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A sailing podcast for racing sailors everywhere. Exclusive interviews with the sport's top names. Presented by British sailing journalist Justin Chisholm.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're listening to the Yacht Racing Live podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: The show for racing sailors everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Featuring exclusive stories and interviews from across the world of competitive sailing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hosted by British sailing journalist Justin Chishoff, available wherever you get your pocket.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Yacht Racing Live podcast.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks so much for joining us and listening wherever you are in the world.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's another sale GP episode, and I'm joined by Magnus Wheatley from the Royal 69 blog.
[SPEAKER_01]: Magnus, you're in back at home in cows.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can see the Americas cut posters on the wall behind you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I managed to get out to Cadiz and watch the practice day and the first day of racing and then I came home and watched the rest of it on Sunday on repeat.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a light airs event, it was a bit disappointing, I think, what did you think?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, Mediterranean in October is not as we well know having spent the whole of last October in Barcelona.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's, you can get anything you, any, any weather conditions you like down there and on any given day it's more likely to be like than it is going to be heavy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So,
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a shame, really, because we were kind of building up to Cadiz saying it's going to be windy there, and it wasn't the sea state was horrible.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it does make some of the flight controllers look bang average at times.
[SPEAKER_02]: So is it a great showcase for the sport?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think by the end of the regaster, it was a great showcase fabulous British win.
[SPEAKER_02]: you know, last gas very much and at metaphor for there for their regatta.
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, it overall it's just another another regatta ticked off in the overall product of sale GP.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was glad that I went down there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cadiz is a really, really cool city for anybody who hasn't been.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was my first time, and I'd happily go back and spend a bit of time wandering around the streets
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, and the other side of the city away from the port is it is a beach town kind of California surf vibe to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just very, very cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's kind of you written over.
[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't it just in that sort of California beach vibe?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wish I was on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I wish I was a surf.
[SPEAKER_01]: I really do never managed to.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to never, never noticed a must of that sport.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what I would say was that the, you know, the local crowds seem to really enjoy themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: They
[SPEAKER_01]: They lined the wall, the sea wall there is massive and the media centre actually was in the castle that's on the end of that sea wall.
[SPEAKER_01]: So my vantage point was like being in a drone, it was like looking down on the lowered gates.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really really nice viewpoints.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I have to say, I felt a bit sorry for the Spanish team, you know, local favourites, it's their home event.
[SPEAKER_01]: They came there as conquering heroes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was the big vibe that the organizers were trying to rev up.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then the practice day, they had to go off and sail on their own because they'd been given a chance to test, do the final testing on the new 27 meter, but actually 27 and a half meter technically,
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... wingsale configuration that the the helping to be able to use in time for abadabbi um... it's great that they've got this new configuration and we can talk about that a little bit but you know that i'm sure they really wanted to be sailing their own boat because she'll because the new wing was on the australian boat and you know they missed out on a day of of practice racing effectively and i think it i think it hurt them
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I've been catching up, and I've been reading your excellent article on your racing life, which out today, talking about that.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry, I know you've got the quote, so I completely trust in your journalism, but I don't believe them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Tom Sling's been, must have said this with a very straight face that this has been planned for a year.
[SPEAKER_02]: They gone from a 29 meter wing to a 27 meter wing, if I'm correct, because there were some loads that they didn't quite factor in at the beginning.
[SPEAKER_02]: it's kind of incredible statements coming out really and obviously they've had a lot of mass failures and I probably more than they want it is too many and they've gone for this 27 metre one and they've all been very impressed with this and again I kind of look at it and go we had so much hype about the new T-foils.
[SPEAKER_02]: Are they really performing that much better?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a light weather event.
[SPEAKER_02]: People were crashing off the falls, gas everywhere.
[SPEAKER_02]: Were they really working that much better than what we've seen before?
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm sure Dylan Fletcher is not a liar, and he's saying, they are a massive improvement.
