Yachting New Zealand is pleased to announce that Olympic and Americas Cup Sailing veteran Rod Davis will be our new Olympic Director. Also announced today is the appointment of Australian, Martin Watson as High Performance and Youth Director and Richard Brown as National Programmes Director.

Recent reforms at Yachting New Zealand are aimed at creating a structure which will ensure future Olympic success and the growth of participation within the sport of sailing. All three are due to start at Yachting New Zealand this month. Des Brennan, Yachting New Zealand’s Chief Executive describes the thrust behind the changes.

“The new positions and the calibre of the team, bring greater intensity, broader experience and more accountability to Yachting New Zealand. It is particularly pleasing to announce these appointments to renew yachting’s greatness as we approach the commemoration of Team New Zealand’s winning of the Americas Cup in 1995.”

Davis will head a three year programme leading up to the 2008 Games with a primary goal of achieving medals for New Zealand in Beijing. He has extensive experience in the Olympic sailing arena.

“My Olympic experience spans more than 20 years, sailing for the USA (once) and New Zealand (three times) and most recently, as Head Coach for Denmark. In each case, the top performance was the key moment – the Olympic Games. My Olympic campaigns and results are defined by the philosophy behind them: focused, disciplined and results orientated,” says Davis.

Davis won gold for the USA in Los Angeles (1996); silver for New Zealand in Barcelona (1992), and finished 5th in both Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000). In 2002 he was hired as the ‘coach’s coach’ for the Danish Olympic Sailing coaches, and then promoted to Head Coach of the Danish Team in 2004. The Danish campaign produced medals in two classes in Athens.

“The overall goal is simple to state: ‘create Olympic sailing champions for New Zealand.’ The program and its implementation are much more complex. It needs to be well thought out, crisp and motivating and above all it will need to get the very best out of the individual sailors and coaches alike,” says Davis.

“There is no one formula that works for all sailors, in all situations. To know how to make programs that succeed takes a combination of experience, managerial skills, leadership and passion.”

In 1998 Davis was asked to take a talented group of Italians and bring them to world class sailing level. Two years later, after tackling numerous challenges Davis, as Head Coach brought the Prada Americas Cup team to the final of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series and on to challenge for the Americas Cup.

The Prada development programme was so successful that Davis was asked to do a similar thing for Emirates Team New Zealand. Davis will take up the new Olympic Director role this month while continuing his involvement with Emirates Team New Zealand, in an agreement between Yachting New Zealand and the Americas Cup syndicate headed by Grant Dalton. Davis is set to work full-time with the Yachting New Zealand Olympic Squad in the year leading up to the Beijing Games in 2008.

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