42. Battling the Breeze in the 2003 America's Cup

[00:00:00] Simon Fry:  It's still the oldest sporting team trophy, or event, in the world. That's something magical about the trophy, the mystique it has. And you know, I mean, the Brits, we're still trying to win it 160 years on. Whether we'll be successful, that's for another podcast.

Starting sailing

[00:01:02] Simon Fry: My parents had a small dinghy at Christchurch and then had a sailing dinghy, then they had a cruiser, a little cruiser, and I just was obsessed with it from a very young age. We would go cruising in our little 22 foot boat and I would go off in the rubber dinghy at probably age 5 or 6 and I would go and look at the Grand Prix boats of the day and I would count the winches, I would know what ropes they had. At a ridiculously young age I was obsessed. And then I kind of learnt to sail on my own at probably, I don't know, 7 or 8? And yeah... it went from being an obsession into whatever is higher than an obsession.

[00:01:41] Steve: Simon Fry is a Christchurch legend, that is Christchurch England. He's a professional sailor of some repute and back in 2003 in New Zealand, he competed in one of the world's great sporting events - The America's Cup. But first back to that 7 year-old; Fourteen more years of sailing obsession paid off when Simon won his first national title. It caught the eye of some of the bigger sailing teams, which in turn, led to his first paid gig.

First paid sailing event

[00:02:18] Simon Fry: The first time I got paid to sail was 1989... got asked to go and do an invitational match racing event with a very famous skipper called Harold Cudmore, went and sailed. We didn't do particularly well. We got through the first two rounds, got knocked out in the quarterfinals... and went out, had a few beers, came home, was laying on my bed in my blazer and he just walked in and stuffed a load of cash in my top pocket of my blazer, and I thought, "Oh, this is all right!"

Journey towards the 2003 America's Cup

[00:02:47] Steve: And how did you get from there to being in contention for a 2003 America's Cup slot?

[00:02:52] Simon Fry: We were lucky enough to be top boat at the Admirals Cup in '97 sailing with Ian Walker, Johnny Merricks - God rest his soul, he's passed away - James Stagg and David Howlett our mentor. Then got offered the incredible chance to go and do a Volvo race with Tyco... American syndicate with a predominantly Kiwi-British crew. And then the British Cup team came calling just as I'd signed up to do the Volvo race and, some would say stupidly, I decided to... do the Cup. When I say stupidly, I mean financially.

America's Cup history

[00:03:24] Steve: So what is the America's Cup? Why is it so special? Why would you give up a lucrative place in the Volvo Ocean Race, a nine-month, gruelling, prestigious and financially rewarding round-the-world event? Well, to understand that, we need to rewind back to 1851.

[00:03:50] Simon Fry: 1851. The original America's Cup wager, or race, was a challenge clockwise around the Isle of Wight. You left Cowes, up to Bembridge, round the top, down to the Needles and then back up to Cowes. And an American boat called 'America', a schooner, won the race. of which there are now several replicas kicking around the planet. There's the famous comment of Queen Victoria asking who was second and told there is no second.

[00:04:22] Steve: And the competitive edge that defines today's America's Cup was born right there. Rather bizarrely, it was originally intended to be called the Hundred Pound Cup, but...well, the engraver got it wrong, so it was called the Hundred Guinea Cup. But it didn't matter, because soon after it became the America's Cup, after that schooner, not the country.

The 132 year American America's Cup winning streak

[00:04:46] Steve: The first challenge didn't come for another nineteen years in 1870. And in fact, it wasn't until 1983, some 132 years later, that the Cup was first wrestled from American hands by Alan Bond's famous Australia II challenge.

[00:05:11] Simon Fry: The 132 year winning streak is, I'm pretty assured, the longest winning streak in sporting history and it's linked also to the oldest sporting team trophy in the world.  

[00:05:24] Steve: And your starter for ten, who are the only nations to have ever won the America's Cup?

[00:05:29] Simon Fry: The Americans, the Kiwis, the Swiss... and the Australians, yeah.  And the Swiss are a slight anomaly in that originally, to be the challenger of record, you had to have a... seaboard venue. You had to have a yacht club that was onto a coastline. Well, Geneva, as you probably well know, is well above sea level and is a lake, but they managed to fudge it and they took the cup in 2007.

