Men and Women at Work

by John Curnow on 27 Feb 2017 It is hard not to whistle Greg Ham’s little flute ditty from, ‘I come from a land Downunder’, whenever you see those words. And yes, we’re moving straight past the legal matter of the origination of that melody. So then, we’ll note that the irony was that the band members were effectively unemployed when they formed the group. However, hard at work in the first year of the new quadrennial are our men and women of the Olympic squad and the Australian Sailing Team.

Accordingly, it is always good to speak with someone like Peter Conde. He has seen so much, and is so directly linked to our National sailing heroes in his role as Performance Director at AUS Sailing. Conde commented about the squad and team, “It was an expensive quadrennial leading in to Rio. We have good squads to work with domestically, across all classes, and this will be a key focus for 2017.”

“Overall, we aim to have a good group of athletes, all developing well, and focused on becoming world-class. Our funding is based on performance, and that is the whole story, right there. There are some terrific sailors coming through in all classes, particularly in our women’s classes, and that is a focus for us for the next four years.”

“We’ll see on Tom Slingsby coming back to do the Finn, after AC35. We have not discussed that this quad. Indeed, Jake Lilley is full bore with Artemis too, and there is a Finn squad there of three or four, with Olli Tweddell to be in that mix, as well. Tom Burton is in good shape, and he is very keen to go back-to-back in Tokyo. Matt Wearn certainly aims to make that tough for him, but they continue to work hard together”, said Conde.

“Our Laser class has a strong history of working together, to help them get the job done. Matt really pushed Tom B for Rio, and previously it was Tom B pushing Tom S, and before that it was Tom S and Michael Blackburn pushing each other. Only one gets the gig, but to get there in good shape to win, you all have to work together, and this is something we very much foster as part of our culture.”

“We have not had a chance to play with the foiling Nacra 17 yet. In late April, we get the opportunity to sail one in Holland for a week, ahead of our first foiling Nacra 17 being delivered. Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin will be at it for sure, after AC35. Lisa is a great Ambassador for our sport, the chair of our Athletes’ Commission, and does a lot of corporate and school speaking engagements.”

One of the key questions about the make up of the team will be whether Mat Belcher will continue on. To date, Mat has neither said yay or nay regarding this. It is likely that he will not decide until after the 470 World Championship in Thessaloniki, Greece from July 7-15, 2017. The father of two young children is a terrific competitor and lovely individual, so we wish him well with the process that leads to his choice.

Conde says of the matter, “I can say that Mat has competed in Sail Melbourne, the 470 Nationals, and is training with our squad, and leading our team effectively, as our most senior athlete.”

Whenever you list names, someone is bound to be left off. Please understand that it is not because you are forgotten, so we’ll quickly drop in Jaime Ryan, Ashley Stoddart, and immediately apologise to anyone else. So to all our great sailors, both young and a tad older, we say well done so far, and may you have a great quadrennial in the pursuit of becoming world-class. Of course there will also be crews vying for 49er spots, with maybe some new names to familiarise ourselves with, so we look forward to seeing how that all unfolds.

Now in conclusion, Conde simply said, “When you sum it up, it all means we are hard at work for Tokyo. As usual, we have a plan and are working to it.”

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