Whether on hard water (right) or soft Karol Jablonski is certainly one of the most adaptable sailors of his generation. As well as America’s Cup, match racing and ice yachting prowess, Jablonski has also proved himself offshore at the Admiral’s Cup, One Ton Cup and Mumm 36 Worlds. Opposite: there is nothing straightforward or conventional about DN rig optimisation
None too shabby
Poland’s ‘iceman’ Karol Jablonski is the most decorated DN iceboat sailor of all time. He is also a former world match racing champion, an offshore classes champion and proved himself one of the very best America’s Cup Class helmsmen in Valencia in 2007
There is no doubt that Karol Jablonski was fated to be a sailing force. Year after year, on soft water and on hard water, he defies odds and obstacles and makes a statement about tenacity, perseverance and preparation. Not easy to beat, he reck- ons that ‘there is no team, no big name in professional sailing that has not lost to me and my team. This makes me feel good.’ Between 1992 and 2015 Jablonski won nine DN world championships and has
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stood on the podium at numerous major championships around the world. At 53, Jablonski’s unparalleled record on the ice is complemented by a record of achievement in the afterguard of sailing machines ranging from the IOR 50s of the 1980s, to the ILC 40s and Mumm 36s of the 1990s and on to today’s biggest Superyachts. Of course, along the way, Jablonski accumulated a series of match racing victories that culminated in his outstanding third-place performance at the helm of Desafío Español during the 2007 Louis Vuitton Cup.
But first, what puts Jablonski in a league of his own on the ice? He doesn’t have a coach. He doesn’t have sponsorship or national backing. He’s dealing with varied and harsh conditions. It’s not easy on the body, and there is no money in it. How did a self-described ‘Polish nobody’ earn the monikers Great White Shark and Iceman?
Born into it
Whether born into wealth or poverty, many follow in their father’s footsteps. In 1962 Karol Jablonski arrived in Poland’s Mansurian Lake District, the son of a sail- ing coach at Poland’s premier sailing club. At seven, Karol was sailing an Optimist for
the first time. Not long afterwards he got his first taste of speed when he, his brother and his father squeezed into his father’s two-man ice yacht and took it for a spin… By the time Karol was 13 he too was sailing an iceboat. Northeast Poland’s Land of 1,000 Lakes is frozen from December to April. Sailing iceboats, which could be built in a shed, basement or woodworking shop, was par for the course, especially if you were attending a school for sports and your father was its director… and your coach. The promising athlete’s career path was well established by his early teens. He was sailing year round, enrolled in a sports programme with a focus on sailing, and well on his way to becoming a Polish Olympic sailor.
Rocket science and international competition
The young sailor moved steadily through Poland’s athletic and academic system and onto the Gdansk University of Physical Education, where Jablonski honed the skills to follow in his father’s footsteps as a sailing coach. He made the national 470 squad when he was 17, which also gave him a taste for sailing in the south at occa- sional training camps in Spain and Italy.
CARLO BORLENGHI/DPPI
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