News Around the World


SH:But quite quickly you are heading into the Southern Ocean with several first-timers… CN: Safety is key – on all the legs. We had 35kt the first night out of Lisbon, and this meant that everyone had a bit on… but certainly the Southern Ocean is always an eye-opener no matter how well prepared you are. There is always something going on down there! SH: Were any of the younger sailors ever a bit too gung-ho? CN: I know in several briefings prior to the Southern Ocean where I have openly said, ‘If we sail the boat like we did in the previous leg – then we are going to have a major incident. We have to show more respect to the elements; we push the boat but we keep things orderly.’ I know when I was starting out if somebody who has been down to the Southern Ocean several times said something like that – mate, I would be listening very, very closely. SH: Distilled wisdom. CN: Yup. And, as I said, even the best-prepared teams can have major incidents. Blue, you’ve been down there… Mate, it is brutal, just brutal at times. SH: As a leader on deck and down below, how do you deal with a setback like the mast track issue on Akzo Nobel on leg 3? CN: Quite often with something like that you are still racing until you are not – and that switch can get flicked quite quickly. In pretty rough conditions you can be pushing hard, then all of a sudden you have to stop. The transition can happen really fast but often the disappointment isn’t there straight away, it creeps in days after an incident when you see crew are down. That is when you have to show your experience with these things happening in the past, and to get everyone to understand that this is a long race. Even if the incident is race ending – this is not an easy venture


we are all doing here; it is an experience, and when you look back at some of the massive things that you overcame as a team then it is often a very good experience. SH: Then the same track failed a second time… CN: One thing I didn’t like is that I had made that mistake before, and so I was against that first repair technique; and to be honest I didn’t push my case strongly enough. Out there it is such a different place to effect repairs on boats compared to what engineers and boatyards believe. Quite often you need to go with a combination of experience, engineering and gut-feel… which is what worked for us with the second repair! SH: Then you all put this behind you to nail a new 24-hour record in the North Atlantic with Martine taking the 24-hour record from her father Torben Grael on Ericsson 4! CN: We did have quite a strong second half to that race, but we also knew it would take time to develop that team after a ‘complex’ start. You can’t turn that stuff around overnight. Once we ended up working tightly as a team the results started to emerge. SH:More recently you have been coaching the Danish Sail GP team – plus your young son at home here in Australia! CN: I have indeed! But you know what, all the same disciplines apply across all the classes. They may vary in regard to what stage an individual is at, but in terms of communication and enjoying what they are doing – these are the key factors and they are exactly the same. Even at the highest levels there is hardly anyone who is successful who isn’t enjoying what they are doing. SH:With something as high level as SailGP can you still come out with stuff that surprises the crews? CN: Certainly I like to challenge them. The F50s are complex boats and I really believe that to get the best out of them all of the sailors need to have the best possible understanding of what they are oper- ating. The same with the data analysis. There is a lot of data, but you have to have your head around where this data is coming from, what dampening effects could influence the data, and the sample rates – rather that blindly going in and believing all the numbers. SH: Can people that good still be fooled by data into following the wrong path? CN: For a certain period of time yes, for sure. That’s why you still have to get the basics right. All the data in the world is not going to deal with a communication issue onboard. You are dealing with


34 SEAHORSE


really good sailors, and if all the basics are there they will already be competitive… it’s only then you start to bring in the complex data analysis. SH: And finally, coaching your son and his 12-year-old mates, what are you seeing out there? CN: In the past I have seen heaps of over-coaching around that age group – where for the parents it is their last go at the kids before adolescence and so they are trying to steer them a bit before that! Above all, if we make it fun for them they will stay in the sport for much, much longer. If it’s not fun they’re gone… which is where over-coaching and loading up the pressure are such a killer. The training that we do, the kids just love it – they thrive on shorter


races and more of them. Something else I learned very early on racing the 505s is that it’s vital to help each other – and this is huge. So my style of coaching is a bit different, they need to be helping each other with all their boats, rigging, sorting out and launching. Not the parents launching the boats, the kids just helping each other out afloat and ashore. Then after they have packed all the boats away I want them to


walk around and pick up all the bits of tape and rubbish that have been left behind by other people. It is important for them to learn all of that. Briefings and debriefs are also always kept short – someone has


always done something silly, usually it’s my son forgetting his sailing gear, and so you can single people out for a joke and a laugh. And that includes me if I make a mistake; you have to keep it all very light-hearted! It’s fun that keeps kids sailing, not results. Blue Robinson


USA Sail on, Luiz Memoriams are usually written about great sailors who have recently passed who we admire for their achievements on the water: their medals, awards and race results. We usually also acknowledge how they kept with the sport in later years to inspire others to reach similar success through their passions for coaching, committee work or political leadership. Usually these exceptional individuals continue these contributions well into their sunset years, so we can watch how they’ve improved the sport in a long gentle arc through time. The recent passing of Luiz Kahl, however, was sudden, and at


only 60 has deprived us of seeing any further down that arc… Luiz was on-stride at the most productive stage of his life and career. Yet there is so much he had done already for sailing, especially here in the US –we have to acknowledge that the sport has definitely improved from his work. There are few active sailors in the US at any level and on any


boat type, one-design or handicap, who did not register to race on Luiz’s Yacht Scoring system. This web-based program of event management, race management and scoring is a mainstay of all major US clubs and their events. Its web-based features, easy inter- faces on both the admin and user sides, and simple and intuitive architecture have contributed to this popularity, which has now spread far overseas as well. At the advent of web-based applications Luiz started to build


Yacht Scoring to help bridge the generational divide between younger users comfortable with web-based solutions, and a generally older generation of pre-digital race managers nervous about hitting the wrong buttons. As an active offshore sailor Luiz understood what the customers wanted to see – organisers and competitors alike. Easy menus of links and fast online results. Simple. It is mainly here that Luiz’s calm demeanour, affable personality


and being always available to answer questions and solve problems developed into enduring love and respect from race managers throughout the US. After all, their customers depended on them to not only run good races, but also have accurate results delivered quickly… and ideally online. Literally thousands of sailors in the US have Yacht Scoring on their phones to consult regularly prior to, during and after their


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