A Q&A with Michael Illbruck about his win at the 2016 Melges 20 Worlds

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 2 Sep 2016 During the 34th America’s Cup, which took place on the waters of San Francisco Bay in September and October of 2013, Michael Illbruck (56; GER) flew to SFO to check out the racing. It had been a few years since he had been actively involved with Grand Prix sailing, and as he watched the races and talked with John Kostecki (USA), his longtime sailing pro, wheels started to turn and the thought of getting back into sailing took root. After some discussion with Kostecki and-eventually-with Federico Michetti (ITA), Illbruck decided to buy a Melges 20 and take the plunge.

Illbruck, Kostecki and Michetti teamed up following the 2015 Melges 20 Worlds, which took place in Tiburon, California. Their initial goal was to win the 2017 Melges 20 Worlds-a lofty goal by anyone’s yard stick, given the names and talent hat sail in this hotly contested class-and their methodology involved using 2016 regattas as practice for the 2017 Worlds.

If the names Illbruck and Kostecki ring a bell, you’ve clearly been following competitive sailing for some time, as Kostecki won the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race as skipper of Illbruck, the Volvo Ocean 60 that Michael’s namesake company sponsored during this marathon event. But the relationship goes deeper, as Kostecki started sailing with Illbruck’s father’s Pinta program back in 1994. Together, Kostecki and the Illbrucks won some impressive trophies, and a close connection was forged.

Flash forward to early 2016, and the Pinta team’s “practice” races started going really well, and the team found their gears and groves for all different wind conditions. Soon, they started to realize that they had pace on the majority of the fleet, but they still sailed into this year’s Melges 20 Worlds, hosted by the Marina di Scarlino/Club Nautico Scarlino in Scarlino, Italy, with a practice mindset.

This mindset changed as the team entered the final day of racing in contention for the Worlds title. The year’s “practice” regattas paid off, and Illbruck, Kostecki and Michetti ended up capturing the 2016 Melges 20 World Champion title. I caught up with Illbruck via Skype to learn more about the Pinta team’s proud win.

Can you give me a little bit of background on the Pinta Team? How long have you guys been sailing together, what classes did you compete in and what are your big goals?
Well, you probably know that John Kostecki started to sail with my dad and with Pinta and with me in 1994. So, John was the principal; basically he was the leader on the boat that went around the world in 2001, 2002. And after that John and I sailed together on a Farr 40. We did-[for]a very short while-a TP52 Campaign and then we sailed on a Melges 32 in '07 and '08.

So I've been sailing with him for a very, very long time. He's been on many, many different Pinta programs. So that's basically the relationship to John Kostecki.

To Federico Michetti, of course you know, if you're involved in One Design, you're involved with Melges [racing] in Europe, you are involved with Federico.

I went to San Francisco [in 2013 for the America’s Cup] and [John and I] had a talk and a discussion and I asked [him] which class is cool, where if I started [sailing] again what should we do. I [didn’t] want to do a big program-I wanted to do a small program.

[John] said the thing to do is a Melges 20 and then basically this whole thing started. Then the whole thing started to kind of develop and we bought a boat in 2015 and it took a year and a half and then we put the program together.

The real start was in September of 2015 at the Melges 20 Worlds in Tiburon in San Francisco Bay. …At the end of the World's in Tiburon, Federico asked John and myself whether he [could] sail for Pinta. Then he joined us. Since then we've been building this [campaign] and [we] started to sail [together] just in April.

The [2016] Worlds [was] is my sixth regatta on a Melges 20.

Wow—really?
Yes. It sure sounds arrogant. I mean there are so many people out there that are doing such an incredible job and it's such a competitive class but yes, it's true. So I'm just at the beginning of my Melges 20 career.

So [it was] the combination of John and Federico and my learning and willingness to learn and [be] open to criticism [that lead to our success]. [chuckles] I mean if you're with these two guys, every second you're sailing it's a learning experience.

Am I correct that your original goal had been to be competitive in the 2017 Melges 20 Worlds but you guys ended up winning in 2016?
We talked at the very beginning, [at] the first [2016] race we did… [and] we kind of said, 'This is our journey. Our journey is to win the World's in Newport in 2017. That is our journey.'

We always talked about the journey. Every race was basically for us a training session. I didn't sail for eight years...so it was not new to me but there are so many things you have to learn. When something went wrong or when we even won, we always said, 'It's the journey. It is the journey.'

So, also going into the World Championships, we said in the beginning [that is was just] a training day. That's how we looked at [it]. We don't look at results. We just have fun, enjoy ourselves and learn while we do this.

