Yachting: Australian skipper for Team NZ

Team New Zealand has announced the first two members of the team that will take on the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race - including an Australian skipper.

It is just over a week since the team announced its bid for the round-the-world competition, with the support of Spanish footwear manufacturer Camper.

During a press conference at the Emirates Team New Zealand headquarters on Halsey St yesterday, the team's operations manager Kevin Shoebridge revealed Australian Chris Nicholson as the skipper of the 11-strong team.

"Chris is hugely experienced in the Volvo Ocean Race - this will be his fourth race ... he is a three-times 49er world champion, three times 505 champion, he's represented Australia twice in the Olympics and has also been very successful in the 18-footer circuit," he said.

"So he's got all the skills and attributes that we think are required to take this job on and we also think he's going to fit very well inside Team New Zealand with what we stand for and how we do things."

The race requires teams to have three crew members under 30 years of age. Shoebridge also introduced 24-year-old Adam Minoprio as the team's first crew member.

Shoebridge said Minoprio, the current world match racing champion, brought a lot of skill and talent to the team. "We have long-term plans with Adam."

Both Nicholson and Minoprio said they were looking forward to the challenge.

"It's going to be a lot of hard work ... it's such a long, hard brutal race and obviously the more work we can do in our preparation time now, the much better chance we'll have during the race," Nicholson said.

"We may end up with a slightly different approach, a bit younger team for this race. I think it's time for some new blood."

Shoebridge is expecting to name more crew members in the next two to four weeks.

"We're talking to a lot of people at the moment and we've had a huge amount of interest and applications - dozens and dozens and dozens - so we're sort of wading through those."

Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton said last week the decision to enter in the race was part of a wider strategy to establish a franchise that had boats racing in competitions around the world to keep the team active between campaigns.