[SPEAKER_02]: Great, okay, we'll have to take your word for it, because visually it doesn't look any different.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was expecting them to be flying and have vastly increased flight times, you know, up in the
[SPEAKER_02]: 80, 90 percent flight times.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you got behind on the start and you didn't get off the start well enough, you were gassed and that was it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You were off the foils and some boats were being lapped.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was again, the height doesn't quite match the product and then now we're going for the 27 meter wing and Dylan was talking about still being able to lean the boat over and get the go into what they call H1 mode as in one hull in the water and one hull flying.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that's kind of what the 29 meter rig did in any case.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why would you go for smaller with a slightly bigger area in the middle than than the 20, then the 20, so I just don't quite understand it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, um, yeah, we'll see.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure this is a safety issue more than anything else.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think so, and for what they told me and I've heard this before, the 29-metre wing super heavy, just the way that it was designed originally that with that extra section in, I'm very draggy, aerodynamically, very draggy.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it, it
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, a bigger area, but it didn't always result in more power, and I think you're right.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it is a safety issue.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the found that with the new foils,
[SPEAKER_01]: the boats are much more powered up and the rig becomes the fuse in these situations.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, I guess looking at the positives, third plate of them for reaxing quickly to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as we've said many times on this podcast, the great thing about SLGP is that they can make a decision act on it and execute and have the thing rolled out, you know, pretty quickly, so that's, you know, that's good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's see, I do take my house off to them for that and they throw the mud at the wall, whatever sticks, they will go with it and they can change quickly and they have to take my house off to that tech team in Southampton.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen some of the videos that they're doing is absolutely phenomenal.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, all credit to them, and they've had now two or three weekends of, or was it two weekends of no real incident.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's good for the, that's good for the sport.
[SPEAKER_02]: We can't go on having the big crashes all the time.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's, and I guess, two light weather venues, Geneva and Cadiz.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's what we've got now.
[SPEAKER_02]: We've got Abu Dhabi coming up, and that'll be, that'll be light as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, we'll say that.
[SPEAKER_02]: We'll get there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, we can.
[SPEAKER_01]: We say that now and it'll be blowing 25 knots.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like ching down at the Olympics.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's just go back to the racing itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: As you say, the Brits had a storming event.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought they sailed really, really well.
[SPEAKER_01]: They started, well, started better on the Saturday than they did on the Sunday, but it was impressive just how well they were able to
[SPEAKER_01]: do, you know, lots of not make a disaster out of a poor result.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they turned 12th and 11th into sixes and sevens and maybe eights or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But in the great scheme of things, it gave them a pretty impressive series.
[SPEAKER_01]: We were talking just before we started.
[SPEAKER_01]: You described it
[SPEAKER_01]: reacting.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's more than just the two of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think all of them now on the boat have got a confidence about them that they know how to work together.
[SPEAKER_01]: I suspect it's pretty quiet on that boat when they're sailing.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, big shout-outs at Ian Jensen and Luke Parkinson, they are two absolutely world class sailors on board, but it's the correlation between Dylan and Hannah.
[SPEAKER_02]: What you noticed in that final race, they came around the final windward mark and chose to go to the starboard, starboard gate.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the rationale behind it was we want to set up to hit the port gate on down at the Lord Mark because the Kiwis were obsessed with going towards the the harbour side and they wanted to go out to see.
[SPEAKER_02]: the setup was there from that and it was very clever.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was Tom Sling's BS.
[SPEAKER_02]: We saw him doing this and I marveled at it and raved about it at the America's Cup.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's that racecraft of looking through two marks ahead setting up for that, setting up for what you want to do, having a plan and executing it and I think that's a real mark of champions.
[SPEAKER_02]: And like you say, I think Saturday they book ended two fifths with a first and a second, so that really puts them up in the standing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think they were second overall going into the going into Sunday behind the Danes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then it's a case that is very much the Olympic mentalities, you say, of, okay, we're behind, we're gasped.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's just try and fight through to fifth.
[SPEAKER_02]: So get 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th, let's just get 5th and they got 5th, 4th, 6th on the Sunday.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's really, really impressive.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just do enough to get to the final.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's all you need to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then you guarantee the win bonuses and then you've got to shot at the $400,000 first prize.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they did it and they want it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And sensation or how they did it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think people
[SPEAKER_02]: because here if he's slammed on it but then he had a judgement call to make he had to slightly go beyond the bridge.
[SPEAKER_02]: The bridge could then dial underneath, get into the two boat zone, get the hook, force them up and scoot away on on the foils.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brilliant sailing and all credit to the bridge.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it was a very good win.