[00:05:59] Steve: And where does the America's Cup sit in terms of a professional sailor's bucket list?

[00:06:06] Simon Fry: ...the America's Cup in terms of ranking when you're a pro sailor sits at the top of the tree. The disciplines in yachting are a little diverse. Olympic sailing is up there, but it's a different discipline. Ocean racing, if you consider the Volvo Ocean Race, again it's a different discipline, and then the single-handed, short-handed sailing, again it's just a different dynamic. The Cup, the America's Cup, it's unbelievable. It's all encompassing. You are given, at times, unlimited budget. You sail with the best people, teams are multinational, no stone left unturned. It's quite a... rarefied environment and atmosphere and when you get involved, you really feel quite blessed.

Call up for the 2003 America's Cup

[00:06:49] Steve: So tell me about receiving your call up for Team GBR.

[00:06:53] Simon Fry:  I was in a hotel room in Sydney, Kings Cross, about three days before the start of the Sydney-Hobart and the phone rang and Ian Walker said, "We're on, deal's done. I want you to come".  And I was like, "This is fantastic". And then on the other hand, I was like, "Oh God, I've still got to do that bloody Sydney-Hobart race".

[00:07:19] Steve: And how did you feel at that moment?

[00:07:21] Simon Fry: Well, I think getting the call from Ian in terms of selection to be involved was massive. You're just like, "Wow, I've made it". You come down to earth pretty quickly and then you think, "Well, all I've made is the broad-brush team, I'm not selected to sail on the boat yet, I haven't fulfilled my obligation to the team to be the best I can be, I haven't made a contribution on the sails yet". It dawns on you pretty quick that... you've got to front up and produce the goods or you're going to get exposed.

2003 America's Cup training

[00:07:49] Steve: So, in December of 2001, the GBR Challenge for the 2003 America's Cup in New Zealand was formally launched. This was Great Britain's first entry into the America's Cup since 1987. In January at the London International Boat Show, the team was announced and then the hard work started.  

[00:08:11] Simon Fry: I used to drive to... Hamble, seven-thirty over to Cowes, eight o'clock morning meeting, gym, sail selection, team meeting, dock out probably ten-thirty, sail ten-thirty till four o'clock. Sails into the sail loft, do your sail list, or your sail works list, set the lads off on that, then debrief and then normally the boat would leave to come home probably six o'clock, get home at maybe eight o'clock.

[00:08:36] Steve: Long day.

[00:08:38] Simon Fry: It didn't feel like a long day. You're doing something you love, everyone's got a common goal, yeah.

Moving to New Zealand

[00:08:42] Steve: Simon also had to consider his family. New Zealand was a long way from home. As it happened, they were all together in Sydney when that news came in.  

[00:08:53] Simon Fry: We just looked at each other and she said you know, "Will it be good?" And I said, "Yeah, it'll be good for us". The girls were keen so, came home from Australia, made plans that the girls would finish, or not essentially go back to school in September. And then with regard to home in Bournemouth, literally spoke to the neighbours and said, "Can you keep an eye on it?" And we just locked it up and left it.

[00:09:16] Steve: and what did accommodation look like in New Zealand?

[00:09:19] Simon Fry: We were housed as a team in the Duxton Hotel. The whole team took over this massive hotel and we had two adjoining rooms like a family room and the kids room and that was very, very easy. But we wanted to be more absorbed in the New Zealand culture and lifestyle, so when we went back for our second stint after we did a two month break, we rented a house in St Mary's Bay and that was wonderful, you know, you have neighbours... it's just a... different environment, fantastic.

[00:09:51] Steve: And what was it like living in Auckland?

[00:09:55] Simon Fry: Your day to day living is phenomenal. I'm not a city person but Auckland has everything: an amazing city centre, great waterfront, great beaches over the bridge, and then to both the north and the south, the ability to be out in the sticks within 20 minutes - unbelievable.  And great rugby as well.  

[00:10:16] Steve: And the race venue was Hauraki Gulf?

