Hard to believe it was 28 years ago that I first met Chris Dickson. We came to know each other when Dicko, in his mid-teens, appeared on the world sailing scene at the IRYU (now ISAF) World Youth Sailing Championships -- as did a number of other current, top sailors including Russell Coutts, Charlie McKee and our teammate and aero coordinator JB Braun (USA). This was in the late 70's and early 80's. At these events I was coaching the USA team and, later, serving on the jury.

Dicko was winning. In fact, he won an unprecedented (and unmatched since) three world youth sailing titles. At the time the doublehanded Youth Worlds was raced primarily in the International 420 Class. Indeed, Dicko won two of his Youth Worlds titles in the 420, and a third in the Laser II.

This morning, one hears, Dicko showed up in the dinghy park at the Takapuna Boating Club on Auckland's north shore, host of the 2007 420 Class World Championship, to have a look around and chat with some of the 232 young sailors competing.

A generation after he was winning similar youth events, Dicko has a couple children of his own, and is in his fifth AC campaign, this time as skipper and CEO. How many of these kids racing in Takapuna this week aspire to someday participate in the AC in any capacity? You can bet just about all of them. And nice to see Chris, now quite the sailing celeb, going back to his roots and spending some time with these up and coming sailors.

Photos below courtesy of Sail-World.com/NZ's Richard Gladwell.