Hunt for job led to change in direction

By Suzanne McFadden

As a 10-year-old, Nick Holroyd was given a month off school to help to build his family a boat.

Twenty years on, through a twist of fate, Holroyd is helping to design boats to defend the America's Cup.

Holroyd, Team New Zealand's computer expert, never planned to be a designer.

Back in 1990, he left Auckland for England to work as a mechanical engineer, but couldn't get a job.

"There was a huge economic depression over there. So I got a job as a professional sailor," 32-year-old Holroyd said.

"It's funny how things like that end up steering you in your direction in life."

After five years on the water, Holroyd decided to get back into engineering, but with a nautical bent, so he pursued a masters in science at Southampton University specialising in computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

CFD lets designers create computer models to simulate the amount of resistance, or drag, as a body moves through water or air.

Drag is the enemy of speed.

In the new technological age, the CFD programme plays a big part in making America's Cup yachts faster.

Holroyd carried on sailing, crewing on Mumm36s on the European circuit, and bumped into some of the Team New Zealand sailors.

They put him in touch with TNZ head designer Tom Schnackenberg, and in early 1997 Holroyd came back to Auckland to start his new job with the cup defenders.

He's never been short of work since.

Like most who work under the Team New Zealand roof, he has inherited several roles.

He helps to design the new boats' appendages - like the keel, rudder, and mast. He takes care of all of the syndicate's computers.

And he sails on the boats as a floater.

"Some days - when it's ice cold and raining - I'm glad to be inside sitting in front of a computer screen.

"It's quite comforting," he said. "But when we get to do race practice it's huge fun."

It's not unusual for Holroyd to spend 10 hours a day at the computer, drawing up appendages and testing them on the screen.

"For the first two years it was like working in a vacuum.

"You had no idea if what you were designing for the boats was right or wrong," he said.

"Going out and watching them on the boats now is the real test."

The design effort doesn't stop with the launch of the new yachts.

"Pretty much anything that's not glued into the hull can be modified right up to the final unveiling."