[00:10:23] Simon Fry: The Hauraki Gulf is a great venue in that it's a relatively enclosed bay and the two predominant breezes you get, either the strong northeaster or the southwesterly sea breeze, you don't lose many days to poor conditions. So in terms of a venue, excellent. And... got some beautiful landmarks: there's Rangatoto the amazing volcano which flanks the race course. I know you love your history, Steve, but Rangatoto in Maori is basically 'red sky'. So, when it was erupting, it was a red sky. And then you've got the Whangarei Peninsula which goes out to the other side of the bay. Yeah, it's... a pretty cool venue and also a... proper fair race course.

[00:11:05] Steve: To compete in the America's Cup, you need a boat. And these boats were real thoroughbreds.

2003 America's Cup boats

[00:11:13] Simon Fry: The 2003 America's Cup was going to be sailed in what we call IACC boats, International America's Cup Class; essentially an 80-foot boat, 25 tons maximum weight. You're limited with a sail area and you're limited with a few construction techniques.

[00:11:30] Steve: Top speed?

[00:11:32] Simon Fry: Top Speed of a 2003 America's Cup Class yacht at that time was not that fast. What was most impressive was how close to the wind you could sail though. So for instance, we would sail upwind at 10.3 knots, so probably about 11 miles an hour. However, you were sailing within 30 degrees to the wind. So your ability to go into the wind was very, very quick. And then you would race dead downwind at pretty much the same speed.

[00:11:56] Steve: And of course, being the pinnacle of world sailing, these boats have been designed that way for a reason. Obviously, in this case, not speed...

[00:12:04] Simon Fry: Yeah, the IACC boats not particularly exhilarating to sail from a performance perspective, but massively exhilarating to sail in terms of the team having to be perfectly cohesive, beautiful choreography.  A little bit like when you used to watch the gun crews at Earl's Court take the... beautiful old gun from one end of the arena to the other. Everyone has to do their job perfectly, at the right time, with the right tempo. One mistake... will have a massive knock on effect.

The Team

[00:12:40] Steve: And getting sixteen crew beautifully choreographed in that pressured environment is no mean feat. But the choreography doesn't stop with those sixteen. There were two full sailing teams in New Zealand, that's thirty-two...

[00:12:54] Simon Fry: ... and then you would have your shore team which would incorporate your boat builders, your engineering shop, your rig team, your riggers, your sail makers, your office staff, then your design team. I think we probably topped out at about 110 in Auckland.

17th crew member

[00:13:10] Steve: And another quirk of the 2003 America's Cup; there was a 17th member of the crew on a race day.

[00:13:17] Simon Fry: Every race you had to carry a 17th. It would either be media, sponsor, owner, benefactor. It was a bizarre situation. It was one of those crazy rules, they weren't allowed to speak during racing because they may have felt that you would have had someone who could offer weather information, or technological information... how ridiculous.  

[00:13:35] Steve: You mentioned to me that Peter Harrison, your owner, was very keen to occupy that 17th spot. How did that work out?

[00:13:43] Simon Fry: Peter wasn't the most mobile of characters and our design team had decided that we would have, essentially, a... solid rear deck on the boat. It served two purposes: one, there was an aero gain; but two, it made a little cubby hole for Peter as the 17th guest to sail on board the boat. And we thought that he would just stand in the cubby hole a little bit like a tank commander and duck down when it was a windage... tight situation, but he wanted to sit down. And literally, as with anything from some of the owners, they want it there and then, so one of the shore crew literally got a... picnic chair  and cut the legs off and did a couple of holes with a few bits of... appropriate string  and from ten minutes before dock out, the seat was in and essentially it stayed.

[00:14:31] Steve: Did the other teams have to be quite as creative?

[00:14:38] Simon Fry: No because most of the other teams, their owners or their benefactors didn't want to sail. So they would take a... 17th guest who was basically, you know, laying on the floor, didn't need to have the raised deck or cubbyhole.

Racing a 2003 America's Cup Class boat

[00:14:51] Steve: These boats are absolute titans, aren't they? What would surprise, say, a leisure sailor or a non-sailor if they came on board?