[SPEAKER_02]: Put some clear in the standings, virtually guarantees them a place.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it does guarantee them a place in the final.
[SPEAKER_02]: 85 points and then the Kiwis are on 82 and the Aussie is about a shocker over a gator on AC.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's looking like the three boat final.
[SPEAKER_02]: God, I kind of, none of us can.
[SPEAKER_02]: Would you bet against Burling?
[SPEAKER_02]: Would you bet against Slingsby?
[SPEAKER_02]: Would you bet get it bet against Dylan Fletcher in one race final for $2 million?
[SPEAKER_02]: That's really exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is, it's interesting that we're talking
[SPEAKER_01]: When it takes all final against the backdrop of what's going on in the Olympics right now with the proposed changes to the medal race and the way that all works out and I don't want to go down that rabbit hole particularly but I do feel for
[SPEAKER_01]: the Olympians and this kind of sudden death element that's been introduced into the sport.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, LGP is championed this whole thing, the jeopardy of the winner takes all final shooter out for two million.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's great in the sense of the drama that it creates.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm already nervous about that final because you will end up with three really good teams in there and I want to see a proper battle between those three teams.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not sure you get that with just one when it take or race.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure it really does it for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, maybe I'm going to take an opposing view because
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I look at, I can see where the Olympics is coming from.
[SPEAKER_02]: They go, you know, if the Jamaican, 4 by 100, really team drops the batten on the third exchange.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's it, bad luck guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're not going to rerun the race.
[SPEAKER_02]: We could run that race five times and the Jamaicans were probably when it all Americans were with whoever.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's, it's the jeopardy of the gold medal.
[SPEAKER_02]: And,
[SPEAKER_02]: I, as a journalist, as a watcher of the sport, I can explain that this is one race for $2 million.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the conditions are the same for everybody.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's up to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think there's a real merit in that and I had software sales GP for doing it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: Does it show who is the best F-50 sailing team on the water over the season?
[SPEAKER_02]: Probably not.
[SPEAKER_02]: The best team is the British team by, I think, by a country mile across the conditions.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why they ended up first at the end of the season.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if they lose the final, they can still hold their heads high and say, well, we won the season.
[SPEAKER_02]: We just didn't win the final race shootout.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know that doesn't, that doesn't cost it for Olympians who go well, you know, I was first overall, but then ended up getting a bronze, but that this is sale GP and it's, it's a different, it's a different format, but it, I promise you that format is coming into sailing or else sailing is out of the Olympics.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, you say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just coming in to sailing at the Olympics.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's already here in Sergei P. I guess if you look at the America's Cup, it's matracing anyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's always a wonderful one to take all situation.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's not.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not going to come into J70 championships or Melgis 24 championships or flying 15s or dragons or any of the thousands of other
[SPEAKER_01]: crews that go racing at major championships.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're just not going to introduce that kind of system because that's not what's required.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I guess the difference is, you know, America's cup, CELGP and the Olympics now is entertainment.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not pure sport anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that's where the Olympians are really struggling to get their heads round.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because for them, it's pure sport.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think this is a really interesting point to touch into.
[SPEAKER_02]: When you get to the sale GP level, you are expected to be a social media guru.
[SPEAKER_02]: You do have teams around you who are photographing silly scenes and serious scenes, and then you've got the drive to survive kind of sale for the grail kind of stuff going on behind the scenes.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're expected to be more than just a good sailor.
[SPEAKER_02]: and this is where a lot of the Olympians who, and it's not their fault, they come through the classes, they come through the divisions, they're very, very good, they get into the RAA development programs or the country programs, they get through and
[SPEAKER_02]: I've worked with a number of these people and they suddenly realize they haven't got the time or the bandwidth to commit to doing silly social media and relentless social media.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it is tough to build the narrative around Olympians because first of all you're really grateful for the money that you're getting.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're very respectful of the people that you're fighting against to get that gold medal.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it
[SPEAKER_02]: It's all round.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are going to lose something if we go to, it's got to be full on media and these people have got to be medium up monkeys.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, sale GP, they have to do it because that is the product.
