Update
Gary Jobson (far left) and a shell-shocked Alan Bond (far right) watch on in bemusement as Courageous’s skipper Ted Turner puts on the mother of all press conference performances as he ‘answers’ questions after winning the America’s Cup in 1977. All credit to the New York Yacht Club’s MC Bill Ficker who is doing nothing to discourage the barnstorming performance of his winning skipper
By now well into his career as a presenter and producer with
ESPN, Jobson found himself in a meeting with a number of colleagues. Addressing the group, their boss said, ‘All of you guys are well connected. You should be involved in some kind of charity to help the community at large.’ When he asked Jobson what he was doing to give back to the community Jobson told him about his involvement in youth sailing. His boss said, ‘That’s great, but you need to be involved in something bigger…’ Not long afterwards Jobson sailed in a local regatta in which 100
boats raised $100,000 for the fight against leukaemia. Impressed with the effort, Jobson had his own ideas. ‘Sailing is all over the place. We could do lots of regattas like this.’ His committee colleagues eagerly put him in charge. A quarter of a century and several hundred Leukemia Cup Regattas later, the effort has raised over $60 million to fight blood cancers. Ironically, a decade into spearheading the Leukemia Cup effort,
Jobson was diagnosed with lymphoma. After aggressive treatments, which included a bone marrow transplant, Jobson recovered and made a pact with a power higher than Ted Turner in which he vowed to give back more to society. In 2006 he returned to US Sailing’s Board to serve two consecutive three-year terms. In 2012, after three years as its president, Jobson completed his third term on US Sailing’s Board. Along the way he also served four terms on US Sailing’s Olympic Committee.
Gentle push and a real election If there is a traditional path to take to land on the world governing body for the sport of sailing Jobson didn’t take it. He was on ISAF’s marketing commission from 1993 to ’95 but his initial exposure to the workings of ISAF’s general assemblies came in 1994 as the MC for the World Sailor of the Year ceremonies, a role the ESPN presenter and producer has played many times since. While sitting in on the annual meetings he became intrigued. Toward the end of his term as president of US Sailing a couple of board members pushed him into running for one of the seven ISAF vice-presidential seats. ‘What I didn’t understand was just how hard getting on the board was. It was emotional and complicated. There are rules about
16 SEAHORSE
campaigning. You have to write a manifesto. It’s a real election!’ The competition toughened his resolve. For that election, and all of the boards that Jobson has served
on, he had something in his hip pocket. ‘I have a master’s degree in political science. I graduated from the SUNY Maritime College and only shipped out once before I became a low-paid coach at the US Merchant Marine Academy.’ He chuckles at his naivety: ‘I had a vision that I could get an advanced degree in poly sci and settle in nicely as a professor and a coach at one of the academies…’ Not only did the poly sci degree, with a focus on world commu-
nism, help him with the election, it has stood him in good stead manoeuvring among committees while promoting the sport. At 70, with all of his experience and connections, he would make a com- pelling candidate to become World Sailing’s President in November 2020. Jobson, however, is bowing out.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda ‘I should have done it four years ago,’ he admits when asked why he’s not going for the brass ring on the World Sailing board. ‘About four years ago I had dinner with then president Carlo Croce in London. Carlo was in the throes of considering not running for re-election, and he suggested maybe that I run. I told him I was a loyal guy, and he should complete two terms as president just like his dad had done. ‘Carlo didn’t campaign very hard. Kim Andersen and his sidekick,
Hans Natorp, campaigned and challenged the incumbent with a slate of seven vice-presidential candidates in tow. In the past the big scrum was always after the incumbent had completed his term.’ The upshot: Andersen defeated Croce by seven votes… And none of Andersen’s slate of seven VPs was elected. According to Jobson, ‘Croce and Andersen could not be more
different. Carlo was a good listener. He liked input and different views. He was an Olympian. He came from an aristocratic family and was service-minded. He was the former president of the Italian Sailing Federation. He didn’t seek the limelight. He wanted people on the board to take care of their business. ‘Andersen, on the other hand,’ reflects Jobson, ‘bypasses the
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