News Around the World
their class-specific training regimes and puts them into a cauldron of full-on competition, while the America’s Cup crew also get to benefit from some boat-on-boat action away from their customary one-boat testing and simulator routines. However, following the first sessions a more structured approach
has been adopted. The July session focused on starting strategies and techniques and the August session was all about playing out various scenarios in an Olympic medal race, when it is sometimes less about winning than trying to manufacture a specific finish order to maximise medal prospects. ‘But all these goals are driven by the sailors. Blair Tuke and Josh
Junior [ETNZ and Finn sailor] set up the programme in consultation with the sailors and put the teams together on the various boats, so the skills are shared around,’ said Stewart. ‘It is pretty purposeful. ‘Our Olympic sailors and the development squad have benefited
massively. When you have the opportunity to get taken out of your own very specific environment and sail alongside world-class pros
really good discussions. Once you get out on the water everybody wants to do well, whether it is the America’s Cup, the Olympics or racing out here in front of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. ‘When you put your race hat on nobody holds back. That’s the
nature of the beast. But it is great fun and we don’t get enough opportunities to do that at the moment.’ For somebody whose current and recent America’s Cup role has
been more about flight than traditional sailing, Ashby said the transition from foiling to displacement sailing involved an interesting recalibration. ‘It takes you back. A lot of the lessons you learned growing up in sailing come back and the close boat-on-boat combat is fantastic. It is not often these days that we have to look out of the back of the boat to read the wind puffs,’ he laughed. ‘We are usually peering ahead regardless of wind direction.’ While enjoyment and fun are important aspects of the programme
it is carefully structured to ensure valuable lessons are learnt along the way. The ETNZ group follow each outing with a comprehensive debrief, as do the Olympic and development squad sailors along with their respective coaches. ‘These sessions are not necessarily about specific skills that
you can apply directly to your particular class,’ said Hamish Willcox, who first coached Burling at the Optimist World Championship in Las Palmas in 2003 and has been with him through his progression from the 420 to 470 and on into domination of the 49er class with Tuke. ‘However, they are all good sailing life skills about preparing and competing at the highest levels. Everybody is feeding off each other, so it’s making the whole thing sing. ‘The afternoon sailing sessions are complemented by really good
morning programmes where we get speakers in to talk about some of the things we may be working on when we get out on the water. For example, when we did a session on starting techniques we had some outstanding stuff from Burling, John Cutler and Ray Davies. We have also had a couple of superb presentations about mental skills from Kerry Evans, who has done a lot of mental training work with the All Blacks.’ For Ian Stewart, who sailed and worked in management of
America’s Cup programmes before taking on his current role at Yacht- ing New Zealand, it is about maximising the benefits of having the Olympic and development squads together for a day. The additional gains from the ETNZ involvement are immeasurable, particularly for the younger guys and girls, some of them just out of youth sailing. ‘It is a great learning environment,’ added Nacra sailor Micah
More mass production… By 1988 multihull ocean racing had begun coalescing around the 60ft size, subsequently leading to the birth of the fiercely exciting Orma 60 class. Inevitably Jeanneau would build a boat for Philippe Poupon (above) and after the commercial success of their Formula 40s they later built a series of Irens and VPLP designs which dominated the big solo events for the next four years. One of the Irens designs went to Francis Joyon who later on used it to win the 2000 solo Transat, now named Eure et Loir – and which he still owns today
and hear how they talk through the tactical processes, or race strategies, it is absolutely invaluable.’ As one of the group wearing both Olympic and America’s Cup
hats, Blair Tuke said the benefits went in both directions. ‘With most of us stuck in New Zealand, it made sense to get everybody together in a one-design environment with equal boats,’ said Tuke. ‘We set up these different scenarios to work on in each session, so there are always specific goals. ‘Then there is the fact that, in a broader sense, some of the
ETNZ grinders do not have a lot of actual sailing experience, so it is great to bring them into this situation where four people have to crew the boat together with each now in a multiple role.’ Multiple world champion and Australian Tornado Olympic medal-
list Glenn Ashby also relished the opportunity to ‘get out of the office’ and briefly away from working on the ETNZ America’s Cup defence. ‘It is a wonderful opportunity to mix it up with the Olympic guys and do some pretty competitive racing. It stimulates some
28 SEAHORSE
Wilkinson. ‘The more experienced guys are fully open to answering any questions and giving advice. This whole programme has been a great way to make the best of what Covid has done to put us all in a pretty basic situation.’ l The day after the August sailing session Burling and Tuke hit the headlines with the announcement that straight after the America’s Cup defence in March they will be joining the SailGP circuit with a New Zealand crew in time for the first 2021 regatta in San Francisco in April… while also remaining totally committed to the mid-year defence of their 49er Olympic title in Japan! ‘We like keeping busy,’ said Burling, with his customary shrug at any astonishment over their congested dance card. Ivor Wilkins
USA Return to family values This year’s pandemic has had many obvious effects on racing with the numerous cancellations and postponements of events. A measure of this can be seen on Yacht Scoring, the main regatta management software used for events at all levels in North America and the Caribbean: of some 450 races and regattas using this service, about 30 per cent of these events have been postponed or cancelled this year. By any gauge this represents a significant hit on racing activity. Yet this also means that the remaining 70 per cent were either
held before the lockdown started in April or had particularly clever and determined organisers who did the hard work of developing
EASTLAND/AJAX/ALAMY
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