Yachting: Not much sailing done, but he's the boss

By Suzanne McFadden

You should address Jeremy Scantlebury as "boss" for two good reasons.

A: He is the strongest man in the Black Magic crew.

B: His job description is boat boss - he watches over the construction of Team New Zealand's latest America's Cup yachts, NZL57 and her yet-to-be-numbered sister.

Scantlebury, pitman on the black boats in San Diego four years ago, is excused from a lot of sailing these days.He spends most of his time at Cookson Yachts in the North Shore suburb of Glenfield, watching the new generation of cup boats take shape.

"The guys give me a hard time that I'm never out yachting. But my priority is for our yachts to be as good as they can be," he said.

He knows what he's looking at. The 34-year-old Aucklander has been involved in New Zealand cup campaigns since he was boat captain of KZ7 in 1987.

Seventeen years ago, Scantlebury began his career in the same shed, doing his boat-building apprenticeship.

Today he is working with fellow pitman Barry McKay and mastman Matt Mason, determining what gear will go on the boats. But they haven't reached those decisions themselves.

They built a wooden mock-up of a boat deck at the base in the cup village and got each of the crewmen to choose what gear they wanted to operate on board.

"We try to involve everybody - I just pull it all together," he said. "All the guys have dual roles - or we would have a cast of thousands down here."

The building trio don't get their hands dirty very often. They are there to order and cost out the deck gear and hydraulics, and make sure everything is done to the building budget. Scantlebury did the job on his own in 1994.

"Now there are more guys around, and a lot more people are interested and want to be involved in the building of the boats," he said.

"Everyone comes around here to have a bit of a look. It's great that they can come in. Some syndicates won't let the sailors near the boats until they're built. But the whole team has had a full say in all parts of this boat."

Once the boats are built and on the water together, some time around November, he plans to get back into the sailing side of things.

But Scantlebury, who sailed around the world on NZI Enterprise as a 19-year-old, is not lazing about in the meantime.

He trains five days a week and tests given by All Black trainer Martin Toomey revealed he was the strongest of the Team New Zealand sailors.

He said: "I don't know how that happened. I obviously spend too much time in the gym."