Team New Zealand's rising star

John Greenland talks with the Kiwi America's Cup team's Cameron Appleton

Cameron Appleton is one of the rising stars within Team New Zealand and considered by many to be heir apparent to the black boat's skipper Dean Barker, should the top spot become available at some point in the future.

madforsailing caught up with the 22-year-old during the America's Cup Jubilee where he was helming the 12m Kiwi Magic in the Grand Prix division of the Prada 12m World Championships. Owned by one of the America's Cup's most controversial figures, Sir Michael Fay, KZ7, the 'plastic fantastic' was one of the newer boats in the fleet, designed and built for the 1987 America's Cup.

Appleton started sailing at the age of 11 while still at school in Auckland. "I really enjoyed sailing with the school. I soon moved on to sail with my sister in a Sunburst." The Sunburst is similar to the 420, only slightly smaller and wooden based in construction. Having followed the usual route through the New Zealand youth training scheme, Appleton moved on to sailing an Elliot 5.9. This is a small keelboat, popular in Australia and New Zealand and is often the keelboat of choice at youth match racing events down under.

The 5.9 provided a perfect platform for Appleton to launch himself in the world of match racing. Funded by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron he enjoyed many successes in the Elliot 5.9, the most notable of which was the 1996 Coca Cola Cup. In the finals of this Appleton beat Ian Williams, the runner-up in the 2000 UK Soling Olympic Trials and this success did not go unnoticed by the grandees within Team New Zealand, who offered Appleton the opportunity to join them.

At the time Team New Zealand was in the early stages of setting up for its defence of the 1999/2000 America's Cup. "Winning the Coca Cola Cup helped a lot, but I guess it was also a case of being in the right place at the right time," Appleton acknowledges.

Starting out as simply a member of the team, doing any job that needed doing, sailing in any position that needed filling, Appleton soon made his mark in the squad. But it wasn't long before he had worked his way up in the ranks of Team New Zealand. Although Russell Coutts and Dean Barker were the top helms, Appleton had several opportunities to helm one of the America's Cup Class boats.

Appleton is now one of the key players in Team New Zealand, helming for many of the events during the team's European tour. Appleton took the helm of a Mumm 30 for 18 days during the Tour Voile with Hamish Pepper as skipper: "It was an amazing event," he told madforsailing. "It [the Mumm 30] is a great boat, real easy to pick up. It's just a shame we threw the event away so early on."

Team New Zealand actually won 60% of the Tour Voile. However, the team clocked up a devastating four black flags during the early stages. Each black flag added 20% to the race score, and with only one discard during the whole month of racing, the team was left with a massive handicap for the second half of the event.

While the majority of Team New Zealand were continuing their assault on the European yacht racing circuit in the Rolex Fastnet Race, Appleton was concentrating on preparation for the Prada 12 metre World Championships. "I've never helmed a 12 metre before, but the boat is one of the faster ones. We have come here with quite a good shot at winning the event," confided Appleton during the regatta.

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