And then, on Saturday, when we had that result, we just said, 'Okay, it's practice. It was just a practice thing.' So, excuse my language, but we said, 'F&%ck it,' so whatever. I mean, it doesn't really matter. [But] then, when our coach, Martino came to the boat and said, ‘well, with this card you were just four points behind Pacific Yankee [for first place]. Everything is open out there.'

On the way in on Saturday, John said, 'Mike, 54 boats would love to be in our position.' And I said, 'Yes. It's amazing that we're out here. Jesus Christ!'

And then Sunday morning Federico said, 'Michael, we're going to stop the journey now for a couple of hours. We're just going to stop the journey and we're going to win this and then we'll continue the journey.'

I love it!
That was kind of like how we docked out, and [then] we're alone on the boat, Federico said, 'Mike, f*^k the journey for three hours and we'll just do this now. Then we'll continue the journey.'

So for me it was psychological. I mean there [are] so many good boats out there....

And then it all happened. We had the seventh race we had an excellent start and John-I'd say it's super computer is an idiot [compared] to John Kostecki. I mean the second he docks off you know the brain is consistently working. I mean, always. The guy is unbelievable.

Now all Federico and I did was just to put and get the boat in a position [so] that John has options. That was our goal. We have to create options for John. That's what we did in the first race.

Then I thought to myself, 'Wow, the pressure is immense now and then. It's really immense, [but] we felt no pressure.' And then John, before the eighth race, said, 'Pacific Yankee is going to chase us. They're going to disturb us. They're going to hunt us down.'

Federico was at the mast just tuning the diamonds. I was on the ping end and all of a sudden John said, 'Federico why don't you just turn the sail?' Then John was so calm and said, 'Mike do you see Pacific Yankee?' I said, 'Yes, I see them.' [Then John said:] 'Then we'll just go straight and go up and go up.' Then he guided us, Federico and myself through the pre-start and got away from them and tacked. It was a world championship tack.

I mean, I don't tack like a world champion but that certainly was a [world-class tack!]

What do you think were the most important decision that you made before the World Champion regatta that led to your win?
First of all, I mean, as you know, sailing is a highly-technical sport and through the whole season we sailed stronger and stronger with [our] boatspeed. We were very weak in the light [air] in the beginning… I mean, the boat was so sticky it couldn't get going so that was not good.

[Since then] we improved on that immensely. So we knew how to basically how the whole set-up is. As soon as we can sit on the rail or even hike, we knew that we were very, very fast. So that's one thing. So we were just very confident that we're one of the fastest boats out there.

And then of course you have the sail buttons and the limitations and we worked all season to have the sails. We worked on the kite…so we had good sails. I mean, North [Sails] was excellent. I mean they provided some fantastic sails.

So knowing that we have a set-up and knowing that we had some good sails and good speed, and then [nothing] else [required] special preparation. It was just on the contrary. Again, it's our journey and we look at this as a training session. We just go out there and learn.

We didn't sit down and plan a special plan for the Worlds. The plan for the Worlds was to have the right sails and to improve and to be confident about our boatspeed upwind and downwind.

We executed and John was calm, I mean, really calm on the boat, everybody else out there-I saw the video-everybody else was totally excited and on the boat we were just doing our thing, very calm. And that's Kostecki-the guy is incredible.

I'm wondering if you can tell me a little bit about how difficult the role of the driver is in the Melges 20 class compared to other boats you've sailed?
I think it's the best boat I've ever sailed. It's a very difficult boat to drive, I think. Driving a TP52…I don't want to downgrade any class [but] if you drive a TP52, it's a lot easier. It's a lot easier. For me, it took a long time [to master the Melges 20] and I now have that feeling, to develop a feel when the boat is in balance and when the boat is going. And it's the range, more or less in our conditions, the range upwind and downwind is so small that you have to have a very high level of concentration over the whole period of a race and of a day that I’ve never experienced in any other craft.

Is there anything else that you'd like to add, for the record?
For me personally…my family has won the Admiral's Cup twice and we won the Volvo Ocean Race, we won the One Tonner Cup three times, [the] Sardenia Cup, sailed in the Kenwood Cup [and] in the San Francisco Big Boat Series twice, third place and a second place. But I have to say, [there were also] a lot of losses. I mean we lost more than we won and we went through some very tough times on the sailboat. Not to devalue all the other wins, I mean the Volvo Ocean Race is a big thing, but for me, personally, [the 2016 Melges Worlds were my] most satisfying regatta results ever. I have to say that.

Not for the Illbruck Team or the Pinta Team, [but for me personally]. I mean, the Volvo Ocean Race [is] a much bigger win, of course.