Interview with Ian Pinnell
by Mark Jardine 24 Feb 2016 12:44 GMT
24 February 2016
Ian Pinnell at the P&B store in Northampton © Mark Jardine
We talked with Ian Pinnell of P&B, about the 505 World Championship being held this year in Weymouth, his sailing in other classes, and his advice on getting into the marine industry.
Mark Jardine: You're a stalwart of the 505 class, what is it about the class that you really enjoy in sailing the boat?
Ian Pinnell: Well the 505, even today, is an awesome boat to sail, so competitive internationally, some great sailors who sail it, and it's really difficult to win in and it's the challenge of trying to win that world championship.
MJ: There are always huge turnouts at the 505 Worlds, nearly 200 boats turning up for events. What numbers are you hoping to see in Weymouth for the 2016 Worlds?
IP: I hope we should see about 140 boats, and they're also in the Classic Worlds as well this year, which will be a separate course inside the harbour, which I think is also generating a bit more interest, so in total we could have 180, 190 boats.
MJ: With your 505 sailing, you've won national titles and one world championship title. What are your aspirations for this year?
IP: It'll be a tough one - it is every year. Top five at the worlds is obviously an awesome result, I would like to win it again, I've only won it once, I've been 2nd a few times, but winning it is obviously a great challenge.
MJ: What developments are Pinnell & Bax making on the 505 for the 2016 Worlds to give you that advantage going into the event?
IP: We've been looking at and analysing some rigs and foils. We've done some quite good comparisons, taken quite a lot of measurements, we had some new foils actually designed by Phil Morrison, both centreboard and rudder, which are now in production to get fitted to my new boat. We won the last race of the Steve Nicholson Memorial Trophy by over four minutes with the development foils and it has all felt really light and quick.
MJ: So even though the 505 is a very established class, you're finding changes like this can make a big difference to the boat speed?
IP: Yes, the small changes can. The foils are more symmetrical, the gybing is easier from one tack to the other. Proper C&C tooling as well probably makes it better than handmade stuff.
MJ: You mentioned the rigs. What changes are you making there?
IP: We had some fantastic results over the past couple of years, but we went to the Europeans and it was light and really bumpy, so we just did a bit more development on the sails for that certain wind condition. We may not get that at Weymouth, but if we do then at least we'll be ready for it.
MJ: So filling in the gaps in the performance range where you felt that you weren't as fast?
IP: Yes, that's right. It's part in due to crew weight as well, there are quite a lot of flyweights out there and against them you're always going to struggle, but it's just trying to help bridge that gap.
MJ: With your other sailing, you've regularly sailed a Solo. This is a fleet that seems annually to have a great turnouts and a lot of people seem to get drawn into the class. What is it about the Solo that attracts sailors?
IP: It's very close racing, we all go very similar speeds. It's just so easy to go sailing if you've got a family etc. and the boats at the club take two minutes to rig, it's just easy. They have quite a lot of one-day meetings, which is quite attractive for family people - that and it's competitive stuff.
MJ: You've been a sailor first and foremost, and then joined the marine industry. How did you get started with Pinnell & Bax?
IP: I used to sail Enterprises quite competitively in my teens, starting to get a few reasonable results, and then just applied for a sailmakers position at Storrar & Bax, as it was in those days. I got that and sail-making is my forte if you like - I don't get my hands dirty quite so much now, but I'm still very active in terms of development and sailing the boats I sailed in other classes.
Obviously now the company's moved on from Storrar & Bax, back in 1996 to Pinnell & Bax, and the business has grown from there to other aspects of chandlery, mail order, spars and rigging, boat repairs, etc.
MJ: Pinnell & Bax have an excellent reputation for fitting out boats and setting up a class so that it's straight out of the box, set up in a winning format with the settings all done. You must deal with a lot of the suppliers to create these boats. How does that all work together?
IP: We have close relationships with certain key builders, so they build the hulls for us, we get them and fit them out to our specs or to a customer's specs, but generally our specs as we generally know what works. We tune them, race prepare them, and that can take quite a long time depending on the complexity of the boat.
MJ: If you were a young sailor who wanted to get involved in the marine industry, what piece of advice would you give to them?
IP: Love the sport and enjoy your sailing. We work, live and breathe sailing pretty much all the time. We've seen the world sailing and you can do it at various levels, it doesn't have to be super-competitive, you can just do it at club level which again is just as enjoyable.
The more experience you have with sailing, the easier it is to get into the industry. If you're a good sailor you generally pick up how to sail designs easier and sort the rig tuning etc., it's all part of it. Through sailing you'll learn a lot of knowledge and then you can become a real asset to a business.
MJ: Your team are very active on the open meeting circuit. Do you see that as vital to your business?
IP: Yes, we certainly try to employ people who've got a keen interest in sailing - it certainly helps. Being part of the business actually makes you a better sailor, you have the best equipment supplied to you pretty much, and it just becomes a whole load easier for you to achieve your goals. If you want to win a worlds, or you're in the nationals, you've got to use the right kit, if you don't have the right kit then you're on the back foot.
MJ: A lot of sailing has moved towards the foiling. What we see in the mainstream media is these high performance boats, the foilers, the big America's Cup foiling boats. What view do you think that has on the perception of sailing as a sport?
IP: It has obviously attracted a lot of the top-end sailors. I'm not quite sure how many people actually follow it - the keen sailors do. Whether it's that well followed with the AC45s and GC32s, I'm not sure.
MJ: Thank you very much for your time, and the very best of luck for the 505 Worlds in Weymouth.
IP: Thank you.