[SPEAKER_02]: And let's not forget sale GP is an overall sporting product competing in a very, very competitive sporting complex of every other sport trying to get eyeballs into it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, um, there's a necessity to do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Does the Olympic ideal mean that they have to do that as well?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I'm afraid it probably does.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so an Olympic campaign becomes far more than just about sailing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It becomes about the media profile and the profile and the rivalries and the building of the backstory against other people.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that doesn't sit very easy with an awful lot of sailors.
[SPEAKER_02]: go back to Ben Ainsley's days, Ben at Ben love the conflict and could create a conflict within an Olympic environment, even at Regatta's, remember, in the Russian protested him out, suddenly there was this, you know, you don't want to make me angry and all that kind of thing going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: that's a very, very rare Olympian.
[SPEAKER_02]: Today's Olympians, today's people in society are different.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's just very interesting how this is all going to pan out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Unfortunately, I think the current Olympic sailors are probably on the wrong side of the argument, but because the IOC ultimately wants a product.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I guess if they didn't like it that much, they wouldn't flock to sales to your pay as they've done in drugs.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, yeah, I guess I'm also just trying to defend with sales to your pay, which I accept is a manufactured product created just for entertainment and for eyeballs and TV numbers and all of that could stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just trying to protect the,
[SPEAKER_01]: the racing, the sailing racing side of things and it was great to see some, you know, that maneuver as you've just described at the final mark in the final.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's great to see those sort of things happen on the race course and you remember just how good these sailors are, it actually do in the sport.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so they are incredible sailors and all the way down the fleet they are incredible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Hence we can criticize them when they don't hit those incredible levels and it's not intended as a slight at any individuals it's just at that situations and but they are all
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, sailing in a 50 is an extraordinary experience and putting them in that close proximity and we come on to, you know, perhaps and they are coming about the number of boats on a course, which we've touched on before in the podcast of in lighters desperately lighters should we be having 12 next year 13 boats on a start line where there's just no wind and
[SPEAKER_02]: the the the the windwood boats are taking the taking sucking the air out of the uh the course and we're seeing as we saw in Cadiz we're seeing boats being lapped.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't think that's a good advert for this sport um so I I'm really surprised Russell didn't didn't try a six and six format couple of you know and and try and mix things up a little bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's got to be on his on his
[SPEAKER_02]: into next year, but there isn't going to be a 14th boat next year.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the talk of going seven and seven has kind of disappeared.
[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't had anything more on that at all.
[SPEAKER_02]: So is Russell going to stick 13 boats on a start line and expect, you know, to see any, any, it's just going to be a lottery effectively, particularly in the lighter areas.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not certainly what I observed.
[SPEAKER_01]: being there on the Friday and the Saturday, Friday actually was worse, the first practice race, even though they were racing in split into two heat.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first two boats round the first mark were often gone and the rest would just end the water and waiting to be laughed.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's a little puzzling probably for people watching who don't really understand the sport particularly well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyhow, who impressed us other than the Brits this weekend?
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I think the Daines were amazing on Saturday, and there was a very interesting interview on the water at the end of the race where Nikolai and Tom were his wing trim, I was where
[SPEAKER_02]: sort of joking with with the commentators saying oh yeah we found the secret and you know keep it quiet kind of thing but they definitely had really lovely gliding speed that they found a smoothness to their tax, their jibes, everything looked good and I was really disappointed for them because I'm not
[SPEAKER_02]: I think they may have made one final before on the days, I think in Denmark wasn't I can't remember when in season four, but they've never won and it was a that last race, I felt desperately to have them fell off the foils, 12th you know in the race.
[SPEAKER_02]: and just watch the, you know, all their hopes just sail away.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a real kicker for them.
[SPEAKER_02]: But they massively impress, they should come out of Cadiz with their head held high.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a big building block for next year.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think the building block teams, and I, you know, Germany making the final just sensational.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's, you know, they've really got it going.
[SPEAKER_02]: And again, we were talking off of air about, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: people just putting it on the line and going for it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the Germans definitely feel like there a team that did it.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Danes exactly on the Saturday, definitely looked like they were going for it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, and let's give a shout out to the Americans.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you know, they had a much much better, okay, they finished eighth overall.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's kind of probably where they should be.