[00:15:00] Simon Fry: I think if you were to step on board one of the IACC (2003 America's Cup) boats from 2003/2007 with no sailing experience, the one thing that would hit you is the amount of power that the boat generates in terms of the load on the lines controlling the sails and then the amount of power needed, human, to sail the boat around the course. The carbon hull of the boat transmits noise like nothing else. It's like a drum. So, for instance, when you're easing the sheets that control the sails or making a manoeuver, the resonance of the hull and the noise it gives out is pretty unerring. If you've never experienced it... there's nothing like it. And then, as I say, the... physical endeavour to perform a manoeuvre, you know, you've got four Olympic rowers, plus two other auxiliary grinders, plus two aft grinders, eight guys on the handles to produce the horsepower to move the sails, turn the boat or whatever, it's a relatively intense atmosphere.

Simon's role

[00:16:05] Steve: And tell us about your role in the team.

[00:16:07] Simon Fry: So when I signed up with GBR Challenge in very early 2002, Ian Walker, the skipper, he said, "Simon, I want you to come. I'd like you to run the sail program". I had an association with North Sails. I was lucky, I had loads of support, good people around me and North were very supportive, so that sort of all fell into place. And then my own role, my true vocational area on a boat, is trimming downwind when the boat has a spinnaker up.

[00:16:33] Steve: I'll ask you a bit more about that in a second, but apart from those specific roles, you're expected to have a broader contribution to the team, aren't you?  

[00:16:41] Simon Fry: It's a bit like being small cog in any big team or big wheel, you need to bring ancillary attributes, be it motivation, be it other areas of expertise. I suppose I wasn't one of the senior members of the team, but maybe I had a little bit more influence than I realized at the time.

Downwind trimming

[00:17:00] Steve: So tell me about downwind trimming.

[00:17:04] Simon Fry: So essentially in the America's Cup when you race you go upwind, downwind. So you sail into the wind tacking. We can't just sail directly into the wind. So the boat will zig and zag into the wind, being sailed as quickly and as efficiently as it can be. And that's akin to good sail trim, good steering, good tactics. And then when you sail downwind we hoist a... different sail, we hoist a more like a balloon sail, a spinnaker, an asymmetric or symmetric spinnaker, which gets us downwind as fast as possible. Still you have to sail as well as you can with your tactics and your trim, etc. but downwind, I would say, is more artisan than upwind. Upwind is data and downwind is artisan and has maybe a little more feel attached to it.

[00:17:50] Steve: You mentioned there - apart from tactics - good sail trim and good steering, so I guess your partnership with the helmsman is pretty important?

Relationship between trimmer and driver

[00:18:00] Simon Fry: So you've got to have a strong relationship with the guy who's driving, or you have to build a strong relationship with the helmsman and you have to have an inherent understanding of what you're trying to achieve. If you're sailing in a certain type of wave and the boat is perfectly rhythmic with the wave and it's just rolling and beautifully meandering downwind and accelerating on every wave without doing anything, don't do anything. If you need to pump and essentially kid the sails there's more wind than there is, you will task your grinders to, you know, 3, 2, 1, they go hard, they pull the sail in, then you ease immediately and you, you're essentially pulling the boat downwind falsely, but all of that has got to be married to the driver knowing when to load the boat, when to unload the boat. When you're on it downwind it's an amazing feeling. It's a bit like surfing on a surfboard. You know, you go out, you catch the perfect wave, you can walk around, you can do this, you can do that. It's just an amazing feeling.

Life of a grinder

[00:18:57] Steve: For the casual observer who may have seen a few snippets of 2003 America's Cup boats, They would probably most recognise moments of frantic action, explosions of human energy. Those explosions come from the grinders.  

[00:19:13] Simon Fry: Grinders are there primarily for their physical attributes. They're big people, massive engines, very very strong. They are phenomenal athletes who put in an amazing effort, and, I think to be fair, are undervalued. We had two Olympic rowers, Greg Searle, who won a gold in '92 in the pair with his brother; Ian Wheel, another Olympic rower, phenomenal character, great athlete, had a North Sea trawlerman, massive guy, heart as big as a lion, Guy Reid. Then we had George Skudos, I always refer to him as the Lithuanian pole vaulter, six foot eight of Lithuanian or Polish extraction very very good sailor, phenomenal athlete. Those were the guys I had closely in my team .  

