Chris Dickson (sailor)

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Chris Dickson is a sailor from New Zealand. He has skippered several yachts in America's Cup, Olympic Games and other sailing competitions.

Dickson also competed in the Whitbread Round the World race as skipper of Tokio in the 1993-94 race.

He also skippered Larry Ellison's 78 foot maxi-yacht Sayonara in four world championships.

[edit] America's Cup Achievements

Dickson burst onto the America's Cup scene in 1987 when he was skipper of New Zealand’s first America's Cup challenge KZ-7. He was only finally beaten that year by the eventual winner Dennis Conner and Stars & Stripes in the Louis Vuitton Cup Final after winning 37 of 38 races in the round-robin phases.

Since 1987, Dickson has been prominent in the international sailing world, particularly around the America's Cup.

1987: skipper of "Kiwi Magic" KZ-7, unsuccessful challenger candidate, finished second in the Louis Vuitton Cup
1992: Helmsman of Nippon JPN-26, unsuccessful challenger candidate, finished third in the Louis Vuitton Cup
1995: skipper of Tag Heuer NZL-39, unsuccessful challenger candidate, finished third in the Louis Vuitton Cup
2003: skipper of Oracle BMW Racing the USA 76, unsuccessful challenger candidate, finished second in the Louis Vuitton Cup
2006/2007: CEO and skipper of BMW Oracle Racing, challenger of record for the 2007 America's Cup.

2007 was ultimately a bad America's Cup for Dickson. He finally resigned his position as CEO of BMW Oracle Racing because of a devastating 1-5 defeat in the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup at the hands of semi-finals opponent Luna Rossa Challenge. Luna Rossa's helmsman James Spithill humbled the veteran Dickson in all the pre-starts. In race 5, Dickson give away two penalties during the pre-start and was ordered to stand down for race 6. Five days later, Dickson resigned from the team saying it was time for him to "step aside" and for the team "to move on". Larry Ellison, the owner of the BMW Oracle team, subsequently officially announced his intentions to launch a challenge for the 33rd America's Cup.