NZL Another Covid Resolution
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Olympic medalist and coach, and pro sailor John Cutler describes how and why he recently got into OK Dinghy sailing in New Zealand
few months after COVID cancelled the TP52 circuit in 2020 and after all the long ignored jobs around the house and garden had been completed, I started to think about sailing a dinghy for fun again. My last regatta in a dinghy was in 1988, and the last time in a dinghy was helping out Craig Monk before the 1992 Olympics. So, despite sailing hundreds of days per year, I hadn’t sailed a boat just for fun for 28 years, especially one that could capsize.
After making the decision to try and sail a dinghy again, it came down to which class… The decision to sail an OK was actually pretty easy. There is a great fleet of 20+ boats at the Wakatere Boating Club, and it’s close to home, and the class has a reputation for being competitive, but also social and welcoming. I know plenty of current and ex OK Dinghy sailors, so it was the simple test to see if my knees and back could handle hiking again. I called Rod Davis and said I was interested in the class and asked if there was a boat I could borrow, just to see if I remembered how to sail. That was organised instantly. I called Josh and Andy (NZ Olympic Finn Sailors) and asked for recommendations of what sailing kit I needed and promptly I had all the gear, with no idea what awaited me. The first sail was a real shock – I was a complete beginner, but managed to stay upright and not hit my head on the boom. I expected to be at the back of the fleet and extremely tired, but was further back and completely stuffed. A couple of weekends like this and I decided that it was time to purchase a boat and take things slightly more seriously. Unfortunately in NZL, it’s tough to find boats to purchase, which I think a good sign, as no one is leaving the class. Matthew Mason and Dan Slater were both planning to build a new Dan Leech design boat, but differing construction methods so after lots of thought, I decided to purchase new. Matty kindly lent me his Icebreaker while he had knee surgery, he then spent the summer moving marks around for the America’s Cup. Finally all of those distractions for Matty ended and he was full time building new OKs. The first boat NZL 608 was launched beginning of June and I sailed it in Napier at the Brass Monkey regatta, my best result to date at 5th out of 20 competitors. After being in a huge rush to get my boat complete, things have quickly changed. I head to Valencia for a training session on the TP52 Provezza, then the Olympics helping the NZL Sailing team, back to Palma for JULY 2021 • www.okdia.org
the first of the TP regattas and finally home for two weeks in a Government managed isolation hotel mid September. This is then followed up with the remaining TP regattas in Europe, or isolation and finally back home ready to go OK sailing late November. There will be a new OK waiting in my garage when I get home. I have been fortunate to have the time to help Matty with building the first two boats, which was mostly lots of picking up and dropping off parts. Matty decided to have all the control lines run under the deck for the first few boats despite the extra complexity and time, but we are happy with the results so far with a very clean looking layout. Rod Davis and I have been looking at rigs and trying to understand how the bend numbers relate to body weight and performance upwind and downwind. I have been fortunate to have access to a mast bend jig, so we can compare directly between different manufacturers. I also have been using Sail Scan software, which one feature enables me to measure mast bends on our fleet while at the yacht club. So far, we have collected lots of data and found that Rod goes well regardless of which rig he uses. To summarise my time in the OK Dinghy class in New Zealand; the fleet is incredibly welcoming, they are really generous with information and equipment and I look forward to being as helpful to the next new member. The class has a series of regattas throughout the North Island and I am looking forward to spending the New Zealand summer touring and sailing my OK.
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