Did anyone get hurt?

[00:20:12] Steve: There's a lot of forces at play here. Did anyone get hurt?

[00:20:16] Simon Fry: On our team we were very lucky. We had a broken wrist from a winch back winding. A guy got clipped with a handle, broke his wrist. A few cuts and abrasions, you know, just sort of minor flesh wounds. We had an interesting one in the, I think it was the first quarterfinal against Stars and Stripes, George Skudos. We were just preparing to... tack at the top mark. I was tailing the new jib sheet on, we tacked. He just didn't quite get his body in the right position to step over the pole and under the jib as we tack, because he's prepping the spinnaker with the bowman. He went clean over the side and literally as we tack, I finish tailing and then put my hand out, he puts his hand up and two of us get him straight back on and the back of the boat didn't even know about it. No injury, but could have been nasty.

[00:21:03] Steve: And it's highly competitive, so how do you balance the need for speed versus safety?

[00:21:10] Simon Fry: Well I think in terms of your boat handling, you gotta trust the procedure. So you establish a procedure which means that you can perform at 9.5 out of 10, 90% of the time. And that is the procedure. If you're in a position where you need to take chances, you probably find that you've done something wrong earlier in the race and, cavalier as it might be, you know, to take a chance with safety, to put someone's livelihood, fingers, knees, possible life at risk, I don't think it's really worth it.

 First Race Day

[00:21:41] Steve: The 2003 America's Cup format: boats race one against one; nine challenger teams from six countries; each challenger races each other challenger twice, leading to quarter-finals, semi-finals and final; and the winner of the final wins the Louis Vuitton Cup and gets to compete against the defender, in this case New Zealand, to try and win the America's Cup. It's finally the day of their first race, and Team GBR were up against the American team, Stars and Stripes.

[00:22:19] Simon Fry: I was relatively confident. Even though it's, you know, first race, everyone talks about it as this fact finder; we'll work out where we really are in terms of the competition, you know, where we sit, whether we're quick, whether we're slow, whether we're manoeuvrable. We came out and we just started poorly and followed them exactly one boat length astern the whole way around the course. We sat for 20 minutes, just 17 metres, 18 metres, absolutely just didn't change and I was like, "Oh God", you know it really is down to how you start your first beat strategy. They beat us in that one. I think we beat them in the second round. But we did start with four, I think four consecutive losses. And that's when you see how good your team is... you've got to corral, circle the wagons and say, "Right, you know, we've got to get out of this." And luckily we did.

[00:23:07] Steve: So, four straight losses, but after plenty of corralling and circling the wagons...

First four races

[00:23:14] Simon Fry: Then we sailed one of the pre-Cup favourites, Oracle. Sailed an impeccable race. A little bit like in any sport, when you're on, you're on. And I think maybe they were a little bit too overconfident. Started at different ends of the line, came together for a little sort of tacking duel. We split to the right, got ahead, covered well, closed them out. And then we had a little winning streak, which was good.

Quarter-final

[00:23:37] Steve: And that little winning streak got Team GBR to the quarterfinals, up against the old enemy, Stars and Stripes.

[00:23:46] Simon Fry: Again, crazy America's Cup. So, Stars and Stripes built two boats and they tested in Long Beach, California and they managed to sink their best boat. They got that boat back to the surface, essentially dried it out. They didn't sail it in the first round robin, I don't think they sailed it in the second round robin. And then they bought it back online against us for the quarterfinals and inherently they were faster.

[00:24:12] Steve: And that was that, game over?  

[00:24:15] Simon Fry: Four one. Yeah.

It's all over

[00:24:17] Steve: And thinking about the moment when they crossed the line in that last race that absolutely confirmed you're out of the 2003 America's Cup, do you remember the feeling?

