Nice Ink: Star Quality Dec 8, 07:06
Story in this morning's NZ Herald (photo: Brett Phibbs/NZ Herald)....
Yachting: Star quality on board
Friday December 8, 2006
By Julie Ash
Thirteen years ago, Carl Williams had Chris Dickson in the hot seat.
As a 12-year-old travelling with his father, television producer Doc Williams, during the 1993/94 round-the-world races, Williams junior earned pocket money by holding the microphone while commentator Gary Jobson fired questions at the skippers.
"I remember standing there while Gary was interviewing Dickson [skipper of Tokio] and listening to all the stories he used to tell, like cutting the handles of toothbrushes to reduce weight.
"But some of my most vivid memories are of [Sir Peter Blake's] Steinlager II down at Princess Wharf [in 1989/90] and climbing all over the spinnakers.
"Thinking back, that is where my passion for sailing really came from."
Now Williams is not only working for Dickson's America's Cup syndicate, Oracle, but he is one half of a successful Star combination with Hamish Pepper.
Williams' choice of sailing as a career is hardly a surprise. His mother is well-known sailing identity Penny Whiting and his grandfather, Darcy Whiting, is famous for his offshore racing exploits.
As a child, Williams spent his summer holidays cruising with his family in the Bay of Islands.
"We'd leave as soon as school finished and come back on Auckland Anniversary Day.
"It was pretty cool."
But while Williams enjoyed sailing, he also showed plenty of talent in other sports.
He swam at the North Shore swim club under Jan Cameron, alongside Steve Ferguson and Scott Talbot-Cameron. However, "much to Jan's dismay", he took up water polo in his early teens.
Although he made the New Zealand under-15 squad, his venture into that sport was also short-lived, and he joined the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's Youth Scheme, which focuses on match racing.
His round-the-world escapades had also established a friendship with Blake, who organised for Williams to train with the Team New Zealand sailors in the gym before school.
"Then he [Blake] wrote a letter to my headmaster saying that I was going to work for Team New Zealand for the 2000 defence. So I left school at 16."
But that was during the time of the well-publicised Blake/Russell Coutts war - "I don't know what happened, to this day" and the arrangement fell through.
Full story
Yachting: Star quality on board
Friday December 8, 2006
By Julie Ash
Thirteen years ago, Carl Williams had Chris Dickson in the hot seat.
As a 12-year-old travelling with his father, television producer Doc Williams, during the 1993/94 round-the-world races, Williams junior earned pocket money by holding the microphone while commentator Gary Jobson fired questions at the skippers. "I remember standing there while Gary was interviewing Dickson [skipper of Tokio] and listening to all the stories he used to tell, like cutting the handles of toothbrushes to reduce weight.
"But some of my most vivid memories are of [Sir Peter Blake's] Steinlager II down at Princess Wharf [in 1989/90] and climbing all over the spinnakers.
"Thinking back, that is where my passion for sailing really came from."
Now Williams is not only working for Dickson's America's Cup syndicate, Oracle, but he is one half of a successful Star combination with Hamish Pepper.
Williams' choice of sailing as a career is hardly a surprise. His mother is well-known sailing identity Penny Whiting and his grandfather, Darcy Whiting, is famous for his offshore racing exploits.
As a child, Williams spent his summer holidays cruising with his family in the Bay of Islands.
"We'd leave as soon as school finished and come back on Auckland Anniversary Day.
"It was pretty cool."
But while Williams enjoyed sailing, he also showed plenty of talent in other sports.
He swam at the North Shore swim club under Jan Cameron, alongside Steve Ferguson and Scott Talbot-Cameron. However, "much to Jan's dismay", he took up water polo in his early teens.
Although he made the New Zealand under-15 squad, his venture into that sport was also short-lived, and he joined the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron's Youth Scheme, which focuses on match racing.
His round-the-world escapades had also established a friendship with Blake, who organised for Williams to train with the Team New Zealand sailors in the gym before school.
"Then he [Blake] wrote a letter to my headmaster saying that I was going to work for Team New Zealand for the 2000 defence. So I left school at 16."
But that was during the time of the well-publicised Blake/Russell Coutts war - "I don't know what happened, to this day" and the arrangement fell through.
Full story
Nice Ink | by TFE
