From foiling Moths to Olympic starting lines-a Q&A with Bora Gulari

by David Schmidt, Sail-World USA Editor on 12 May 2016 American sailor Bora Gulari (USA) has been making a strong name for himself within high-performance sailing circles for the past decade, first with a win at the 2009 Moth Worlds, followed by another Moth Worlds win in 2013.

In between these two seminal performances were several other great accolades, including his 2009 speed run that punched-through the once-heady 30-knot barrier and his selection as the 2009 US SAILING Rolex Yachtsman of the Year. Yet to peg Gulari as “just a Mothie” would be selling his sailing talent extremely short, as Gulari has also proved himself aboard high-performance vessels ranging from Melges 24 to TP52s, to his latest challenge, representing the USA at the Rio 2016 Olympics in the Nacra 17 class as skipper, along with his teammate Louisa Chafee.

Some backstory: Gulari was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1975, and his parents-both active 505 sailors-named their son after the northern winds that sweep the Aegean Sea. The Gularis moved to the USA when Bora was 11 months old to pursue professorial positions at U.S. universities, and some of Bora’s first sailing experiences happened when his parents packed him into a bassinette and loaded him into their 505. The hook was set at an early age, and Bora’s interest in sailing-and in windsurfing-only deepened.

Gulari earned a degree in aerospace engineering from the university of Michigan before narrowly missing an Olympic berth in the 49er class. Then, a chance encounter with a YouTube video of Rohan Veal (AUS) foiling his Moth provided a new inspiration.

Flash forward some years and Gulari was drafted as part of Luna Rossa’s afterguard for the 35th America’s Cup, but that dream came off its foils when the Italian-flagged syndicate pulled the plug on their challenge. Faced with an AC dead-end, Gulari started exploring Olympic classes and gravitated towards the high-performance Nacra 17 class. But unlike many of his rivals, Gulari started late in the quad cycle, meaning that his learning curve has defined the word “steep” since his selection to the U.S. flagged team this spring. I caught up with Gulari on the phone as he was dashing between flights and taxi rides to learn more about his Olympic ambitions.

Can you just tell me about your Rio 2016 campaign?
Well, I started mainly due to the fact that I enjoyed sailing smaller boats versus sailing big boats, and…after the shutdown of Luna Rossa, this was just kind of perfect timing and that's what caused me to start [my campaign]. It's now a full bore. Basically I'm trying to squeeze in a full Olympic campaign in about a year and a half, so it's challenging, but I think we're definitely on the upswing, so I'm pretty happy with it actually, overall. I was lucky enough to have a good partner at the trials, and I ended up switching crews really late [but] it was the right decision.

So when did you and Louisa actually start sailing together?
One week before the Miami OCR.

How did this set you up for the qualification process?
It's a little bit of ‘we [put] two skilled sailors together and good things can kind of happen’. There was a kind of ability. We got to sail that first week in fairly light conditions, she's very good in the boat, and we had good enough boatspeed that we had a really good result and that kind of set us off, you know?

When did you guys start working with coach Jonathan McKee?
After the trials. Our first regatta with Jonathan was Palma.

That was sort of a recommendation from US sailing…obviously I've sailed with Jonathan a bunch, [so] to hear the fact that he would go out of his way to help us [was amazing]... It just seems there's a lot of people that want to help out and who can make a difference, and [McKee is] one of them.

Can you tell me a little bit about your sailing partnership with Louisa?
Sure, so on the boat she pretty much has to do all the work. It's a very hard boat for the crew. Just like the skiff, it's very crew-work intensive. She's responsible for pulling everything and kind of keeping us going and now that we're getting quite a bit better at it, I put less of my focus on paying attention to boatspeed and kind of keep my head out of the boat and do more racing.

That's on the boat. Off the boat, not only does she pull all the ropes and do all the work when we're sailing, [but] she will go to the gym and [I’m] pretty much responsible for the boat maintenance and modification. That's kind of how we divide it up… She goes to the gym, I work on the boat.