[00:24:26] Simon Fry: There's an element of the writing being on the wall, but it's still the dawning that your Cup adventure is over for that cycle. Suddenly it's, "Oh, we gotta go home, life's gonna be a little more normal." And then... down as I was feeling and as down as, you know, everyone was feeling on the boat, I just remember Peter Harrison turning to everyone and saying, "Uh, gonna keep the sails up and sail in". You know, thus ensued a 45 minute sail in, in silence, because he wanted to sail his boat and totally, you know, good luck to him, but yeah and then, you know, I remember hitting the dock and, you know, all the wives and families are there and the shore team and whatever and it was a pretty sad day and then you have a few beers and whatever and... and on the same day, funnily enough, the French were knocked out, so they came to our knockout party.

[00:25:17] Steve: And then you just up sticks and go home straight away?

[00:25:20] Simon Fry:  ... I stayed for a month and did a kind of wrap up and we continued to test some ideas because Peter Harrison had given us a kind of inference, not a promise or a contract, an inference, that we would go again for '07. So I stayed on for a month and then we came home, 23rd of December.

The madness of the America's Cup

[00:25:41] Steve: There's a madness to the America's Cup on so many levels, one such level being the rules.

[00:25:49] Simon Fry: So the America's Cup is crazy in several respects. One of the most amazing things over the years and through history is that the defender, or the holder, of the Cup has been able to essentially set the rules. The rules are set a certain time out from the event so people have prior warning. But, certainly over history and in America, in Newport, the rules were geared heavily to favour the defending nation. And when you look back at some of the misdemeanors that the New York Yacht Club upheld, were involved with, practiced, proper soap opera stuff.

[00:26:27] Steve: Yeah. I think of Formula One... Tour de France, where there's allegedly cheating, skullduggery, subterfuge. That's presumably part and parcel of the America's Cup?

[00:26:41] Simon Fry: You choose your words ill advisedly

[00:26:43] Steve W: Perhaps you'd like to rephrase them for me...

[00:26:47] Simon Fry: I think...

[00:26:47] Steve W: I

[00:26:48] Simon Fry:  I think in any high-end sport, people will always tread a very, very thin line on what is perceived to be legal and illegal. And if you ever said to any of the people who are treading that slightly sketchy line, "You're cheating", they would be offended. And that's the craziness of the America's Cup.

[00:27:11] Steve: Well, that told me. But without question, the America's Cup is to sailing what F1 is to driving, what the Tour de France is to cycling and what a fashion show is to buying clothes.

[00:27:25] Simon Fry:  It's rarefied atmosphere within our sport, within sailing. We used to talk about trickle down. You know, what comes from Formula One gets down through Honda, Renault, Mercedes, whatever. Everyone was, "Oh, I'll drive a Renault because the Renault Williams..." The Cup has changed immeasurably in the last 20 years in that the trickle down is pretty much zero now because the sport has changed so disparately, you know, the... foiling boats are nothing like the boat that Joe Bloggs has at the Yacht Club. Whether that's good or bad, you can argue it both ways. Sport moves on, you've just got to keep going. You know, what's the most important thing? The next thing.

[00:28:04] Steve: I think the entry fee's about two million dollars, but that's just the tip of the iceberg, isn't it? What would the total cost look like today?

[00:28:12] Simon Fry: I think you'd have to be 150 million You thinking about doing it?

[00:28:16] Steve: heh. Does that include your salary?

[00:28:20] Simon Fry: No.

[00:28:21] Steve: Brilliant.

Where sailing meets flying

[00:28:29] Steve: And speaking of the next thing, today's boats are a little bit different from the IACC boats Simon sailed back in 2003. The 75 footers of today don't actually sail through the water, they fly above it. You don't see the wings, or foils as they're called, because they're hidden under the water.

[00:28:51] Simon Fry: I mean, no different than you're sitting at the airport and you're going to take off. You have to develop a certain amount of thrust and a certain amount of lift and if you can marry those two, you will take off. So if you're sailing fast enough and your foil package is developing enough lift, the boat will lift up out of the water. As soon as it lifts up out of the water, your hull drag is eliminated completely. Someone will top 55 knots in Barcelona, you know, over 60 miles an hour... pretty quick.

Modern-day grinders

[00:29:20] Steve: And grinders now have been replaced by...

[00:29:23] Simon Fry: Cyclaws. To produce more power, several of my buddies have now had to train from being incredible sailors and grinders to being incredible sailors and cyclists.

