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Yachting New Zealand will be the eighth MNA to undergo the process of working with ISAF to 'map' the National Training Programmes of its members against an international framework of key standards including sustainability.

The Accreditation audit visit will be carried out by ISAF Development and Youth Committee Chairman Olivier Bovyn (FRA) who has conducted similar audits in Great Britain, Austria and Spain. The proposed dates for the visit will be 26 - 30 October 2013 and will include visits to a number of venues in both Auckland and Wellington, including the Yachting New Zealand Headquarters.

When asked why Yachting New Zealand decided to go through this process Andrew Clouston, Participation and Development Manager for Yachting New Zealand answered on behalf of YNZ Chief Executive Officer David Abercrombie and President Jan Dawson saying, "We feel that we have a great programme in New Zealand, one that starts thousands of sailors on the path to their place in sailing. YNZ recognize the value and added credibility of having our sports' international governing body (ISAF) put their stamp of approval on our training programmes."

If you would like to see what Yachting New Zealand is doing to develop participation in Sailing then go to their website here.

Mr Clouston continued by adding his thoughts on what Yachting New Zealand hope to gain from the recognition of their National Programmes by ISAF, "Going through the accreditation process will be valuable to YNZ. Having an independent view on our programme will help us make improvements where needed, making it a better programme. ISAF has seen many national training programmes and can share with us their experience of what they see working in programmes around the world."

ISAF Training and Development Manager Dan Jaspers said, "I have been working with Andrew and the team at Yachting New Zealand on this application since my visit to Auckland in 2011 and I am very pleased that we are now able to confirm that this Accreditation visit will now take place. Yachting New Zealand has supported the attendance of Andrew Clouston at both the 2012 and 2013 ISAF Development Symposium events and I have been very impressed at juts how willing YNZ is to work with us to help not only share their successes with other, less developed MNAs, but also to continue to learn from ISAF to develop their own programmes further. I would like to personally thank David Abercrombie and Jan Dawson of YNZ for their pro-active approach to moving this work forward. I am sure we will see many more developments come out of this exciting news. I look forward to the results of the visit in October."

Mr. Clouston concluded by sharing his thoughts on the how Yachting New Zealand could work with ISAF in developing sailing in emerging nations, "The YNZ training programme has gone through many iterations and YNZ has done a lot of work over the years to make the programmes what they are now. If a developing / emerging nation could in some way use the YNZ programme to benefit their sailors / coaches, this may help them cover some of the ground between their current level of development and those MNAs who have been around for a long time. These nations can learn from us and potentially not make the mistakes we have made in development, saving them time and money."

If you think that your MNA would benefit from the ISAF Recognized Training accreditation of its National Training Programme (NTP) and wish to apply or for a list of all accreditation audit reports go to the ISAF website training pages here.

For updates on all ISAF initiatives and news from the wider world of sailing why not tell all of your friends about our dedicated ISAF Training and Development Facebook page here.

For any other information on ISAF Initiatives that could help grow participation in the sport of sailing contact our Training and Development Manager, Dan Jaspers here.