Yachting: Appleton graduates into the big league

By Suzanne McFadden

After two-and-a-half years in a rubber ducky, Cameron Appleton has graduated to the big boats of the America's Cup.

Appleton, one of the young guns of New Zealand sailing, has been promoted from chase-boat driver to crewman on Team New Zealand's new cup boats.

The 21-year-old is glad to see the stern of the rigid inflatable, so he can fulfill his boyhood dream.

"Sitting in the chase-boat watching the guys sailing every day was really tough," he said.

"When I was at school, my one wish was to sail on a Team New Zealand boat. But it's been a great job on the chase-boat.

"The yachts don't have engines, so they can't be left alone. The chase-boats are their life support units."

But it was Appleton who needed life support from the black boats in a freak accident on the chase-boat two years ago.

He destroyed his nose and the left side of his face - almost losing an eye - when a boom crutch he was transporting on the boat flew up and hit him.

As blood filled his throat, he managed to radio the Black Magics for help.

Appleton now has a titanium nose and cheek, and his left eye is propped up by mesh.

He needed 47 staples to keep his face in place.

A tiny scar under his left eye is the only visible remnant of the accident.

The eye is so sensitive he usually wears sunglasses whenever he is outdoors.

But it has not affected his sailing.

In the last two years he has made his name as a young skipper to watch.

Like many of the new breed of top young sailors, Appleton came through the ranks of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron youth programme, and won the world's top youth matchracing regattas - the Governor's Cup in California, and Coca-Cola Cup in Auckland.

Still a teenager, he sailed his way into the Steinlager Line 7 grand prix, with names like Coutts, Cayard, Gilmour, Baird and Pace - all skippers in this America's Cup.

Team New Zealand then gave him the opportunity to skipper a crew on the world matchracing circuit, his ranking climbing to the 50s in his debut year.

This year, Appleton, one of the youngest members of the team, has tried to learn about as many aspects of an America's Cup campaign as he can.

This week, he has been working in the shed, helping to build steering wheels and deck gear for the new defence boats.

Next week, he joins the Team New Zealand sailing crew, working the runners - the backstays which hold up the mast.

"It's very physical - there's a lot of load and you could lose a finger if you don't concentrate," he said.

The runners are near the back of the boat, so Appleton can watch the skipper and tacticians at work.

"One day I would love to be the helmsman," he said.

For a guy who had a job with the America's Cup champions a year after he left school, that may not be so far away.

Appleton is also part of a father-and-son team at TNZ.

His dad, John, looks after Sir Peter Blake's yacht, Archangel, which is used for the campaign's weather programme.