Santander Worlds 2014 - Interview with Mat Belcher (Part I)

by Rob Kothe and Jedda Murphy on 8 Sep 2014 For a sailor who has performed so wonderfully over the last decade Mat Belcher, the 2013 ISAF World Sailor of the Year continues to be a very unassuming guy. Recently he was told that he hadn’t been off the podium in 40 plus regattas. A piece of information he was unaware. His response was ‘Wow isn’t that cool’ and that is the measure of the man.

He says all the time and you hear it from him so often tend to discount it, he just focusses on the process, on sailing well and sailing the very best he can with his crew who he considers the best in the world, Will Ryan. But its obviously true.

They are going into this regatta with Mat having the opportunity of winning his fifth 470 World title in a row, again a stat that nobody has approached and the results just keep coming. We talked at length yesterday to Mat in the late afternoon and here is part I of our latest Sail-World interview.

Been here in Santander for a couple of weeks?

Yes we have. We have been to (Santander) at the beginning of June so we knew what to expect and we figured a couple of weeks after Rio we decided to come down here and did a bit of a (coaches) regatta, which was good, and then the last few days I have been back in Hamburg for my son's first birthday and we arrived back yesterday. So far it is good. A beautiful place to sail. It’s been pretty tricky but it is nice to have a bit of waves and a bit of current and it will be challenging but it is a cool place.

A bit like Rio offshore.

It’s not as extreme. The waves are not as big here and the waves are not as much as what Rio was but yes for sure it is a lot more than what a lot of the sailors are used to. It certainly suits our Australian style of sailing that’s for sure.

Where you surprised about the conditions in Rio?

A little bit yes. That was the first time I had the opportunity to go to Rio. I didn’t have the opportunity to go the year before. I wanted to but with my son being born I didn’t want to miss that. I wasn’t expecting big waves. I heard about the current but I wasn’t expecting it to be that complicated and that strong. I didn’t expect to have massive tide lines with a lot of rubbish even though I had read a lot about it before hand. There was certainly a lot of surprises.


The inner courses are really difficult because it is flat water, the wind funnels through the Sugar Loaf, even the city and the airport. It’s going to be pretty tricky sailing.

That surprised me. For offshore to have such a big difference. It was good. For sure it will be the harder place I would have ever raced and the diversity of the skill of the sailors to be able to handle both sets of conditions well. I think it is good around because you have got such extremes. I certainly enjoyed that aspect of it.

Rio Medal races will be inshore?

Yes. In the medal race I think we didn’t have a lot of time. The first time we were actually on the medal course was the medal race which is not ideal but it was certainly an eye opener to us to what to do. We could have had a bit more time and have a better understanding on what is going to happen. I really enjoy racing the inshore courses as well. We really liked the offshore stuff. We only did one race inside and we won that. It was good.

Water quality and health?

We have to be cautious for sure. The water quality isn’t great. I know there is so much being said about it but it is true. It is pretty disgusting so you just have to be careful. You are going to swallow some water and you just try and be as cautious as you can. We are pretty fortunate. We got away cleanly for this test event and fingers crossed we can gather the way through and remain in good health throughout. Of course our coach Victor Kovalenko says whisky is best if you swallow the water. But Victor seems to like the antidote even without Rio water.

Did you strike any plastic bag problems on the inshore course?

We did while we were quite far back on the first lap. Not as much as a lot of the other classes. On the last day we had inshore. We had some debris as well on our foils. We won that race. Not sure if any of the other teams had difficulty with it. It’s not just us. There is so much out there it is pretty easy to ……

You can remember the big fleets of fishing boats that the Chinese assembled in Qingdao solving the algae problem, do you see any heroic solution in Rio?

Credit to the Chinese it was an issue that only really presented itself in the months coming into the Games and they have the people, the resources to be able to deploy 1,000 ships and 10,000 people and just get everyone to chip in and fix the problem.

I think for Rio the situation is a lot worse without a doubt. There is some much being said about it. I am pretty confident that they would address it and to be able to get a workable solution for us. Whether that is sustainable for long term for the local community I don’t know but I am pretty confident for the two weeks we are going to be racing there. With the awareness there now that it won’t be so much, finish it for us. I am pretty certain they will fix it.

Bundy said the one race they had inshore which was a real problem was when they had an outgoing tide, it just dragged all the rubbish out from the creeks etc.

Yes. He is exactly right. The Nacras, 49ers, FX and the boards were all inside. Pretty much because they can’t race offshore. It wouldn’t be safe. The boats not really suitable for it. Their experience from inside courses is a lot more than what ours was. The one race we did was at the end of the regatta. That’s pretty much when the issue will be.