YACHTING - Northland sailors go to world champs

THE only unusual thing about Michael Cate's success in or on the water is that according to his horoscope, he is an air sign.
Stargazing aside, Cate has been in outstanding form this year in his two chosen water sports, sailing and swimming, and it is hard for him to choose one over the other. "It's hard to say which I prefer, I love them both I guess, I've got a thing for water, I don't know why," Cate said.
Cate is one of four Northland sailors that have been selected to compete at this year's Splash World Championships in Portugal in July.
At 14, the Whangarei Boys' High School student is the youngest in the Kiwi team of 11, who will travel to Portugal.
He will be looking to soak up as much knowledge as he can at his first international regatta - just as he has to get himself to the top of the pile nationally. Cate believes that his dedication to training has helped him get into the team, a little before his time.
"I suppose I've tried hard to get knowledge from other people and then used it when I train by myself and really push myself hard during training," he said.
"When I went down to the regattas in Auckland and Tauranga before the nationals, I compared my performance against the other sailors and tried to see what they were doing and then I came back here and tried to use what I had learned."
At the nationals in Tauranga, Cate sailed to seventh place overall, good enough to qualify automatically for the New Zealand team. Joining him on the team is Whangarei's Joseph Wright and Taipa's Keziah Deverell and Ben Lutze, who all went to Croatia for the world championships last year.
Deverell in particular will want to build on her 15th place finish last year, which saw her finish as the top female at the regatta.
The Taipa pair should find the expected heavy conditions in Portugal to their liking as they sail in similar conditions at Taipa.
Cate is unsure how he will go in Portugal but is hoping to be competitive at his first world championships.
"I'm not too sure how I'll go at the moment but I suppose a reasonable result would be a top-30 or top-40 finish, because the fleets at the Splash Worlds are always pretty big," he said.
"The most important thing when you are racing in a fleet is to get a good start and to pick the wind shifts and then get into a position to use them to your advantage ... and you've got to have good boat speed to stay out at the front of the fleet too."
The plan is to use splash as a developmental class and then launch into Olympic class sailing. It is already a well established path into senior sailing, one that recently was highlighted by former Kerikeri Splash star Andy Maloney who won the World Junior title at the Laser Radial World Championships at Takapuna recently.
The Northland sailors soon start a series of training weekends designed to prepare them for the Portugal event, which is held in Tavira, from July 19-25.
It seems likely that the four sailors' continuing success in their Splash boats may rely more on their training than planning their campaign by using star charts.
• Next week's New Zealand Secondary Schools Teams Racing Regatta held at Parua Bay will start with the official welcome at the Parua Bay Community Centre on Sunday from 4.30pm. There are 24 teams from all over the country attending the event, with racing getting underway on Monday.