Interview with multi-class dinghy champion Tom Gillard
by Mark Jardine 12 Jul 2016 10:23 BST
12 July 2016
Tom Gillard & Richard Anderton at the 2015 Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy © Tim Olin /
www.olinphoto.co.uk
We spoke to multi-class dinghy champion Tom Gillard of North Sails about his extremely busy 2016 sailing season, including championships in the Streakers, Solos, 505s and Fireballs.
Mark Jardine: First up is the Streaker Championship (held over the weekend at Rutland). Can you tell me a bit about that?
Tom Gillard: I've not done any Streaker sailing this year so far and so I'm just really going in to that blind and using my Dad's boat.
Mark What success have you had in the Streakers previously?
Tom: I've won the Nationals four or five times, consecutively as well, and then before that I had a few seconds - it took me a number of years to finally win that and I've held on to it since.
Mark So you're trying to keep the streak continuing?
Tom: Indeed, yes!
Ed: Tom did keep the streak going over the weekend! See the full report on the Streaker Nationals.
Mark Then after that, you move on to the Solos. What challenges does that have which are different to how you sail a Streaker?
Tom: In the Streaker, I'm more suited weight-wise, possibly a little heavy, whereas in the Solo I'm very light, 10-15 kilos light probably. There's a height issue as well, I doesn't really have the height needed so I'm hoping for quite light winds, but I'll see what I can do.
Mark The Solo does cater for a wide weight range. What challenges does that make for the sail makers to design for the different weights?
Tom: I'm actually just using the standard sail because the sail that we use can be manipulated really well so you can flatten it off using a lot of cunningham. I'm just setting up to do well in light winds and then in strong winds I'm just going to pull all the strings hard!
Mark I remember a few years ago there being many different cuts of sail for different sailors. Do you think now sails are becoming more versatile in their usage?
Tom: Yes, absolutely, we try to cater for everyone and if we can do that with one design then it makes things a bit easier. It just appeals to a larger, a wider range of people rather than to have lots of different designs to cater for them.
Mark Does that mean when you're setting up, or helping set up a customer's boat you can actually give them a standard set of rig settings for a far wider range of customers?
Tom: Yes, repeatability is definitely paramount. I can actually show them what I do with the sails in certain wind conditions instead of saying, 'Go and get another sail, have this sail flattened or physically altered, or even suggesting a new sail."
Mark The big event this summer in the UK is the 505 World Championship. How is training going for that?
Tom: I've done a couple of events and they were both very, very windy. We've been testing a few jibs, playing around with a few designs and I'm very happy with the mainsail and spinnaker, they're both working really well. We're just altering the jib a bit but I think we're pretty settled on what we're going to use now.
Mark What are your expectations for that event? There are a number of world champions from various fleets in the class.
Tom: There's some seriously good competition there. It's my first world championship in the 505 class so I'm going in with a pretty open mind. I'm hoping for maybe a top 20 but anything could happen.
Mark Then you move on to the Fireball - a class you're very familiar with. What championships do you have in that this year?
Tom: I've got the National Championship at Hayling Island - it's set over a long weekend, four days. Then later on this season, in December I have the Fireball Worlds in South Africa. Unfortunately I can't do the Europeans in Garda this year as they are the same time as the 505 Worlds so I'm not going to that one.
Mark Tom, best of luck for the season ahead. It sounds like you've got a busy time coming up.
Tom: Yes. Thank you.
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