RNZYS enjoys reciprocal rights with yacht clubs around the world

Harold Bennett accepts his Yachting New Zealand award from Olympic and SailGP sailor, Jo Aleh, at a glittering awards dinner held at the RNZYS

Harold Bennett wins YNZ award

In an evening of celebrating yachting achievement, one of the biggest rounds of applause at the recent Aon Yachting Excellence Awards dinner at the RNZYS was reserved for Harold Bennett, who was named Yachting New Zealand Official of the Year.

Now in his late 70s, Harold continues to be involved in race management roles. “For the past several years, I have done the Millennium Cup superyacht regattas,” he says, “although we have not had those recently due to Covid lockdowns.

“I am also involved with the Sir Peter Blake regatta and I spend a lot of time at Murrays Bay doing their events. I am a life member there as well as patron.”

He is also Vice Commodore at Manly Yacht Club, serving with Barry Thom (Commodore) and Sir Russell Coutts (President).

Apart from his race management contribution, Harold was actively racing Zephyrs up to a couple of years ago. “I have since stopped racing big Zephyrs,” he says, “but I am now involved with radio-controlled quarter-scale Zephyrs. We have about 20 of them racing on Regency Lake at Gulf Harbour. They perform just like big Zephyrs, but you don’t get wet or a sore back.”

From 1987 to 2004, Harold played a major role at the RNZYS, helping establish and then run the highly successful Youth Training Programme, which has gone on to graduate more than 1,000 young sailors, many of whom rose to the highest level of the sport.

He was also Principal Race Officer at the club and served as Assistant General Manager during his final four years.

Before joining the Squadron, Harold was national coach with the New Zealand Yachting Federation (precursor to Yachting NZ). In 1986, he was seconded to help coach and prepare the team at Fremantle for New Zealand’s first America’s Cup campaign led by Michael Fay.

It was there that Richard Endean, a future RNZYS Commodore, recognised that if New Zealand was going to compete at this level, a proper youth training programme would have to be established. Harold was the perfect choice to establish the programme and lead it through its formative years.

Following New Zealand’s first America’s Cup victory in 1995, Harold presided as PRO at the 2000 defence in Auckland and went on to be involved with the race management of the next four Cup cycles: in Auckland again in 2003, Valencia in 2007, the controversial Deed of Gift match in Valencia in 2010 and finally at the protracted and (for New Zealand) heartbreaking 2013 series in San Francisco.

His technical and diplomatic skills were tested at all of them, but none more so than the 2010 series between Alinghi’s catamaran and Oracle’s giant, hard-wing trimaran, when he had to face down a mutiny. After waiting nearly all afternoon for conditions to stabilise, Harold ordered a start, but three of the Alinghi-appointed officials on the Committee Boat refused to perform their duties in the start sequence.

With the help of an Oracle observer, a Spanish boat driver and the fourth Alinghi member, Harold got the race under way. Four months later, an official ISAF report applauded his conduct and independent actions on the Committee Boat.

Harold was named Yachting NZ Official of the Year following his handling of the mutiny – and now a dozen years later has been recognised again with the same award.

“Ever since leaving the America’s Cup scene I have been trying to give back to the sport by sharing the experience I have had and mentoring other people coming through,” he says. “At this stage of our lives, we need to give back to the sport.”