribute to this then it’s a good thing to do.”




About Yachting NZ

Yachting New Zealand currently employs eight people, including its full time coaches. Between those eight people they oversee many aspects of yachting, including the country’s club structure, safety, boat registration, coaching, race management, resource management, rules and safety, and of course, high performance and youth sailing.

Yachting New Zealand has recently appointed two new staff members in the area of youth and high performance sailing/Olympic sailing. Des says that these appointments, which are funded by SPARC (Sport & Recreation NZ), will provide a huge benefit to yachting because youth sailing is the breeding ground for sailing icons, and sailing icons attract new participants to the sport.




About funding for yachting

Des is aware that many sailors not competing in the youth or high performance arena are sceptical about where their Yachting NZ levies go, but he says that he is very clear in his mind that we do get return on our investment.

“There is a major misconception that we are only interested in Olympic sailing,” he explains. “We are very aware that without a sound base, Olympic success is at best improbable. No funds from levies are applied to our high performance/Olympic programmes. These are funded by SPARC from the public purse.”

Every senior member of every Yachting New Zealand affiliated yacht club in the country pays a levy of $20 (SEM). In 2005 Yachting New Zealand will collect $300,000 from this source. A further $550,000 comes from other sources, including SPARC, to cover off participation, recreational sailing and club services. This is separate from SPARC’s investment in high performance/Olympic sailing.

SPARC and other external funders also provide funding for other development activities such as talent development programmes, training camps, coaching clinics, and assistance with events and youth team logistics.

In 2006, the organisation plans to almost double its funding, excluding the budget for high performance sailing.

“The question is why do SPARC spend any money at all? Firstly they are committed to making our nation active, and secondly they are investing in sports that matter to New Zealanders.”

Olympic medals are what attracts attention for our sport, providing the desired return on investment.

“You have to look at the difference the Ever-Swindells have made to rowing. That’s the benefit that sport gets from public funding. We can only register on the public’s Richter scale at the Olympics, the Worlds get very little media interest.”

“What Yachting New Zealand can do for our sport is to provide Olympic success, and my view is that we need to work out how we can refresh that greatness.”

The benefit, Des says, filters down to the yacht clubs, as Olympic success stimulates participation in the sport.

He calls it the ‘Barbara Kendall effect’, as following Barbara’s Olympic success, more women took up boardsailing. “We have to create stars and heroes of the young. It is crucial, because SPARC’s funding represents a public investment in our sport, and we have to be fully accountable for that funding.”




YNZ and the keelboat fraternity

While the benefit of Yachting NZ’s efforts are often not very visible, Des says most members belong to clubs and sail keelboats, and it is important to help make people aware of what the organisation is involved in.

This year a National Programmes Director was appointed to oversee the 30,000 club members nationwide and to drive participation.

Yachting NZ has also reactivated its National Boat Register, which is online and fully searchable.

Another one of the organisation’s ‘invisible’ benefits is the role that it takes on as environmental guardian for sailors. For example, there is a plan to put a massive marine farm into Tasman Bay, which will be several kilometres long and present a considerable hazard to cruising sailors. Similarly, in the Coromandel there was an illegal farm in a bay that was regarded as a safe haven in storm conditions. Yachting NZ bought forward a case to have it removed, and its operation was curtailed. Yachting NZ also works with environmental policy makers, as many issues in relation to boat ownership – such as boat washing – can impact on the environment, and at one stage small boat owners looked to get the same treatment as commercial shipping operators when it came to washing their boats.

Major issues for New Zealand yacht clubs, according to the 2003 Club Survey, in order of priority, are:
• Decreasing memberships, attracting new members and aging memberships
• Junior/Youth memberships, attracting and retaining juniors in clubs and developing junior programmes in clubs and clear pathways/directions through classes for junior and youth sailors
• Volunteer safety/liability issues, OSH/Risk Management and MSA regulations
• Environmental issues (ie Mussel farming, dredging)
• Declining lack of volunteers and skilled Race Officials etc
• Costs of participation in the sport
• Updating/maintaining facilities and equipment in clubs




About retaining young sailors

Des believes that retention of sailors through the age groups is a bigger problem than participation itself. “Loosing talent is a huge problem for all sports, there is enormous drop off,” he says. “The pressure arises from the 24x7 economy, and the attractiveness of new forms of recreation and entertainment.”

Yachting NZ plans to appoint six regional development officers, deployed through the country, who will be able to support local organisations within their activities, and getting people in place to support regional activities is one of the organisation’s important goals.




Handicapping

KORC (the Keelboat Offshore Racing Committee) is currently considering a report on the two systems, and Des says it is still up in the air as to whether IRC or ORC will be favoured. “I don’t know how that debate will run in the end, but we are watching overseas trends,” he says. “It is complicated from a conceptual point of view but important that we have the debate.”

As well as providing a forum for the ORC Club and IRC debate, Yachting NZ is currently updating the PHRD software that is used. This will be available to clubs, improving the efficiency of the PHRF database, to make it more simple and user-friendly for race organisers.




Yachting has to help itself

“The cancellation of the National Keelboat Lottery was disappointing,” says Des. “Brett Bakewell-White has a huge commitment to the sport, and he has put an enormous amount of energy into this. Both YNZ and Brett have attempted to generate publicity for the project but without much success.

“Yachting has to help itself a bit more. Sometimes we don’t see the wood for the trees. If somebody is trying to help yachting a lot we should say ‘how can we help you?’”

Des believes that clubs can play a more pivotal role in the sport’s success, simply by being proactive about communication. “We don’t have a database of members. We need the Clubs to pass on information to their members,” he says. ‘This does not always happen, and people complain about communications’.




The marine industry needs to help yachting

Des is disappointed by the marine industry’s hesitancy to re-invest in the sport.

“There was hardly any yachting industry funding in NZL32,” he recalls. “It was put together by commercial sponsors – TVNZ, Steinlager, ENZA, Toyota and Lotto and with minimal government support. We have got considerable competency in building boats in New Zealand. Since we demonstrated that we could win an America’s Cup and round the world races, that has spurred an amazing amount of development in the marine industry.”

“I think the industry got a lot out of the America’s Cup, but there is a need to put something back. Some probably are, but it relation to what went in, the amount is very small,”

Realising things like winning Olympic medals is good for the sport. “It’s a virtuous circle,” says Des, who says he is more than happy to sit down and have a discussion about working with the marine industry to stimulate growth in that area.




What’s ahead for Yachting NZ?

In September Yachting NZ plan to move to a new office in Westhaven, at the old the West End Rowing Club, where it will sit along side the MIA (Marine Industries Association)

“The location will put us in a sailing mindset,” says Des. “Our organisation has a great commitment to all types of sailing, and being alongside the industry and amongst yachts will be fantastic for YNZ.”


For more information:

www.yachtingnz.org.nz
Also read:
Yachting NZ Today Tomorrow document
An interesting document from the 3.7 association 'our sport is in decline'
(links to be posted shortly)

By Zoe Hawkins - posted June 05