Dennis said, “What are you talking about?” John had set me up! ‘But then Dennis said, “OK, I know you
want to do this. Go ahead – but if it’s no good I’m not going to pay you. If it’s as fast as what Tom’s doing, I’m only going to pay 50 per cent, because we really don’t need it. I won’t pay full price – unless it’s faster.’ So then I had to call Jim Allsopp. And he said, “Absolutely. Go for it.” ‘So I got in my car and drove to
Annapolis – thinking, what have I got myself into? It was just kind of an idea, a concept…’ But after sailing on the boat you knew what you wanted, I suggest. ‘That’s exactly it...’ Mike says, nodding. ‘There are a lot of good sail designers
but I think the very best are the ones who actively race. Some sails test fast, but to race fast they have to be dynamic; trimming and easing and accelerating, pole forward, pole back – or bow up/bow down, however you want to look at it. That’s where the rubber hits the road in terms of what a fast sail is.’ So Mike designed and built a 12 Metre
spinnaker, though it doesn’t sound as if there was enough time to hoist it up the loft’s test mast before driving the eight hours back to Newport. Next day’s practice was a two-boat
sparring match between Freedom and Enterprise. ‘One mile windward leewards,’ Mike explains. ‘On Enterprise we were 20 seconds behind around the weather mark, but then my kite goes up – and we go right past Freedom. Everyone’s looking at me… it was pretty fun!’ After the same result in the next race,
‘Dennis calls up on the VHF and says “send the sail over”. And that put me on the map. ‘My spinnaker design was on, like, six of
the Cup teams, which was great. Everybody wanted my spinnakers!’ He cocks his head
44 SEAHORSE
to one side. ‘I’ve never talked to Tom about it, what he was thinking at the time; all of a sudden, there was a faster design.’ Dennis Conner’s team won that 1980
Cup but Mike says it didn’t quite fulfil his childhood dream; he still wanted to win as a sailor, racing on the winning boat. ‘So I wasn’t done with just one Cup; now I wanted to do another.’ For the 1983 Cup he sailed with Tom
Blackaller and Gary Jobson on Defender. But their boat was only fast in light air so ‘Liberty just kind of steamrolled us. That America’s Cup summer ended pretty early.’ Which apparently gave him and Jobson enough downtime to write a book together; Mike says Speed Sailingwas well- received when it came out early in 1984. Once Mike’s Cup team was eliminated
other teams asked for his design help. ‘Not too many people know this but I then got a call from Tom Schnackenberg… ‘The Australia II group wanted five
spinnakers so they could test against their best to see if they had any weaknesses.’ And the next series was about to begin… so ‘they wanted to get the new sails and test them as fast as they could.’ They couldn’t use his designs for racing,
he clarifies, but they could study them before building their own versions. ‘I’m sure Blackaller wouldn’t have looked favourably on it but I wasn’t sailing… and there wasn’t any rule against it. And Jim [Allsopp] was all for it.’ And of course that was the year the Aussies finally wrested the Auld Mug away from the Americans.
Journeyman designer moves south ‘After that America’s Cup I was still work- ing for North Sails.’ (This would become a common refrain.) ‘North didn’t have any- thing south of Annapolis so they offered me the opportunity to start a loft in Florida.
Growing up in Newport, it was really hard to go to Florida… but I threw a dart at the dartboard, and chose Clearwater.’ By the mid-1980s Tampa/St Pete/Clear-
water had become the hub of winter big boat racing; it was the starting point for the SORC, and ‘all the boatbuilders were there. It was the best place to be. So I moved down there and started the business,’ just in time for the 1987 recession… ‘But we were still designing a lot of spinnakers!’ It wasn’t long before the next Cup
opportunity arrived, with Rod Davis and Eagle. Perth ‘was an amazing regatta: 12 or more challengers, two defenders…’ But before he could sign on Mike had to sell the idea to his business partner. ‘When I broke the news to Jim [Allsopp]
he was kind of mad. “You can’t leave for six months and go to Australia! Who’s gonna run the loft?” And then I said, “But, Jim, we also need a navigator.” All of a sudden his attitude completely changed!’ Eagle was ‘really slow’ but ‘another
great learning experience. Racing 12 Metres in 25-plus, every day!’ After they were eliminated Mike (and Jim) went back to Florida. ‘But by then I was designing sails for Courageous, and Italia and Canada wanted my designs too. So in the lead-up to the Cup we were supplying all their spinnakers…’
Partnership of a different sort Jim Allsopp and Mike were close friends as well as loft partners, so when Jim got engaged Mike was invited to the party in Palm Beach. That’s where Mike met his future wife, Libby – the sister of Jim’s fiancée! ‘Libby got me into tennis and ski- ing, and I got her into sailing,’ Mike says. He bought a Snipe (Clearwater’s most
competitive fleet), and Libby ‘was just a great crew; athletic and natural.’
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