out a quarter of a million dollars or some- thing for an Olympic campaign, which I didn’t have. Not hard. ‘I remember I was paid, like, £150 a
month for the Whitbread. I did get a bonus at the end, but it was nominal. Our expenses were paid. It was probably 20 per cent of what most of the guys got… but of course we didn’t have guys on our boat. At least we all got paid the same. ‘By 1990 the Cup stuff is just getting
going again for the 1992 Match in San Diego. So obviously I headed out to San Diego to see what I could get. Somewhere in all that I was also flying around the country on a speaking tour and also think- ing about writing a book… ‘Nevertheless it was not long before I
was talking to Martha Parker and John Kolius about doing a mixed team for the America’s Cup. Coors was interested in funding it and there was going to be the “six pack of women” in the brew. That was the hook for the sponsorship! ‘Unfortunately it was soon clear that
that wasn’t going to happen. So Martha and I went out to interview with Dennis. That basically led to nothing, but while I was out there I called Gary Jobson because I heard they were doing trials for Bill Koch’s America3
programme. ‘And so in early 1991 I tried out. One
day was on the America’s Cup boats and the second day was match racing on Catalina 37s. ‘And then there’s a whole bunch of
other stuff on the water. I do remember calling my mom and saying, if I die tomor- row it’ll be OK because I’ve sailed on the
52 SEAHORSE
IACC America’s Cup boat! But I got the job… well, a job! ‘First up, we bought a French test boat.
“The Scud”. Yeah, we called it the Scud. Slow, unguided and built by the French or something… I’m only repeating what Stu Argo used to say every time we went out!!! ‘I was probably more conscious than any-
one else of being the only woman on that team. So first of all I just did my job and kept going and, you know, it was just awesome to be there. I’m right in the thick of it all, with Jerry Kirby and Labby and Wally and, you know, everybody. The front of the boat team. It was full physical, full on. ‘But they knew that I was strong and I
was fast and I was fit and so physically it was never much of a deal. The sailing team were the first ones to accept me. The media made a big deal of it at the time… But we were just a bunch of people going sailing. The only time any problems came up was towards the end when there was some politics raising its head.’ And winning the America’s Cup in 1992, racing onboard America3? ‘This is
gonna be a surprise answer. It was kind of a letdown. But there’s a research study of high-level athletes and they say the same thing. It is nothing strange. They say that whoever wins the gold medal at the Olympics usually feels let down. Because, is it everything you thought it was? Yeah. But what are you going to do next? ‘What’s left in the Olympics? I reckon
that the happiest person is the third-place winner, the bronze medallist, because for them there is room to improve. Plus they’re so happy to just get that medal.
‘In between all these programmes I still
continued to do the speaking, because that’s what I do and I need to pay the bills. Plus some racing and, you know, boat cap- taining and deliveries. Just trying to stay fed. I even went back to run Leading Edge for a while – but at significantly increased pay, like quadruple what I’d got before! I guess that’s what it means to win the Cup. ‘Then we had a one-year reunion with
the 1992 Cup team at Bill Koch’s ranch in Kansas. It was while we were there that we started talking about upping the game with an all-women Cup team for 1995. And I was like, “You’re crazy.” ‘Next thing I am helping to write the
business plan! And then it all stalled. ‘It was while I was in Michigan in the
fall of 1993 that I got a call for help, to take over the Whitbread 60 Heineken. They had started the 1993 Whitbread with Nance Franke and they were in Uruguay. And they were in trouble. ‘The boat was in bad shape and some of
the crew had left and the sponsor was going to pull the plug unless I stepped in. And I needed to bring four people with me. ‘Strategically it is nothing you would ever
want to do. Find four friends and go to Uruguay and sail into the Southern Ocean and pray that the boat’s safe and the rudder’s good, which it wasn’t, and the sails were bad and the safety gear was awful. All of our survival suits were built for 5ft tall people. My foul weather gear didn’t work, again, so I had to wear a survival suit to stay dry… but I couldn’t stand up in it. ‘We were stepping onto the boat less than a week before the restart. There was
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