Citius – Altius – Fortius
Faster, higher, stronger… the objective of everyone who goes afloat in search of Olympic gold. Dobbs Davis talked to two sail designers who enjoyed success at both London 2012 and Rio 2016
These inspiring words have guided Olympic athletes since the modern Games began and sailors are no exception. The intensity and calibre
of Olympic competition are the
highest in the sport, so the absolute need to have the best equipment and therefore the best sails in each class goes without saying. Whatever each Olympic cycle’s set of classes and whatever the venue, the quality of the development process of the supplying sail- makers will always be a significant factor in the final results.
This process is very different from that used for offshore boats, inshore buoy racers or in the America’s Cup (to the extent they still use sails) because the boat and spar parameters, development timeframes, scaling factors and competitive framework are all somewhat different from other
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pinnacle events. Yet the competitive pres- sures remain just as high, probably higher. North Sails may have the most experi- ence in developing this process for Olympic sailing because founder Lowell North was so meticulous in his own approach to developing sails since starting out 60 years ago. Lowell’s continual tweaking of sails in the Star Class led him to be Faster, Higher and Stronger at the 1968 Games and to win a gold medal by a large margin. The methods have been improved since that time with more modern tools, but the prin- ciples of rigorous measurement, analysis and testing are still the foundations on which Olympic sailmaking success is built. And North’s success in the more recent Games of this millennium (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Qingdao 2008 and London 2012) has been impressive, with some out- standing individuals in the North team taking on specific classes and guiding their sail development. North One Design’s Vince Brun in San Diego initially took control of the Star, Makoto Kikuchi, Kei Takakuwa and Masanobu Katori in Japan have been looking after the 470 and Paul Hobson in the UK has co-ordinated Finn development, also working again with Iain Percy for his three Star campaigns. Their efforts paid off well: at London 2012 medallists in all these classes used North sails, as did many of those in Rio .
Singlehanded success – Paul Hobson
‘We started developing our Finn sails straight after the Atlanta (1996) Games, when the class rules changed to allow lami- nate sails in place of soft Dacron. We were approached by Team GBR Finn coach David Howlett to start an R&D programme with his team, which included a young Iain Percy. Working with sail designer Tim Corben (UK) with input from John Clinton (NZL), development proved successful with Percy winning gold in Sydney and Italian Luca Devoti taking silver using our designs. ‘Both Iain and Luca were big, strong guys hence they used deep, powerful sails, so when Ben Ainslie made the transition from the Laser to the Finn in 2001 we had to develop a new range of flatter sails for a lighter sailor. All the development paid off, and in Athens North took the full podium with Ben taking his first Finn gold. ‘As the cycle moved on to Beijing all
focus switched to light-air sails; this is when Juan Garay from North Sails Argentina joined the programme working with Ben. ‘By this time we were also working with many other teams in the Finn fleet, all adding their own personal touches in the lead-up to the 2008 Games. Once again we enjoyed a clean sweep in the Finn, with Ainslie taking another gold, from Zach Railey of the USA and Frenchman
RICHARD LANGDON/OCEAN IMAGES
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