News Around the World
Focused, fun, gotta be fun. Natural health tycoon Marcus Blackmore steers Hooligan (ex-Azzurra) down the slopes at Hamilton Island as ʻbeen there, seen it all, done it allʼ Paul (Flipper) Westlake trims but still keeps his head out of the boat, alert for developments! Meanwhile, the skipper of Australiaʼs SailGP team – and gold medallist and Americaʼs Cup winner – Tom Slingsby monitors his staffʼs efforts from the back of the ship. A perfectly prepped TP52, top-class crew, warm water, solid breeze, better than… many things (ed)
sails out along with boat captain Tim Wiseman – so the three of them work out what they want and then they tell me! SH: Who do you like to have racing with you? MB: I was largely guided by Timmy. I have certain criteria in the crew but I want to sail with people I like – I am out there for fun. Plus I want to try to include a few sailors from the youth development programme; I think this is a responsibility that those of us who have gained so much out of sailing boats have to the sport, that we should assist the next generation.
The IRC rule doesn’t handicap people, and I don’t think helming the boat is the major task; in my view the major task being tactician. I am not sure where in the pecking order the helmsman sits, but I don’t think it is as high as the public think. People ask me if I am the skipper and I guess I am, but I steer the boat and I get very focused about steering it. For example, we had a bit of an altercation today on the harbour, the mainsheet hand and Tim Wiseman and Will Ryan were all in my ear, and I said, ‘Listen, guys, I want one tactician onboard not bloody three! Just pull your heads in a bit.’ SH: Who talked you through the pre-starts at Hamilton Island? MB:Tom Slingsby, absolutely – I want a constant flow of information from him. I don’t want anyone else talking to me – my hearing is not as good as it was and so I don’t want to have to process con- flicting comments from different people… We have vastly experi- enced guys onboard but sometimes they might be wrong. We nearly whacked Neville Crichton in a crossing situation yesterday. I heard the call that we were clear, so I focused on that, then it was a little close… So occasionally I will overrule the tactician but it’s very rare. I have said it before, these young Turks, particularly from Lake Macquarie, have an innate sense of wind and pressure and how it plays out. Tom Slingsby and Will Ryan both do the same thing: it might be, ‘Marcus, the next shift will be down, but the one after that will be up, and so hold your course, don’t follow the first shift down’; then I look out there and I cannot see a bloody thing! And they both pick up the tiniest, tiniest shifts. Looking at this, I think there is a significant edge in getting your kids into sailing early so they are more aware of what is actually happening, not what is predicted to happen. I asked Gavin Brady once if he had ever been on a racing yacht where the instruments truly worked
24 SEAHORSE
properly? There was a bit of a silence and then he said, ‘Nope’. SH: You may be down the pecking order but helming a TP52 is still a strenuous business… MB:I think it is more strenuous on my MC38. The TP52 is a relatively easy boat to steer – but, having said that, when we had that big day in the Sydney Harbour Regatta I certainly had a workout. So, yes, I keep fit. With the boat I bought from Team New Zealand I went sailing with Ray Davies and Dean Barker and I said I was a bit nervous about having a 52-footer with a tiller. Dean said didn’t you have a Mumm 36? Yep – and he said you’ll be right, Marcus! SH: Ichi Banbeat you at Airlie Beach and then after the first two days at Hamilton Island this year you again needed to improve. How did you turn that situation around? MB:I don’t think there was anything to turn around. We were sailing well, but it was all about who won the start. Now Flipper tells me that in the TP52 Super Series that is the case something like 90 per cent of the time: the boat that get to the top mark first wins the race. And that applies to all one-design type racing, whether it’s a Dragon or an Etchells, but also between the TP52s; all generally moving at the same speed and jammed in a pack coming into the top mark. But be the guy ahead with rights, and after the top mark that bunch quickly spreads out to 50m or more. In the first couple of races in Hamilton Island I don’t think our starts were great – nor were the top marks… SH: Are you always on the helm? MB: I have a very simple rule onboard. I am steering the boat, boys and girls, and if you don’t like it go sail with someone else. What this does is create a discipline here, because I have seen it time and time again. I have seen the guys sitting on the rail and they are all bloody experts, and they all have an opinion. And they are all thinking, ‘I wish that bloody Marcus would get off the helm and give Joe Bloggs a go – Joe got a silver medal at the Games!’ But on my boat they know that will never happen. So now they have to change their tune and help me rather than criticising. SH: Was Rafa Trujillo onboard at Hamilton Island? MB: Yes, and he also did the ARC Race with us on the big boat. Kay Cottee was with us and Rafa took her under his wing – she wanted to cook! I said we’ve already got a cook… get on deck with
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SALTY DINGO
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