Sailing with a Legend: We speak to Paul Blowers about crewing for John Bertrand
by Mark Jardine 24 Nov 2016 17:15 GMT
24 November 2016
John Bertrand, Paul Blowers & Ben Lamb win the Etchells Worlds in Cowes © Alex Irwin /
www.sportography.tv
Paul Blowers sailed with John Bertrand and, together with Ben Lamb, they won the 2016 Etchells World Championship which was sailed from Cowes in September. We talked to Paul to find out about his second Etchells Worlds win, how he got to know John and what it was like to sail with him.
"We've known each other for 20 years and I've sailed with him, or more often against him, at various regattas, including when we sailed together at the America's Cup Legends Regatta and also on the 12 metre Australia II at the America's Cup Jubilee in 2001.
"The team really gelled well. We'd been pointed in the direction of Ben Lamb by Andrew 'Dog' Palfrey, who knew him when he was a Laser sailor regularly competing against Tom Slingsby. Ben is now a professional sailor and is regularly on the top TP52s and on the Match Racing circuit. Just before the Etchells Worlds he was recruited to SoftBank Team Japan so he's training for the 35th America's Cup.
"We had dinner before the event and it was clear that John was really looking forward to the event. He told us that night that he was sure that it was going to be a roller-coaster ride as there were so many top quality teams talking part. He was spot on.
"We never panicked during the event. Whenever anything went wrong we stuck to what we knew and clawed our way back and that served us well. It was a very good combination."
The team chartered a new boat for the event and rigged it together in Cowes just prior to the event:
"We collected our new boat from David Heritage just before the European Championship, which acted as a warm-up event for the Worlds. It was the 11th boat that David had built in 2016 after the boatyard fire which destroyed 15 of the Cowes fleet. There was very little that we had to do to the boat but John, being an engineer, changed a couple of small things and cut the ropes to the lengths that he knew worked. He also brought along his favourite tiller extension but apart from that the boat was sorted from day one."
Paul has been sailing in the Solent for much of his life and so was the local knowledge during the event:
"I grew up in Warsash and have now been living in Cowes for 20 years, sailing in various classes on the Solent including IRC racing, Impala 28s, Swans and of course the Etchells. I'm sure that my experience in these waters helped us as a team. Everyone has the tide books and attends the briefings, but if you know the Solent you can see the tide lines and the changes; it gives you an advantage for sure. We slightly changed from the normal crew roles, as the tactician usually looks backwards downwind while the bowman looks forwards. With Ben's match racing experience we found it best to have him looking backwards, finding us clear lanes and breeze, while I looked forwards, spotting the tide lines and transits."
We wanted to know if John Bertrand sailed in a different way to other great sailors that Paul had previously sailed with:
"Focus. Even at 69 years old his focus is remarkable. He can concentrate on sailing at the top of his game for a very long time."
One of the classes that Paul regularly sails is the Finn: the class that John Bertrand won an Olympic bronze medal in during the 1976 Games at Montreal. I talked to Paul about why he likes the Finn and what John likes about the boat and the fleet:
"While it looks simple from the outside, the Finn is a highly technical boat with a very advanced rig. The racing is superb and on the Masters' circuit we have some great events in superb locations. John says that the Finn nurtures the type of sailor that you want to sail with or against.
"Next year I will be back in training for the Finn World Masters which is being held at Barbados in June. We've got over 150 entered and a good contingent of Brits; it should be a superb event in a great location."
John Bertrand is of course most famous for his win in the 1983 America's Cup, skippering Australia II and ending 132 years of American supremacy. He is still regarded as a hero in Australia for bringing the 'Auld Mug' to the country.
I asked Paul what he and John thought about the modern America's Cup and the foiling generation of boats:
"He loves the engineering, the speed, the fact that they're now bringing sailing to the masses and that it's now becoming a spectator sport. John sailed with Ben Ainslie in the 2009 Etchells Worlds so he's been following the British team closely. I'm really impressed with how they've done things at Land Rover BAR, involving the local community in Portsmouth and the team they've put together.
"The America's Cup is still in John's DNA. He lives and breathes every moment of it and loves the event."