[SPEAKER_02]: But they, you know, they did get a third, they did get a fourth, they got a fifth, and then they had a few shockers in there as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: But they were sailing the boat better, looked to be making slightly better calls overall, and I thought that, you know, good for them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Canada, I kind of given up on Giles, I don't know where his heads at.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said in interview, we're a Ying and Yang team, we've been a Ying and Yang team all season.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's very true, but where does that team go?
[SPEAKER_02]: He kind of lost it after the big crashes, a few regasses ago, look very concerned and this has never really got his mojo back, but then he goes and gets a third in the final race when he really should have won it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he looked much, much better, good start, get away, go, and then got killed on the final approach to the final mark.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he is a capable front runner, and Canada should be better than their recent results have been.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't really know what's gone on in the dynamic there, but something's happened.
[SPEAKER_02]: France might be impressive on the Sunday.
[SPEAKER_02]: I looked absolutely six and sevens on the Saturday.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they know they need to work on stringing a weekend together, where they have a good one and a good one, not a bad one and a good one or a good one and a bad one.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's just that consistency that they're trying to build in.
[SPEAKER_02]: Italy all over the shop.
[SPEAKER_02]: I honestly, I really,
[SPEAKER_02]: don't know where they're going to go next season and I think Jimmy's got some big decisions to make as to whether they need new coaches.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whether Philip Presty is the right man for that job, where they're going wrong, on set up, where their tech teams are, all of that sort of stuff, I just, it needs an overhaul, something is not right in the Italian team and saying that we've got a new starting tactic, which seem to be we'll start behind everybody and see where we go, isn't working.
[SPEAKER_02]: So,
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, but yeah, I think there was, there was some good performances.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the Kiwis will come away, um, you know, they, they sort of thought that a lot of incidents on the, on the course didn't go their way and a little bit looking their wounds, but come on, they were, they were one tack away from winning it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they had a good one, um, the Aussies were back to the roller coaster runway and, uh, the roller coaster could well hit a peak in Abu Dhabi who knows, uh, two good,
[SPEAKER_02]: but all over the shop this weekend.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shout out to Martini Grail and Paul Goodison on the Brazilian boat who pulled off the second win of the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: Happy to see that.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've been
[SPEAKER_01]: up and down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, not so much up, but mid-fleet and down for most of the season.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just shows you with, you know, we saw the French stroll away to an easy win.
[SPEAKER_01]: We saw the Australians winner race on Saturday and then couldn't get out of their own way for the rest of the Regatta.
[SPEAKER_01]: It really does prove the point about this
[SPEAKER_01]: first mark rounding.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the fact that they set such shorts first down when legs, it was basically if you could stick the job and you were in the front three, then you were off and running.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got quite bored with two days of watching that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt like I was watching starting practice rather than actual racing.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was an interesting thing that I kind of observed was when they jied on the wall, the front runners, normally you'd get the lead boat would go the furthest to the boundary jie, which would make sense, whether it was the right thing to do, I'm not sure, but it would make sense to go as far as you can and then jiebe so you get the angle into the mark, a slightly faster angle.
[SPEAKER_02]: What I noticed the Brit's do is they are pretty much always jibing first and then they soak down
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was looking at the angles that the front runners, maybe the top four boats are sailing down to the first mark, compared with the rest of the fleet.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the rest of the fleet are doing you kind of soldier sailing, left right, left right, left right, right.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they are much higher angled coming trying to get out of that you try to find new wind.
[SPEAKER_02]: to, so there are a much, you're immediately at a huge disadvantage and, you know, Tom Sling's became a sure said there's just no passing lanes.
[SPEAKER_02]: If I, if I started badly and he did have a few gased shockers on on the Saturday particularly and just couldn't get out of his own way as you said I think it was a brilliant phrase, can't get out of his own way.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he just, there was no passing lanes, nothing to go, no way to go through.
[SPEAKER_02]: Both speed didn't really work.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was just about picking the winds, but that soaked down to the Lewed Mart by the leaders.
[SPEAKER_02]: They all do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's, you know, Pete Burlings really good at it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Dylan's very good at it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, you see the Aussies, they're very good when they're in the lead and they do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But, um, when I was always nervous when, um, and the Danes got it ahead,
[SPEAKER_02]: They did the Rudy T. Sir one of carrying on to the boundary too much tacking and then saying everybody just go inside you and a couple of times they did that but they got away with it and it was very it was just very interesting sort of set up that you could you could observe from the from the broadcast that the one that got me there was the Swiss.
