Stuff of legend
In the final run into America’s Cup 37 Tom Whidden reflects upon his own numerous Cup appearances, primarily as Dennis Conner’s longtime tactician, friend and loyal personal supporter. Craig Davis marks his own return to the pages of Seahorse by speaking to Whidden about winning and losing the America’s Cup alongside the world’s most famous carpet salesman…
Tom Whidden has been involved in sailing almost all of his life. Whether it was his Olympic campaign, or co-founding Sobstad Sails or his being head of and building North Sails. But perhaps his most recog- nised events have been the eight America’s Cup campaigns that he has done with Dennis Conner. With two such personali- ties in the field of yachting/sailing, we have all seen their on-the-water exploits, winning the Cup in 1980, losing it in 1983, winning it back in 1987, defending with the catamaran against the Big Boat, trying to defend in 1992, being selected as the Defender in 1995 and losing again, and then challenging again in 2000 and 2003. But as much as we know about these
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two great sailors there is a lot that goes on away from the water… these are just a few of the stories Tom Whidden has let me know about. I am sure there will be more episodes in the months to come.
First encounter The first time Tom met Dennis the two of them were sailing in the 1979 SORC, Tom on Love Machine and Dennis on Williwaw. Dennis came up to Tom at Derecktors in Ft Lauderdale and said s - imply, ‘Hi, I am Dennis’. Tom replies, ‘I know who you are, we are sailing against one another’. ‘Yes, I know,’ Dennis said, ‘and you are beating me…’ They were in one of the SORC’s long
breaks between races and Dennis asked, ‘What are you doing?’ Tom replies, ‘I am going home to my family and to work for a week…’ ‘I am going with you,’ says Dennis. ‘But,
Dennis, I am flying to Hartford and I don’t think that’s a good way to San Diego?’ ‘There are flights from there, it’s OK,’
says Dennis. So they flew to Hartford together and
during the flight Dennis told Tom that he was doing an America’s Cup campaign for 1980, that he had the 12 Metre Enterprise from the 1977 Cup that Malin Burnham and Lowell North had built, and that he – DC – was going to build a new boat. Dennis added that the crews seem to really like Tom and he would like Tom to work with him on the campaign and be his sparring partner. Tom was flattered to be invited, but he left Dennis at the airport and still has no idea how he got home from there…
‘So Dennis asked me to go up to New-
port and teach his crew of guys how to sail the boat really well. We didn’t have a tender and we just sailed the boat off the dock, which is a bit challenging with a 12 Metre with no engine, but it was OK. ‘So the first day I go sailing in early May
and it’s kind of foggy. I’ve got four cadets from the Fort Schuyler Maritime Academy which was the non-profit we used for the programme. Dennis wanted to have four or five of the cadets in the crew. There were four guys I could already see were going to be really good and a few more we were also training up… about whom we were less hopeful. ‘I had four weekends in May sailing in
Newport. Talk about cold and windy! So the first weekend I go sailing and I’ve got five guys who know what they’re doing and four guys who have no idea. We’re going out of Newport Harbor and I look at the crew and it’s not a very good crew. And it’s a little bit foggy. So I figured we better go north up under the bridge where you could see the shore on either side of the water. ‘I get under the bridge and I go “OK,
guys, let’s set this spinnaker…” We’re bombing along as fast as a 12 Metre goes, which isn’t very fast but it’s maybe 14 or 15kt. I’m watching one of the cadets and he’s got yellow foul-weather gear on that he bought at the Army & Navy Store. All of a sudden he falls over! I’ve got no tender and I’ve got this spinnaker up and the guy disappears out of sight really quickly. ‘Now I’m trying to decide what to do? I
spin the boat into the wind and just lay it over and the spinnaker is flogging away as
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