And you guys have obviously really good onboard communication?
Oh yeah, I think so. That's the probably the thing that we work quite hard on… With the divided roles between the mainsheet and the helm, like it's really important [that we have] clear, concise communication, and that's something Jonathan's working on [with us].

We're still at the point where we're learning everyday what the other person means by a word, and we'll get into a situation where one word can mean two different things. [For example], “weight”. Imagine you're coming up to the start line and, as a skipper, I'm asking for, “weight”. I think what I ended up saying was 'little weight' so there was this pause when she didn't put her weight on her wire [as] I was asking her to put some weight on the wire. It’s just a really simple word, but just interpreted two different ways, it can have totally opposite effects of what you want.

It's a little bit of a challenge, you know. She is a little bit newer to this level of sailing I would say, so [we’re] teaching her what to focus on. Like there's little things, like, if we're in kind of on-course negotiations. We had an instance where she started negotiating with me, and I'm like no, no, no. You gotta worry about making sure the boat is [going fast]. I'll handle talking to everyone outside the boat. Don't even stress. That's what my role is.

You've made a big and strong name for yourself sailing really tricky boats. I'm thinking Moths and Melges 24s and TP52s. How has your transition been to a multi-hull platform?
Oh, I would say [the Nacra 17 is] even trickier than anything else [that I’ve sailed] up to this point. I didn't really have anyone teaching me at first, so it was really hard to learn. Eventually I got to sail with some people from outside the USA and [I] got to meet the U.S. team at that point too, and [I] started learning a little bit, but really, the learning process on how to make the boats go [fast didn’t] really started until after the trials. It's kinda weird like that. I'm a much better catamaran sailor now than I was a couple months ago, I'll tell you that.

You and Louisa have had some great results in the last couple months. What would you say your biggest keys to success have been?
Not being afraid to crash. We've been in regattas [where] we've been a little bit more conservative, but there has been, I can't really remember a day when we haven't crashed and burned in training. It's just part of the learning experience, and in some sort of sick way I really enjoy the crashing part, to be honest. Like, oh, that didn't work, but yeah, it's good. [Louisa is] tough. There haven't been any injuries. There was only one crash during the trials I thought I actually had hurt her, but she bounced right back.

I'm wondering how Olympic sailing compares to other Grand Prix classes that you've been competitive and successful in?
I think the level of competition is as high if not slightly higher [in the Olympic classes], but the interesting thing is, it has a little bit of the America's Cup air of secrecy to it. Information is a very valuable thing where, like, for example, in the Moth class, it is valuable because it's [there’s] more sharing going on. It's not to say that it doesn't exist in Olympic sailing, but it's a little harder to get in an open-communication environment, which is one thing that I noticed. There's also, in general, less of an ebb and flow on the racetrack, if that makes any sense, like in a lot of other classes, there's a lot of give and take before the P-word comes out, and protests comes out pretty quickly in the Olympic classes. You gotta keep it as clean as possible.

Did the other classes that you’ve raced in help prepare you for the Nacra 17, or has it been an entirely new experience?
The Nacra is very much a mix in between a Grand Prix yacht and a Moth. There are certain conditions where it sails at apparent wind angles and behaves very much like a Moth, but at the same time you can lose all your momentum and the boat drops into this kind of like slower-boat feel. It's everything that I've sailed up to this point wrapped up into one platform.

What aspects of this summer's games are you most excited about?
I would say going into [a] major competition without any pressure. I don't feel the expectation to perform, in a way, if that makes sense. It's [as] high level event [as] I've ever sailed in, and I'm an underdog. I kinda like that.

That's definitely what I'm most excited about. I'm going there with one goal in mind, and I think I have a unique angle. I'm fully excited just to go race.

Last thing, is there anything else for the record that you'd like to add?
I'm extremely proud and lucky to be representing the U.S. in Rio. I started sailing because of watching Jonathan [McKee] and Charlie [McKee] sail eighteen-foot skiffs in some manner, and just being able to do my part to represent my country, that’s a huge source of pride for me.