sailing history

This month, another two part podcast sees Shirley Robertson visits Swiss America's Cup powerhouse Alinghi Red Bull Racing at their base in Barcelona as they prepare to Challenge for the 37th America's Cup.

As the only team to have ever launched a successful challenge to the America's Cup at first attempt, they're also the only European team to have ever won it, but for over a decade Swiss America's Cup syndicate Alinghi have been waiting, watching, following developments.  And now, they are back, relaunched as Alinghi Red Bull Racing, and already well established in the host city of Barcelona.  In this month's podcast, double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson visits the Swiss team and talks to several key players, to hear just what it is about AC37 that has rekindled interest, and to look at how one of the most successful Cup teams of the modern era is launching a bid to reclaim the illusive silver ware.

In Part One Robertson chats to principal helm, Arnaud Psarofaghis and to Sailing team manager Pierre Yves Jorand, then in this, the second part of the podcast, she kicks things off with Yves Detrey, Alinghi team veteran and winner of the Cup with the Swiss syndicate in 2003 and 2007.  The pair share memories of the Cup wins, in a conversation that takes in the immensity of those Cup victories at home in Switzerland, as well as the challenges to overcome in the new Cup arena.

Robertson also talks AC75 design with America's Cup naval architect Adolfo Carrau from Botin Partners, the design house of choice for Alinghi Red Bull Racing.  Driving the design team for American Magic in the last Cup, Carrau's discussion on the evolution of the second generation AC75s will leave the listeners impatient for a glimpse of the new boats.  This edition is then wrapped up with team board member Brad Butterworth, a key component of the Swiss syndicate since the earliest days of campaigning.  Butterworth, as ever, has interesting views on key aspects of this Cup cycle, including the nationality rule, the other Challengers, and collaboration with Formula One teams.

This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website - www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact podcast@shirleyrobertson.com

This month, Shirley Robertson visits Swiss America's Cup powerhouse Alinghi Red Bull Racing at their base in Barcelona as they prepare to Challenge for the 37th America's Cup.

They're the only team to have ever launched a successful challenge to the America's Cup at first attempt, and the only European team to have ever won it, but for over a decade Swiss America's Cup syndicate Alinghi have been waiting, watching, following developments.  And now, they are back, relaunched as Alinghi Red Bull Racing, and already well established in the host city of Barcelona.  In this month's podcast, double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson visits the Swiss team and talks to several key players, to hear just what it is about AC37 that has rekindled interest, and to look at how one of the most successful Cup teams of the modern era is launching a bid to reclaim the illusive silver ware.

Robertson starts the two part podcast with the team's principle helm, Arnaud Psarofaghis.  No stranger to racing fast foiling yachts, Psarofaghis is visibly excited at the development process of a Cup campaign, as the pair discuss the way the team have learned to sail their first generation AC75...:

"When you are on the boat, you start to accelerate, 12 knots, 14 knots, 15 knots, and it's incredible because the boat is big, noisy, it's quite a brutal environment, and I remember the first time we got to take off speed and suddenly there is a moment of silence.  Nothing is happening...you feel like it's a dinghy...you have that moment of joy for ten seconds, and then you come back to reality!"

Sailing team manager Pierre Yves Jorand then discusses the challenges ahead for the team, as well as revealing the process that saw Alinghi owner Ernest Bertarelli re-enter the America's Cup arena...:

"We were listening, we were watching the America's Cup, we were reading the protocols and Ernesto (Bertarelli) always said that once the protocol will be right, we'll be back. A couple of years ago he mentioned the America's Cup is like climbing Everest, and to be successful you need a good forecast.  And for us the weather forecast is the protocol, and this time, the protocol seems to be fair, and we decided to come back.  We are super excited to be back."

