Rex Sellers

Rex Samuel Sellers (born November 11, 1950 in Nelson, New Zealand) is one of New Zealand's most successful yachtsmen, having won an Olympic Tornado gold (with Chris Timms) in 1984, a silver (with Timms) in 1988 and finished fourth (with Brian Jones) in 1992. In addition, Sellers was third (with Mark Rayner) at the 1982 world champs at Kingston in Canada.

Sellers was a yachtie of considerable experience before he ever got to the Olympics. As early as 1961 he was sailing in the Scootum class before progressing through P Class, Cherubs and 470s into the Flying Dutchman and then, in 1977, Tornados.

He and Gerald Sly were chosen to represent New Zealand at the Tornado class at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, but never competed because of the American-led boycott. They and the Brazilians would have been pre-Olympic gold medal favourites.

In the lead-up to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, Sellers sailed with Gerald's brother Rex and they dominated the national trials. However, Sellers and Rex Sly had a falling out and late in the piece, Sellers phoned long-time rival Chris Timms to ask him if he wanted to team up. They hadn’t been the best of friends and were quite different personalities — Sellers quiet and considered, Timms ebullient and outspoken — but they sailed brilliantly together. In Los Angeles, they had a 3-2-1-2-1-2 sequence and were able to bypass the final race and still win by a wide margin.

When the next Olympics, in Pusan, rolled around four years later, Sellers and Timms combined again, though they didn’t see a lot of each other in the interim — Sellers was a fisherman in Nelson (he moved to Auckland in 1990), Timms a resin chemist in Auckland. In the extremely testing conditions at Pusan, the New Zealanders won a silver medal, to confirm they were still right in the top world class.

Sellers and Timms were preparing for their third Olympics together, at Barcelona in 1992, when their team split and Sellers went to Barcelona, instead, with Brian Jones as his crew. They proved competitive and were shaded for a medal, finishing fourth.

Sellers was by now getting long in the tooth for a top-class yachtie, but he and Jones attended the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia — Sellers was by then nearly 46 — though they could manage just a 15th placing from nineteen starters.

Sellers, along with Timms and Russell Coutts, was named "New Zealand Yachtsman of the Year" in 1984. Two of Sellers' sons, Ross and Brett, have risen to national prominence in sailing. In the 2002-2003 America's Cup, Sellers was employed by the American team, Oracle.