Tough work for a tough bloke

SUZANNE McFADDEN continues her series on the people who work hard behind the scenes to make Team New Zealand tick.

A chance meeting with a knight over a shop counter has opened up a world of dreams to Jonathan Macbeth.

A year ago, Macbeth was more at home twirling a paddle than turning the handles on a yacht. Today he is a specialist grinder in the Team New Zealand crew.

It all began when he sold a canoe to Sir Peter Blake.

Macbeth was a talented multisport athlete - he finished fourth in the two-day Coast-to-Coast event in 1997.

While studying for a degree in commerce, majoring in commercial law, Macbeth was working for Olympic canoeing legend Ian Ferguson on the Tamaki waterfront.

"Blakey came down to buy a kayak, and it came up in the conversation - would I like to try out for the Team New Zealand crew?" 26-year-old Macbeth said.

"I'd never been a grinder on a yacht before. Then there I was on Black Magic - it was incredible."

He spent the summer trialing with the crew, went back to the kayak business in winter, and this summer was asked by skipper Russell Coutts to become a full-time member of the crew.

Eight candidates, most of them with sailing backgrounds, tried out. But Macbeth was the only one chosen.

"Jonathan came on as one of the most unlikely candidates because of his limited experience," said Coutts. "But he's come on in leaps and bounds.

"He's got a way to go yet as far as the sailing side goes, but his attitude is incredible. He's certainly got the heart for it."

Now he has the body for it too. When he was in multisports, he weighed 80kg. Today he is proudly 100kg - a product of "eating lots" and working religiously in the gym with New Zealand's most experienced cup sailor, Andrew Taylor.

"He's taken me under his wing - and we push each other along," Macbeth said. "These guys are great blokes. They knew I was really green, but they've helped me.

"It wasn't really a big change from multisport to yachting. They both require a lot of discipline - you've got to work and train hard.

"Grinding is not as mindless as just turning the handles. You have to know what's going on around the boat."

The grinders do the heavy work on board. They can clock up 10,000 handle rotations in a race, pulling the sails in and out. They also bounce the spinnaker to the top of the mast, and do the heavy lifting.

On shore, they get their hands dirty maintaining the deck gear, and in their spare time, they keep super-fit.

Team New Zealand may look for another specialist grinder before the America's Cup begins. They could choose to use a sailor from a past campaign.