the boat! He’s not a small guy. The boat went a little bit wild and then reconnected – and we all said, ‘You OK?’ and Tom said, ‘Yep!’ and off we went. SH: Your eyes must have grown somewhat larger right there… NC: For sure! Tom is inspirational, particularly in heavy air. He is super-impressive in those conditions. He has such a fighting spirit and we never get any sense of fear coming off him. He also communicates under that extreme duress exactly the same as he does in 10kt of breeze – in fact, probably better than when it gets light. You can tell he is really in his element, and the team rides along on that. SH: When you are that focused in those conditions how aware are you of another boat capsizing? NC: Uniquely aware. One of my roles is to ensure we don’t go over the boundary, that we don’t hit other boats and that everyone on our boat is aware of anything that could go wrong. And so a lot of my role is judging if the other boats are in control and if they can keep clear, or if they are becoming a threat.
When the British capsized it was a surprise to me -– but not to Tom. This reflects his level of experience in those conditions. Ben [Ainslie] made quite a big bearaway to get to leeward of us, so quite a big positional manoeuvre, and it went very wrong. I could tell by how quickly Tom reacted that he had already seen it coming. So for sure a surprise to me, but not him. SH: Then Jimmy Spithill’s USA is only just behind you… and suddenly he is having to stay clear. NC: We exited that situation very, very nicely. Unfortunately it was a lot more taxing on the American boat. I think he had to do a boat systems restart which is why he was so far behind. When we crossed the line to win our guys were all saying well done – but then the majority of them were gutted that they didn’t get the big fighting slog- fest they were hoping for in those conditions! The whole team were super-stoked with the line-up in that final, it was going to be an amazing showdown in those conditions. And while it was spectacular we didn’t get the hit-out we were hoping for! It just shows how much these guys love it. But, heh, a win’s a win, right? SH: Finally, you are confronted with all this data – which is open to all the teams. But there is a lot to take in. NC: So true! Going into Bermuda my brother, who worked for Team Oracle as a rigger and then for Dee Caffari at Turn the Tide on Plastic, is a great mentor and gives it to me straight, saying things like, ‘Don’t think you are special! You had better work hard for this!’ And that is a precious leveller. He also said that I would love the data – but it would take a bit of time. For sure it took some time. I remember in Bermuda sitting in some of the debriefs, wondering if it was all in another language. There is so much terminology you have to learn, so after Bermuda I thought that I would be no use to this team unless I got my head around it. Clearly I would be spending my time in the coach boat and so getting up to speed is the smart thing to do, as the data is key. So I just pulled from every contact I had, asking questions, begging information – be it old Cup info, spare SailGP notes or similar. And I really studied it between events and if it didn’t sink in or make sense the first time I kept it on the reading list until it did.
Now I can chew through that list quite quickly as it is all starting to link up and make sense, with the feedback in the boat relating to the physics of what is going on. That is the crash course I have been doing with this team over the past five months, really leaning on the coaches for help. And I am proud of myself with this data – not just sitting in but participating and contributing. But it was so great to race in Cádiz. The theoretical stuff we talked about and viewed from the coach boat is not a skillset I’ve encountered in the past so to be onboard and experience those situations, then lock it in my memory bank, this suddenly makes me such a more valuable member of the team. All of this also means I have immense respect for the coaches, working with a whole new skillset... one in which the key information is just super- difficult to translate from the perspective of a coach boat. Blue Robinson
SEAHORSE 37 VerticalHalfPage-GEN22 cmyk.pdf 1 13/12/2021 11:23
®
THE FIRST JIB FURLER WITHOUT FOILS
reduced drag and weight
continuous line option
improved safety
reefed
WWW.UBIMAIORIT ALIA .COM UBI MAIoR ITALIA®
SAIL BLOCKS – DECK HARDWARE – CUSTOM PROJECTS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122
