Extreme Sailing Series - The formula for success

by Extreme Sailing Series on 4 Jun 2016 Extreme Sailing Series - The most successful skipper in the history of the Extreme Sailing Series™ can clearly remember the moment he learnt the hard way what it was going to take to be successful in the world’s premier Stadium Racing series.

As the old saying goes, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and McMillan now believes that what happened to him during the 2011 Series is the key to his subsequent success. That year McMillan was skippering The Wave, Muscat for the first time, having helmed Ecover to third place in the 2010.

The 2011 Series started indifferently but then McMillan and his crew hit their stride. With a fourth and a third place in Acts Three and Four, and then two consecutive Act wins at Cowes and at Trapani in Italy, The Wave, Muscat was sitting in a three-way tie for third place overall after six Acts.

The team was well within striking distance of the eventual winner that year, Luna Rossa, and McMillan was justifiably dreaming big. But then he got a shock as the wheels came off in light airs at Nice and then again at Almería in Spain. The affable British skipper found himself plummeting down the leaderboard and on his way to finishing the season in a gut-wrenching fifth overall.

“We were right in the running to win the Series and we just really struggled and had a couple of absolutely shocking events,” recalled McMillan, 35, who is now regarded one of the best inshore multihull racers on the planet. “That was a pretty dark time for me and really a game-changing moment when it swung the other way and we wrote that season off. I certainly learnt some pretty tough lessons and it added a huge amount of determination to put it right in the 2012 season.”

And of course the rest is Extreme Sailing Series history as two-time Olympian McMillan and his crew on The Wave, Muscat went on to win the first ever back-to-back championship titles in 2012 and 2013 and then became the first to win three championships when romping away with the title in 2015.

So what is McMillan’s secret to success in a uniquely-demanding racing format that he has dominated for the past four years? Like many great skippers in world sailing McMillan has come to value the concept of a team approach.

“I put a lot of it down to the people you have around you – all the way around you,” he said. “The winning combination comes with having the right team on the water, plus the right coaching personnel and shore crew so that the boat’s performance is being worked on constantly by everyone. That’s where it all comes from – you get out on the water and you know that everything is the best it possibly can be and you can go racing.”

Next on his checklist for success is enjoyment. “Enjoying the challenge, enjoying the competition, enjoying the tough moments – even though you don’t like them at the time – is so important,” he explained. “I think there have been times over the years when I have put too much pressure on myself and the enjoyment factor has gone a bit and performances started to drop. Then the whole thing can turn into a bit of a spiral.”

The final ingredient is an element of McMillan’s on-the-water approach that has been critical to the consistently good results he and his crew have compiled. The Wave, Muscat may have looked down and out in any one race, but her crew and skipper never stopped hunting for ways to make a bad start better or turn a promising finish into a winning one.

“Our ability to gain places and make gains throughout the course (has been a key strength),” adds McMillan, who is never less than modest about his achievements in the Series. “Time and time again that ability to come back – to take those decisions around the racecourse to make up a boat, or two, or three – and to do that again and again, has enabled us to pull through.”

McMillan has loved the global nature of the Series and travelling to iconic venues with his team. Over the years McMillan has taken on some of the world’s greatest sailors in Extreme 40s and usually beaten them. But he has no doubt that his toughest opponent has been the softly-spoken American Morgan Larson who, together with his crew on Alinghi, managed to stop The Wave, Muscat winning the title in 2014 after a thrilling season-long battle.

“We definitely had a pretty special rivalry,” reflected McMillan. “In his first season, right from the off, Morgan took to it quicker than anyone has and we formed a very friendly rivalry over the years that has swung both ways. We had some great battles and pushed each other along the way – it has been a great challenge for both of us.”

This year McMillan – who has now joined Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team Land Rover BAR as a sparring partner helmsman for Ainslie – will be helping that syndicate’s Academy Squad entry in the Extreme Sailing Series. For the first two Acts, McMillan will be helming, but not skippering, the BAR GC32. His old rival Morgan Larson is also back - this time skippering Oman Air.

The three-time Series winner is looking forward to giving the younger sailors the benefit of his enormous experience. “I will be there mentoring and trying to make that transition from Extreme 40 to the GC32 as smooth as possible and offload as much experience as I can for the first couple of events,” he said. “It will be great to help the guys out and short-cut some of the lessons and then hand the whole programme over.”

But McMillan has not ruled out a full return to the Series at some point. “I am sure there will be a time when I will love to get back into it, if the timing all fits together,” he said. “It would be great to have another stab at it.”