In Part 2 of this edition, Robertson talks to Yves Detrey, Alinghi team veteran and winner of the Cup with the Swiss syndicate in 2003 and 2007, she talks AC75 design with America's Cup naval architect Adolfo Carrau from Botin Partners, the design house of choice for Alinghi Red Bull Racing.  and she wraps things up with team board member Brad Butterworth, a key component of the Swiss syndicate since the earliest days of campaigning. 

This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website - www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact podcast@shirleyrobertson.com

This month on the podcast it's America's Cup Hall of Famer Tom Whidden who in this second part of his chat with Shirley Robertson discusses in detail the events of the famous 'race of the century', the America's Cup race that saw the New York Yacht Club finally relinquish their one hundred and thirty two year ownership of the America's Cup.

It was a landmark edition of the Cup, in which Tom Whidden, onboard with Dennis Connor and his American Team, lost the Cup to Alan Bond's Australian syndicate, Australia II - the loss was the very first time the Cup left ownership of the New York Yacht Club since the first victory in 1851 in front of British Queen, Victoria, in a now famous race around the Isle of Wight.  Yet despite the implications of the loss, as Whidden reveals, humour was somehow still on the agenda...:

"We had a little dock house where the telephone was, and I walked down the dock and the phone was ringing and I pick up the phone.  Dennis is still on the boat at that point...and the voice on the other end says "It's the President, they would like to talk to Dennis" and I say "Yeah yeah yeah",  and they say "No, it's really the President, it's President Reagan"...so I get on the loudspeaker and I said "Dennis Connor, Dennis Connor, you have a phone call, it's the President and he wants to tell you you screwed up!"

Whidden's lighthearted and amicable style is wonderful to listen to, as he discusses his sailing career with a transfixed Robertson.  There are Dennis Connor stories aplenty, including his much talked about "plastic boat" quote of the 1987 Challenger Series campaign, but of course there's far more to Whidden than his America's Cup campaigns.  For decades now he's been at the forefront of one of the industry's leading corporate entities as the driving force of new technologies at North Sails, where he currently sits as Executive Chairman.

Whidden discusses the growth of the company, the adoption of the revolutionary new production techniques, 3DL and 3Di and the future of the company as they continue to develop sailing technologies.

The pair round their discussion off back at the modern day America's Cup, and Whidden's position within the New York Yacht Club, as he discusses his thoughts on the new AC75s, and American Magic's position representing the Club as the Cup heads to Barcelona.

This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website, at www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact podcast@shirleyrobertson.com. 

This month on the podcast it's America's Cup Hall of Famer Tom Whidden who recounts one of the most important eras in competitive sailing as he sits down with double Olympic gold medallist and podcast host Shirley Robertson.

After a childhood spent learning to sail on the East Coast of the United States, a teenage Tom Whidden made two bold declarations.  He would become a sail maker, and he would compete in the America's Cup.  Decades later he's still a pivotal figure at sailing industry powerhouse North Sails, and he's raced an incredible eight America's Cup campaigns, having won the illusive trophy three times.

But in this fascinating chat with Robertson, it's Whidden's memories of the historic 1983 loss to Alan Bond's Australia II that are the most revealing.  Whidden partnered up with Cup legend Dennis Connor for the 1980 Freedom Syndicate campaign, and was tactician for the 1983 Defence, but it was a Defence that would finally see the end to the one hundred and thirty two year winning streak.  Unsurprisingly, Whidden's memory of each and every race is near flawless, as he talks Robertson through the historic loss....:

"I'm looking back and I'm going, they're about to tack, and the bow comes up, comes up, comes up and I go 'they're actually not tacking' and they get this big humongous left shift and they go up, and slowly but surely they sail away.  They beat us by two minutes in that race.  So now it's the race of the century."

The 'race of the century' was of course the deciding match of the 1983 America's Cup, a match that Whidden and his team onboard Liberty famously lost.  It was the end of an era, Alan Bond's Australia II  finally prised the Cup out of the one hundred and thirty two year grip of the New York Yacht Club in an historic edition of the Cup that still has implications int he sport today.

This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website, at www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact podcast@shirleyrobertson.com.