A couple of Brits came over here for the Star World Championships here in Cali, and damned if they didn't win the thing. Sailing smart and fast (like anybody who wins a big regatta), they did a superb job to put themselves at the head of arguably the world's toughest one design fleet. We wanted to know a bit more about them, so we threw a few questions their way. Enjoy

A little background here - What are your sailing backgrounds, and how did you two link up and decide to sail a Star?

P/M
Iain sailed lasers till 96 then tune up for GBR finn in Atlanta, spent two years at university, then Finns full time till Sydney. Steve sailed variety of small boats, Laser 5000, 18ft skiffs, Etchells (world champ in 97), match racing and team racing. We met sailing Farr 40s in 2001 on GBR25, and along with coach Dave Howlett decided to team up

How old are you guys?

P/M
Iain is 26, and Steve is 32, young in Star terms!

It's not inexpensive to fund a Star program. Are you considered a professional? And how do you guys fund your sailing?

P/M
We are full time sailors, partly funded by the UK Lottery, through UK Sport and the Royal Yachting Assoc. for about 60% of our costs, we have some monetary and product sponsors, and we work sailing big boats for the rest. Safe to say we don't make any money Star sailing!

To say that you've made a rather quick climb up what is thought of as a very tough ladder in the Star class is an understatement. How did you guys get so good, so fast?

P/M
Hard work. We spent 3 months in Miami learning the basics and pestering people for info and tips, and pretty much every day since we started we have been sailing, or organizing or traveling, what we lack in years of Star experience we have tried to make up in days on the water, doing all the big regattas in USA and Europe, which given the funding position within UK sport is now possible to do.

Did you have one big scary moment at the Worlds?

P/M
Well the weekend regatta before when the wind was all over the show and it was random racing made us pretty uneasy about the worlds themselves, but the weather played ball just. The scariest was the first race which was super light, and it took the first boat 2 mins inside the time limit to finish, we ended up 19th, but given the position of some of the top guns, Reynolds 77th, Van Der Ploeg 92nd, we felt like we had escaped very lightly, and we were still counting that until after the 5th race

Tell us about your Star equipment. What kind of boat and sails did you use and why.

P/M
Boat is the GBR boat from the Sydney games, a Folli hull with a Lillia keel, put on after some testing by the GBR Americas cup designers. Spars are standard Emettis, unanodised which just seems to mean lots of polishing! Sails are North UK, who do a lot of work with Team GBR Olympic team, and worked with Iain on Finn sails, and who work in direct partnership with North San Diego, so designs are identical.

What do you think the differences are between the North and Quantum sails?

P/M
We used Quantums for most of the year and they are very good sails, and we had a lot of help from Mark Reynolds in setting them up. However due to the close relationship between Team GBR and North UK, we started using and developing Norths during 4 training camps (1 in San Diego, and 3 in LA) before worlds, sailing with Merriman/Bennett & MacCausland/Miereles, and with the help of Paul Hobson (UK), Rodrigo Miereles(USA) and Vince Brun (USA). With Mark & Magnus probably being our most likely USA opponents in 2004, we felt it more advantageous to have our own sail program.

Do you now get free sails?

P/M
No such luck! We get a substantial discount from North UK

Some sailors have used the Star to propel them in other directions, others have made it their bread and butter. What is your next step as sailors?

P/M
Plan for next two years is all about the Olympics 2004. Then dependent on classes chosen for 2008, maybe Olympics again, or Americas Cup.

The British AC challenge has so far been perceived as a real positive. Do you have any big boat experience, and is the AC arena something that you aspire to?

P/M
We both did a season on Farr 40s and Iain is sailing them when not in Stars. Steve has sailed on a variety of big boats, but nothing regularly, preferring one design racing. Americas Cup is appealing if it is a pure sailing arena, and not a money/ego/bullshit one.

There have been recent Star World Champs like Joe Londrigan who failed to really deliver after his World title. What steps will you take to stay at the top of the game?

P/M
More hard work. We still have a lot of areas to work on and we have a full schedule for next year already.

Thanks guys!

P/M
No problem.

09/16/2002