Santander Worlds 2014 - With 14 World titles Bundy aims for one more

by Rob Kothe and Jedda Murphy Sail-World on 8 Sep 2014 ISAF World Championships Santander 2014 - In the Nacra 17 class is veteran multihull skipper Darren Bundock who won silver for Australia in the Tornado class in 2000 in Sydney and 2008 in Qingdao with crew Glenn Ashby.

With the multihull class out of 2012 Olympics. Bundock sat out that event and it was widely believed that the 14 times world champion across a host of multihill classes would not return to Olympic sailing (he will be 45 in 2016) however as he told Sail-World earlier this year the mixed multihull gifted him a new opportunity.

Sailing with Nina Curtis, the London 2012 Match Racing silver medallist, they have launched late into the 2016 Rio campaign but have been going exceptionally well. They have found their way to the Nacra 17 podium repeatedly and they have been fighting with the French and Italian teams all year.

Sail-World caught up with Bundy in the boat park today.


You have had a late run at this class,you have had a one season sprint up to this point. What is your assessment of that season?

We started in December last year. Sail Melbourne was our first regatta and we have put in a fair bit of time on the water this year to try and catch back up again. We have been to Santander a couple of times now. We came here just before we went to Rio and then we went to the Rio regatta and then we came back here for a week of training after Rio as well. We have been putting in a fair bit of time to try and bridge the gap. Most of it with boat handling and getting the boat set up and all that kind of stuff.

At the moment we are feeling quite confident that we have bridged that gap quite. We have had some pretty good results this year finishing on the podium for all but one regatta. We are quite happy with that but we are hoping to go one step better for this regatta.

Billy Besson back in your Tornado and F18 days you had the wood on him. Maybe he was a bit younger and less experienced. He didn’t beat you routinely.

I don’t think he used to beat us at all. This was about six years ago. Things change in six years, people develop. As you said he was a lot younger then. He has progressed a lot in six years and potentially I have gone backwards a little bit in six years as well. I think Billy is probably the main competition at the moment.

Also the Italians, Vittorio, he is also one of the favourites if not the favourite going into this regatta as well I think.

One of the things you said earlier in the year is that you weren’t sailing anything nearly at the technical level when you were on the pace for the Tornado and F18. How’s that progressed?

For sure, I sailed Tornados from 91 right through to 2008/9 and we just put in hours and hours on the water and many hours, straightlining and racing. We basically knew the Tornado back to front. You had set ups for every conditions.

The Nacra 17 is a very different boat. It’s a lot narrower. It’s a lot lighter. It’s got the curved centreboards, completely different rig. It’s taken a little while to get used to that and start getting a few numbers and stuff going in our heads and knowing a few settings.

We have done a lot of time on the water and a lot of training with the Australian team. We have got a good little squad going now here in Santander. I think we have progressed a lot in the last couple of weeks.

Your training partners?

There is Jason Waterhouse and Lisa Darmanin. They are very young and up and coming. Jason has got really good boat handling and he is a real natural sailor. There is Euan McNicol and Lucinda Whitty. Euan I think it is his second season in the multihull. He has been progressing quite well.

There is Pip Pietromonaco and James Wierzsbowski also up and coming. Very young as well but they have been pushing us quite well. It has been quite good having them. James has been on the front so he is the only male crew on our squad so he has been keeping all the girls pretty on us with all training that we do with the hoists and that because obviously a bit stronger and very fit so he has been very good to benchmark all the girls against as well.

You said last year that an old guy you forecast that the lighter loads on this boat felt you would be able to helm and have a female crew. How is that working out?

Yes, I will be 45 come Rio. It still seems the case that I will be able to handle the helm OK. It is a mixed boat now and there is women both helming and crewing so the loads definitely are nowhere near as high as they are on the Tornado and that’s mainly because of the width of the Tornado and the size of the Tornado so the loads are a lot less.

It is still a very physical boat but more so for the crews on the front than the helms down he back. The tricky conditions for us is when it is heavy enough for us to double trapeze when the crew is going in and out and the helm is holding the mainsheet all day long but the load is nothing compared to what they used to be compared to the Tornado so it is not an issue for me. It’s the capsizes that start to hurt now and I have been to quite a few of them. It’s a problem just not injuring yourself I guess as you get older.

Tell us about Rio?

Rio was good. I really enjoyed it. It is going to be a really tricky venue to sail in. I think I can relate it a lot to Sydney Harbour and it is very similar with the harbour courses and the offshore courses as well. Offshore it is very similar to be off Sydney Heads. Very tricky. A lot more current than Sydney Harbour but a lot of land influence quite like Sydney Harbour as well. It is probably one of the most beautiful places to sail, looking at the scenery and the landscape, with the monuments and Sugar Loaf and all the other things there. They just need to clean up the water system and it would be great there.

Many plastic bag incidences?

We had one day which was really bad and that was the only day that we raced with the current going out. It pulls all the rubbish out of the bays and it is flying across the courses. The other day’s not really major incidences at all. There is a little bit of rubbish in the water and stuff but it is not tragic. When the current is running out it is a problem and I think they need to clean that up before the Olympics as we did have problems with rudders popping up. We capsized once when the rudders came up and that’s not fair sailing.

Water quality worries me because I am always chewing on the mainsheet so I have always got the water in my mouth but I didn’t get sick. I was quite lucky with that. I know a lot of other teams and people on our team got sick and got issues but I was fine.

What’s it been like sailing in Santander?

It’s been great. We have been having some good sea breezes. The last few days it has been very light. It’s a really nice place. I do like the surroundings. The beaches are great. The weather has been pretty good so far. We have been getting a little rain in the morning sometimes but generally as a sailing venue I think it is great. I think we are going to get a lot of different conditions. Everyone has been favouring the sea breezes but we have also been seeing a few land breezes and nor’westers and everything so it’s a mixed bag. We are rotating around different courses as well during the event so I don’t think any two days are going to be the same.

That’s good for experienced crews?

I think it is good for experienced crews and it is good to find the best all round sailor as well. We will be sailing in the harbour and offshore and that will be good for a World Championship I think.

This is an important regatta for you for funding as well?

Yes it is. It is a qualification for the nation as well to go to the Olympics so we will all be looking for that but we are hoping that we should do that reasonably easily. For us, the Australian Sailing Team, we have actually already qualified but the level of funding depends a lot on this regatta. Yes it is an important regatta for all the Aussies. I think it is the same for a lot of nations. The funding resolves around the World’s result so yes there is a little bit of pressure on everyone.

The next few weeks are the peak of the year?

Yes for sure. This is what everyone has been building up for, for this season anyway. Santander has been the goal for everyone and I think it is good timing for us as we have had the whole European season to get on the pace and sort out a few problems. Yes this is what Nina and I have been training for.