Above: truly the stuff of legends. The St Francis YC Laser slalom ran each summer during the peak period for the powerful thermal breezes that come in daily through the Golden Gate… three to six knots of current and 25-35 knots of wind, tacking and gybing every few seconds around parallel, closely spaced upwind-downwind buoys. Sailing the yellow boat in the 1980 series is Paul Cayard, who won that year from another great St Francis youth sailor, Craig Healy, who would later eschew the professional sailing path of many of his friends to successfully pursue dentistry… though he’s still allowed out to sneak some silver from time to time. A young John Bertrand (below) racing two-handed at high school. But Bertrand alone, racing Bertrand – that was where the foundations were laid
1977 Worlds that validated everything. SH: I’ve read the report in the Laser class magazine, where the author talks about a fleet of supplied boats and a hundred sailors on the beach, most of them anx- iously adding or tweaking whatever parts they were allowed to, but you did almost nothing to your boat. It was the simplest, or close to it. Then for the first few races the breeze was all over the place, and leads got scrambled. You were victimised more than once, but you stayed in the hunt, and of course people kept an eye on the reign- ing champion. The breeze had settled down by the last race, which you won by more than two minutes. But what tells me even more is a moment
from race 3, with big waves and a lot of boats capsizing. At the finish, as described by a member of the race committee, you came in on starboard with Craig Thomas positioned to cross you just short of the line to take second, and: ‘Bertrand never budged from his characteristically closed compact stance but could be seen sizing up each oncoming wave. Suddenly, without any visible sign of preparation, he exploded from a full hike into a flawless roll tack and accelerated a boat length to take Thomas by a foot.’ JB: That was the ballet… Ballet taught me how to use my body as a tool. SH: As a two-time Laser World Champion you were ready to move to the Finn, even though your 165lb frame did not fit the profile of the ideal Finn sailor. JB: Bill and I put together a heavy schedule of Finn regattas with a lot of time in Europe. It was massive. I didn’t have the funding, but I never questioned it, and Bill turned the list into a series of targets. At one regatta I would focus on starts. At another upwind speed. Everything was broken
40 SEAHORSE
down to smaller elements. Occasionally there was an event I was supposed to win, but along the way I was winning other regattas too. The St Francis Sailing Founda- tion did a lot to keep me going. And that’s a thing about St Francis Yacht Club: they’ll always find a way. SH: You won the Gold Cup in your first year in a Finn, then finished second in 1979 and ’80, and were as close to a sure bet for an Olympic medal in 1980 as anyone can be in this crazy sport. But the USA boy- cotted the Games. You told me once that you have a lot of amnesia around that, so we’ll let sleeping dogs lie. I’ll just note that after you transitioned to the Finn it was Bill who told you to keep your focus there and not cross-train for another Laser Worlds. By now word was out, and more people
wanted Bill’s attention than he had time for. I’ve seen the questionnaire he created to help people sort through a self-examina- tion. It asks about conditioning, daydream- ing about tactics and technique, ignoring distractions, preferring to do things alone or with other people. Monti has always argued that sailing is the most complex sport, and it’s an art, which makes the psychological component critical.
JB: Here’s a Bill Monti quote: ‘As a high school student I was impressed by the number of friends who worked hard to become good athletes. Despite hard work they never seemed to transfer their skills to a game situation.’ Bill was all about making that transfer happen. A lot of the transfer was preparing to manage stress, and that’s all in your head. SH: Next month we’ll talk about how you coach now, and tactical intelligence, which you define as codifying a proven approach to high-percentage high finishes. You’ve been able to fast-track some notable ath- letes. You also have your own take on peak performance, and it’s not a focus on peaking at the Worlds or the Olympics. JB: It’s related, but you can train yourself to have a peak performance every day. So much of what athletes do is about a focus on the big goal and shutting out distrac- tions. But distractions and surprises are part of life. They’re unwelcome stress points in the big moment, and blocking them out in that moment is not the answer. Blocking is an act that blows you out of the zone. I think we’ve all seen people go off the rails just when they wanted to be at their best. You don’t want to be that person. When distractions come along day to day
they provide an opportunity to practise being in your moment, not influenced by what happened in the past or might happen in the next two minutes or the next two weeks. Maybe something makes you angry, but do you need to be angry? Whatever ‘it’ is, the rest is about perspective, and learning an acceptance of the flow of events that helps you mindfully adjust perspective. It’s a skill you want in your toolbox when you get to the big show. We’ll talk about how to sharpen that skill, but don’t worry… we’ll talk about on-the-water moves too.
q
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