KEY POINTS:
Succession planning is an elusive beast - much recognised but often little executed. Now meet Adam Minoprio, who may be the face of Team New Zealand's America's Cup yachting of the future.
Minoprio, whose hot match racing form over the past couple of years has excited plenty of comment in sailing circles, has been brought under the Team New Zealand banner. He and his three team-mates, who make up what until now has been known as BlackMatch Racing, will race under Emirates Team New Zealand colours in 15 international match racing regattas around the world but primarily in Europe this year.
It sounds like a big step and it is.
On the one hand, Team NZ get the chance to foster their own future.
On the other hand, Minoprio, 22, gets the chance to lift his world ranking.
"I'm ranked 43 in the world at the moment," says Minoprio who came to attention early last year when he gave America's Cup skipper Dean Barker a fright in the Auckland match racing championships before going down 3-1.
The Catch-22 of Minoprio's situation is that, in spite of his plentiful promise, his world ranking is too low to guarantee entry to many of the main international match racing regattas, some of which contain only 12 boats or so. And, of course, your world ranking cannot rise unless you gain entry to those regattas, where entry is granted only to the higher-ranking sailors.
Coming under the Team NZ banner will ease Minoprio's way into the international circuit and will enable him to lift that ranking.
"My goal is to be in the top 15 or maybe the top 10 by the end of this year," says Minoprio, who clearly does not suffer from either lack of vision or confidence.
Nor should he. It is clear he has left most of his contemporaries behind in a young but noticeable career thus far and he has rattled the cages of his superiors - including hotshot Aussie helmsman James Spithill - enough to loosen the bolts on the door of Team NZ.
"The team is very happy to support the next generation of New Zealand match racing yachtsmen. Adam and his BlackMatch crew have the skills and determination to take them a long way in the sport," says Team NZ skipper Dean Barker of Minoprio's rise in the ranks.
"Over the past couple of years, they have developed into a very good match racing team. Along the way, they have knocked over some big names on the circuit.
"Now they are at the crossroads. They want to improve their world ranking to be accepted for the top international match racing regattas and the best way to improve their ranking is to sail in the regattas.
"By sailing under the Emirates Team New Zealand banner, entry to those key regattas should be easier. We have watched them get better and better and were happy to help."
"There's no question he is part of the future," says another team NZ spokesman.
No money changes hands under the banner agreement but Minoprio says he is "lucky" to be sponsored by Federal Express, Line 7 and Waiwera Water, the latter two long-time Team NZ sponsors as well.
And it's just as well. His travel schedule - and that of team-mates Nick Blackman, Dave Swete and Tom Powrie - will take them to expensive climes like New York, Bermuda, South Korea, Brazil and Malaysia, as well as several different European venues, starting with Alba in Italy next month.
Minoprio is also not ignoring life outside yachting (he is finishing an engineering degree at Auckland University) even though he says life as an international yachtsman and the lifestyle that goes with it, is beckoning.
"It's always been a focus," he says. "I started out pretty young - about seven - and I have been in top level age group championships from 10 and won my first national champs at 11."
His is a familiar CV - his dad built him his first Optimist, he won the prestigious P Class Tanner Cup and graduated to bigger boats through the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's youth training programme.
Since then, he's just been getting better. So mark down the name - Minoprio.
It is Italian originally, several generations ago, but it now has a very Kiwi connotation and maybe just a touch of the America's (Cup).
