KEY POINTS:
Opportunities are often a matter of being in the right place at the right time.
For Brad Webb, the right place was in the middle of the ocean on a ship bound for San Diego.
After relentlessly nagging Chris Dickson for a job, persistence paid off for Webb in 1995 when Dickson offered him a position in his America's Cup syndicate, Tag Heuer.
One of the youngest members of the team, Webb, then 19, was one of the first to volunteer when Dickson was looking for people to accompany the syndicate's race boat from Auckland to San Diego on a ship.
"Chris didn't quite get the budget he was expecting and he had to lay off some of the young guys.
"But I was already halfway there on the ship, so it was cheaper for Chris to keep me there rather than to send me home. That was the start of my America's Cup career."
Twelve years later, Webb has not forgotten that it was Dickson who gave him a shot. As one of Dickson's bowmen at BMW Oracle Racing, Webb will be doing all he can to make sure his boss bangs his boat over the start line at the gun during this year's America's Cup.
Webb was born in Lower Hutt, but moved to the Wellington suburb of Eastbourne when he was young.
"The bay that we lived in had a yacht club, so I was forever looking out on boats, longing to go sailing. My passion kind of stemmed from there."
He started out in a P-Class and moved on to the Laser Radial, the Laser and Javelin. He had a second stint in the Laser but after some disappointing results decided to give away dinghy sailing for good.
"In the end I realised I wasn't going to be a Dean Barker, Hamish Pepper or Nick Burfoot. I decided that I was a better crew person than I was a helmsman."
His association with Dickson came in his late teens when both sailed on Chris Packer's Starlight Express in the Kenwood Cup. Around the same time, Dickson was putting together his Tag Heuer campaign, and so began Webb's pestering.
The low-budget Tag Heuer campaign made it through to the semifinals of the Louis Vuitton Cup.
"We were home before Team NZ even went into the America's Cup," Webb said.
"I remember telling everyone there was no way in hell Team New Zealand were not going to win. They were a slick operation and were just so much faster than everyone else."
After a stint overseas, where he competed in as many regattas as he could, Webb teamed up with America True for the 2000 regatta before reuniting with Dickson at Oracle in 2003 and 2007.
As bowman, Webb's relationship with Dickson - the helmsman - is crucial, especially in the prestarts, where it is Webb's job to call the distance to the line.
"I am not sure you ever really master it. It is such a game of variables - if we had a bird's-eye view we'd hit it every time.
"We are very much trying to find an invisible line in a moving environment but the more you do it the better you get."
It is also the bowman's responsibility to connect the sheets and halyards to the headsails and spinnakers when sails are changed and attach sheets to the end of the spinnaker pole, which requires bowmen to dangle precariously above and in front of the boat.
A good bowman has physical strength and the ability to react quickly, said Webb.
"You are dealing with a lot of different things. I think when we have got an A sail up we have got 16 different ropes attached to controlling it. While you are one of a bunch of guys in the mix it is part of your job to keep control of them ... that's a lot of ropes.
"There is a lot of forward thinking too. Anticipating the next move, what the other boat is going to do, what we are likely to do. With the gate situation [two buoys at the bottom mark] it is not just a standard round-you-go. It's 'I am not sure which way we are going to go round, stand by'."
As for which of his rivals he rates?
"In 1995 Peter Lester was with us at Tag Heuer and when he saw that I was aspiring to be a bowman he said 'keep an eye on [New Zealander] Allan Smith, in my opinion Allan Smith is the best bowman'.
"I watched him for a long time and still watch him and respect him. [New Zealander and Alinghi bowman] Dean Phipps, who has won three cups in a row - he is an amazing guy as is Joey Allen [who is with Team NZ] - all these guys are highly skilled.
"In my generation the good guys emerging are Richard Meacham and Jeremy Lomas at Team NZ and Peter van Nieuwenhuyzen at Alinghi. But there is the old guard there that we would probably all admit to following and aspiring to be like."
BRAD WEBB
Born: Lower Hutt, September 9, 1974
Position: Bowman
Status: Married to Karen
America's Cup career
2007: BMW Oracle Racing
2003: Oracle BMW Racing
2000: America True
1995: Tag Heuer
