Interview with Richard Lovering & Matt Alvarado
by Mark Jardine 24 Aug 2016 16:37 BST
24 August 2016
Richard Lovering and Matt Alverado during the 2016 505 Worlds in Weymouth © Mark Jardine
We spoke to Richard Lovering and Matt Alvarado during the recent SAP 505 World Championship at the Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy.
Mark: How have things gone at 505 Worlds?
Richard: We didn't have a great start to the regatta. We just got caught out a few times and struggled to get back in from the left-hand side, but from there we slowly started picking boats off and pulled back to thirteen overall. Our aim was to be top fifteen so we're pretty happy with that.
Mark: You two have sailed together quite a lot over the years, including the 505s and Flying Fifteens, with pretty decent results. How's the year been going so far?
Matt: It's our first year in the Five-0s and it's been going well. We have surprised ourselves with a couple of race wins overseas and I think we found out at the Worlds that there are some boats that are a bit slicker and have been sailing for a long time.
It helps that we've sailed together quite a bit before; we communicate a lot, and we work through the issues that we've had. We had a couple of little issues in the boat because we haven't been sailing it for long enough. So when it was 25 knots, like on Wednesday, we didn't have the board up quite enough, but we had the speed and still came eleventh.
Mark: How do you go about development with the sails in a new class for Hyde Sails, such as the Five-0s?
Richard: A few years ago we did some work with Charlie (Walters) and those sails came out a little bit too flat from his experience, so we made a new fuller mainsail, and stuck with the jib because we were pretty happy with that. The main work we did was on spinnakers and I think we finally got it right for the World Championship - our previous generation kite was too full and blocking the slot between the spinnaker and the mainsail. We've got a good all-round set up now. Our light wind mainsail didn't really work too well on the first day and needs a bit more work done to it, but other than that, we're pretty happy with the set up we've now got.
Mark: What about the rest of the year? What events have you got planned together?
Richard: The 505 Worlds was the last event with Matt this year, but I'm off to the Flying Fifteen Europeans in Medemblik, Holland at the end of August - beginning of September.
Mark: Who are you sailing that with?
Richard: I'm sailing with Andrew Jameson from Hayling Island. He's very experienced and an ideal weight so it should be good.
Mark: How have things gone in the Flying Fifteen so far this year?
Richard: We've been concentrating mainly on the 505 this year, because of the Worlds here, but we've done the Nationals, where we finished second. We were leading it for the first two days, but then got a bit sticky in the middle of the week. I've done a little bit more development to go into the Europeans and I'm feeling quite confident for that.
Mark: With your boss Nigel (Grogan) winning the Squib Nationals, do you feel the pressure on to get a Championship win this year?
Richard: We've got one more go to win a major this year at the Flying Fifteen Europeans and we'll be going all-out to win the title. Nigel's on a great run having won both the Nationals and the whole of White Group at Cowes Week.
Mark: Many thanks for your time and the best of luck at the Flying Fifteen Europeans.
Richard: Cheers, Mark.
For more information on Hyde Sails for the 505, Flying Fifteen and Squib classes visit: