Bora Gulari interview ahead of McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds
by Jonny Fullerton 9 Jan 2015 21:27 GMT
9-16 January 2015
Bora Gulari practicing ahead of the 2015 International Moth Worlds at Sorrento © Th. Martinez / Sea&Co / 2015 Moth Worlds
Jonny Fullerton talks to Bora Gulari, the American two-time International Moth World Champion, ahead of the 2015 McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds.
Jonny Fullerton: Bora, since 2013 when you last won the Worlds in Hawaii, how much Moth sailing have you been doing?
Bora Gulari: I've probably got about 3 months in I'd say.
JF: Mostly in the US?
BG: Yes, mainly in the US. I had a couple of days in Italy but most of my time in the US.
JF: So the calibre of the entry here, it must be the strongest that you've been up against, with the addition of the America's Cup guys?
BG: All the same guys at all the same regattas, it's bigger and yes there's more of them, but all the guys that are good always show up.
JF: Who do you see as your main opposition here this year? Any particular names that stick out or is it the same guys?
BG: The same guys you know. There's always more people that are getting better. I think from what I've seen that Josh (Mcknight) has really stepped up his programme this year and he's got a serious effort for this event. There's always Nathan (Outteridge) and now you have Tom Slingsby, Peter Burling, Chris Rashley obviously too and everyone that's in America's Cup is getting onboard too, Glenn Ashby - he's a bit of a freak, the list goes on and on. I probably can't even think about them all.
JF: So when you're back in the US, have you got a strong little pot of Moth sailors there that you can race with or do you organise camps?
BG: We've done a fairly decent job through some class sponsorship with 11th Hour Racing and we've had a pretty successful little circuit where we get a good group of people. Everyone from the Oracle Team US Moth guys, I'm obviously a Luna Rossa Moth guy and I seem to make it to my fair share of events with my training partner George Peet and whenever we get a chance we go together. We've done a good job of organising working together.
JF: So Luna Rossa have done their own little Moth camps too?
BG: Yes, Luna Rossa had their own set of Moth camps in Cagliari. Unfortunately I was not able to join them as I was on assignment doing other things, but that enabled me to do some Moth sailing in the US so it all worked out.
JF: How long have you been ahead of the championship? Have you had time to have a bit of training out in Sorrento?
BG: Yes, I've had a little bit. We basically got to start sailing on Boxing Day.
JF: Have you sailed in this part of the world before?
BG: George and I were thinking about it and this is the fifth time in nine years that we've been down here over Christmas. We normally go sailing with Andrew McDougall over in Black Rock so this side's a little bit different but last year we were over in Geelong in the Melges 24s - this is sort of our second Christmas home!
JF: So it was pretty challenging conditions that scuppered the Moth Australian Championships, I guess we can't do anything about the last couple of days, but overall pretty varied conditions around here?
BG: Obviously the last couple of days have been a little bit worse than the forecast, but every other day that we've been here, as long as you're patient it doesn't get dark until 10pm and we've had champagne sailing at pretty much 3.30pm every day so I'm not really that worried.
JF: On to the boat, have you got a fairly standard Mach 2?
BG: It's pretty much the same as I had at Hawaii, just some improvements - nothing really tricky.
JF: How do you see the class? Is it going more and more high tech and finding little improvements all of the time? We've seen some new boom designs here and some different mainsheet systems and slightly different take on some things.
BG: I have a feeling that some of the things are a little overkill. There's probably some of it which is good.
JF: Finally, what are your plans for 2015 and beyond? I guess a fair bit of your time is now taken up with Luna Rossa?
BG: My girlfriend's father has a TP52 so I get to enjoy that when we go sailing around the Great Lakes and it looks like Charlie McKee is putting some pressure on me to do some Olympic catamaran sailing so I'll give that a go and see how I mesh into that.
JF: Many thanks for your time Bora.
www.mothworlds.org/sorrento