News Around the World
TS: We had more crashes and capsizes than any other team, but fortunately nothing serious. We tore ligaments in shoulders, knees and ankles, rolling ankles running across the net, and all of these were repairable. We had around seven or eight people fall off the boat through different parts of that campaign but luckily they were clear of the foils. It is something that this foiling generation has to consider. When things go wrong on a foiling boat they go wrong 10 times worse than on any other sailing boat; and I hope the guys getting into this class of sailing understand that. Bora Gulari had a horrendous injury to his hand just on a Nacra 17 and I have had many close-calls; it is not going to be a small injury at these speeds. SH: Jimmy had some elbow issues… TS: Jimmy had elbow issues from gripping the wheel, with the G-forces involved in that, wearing on the elbows. Physically the boats were hard – everyone saw the heart-rate numbers coming off the boats, these were hard boats to get around the track. SH: When it came to facing the Kiwis, how confident were you? TS: I was very confident, as was everyone in our team. That’s some- thing people don’t understand… there is a perception out there that we got slower going into the final match, or that ETNZ held something back. We held foils and rudders back during the chal- lenger series. A fair amount of our gear wasn’t ready yet or we were just starting to use it, so we held equipment back and still beat ETNZ two-nil in the qualifying series. Then we had two weeks off and really improved our sailing skills,
getting more consistent in our manoeuvres. We learned a bit from the Kiwis on what they did well and so we made improvements from that, so heading into the first match I was confident that our reserve speed that we had kept hidden might tip the balance. We heard they were getting a shipment of foils and rudders from NZ, but even so I estimate we were one to one-and-a-half knots VMG faster in the match that we were two weeks earlier! I thought that was a sig- nificant number, but ETNZ were one and a half to two knots faster. They were probably quicker in the challenger series but we found
a way to win those races. When they came out with the final package, in the times they were behind us they were knocking on the door of overtaking us, and when they were in front of us and they weren’t quite on a shift – where I was hoping to make a gain we could never get back in touch. Plus they sailed really well, mistake-free sailing between Ashby/Burling and Tuke. As a tactician trying to overtake them, they always closed the door so well that there was no way of overtaking unless we were faster. SH: They did well that first match weekend. How was the week in between for you guys? TS: The same story as the last Cup in San Francisco when we were up against it from Dean Barker. We had open meetings with our entire team, stating we need to find more speed, and what can we do. Between myself, Jimmy and Grant Simmer we filtered those processes. It was not rocket science, we shortened the boards slightly and gave them a bit better angle and flying shape through the water. That made them more unstable but a little bit faster. Then we went to shorter rudders, which meant less drag but it
meant the whole time we were on the edge of washing them out. We lightened the boat and so in testing during that week we could see that it was the fastest set-up we could hit the water with, but let’s just hope we can actually sail the thing… We sailed it well 98 per cent of the time, but when we made a mistake and washed a rudder out we lost 200m. But that was the risk we had to take. SH: I raced with Tom Whidden in September when he told me he expended the same energy losing a Cup as winning it… What did winning it feel like? TS:Well… I had a really good year winning gold in London in 2012, then going to San Francisco and being part of the greatest comeback in sports history, so that was a bit of a whirlwind. You have your head down, working so hard for so long, you have to believe that will be the difference between winning and losing. Every day when you do the extra bit, in the gym, staying out on the water for more testing, you always have to keep telling yourself that this is the difference-maker. After training on the water for three hours we are
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all tired, but we all said that we had to nail the drill, and so we had to believe these things set you apart. You don’t know what the opposition is doing, so it is the inner
belief. I was very fortunate being in the team for just a year and a half – when we won I saw guys who had worked their whole life and just won their first Cup. You saw that in their faces and realised how hard it is to achieve. SH: And to lose one… TS: I am so upset with this Cup as nobody realises how strong a team we were. Yes, we got beaten, say it was down to the boat, the sailing team, the design team or whatever, we were such a tight- knit group, we all worked so well together and that filtered through the whole team. These guys are friends for life now – way stronger and tighter than the team in San Francisco. But we made some mistakes, and some bad calls in our design, and we didn’t sail to our potential. If we had won more starts, who knows? So I am upset we didn’t get to show everyone how strong we were – especially when rocks were being thrown at us by the media and other teams. SH: What was important to do after the loss? TS: We didn’t really debrief that deeply as a team and perhaps could have done a better job there. Everyone has their own way of dealing with a loss like this, some guys wanted to get off the island immediately, and they did, within days people had gone. Others wanted to carefully work through each aspect. Personally I went through all the email chain to figure out how we came to the decision not to go with cycling, to see how that process happened. A point on the cycling; the power output wasn’t the difference
here, it was the ability ETNZ had to use their hands for control systems. In all of our cockpit floors we had foot buttons that we had to use with our feet or knees which were controlling our foils and the way we sailed, and we did an amazing job to make that work, but the ability ETNZ had to use a control system with their hands was huge. After the Cup I threw myself straight into racing again – you are
depressed for months, I am still depressed, and when you get the weekend-warriors telling you everything you did wrong 10 times a week you grit your teeth a bit. But this is what we deserve and I am going to be hearing those comments for the rest of my life, so this is why it’s important to get back into it and have another crack and try to win it back… And that is what I am fully focused on now. SH: Juan Villa dealt with it by going straight into the Volvo with Mapfre. I spoke to him, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke on Leg Zero and he was really looking forward to that! TS: Juan was a caged animal working on electronics ashore but not getting to race. I spoke to a few VOR teams even before the Cup ended and I was close to going with a team at the end of August, but for the moment I’m happy with my focus here. SH: In a sense you have a very broad landscape of what to do next. You must be getting a lot of calls… TS:Short term I want to do a lot of small boat sailing. I have a Moth on the way, I have borrowed a Finn as we have a great fleet here in Woollahra. I have a Laser, but there aren’t too many people here at the moment sailing the Laser so I am happy in the Finn; I want to get my small boat tactics and feel back. I just want to be a tactician sailing on yachts, remembering how to fight through a fleet. Plus I love one-design, it has been my bread and butter; I am
looking to become a better sailor. I don’t think I am anywhere near where I could be. I’m ready to take on tactician roles around Sydney or the TP52s, RC44s, Maxis, Wally 100s. When people see me in a Finn or Laser they assume I’m heading for the Olympics – well, I haven’t closed that chapter but I will see what happens with the America’s Cup… That’s unfinished business for me now. SH: Hobart this year? TS: I have said no to this Sydney-Hobart. I raced with the 100-footer Black Jack in Hamilton Island, but I have done four Hobarts in a row and had a really good year last year, so it feels like a good way to cap off that chapter with Loyal. I would just like one Christmas lunch where I don’t have that knot in my stomach knowing I am heading south the next day!
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