[SPEAKER_02]: down at the Lewad Mark that clearly been overtaken by the Kiwis and instead of playing the percentage.
[SPEAKER_02]: If that had been Dylan, he'd have just followed the Kiwis round.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, they went for a job and a head-up having just come out of a job and so your boat speed is down and you kind of look at it going.
[SPEAKER_02]: Come on.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I, you know, Arnold Saraphagus is a very, very good sailor and calling that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't believe you'd say that's a good idea.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brian Matro, equally fantastic flight controller, one of the best in the world and all season long, Arnold and Brian have just.
[SPEAKER_02]: haven't looked good at all, and it's done there, America's cops standing if a lingerie is to come back into the cup.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's done it, no favors whatsoever.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've really just looked at the Swiss and just thought, well, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, their final four results, 10, 10, 11, 11.
[SPEAKER_02]: really.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're not a team that should be down there.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: There'd be a lot of teams on the therapist's couch as we go towards the end of this season trying to work out as you say what they should do on sure, on the boat, do they need changes, maybe some bold moves are required, maybe some hummus of a need to be swapped out, maybe some flight control as maybe some wing trim as who knows.
[SPEAKER_01]: let's look at the top four going into this.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still mathematically possible that the Spanish could could have a good Saturday and Sunday in Abu Dhabi and squeeze out one of the top three currently.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who do you think is feeling the most nervous in those?
[SPEAKER_01]: in that top three now with the Spanish jumping at the bit.
[SPEAKER_02]: 100% of the Australian's because they can't afford to have another, you know, shocker.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Tom has clearly got pace and a force of personality that pushes the whole team forward.
[SPEAKER_02]: but it's the consistency isn't there.
[SPEAKER_02]: They look so good.
[SPEAKER_02]: They look so right when they're in the lead and race three, they just sail off and it was piece of cake.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I don't know where the aggression went on the start lines.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's in Tom's head and since the crash, the wing collapse.
[SPEAKER_02]: have we seen well we haven't seen great conditions and the sort of conditions that Tom revels in but going into Abu Dhabi I don't think he's that good light as I mean he's he's a very good sailor but I'm not sure he's brilliant in the light absolutely sensation and middle to top top end conditions and you would never bet against him but if it is light in Abu Dhabi I think they're the ones most under pressure because the Spanish love the light
[SPEAKER_02]: and yeah I mean they could could quite easily knock it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think with the Kiwis I think they're starting to get Leo Takahashi doing the right things.
[SPEAKER_02]: Blair Chuk had some board issues but was sailing the boat pretty well and I think you know Pete is Pete's Pete's you know he is absolutely
[SPEAKER_02]: of all time.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's all on and you know, the breads, the breads are the ones to catch because the breads have got speed and they've got speed and consistency.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I, I, I, I'm a British commentator.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm, I'm definitely rooting for for Dylan and Hannah and I think they, they can definitely do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, for it was the question is about who's, who's under pressure.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's the Aussies.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think probably the Spanish, although there will have been disappointed not to have a strong event in their home country, going into in fourth, you know, they're in the same position basically as there were when they went into this weekend, slightly worse off on points, but fundamentally they still have a chance and they don't really need to worry about anybody behind them.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the only way is up for those guys.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, yeah, fonts are on 61 points.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I think they're pretty much out of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, they've got nothing to lose.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they might as well go and stick it on the line and just see what happens.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if Tom doesn't have a good one,
[SPEAKER_02]: they'll be in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, going to be exciting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Going to be interesting to watch.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be watching our doubt whether we're going to make it out to Abu Dhabi Russell still hasn't sent the jet for either of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hear it's coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hear it's coming.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so Christmas.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if he does, then we'll be broadcasted alive from Abu Dhabi.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he doesn't, then we'll be in.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's my birthday
[SPEAKER_01]: if he doesn't send it will be in my occur and cows on a on a zoom link that we are now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Either way, either way, I look forward to chatting with you about it then.
[SPEAKER_01]: Magnus thanks for today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks everybody for listening and we'll be back with you then.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it for this episode of the Yacht Racing Life podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: We will be back soon with another top name interview, but in the meantime, check out Yacht RacingLife.com for more great content from across the sailing world.