YACHTING - Buckley out as focus goes on experience

NORTHLAND'S Team Inspiration has dropped a Christmas bombshell by replacing crew member Shandy Buckley just weeks ahead of their vital Olympic qualifying series in Florida.
Buckley pulled the pin on her year-long involvement with the Yngling crew's qualifying programme when the team, encouraged by Yachting New Zealand (YNZ), decided to trial Olivia Powrie in the boat alongside skipper Sharon Ferris and Raynor Smeal, at their recent training camp in Florida.
"They wanted someone to trial for my position on the boat and I felt I was being phased out," Buckley said.
"I thought I was doing fine and literally two days before we went to Miami to train, the coach (Ian Neely) rang me up to tell me they weren't happy with me as a sailor and they wanted to trial someone else."
Buckley decided not to travel to Miami as "spare baggage", instead opting to leave the team and continue her university education in the United States after the Christmas break.
Powrie will now attempt to fill the troublesome third place on the team.
Buckley is not the first sailor to be dropped.
Ashley Holtum was cut loose about the same time last year, after the crew had struggled to keep their Olympic hopes alive with a bad run of results at international regattas.
Former Kerikeri sailor Karen Lambert also sailed with the team last year, but Buckley was selected for the third crew position and had appeared to have carved out a niche after they finished in sixth place in the world championships in Portugal this year.
But the appearance of new coach Ian Neely seems to have paved the way for the most recent change. Powrie won the 420 world title with Laser sailor Jo Aleh at Takapuna in January early this year and then came 13th with Melissa Henshaw in 470 worlds, despite the pair having only a few months in the boat together.
Ferris said Powrie fitted in well at the training camp in Miami.
"I think we felt we needed to take it to another level when the pressure comes on and experience really helps there.
"While Olivia may be the same age, she's won plenty of titles and done far more sailing on the international circuit over the last four years while Shandy's been at university," she said.
Ferris said the decision to bring in Powrie had been a tough one.
"The suggestion of a change actually came from Yachting New Zealand and three weeks ago was one of the worst weeks of my life anyway - having to make a decision whether to act on YNZ's recommendation," she said.
"It was purely a performance decision and that's what YNZ supported, there was never a personality clash.
"Shandy is an awesome person. In fact, I've just spoken to her and we remain great mates."
The reshuffled Yngling team heads to Miami for the Rolex OCR and the North American Championships on January 12, and there is little room for error on their trip.
"We've been told if we make the top five in both regattas, then we've booked our tickets for Beijing ... anything outside of that becomes subjective to what the Olympic Committee thinks.
"They might even suggest we go on and do a couple more regattas to prove that we can do it."
Buckley was not bitter about the way her Olympic dreams had ended, saying she had got a lot out of the experience.
"It was a bit hard to let go of what has been a dream for me for 12 months and to move away from it on to something else, but I'm quite lucky that I've got something else to look forward to," she said.
The 22-year-old will complete her University of Hawaii degree in May 2009, and will then make a decision whether to pursue her Olympic dream.
"I'll definitely keep sailing. Nothing could keep me away from that and it will be a lot of fun in a way that Olympic sailing can never be - it's not fun in the traditional sense of the word, challenging and rewarding maybe - but the next Olympics in London are a definite possibility, I suppose."