News Around the World
Chris Nicholson has a particularly ‘solid’ ocean racing CV to add to his glittering early achievements in skiffs and high-performance dinghies. His reliability when it comes to delivery, plus being an early crew pick for smart folk like Grant Dalton and Kenny Read, also makes ‘Nicho’ the man who often gets the last-minute phone call if a previous skipper’s services are unexpectedly dispensed with. He was a late recruit with the traumatic Vestas Volvo campaign (above) in 2014, but his hiring was even more last-gasp for his sixth round-the world race when he rushed overnight to Lisbon to take over the Akzo Nobel programme (inset) at the end of Leg 1 in 2017
have as much warning as possible on upcoming events; often in a twilight race this is not clear – with different fleets using the same marks – and so the briefing is the heads-up on what is more than likely going to happen. If people have that well delivered then they understand it and feel a lot more included in the day. SH: What about instruments on an amateur boat? CN: Aah! On almost every amateur raceboat you’ll find instruments that are well and truly out of
calibration.So from there the question is how reliant is the team on data or are they old-school seat-of-the- pants natural sailors? But if your guys are strongly reliant on the instrumentation then getting someone who is OK on the calibration to get things dialled in ahead of time is a really really smart move. It’s not unusual that I step on a new boat and quickly work out
that the wind, for example, can be out by 20 or 30°… and obviously that is quite significant! But find the right guy and they can get it pretty close for you in no more than 30-40 minutes. SH: Then we step up to a Hobart or Fastnet with a mix of amateur and pro sailors in the team. CN:With the younger or less experienced sailors in the team I would invest in some proper one-on-one time with them, focusing on things that I see to enable them to improve. These conversations do not happen with the broader group, it is what I observe that they need to work on in their individual skill area; after that it is very much up to them to engage and develop. This can also involve how they talk – how they communicate and
the questions they should be asking – then the whole team can see them improving in the group discussions and general interac- tions. Everyone in the team has a lot to offer in group discussions, but too often they are dominated by the same one or two people. SH: Say you have a new young crew member, say on the bow, who seems intimidated by the professionals onboard and needs to come out of their shell a bit… CN: In that situation during a meeting I would openly say they were doing a good job on the bow – the summary absolutely has to be positive. Don’t forget that there normally isn’t a great deal of time
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to prepare for a big race in these teams’ calendars, and so everyone has to move forwards pretty quickly. Yes, there are always negative points raised about everyone’s role at some stage or another, but positive reinforcement is what builds confidence. SH: Key communicators onboard? CN: The crew at the mast and in the pit are vital. It doesn’t matter how good the crew on the bow is – if the mast and pit crew are not in sync with everything that is going on, then it will always end in tears. Plus how you move things forward depends a lot on the type of boat as much as the programme. For example, on a 100-footer you will always have limited time on the water, you just can’t do 10 tacks the same way then come ashore and change the method- ology of it, you have to do it on the fly and improve it as you go. SH:And then dealing with a professional race team such as the VOR team Akzo Nobel, where you were parachuted into an unsettled team right before start of Leg 2 in the 2017-18 race, with just one more stopover before leg 3 and the Southern Ocean… what sort of things were you saying to encourage sailors like Martine Grael and Emily Nagel, amazing sailors but with very limited oceanic experience? CN: I could see as soon I got onboard a different style of manage- ment from what I am used to. But with Martine, with her 49er FX experience, we quickly resonated in sailing skills and driving skills. This is really all about giving people opportunities at the right
time. Anyone can be placed in a driving position on those boats at the wrong time and this probably means they will fail. But give them the right opportunities at the right time, sit beside them and help them along, then a massive amount can be achieved very quickly. But also I joined the team literally the night before the Lisbon
leg 2 start… and so in a situation like that you have to take time yourself. I was very much trying to be part of the general picture, just a part of the team during that leg; and in the debrief in Cape Town, then I could stand up and talk of the issues that I had observed. And that is when people look at you with either respect with the insights that you have, or they switch off… so you had better have it right before you open your mouth.
BRIAN CARLIN
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