Nick Craig

Originally posted by Finn sailor Hi, new to posting on this forum but thought I might offer some info on the Nick Craig vs Olympic sailor debate. Nick started sailing Finns in the winter of 2004 at a national ranking event in Warsash. I seem to remember he came 12th ish. He must have worked hard as he than promptly won the nationals the following year, (though the GB squad were not present). He than pretty much threw himself into Finn sailing for the next 3 years attending GB squad training sessions on a number of occasions. In 2006 he competed in the Holland Regatta coming a creditable 38th out of 72, in 2007 he sailed in the Semaine Olyimpique coming 49th out of 69. He finished off 2007 with an exceptional 20 th in the Europeans though the field was slightly weaker than normal due to the absence of some top sailors including the uk's big 3 (Ainslie, Scott and Wright).  He was a great amateur sailor in the class and a thoroughly nice bloke. I am pretty sure however that Nick would be the 1st to admit that the very top international Olympic class sailors are at a completely different level with regard boat speed, starting, wind knowledge and yes tactics. This is not to detract from him as a superb amateur sailor, his record in national and international non Olympic classes is in my view unsurpassed, I have only brought this up as I feel many sailors do not have a full appreciation of just how good the Ainslies, Scott's, Goodisons and other team GB sailors are!

True, weight and strength conditioning are a huge part of medium to heavy wind sailing in Finns as they are to a lesser degree in all classes. I did however race regularly against Nick and the top squad boys during that period and whilst Nick would beat the younger transition squad boys in light airs 50 percent of the time. He very rarely beat Ed Wright or Giles Scott in lighter tactical conditions. Ben Ainslie was so good he would only dabble with the Finn in uk events preferring to do and usually win the odd class 1 international and of course all those gold cups whilst in the main concentrating on match racing. He only really took it seriously (by his standards) on the 2yr lead up to an Olympics.

Sailing well is as much a mental thing as it is physical and I believe you can OD on the physical and practise side to beyond the point of boredom, you lose your edge because frankly you've done it so often you take stuff for granted.

I watched every race at Weymouth and I can't say I saw any of the UK team at anything like what I would call being 'in the zone'.(Except that young radial lass she was having a blast)

Whatever was going on for Nick and Alan I bet they were sure as hell in the zone up at Burnham and it's a far trickier piece of water to sail than Weymouth and yes I have sailed it.

And that Finn racing? Kinetics, every bit as kinetic as my world became, yeah it's sailing, but not the sort of sailing where the old skills win. For me, the Dane won that Olympic event, hands down, this double point medal race bollox is just pure distortion to enable pro guys to regain temporary focus for effect, its not the sport I love.

Edited by iGRF - 15 Oct 13 at 12:22am

Originally posted by Dougal I thought for a moment you were going to celebrate British success then.  But no, pulled it out the bag at the last minute.  The planets are back in alignment and the spiritual world is happy again... ps just how did the Dane win when BA was given the gold medal?

Never heard the term moral victory Dougal? Frankly I was ashamed that he lost, it may have been another win that sailing types love to think is acceptable, but that guy was absolutely storming and deserved the medal having it match and team raced away in one race that counts as double is not a fair result in my book.
Any more than big money putting in advanced control systems mid event to win is either, so no the Ben Ainslie brand name doesn't cut it with me.

Edited by iGRF - 15 Oct 13 at 9:11am

Did I suggest I was trying to convince anyone about anything?

I'm simply stating my view which for some unlucky, badly wired brain control system reason, tends to be contrary to the popular view.

So it, my brain, thinks a chap like Nick Craig is a better sailing competitor than Ben Ainslie, that is all.