[00:29:34] Steve: So you've got this rather bizarre image when you watch it. You've got this boat going along and you've got like a bobsleigh of cyclists.  

[00:29:43] Simon Fry: Your foil package under the water gives you stability and lifts you, it also gives you what we call righting moments, so the boat doesn't tip over. So you've got the ability with your guys on the bikes, they can sit on the bike level and produce a lot more power with your legs than you can with your arms. And essentially you are charging an accumulator or a bomb, you know, a hydraulic store and it's just a way more efficient way of producing the power. And if you're cycling with your legs and you're super-talented, a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head, you can be doing something else with your hands as well.

[00:30:15] Steve: And it looks like they're pedalling throughout the race?

[00:30:18] Simon Fry: Basically they'll be 20 minutes at heart rate 185. They produce a certain amount of power which charges the accumulator which gives the flight controller and the trimmer the ability to sail the boat. You can pretty it up all you want, they are just peddlers.

Downwind with a foil

[00:30:34] Steve: if you get a chance to look at today's America's Cup boats in action, you'll see that it's hard to tell if they're going upwind or downwind. It doesn't quite make sense.  

[00:30:50] Simon Fry: You sail into the wind and you will tack, zigzag into the wind. You will also zigzag downwind. We talk about ground wind, i. e. we're on the planet Earth, what is the wind doing? It's blowing from here. We talk about the sailing wind, what the boat is seeing. The wind that the boat is seeing, because the boat is moving so fast, will always be in front of the boat. So you won't even change sails to go on different legs of the course. Whereas you used to put a spinnaker up and be blown downwind, you know, with a beautiful coloured balloon sail, that won't happen anymore. You will just go round the course looking like you're going into the wind the whole time. It's counterintuitive. I mean, you speak to a lot of people in the sailing world and they don't get it, so poor old Joe blogs has got no chance.  

[00:31:37] Steve:

Yeah, absolutely nuts. So what you're saying is that, at perhaps 60 miles an hour, these boats tack up the course and tack back down the course, because they're doing three times the wind speed, so they're always heading into the wind. So rest in peace downwind trimmer.

[00:31:58] Simon Fry: uh, yes. Yeah, I timed it perfectly, didn't I?

[00:32:02] Steve: So twenty-three races later, that was Simon's 2003 America's Cup 20 years ago. But, believe it or not, he's still sailing professionally and doing pretty well. He's notched up three TP52 World Championships, two Dragon World Championships, four Maxi Worlds, an Etchel World Championship... in fact he has nineteen sailing World Championships to his name and he's still going. And as for the future of the America's Cup...

Future for the America's Cup?

[00:32:35] Simon Fry: I think the future for the America's Cup will always be bright because it's the pinnacle of this given sport. Whether purists, protagonists, old grumpy people, Anglo Saxons, Latinos, all agree on where it should go and how it should get there, that's open to conjecture.

[00:32:54] Steve: Will boats ever go back to more traditional specs?

[00:32:58] Simon Fry:  Will the Cup return to non-foiling? I doubt it. I think it's that situation where they've shown what foiling boats can do and they've got to continue to exploit that and subsequently the youth of today, where they can, will try and sail foiling dinghies which will lead in to the Cup.

[00:33:24] Steve: And will the America's Cup lose the essence of sailing as we know it and drift further from everyday sailors?  

[00:33:31] Simon Fry: The Cup has always been progressive and at the forefront of technology, innovation, et cetera, and I think that's still going to be the case. I think it will continue to still live at the forefront. Whether it's relevant to as many people is almost irrelevant. What you can't dispute is the fact that the Cup sits at the top of the tree and people are desperate to do it, to be involved with it, to watch it, and to try and to understand how to win it.

[00:34:02] Steve: For all Simon's colourful experiences over the last 30 years or so, the continuous learning curves that each situation brings, the triumphs and the failures, his biggest takeaway from his sport is something that applies to us all.

[00:34:18] Simon Fry:  You can have all the budget in the world. You've got 300 million, but you've got 18 months the same as every other team. Well, if you can't spend that money wisely and apportion your time appropriately, you're not gonna win anything. The only thing in life you can't buy is time.

ATTRIBUTIONS:

Charles S. Raleigh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons