John Cutler

John Cutler Born 1962 Lanky Aucklander John Cutler was a dominant force on the national scene long before he won the bronze medal in the Finn class at the 1988 Olympics. He won the national Finn title from 1985-88.

As early as 1980, when he was 17, Cutler was third in the world Laser championships. He was first in the Finn section at Weymouth Week in 1982 and 1984. In 1988, the Olympic sailing was held at Pusan. Cutler, competing in the class in which Russell Coutts had won the gold four years earlier, did not start promisingly, beginning with placings of 9th and 10th, from a field of 33 competitors.

However, he finished with the impressive sequence of 4-4-8-1-1, not enough to catch the high-flying Spaniard Jose Luis Doreste Blanco or Peter Holmberg of the Virgin Islands, but enough to secure the bronze from Briton Stuart Childerley and Dane Lasse Hjortnaes. Cutler was named as a reserve sailor in the Star and Soling classes for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. By then he was earning a living from yachting, and especially the America's Cup.

In 1992 he was a tactician for Chris Dickson's Nippon campaign in San Diego. In 1995 he skippered Nippon. By 2000 he had moved to America True, where he was one of the helmsmen. In 2003 he was with the Oracle team. He subsequently became associated with the Spanish Desafio Espanol syndicate until 2009.

Cutler also tried his hand at other forms of sailing. He was a member of the German One Ton Cup team in 1993 and was one of the world's best match-racing sailors for several years, winning three world titles. He won the world eight-metre title sailing Hollandia in 2011, twice won the Admirals Cup (with Dutch Team and American team), and won a Mumm 36 world title.

He one of the New Zealand sailing team coaches at the 1996 Olympics.