Riff!

by John Curnow on 1 May 2017 Unashamedly, the whole thing began with a story this week from the Australian Sailing Team. Actually, they’ve all been good. Fresh, exciting, and it is no doubt as a result of the AST sailors opening up more. Also lovely to see some top results at the regatta in Hyeres too, even if others are more like a scatter graph at present. Remember it is early in the quadrennial, on the seaway to Tokyo.

Anyway, the one that got all of this going was the article from Day Four when Mat Belcher and Will Ryan grabbed a pair of bullets to storm onto the podium. It was entitled, ‘The boys are back in town’. Immediately the air guitar was out and the fingers started moving along the magical, and totally invisible fretboard, as I started to make stupid sounds imitating the famous riff from Thin Lizzy. Yeah, ‘we all fell about the place’, and you can get your dose right now...



So once we got back up and the giggles stopped, it was time to ponder the whole thing more intently. Mat, Will and the great Victor Kovalenko are a medal 470 crew that look like backing up for another campaign. It is important, for 2000, 2008 and 2012 all saw retirements (yes, medals too) and you’d have to think this makes us, Australia, extremely lucky.

It also seems that Mat may not be in too much haste to make his plans known, with the notion that instead of one (Euro) season being the allotted timeframe, it could now be up to a couple of seasons. At the time of writing you could say they might win Hyeres, be more than odds on for the impending European Championship and also the Worlds in Greece in the middle of the year. No pressure lads, of course!

Then here’s another thing. There have been unconfirmed rumours that Šime Fantela from Croatia, Gold Medallist in the 470 with Igor Marenic at Rio, is not continuing on. The suggestion within the 49er class is that Šime’s jumping ship to the quicks to drive with his brother, Mihovil, as crew! Note also that Fantela and Marenic were invited to sail at the World Cup in Hyeres in the 470’s, and then at the European Championship in Monaco in two weeks time, but said no.

This only adds to the cause, for the Australians and the 50 something regattas they have executed together. Remember, Mat, Will and Victor have hardly been off the podium in four years! Yes, we need to stand up, pay attention and then subsequently applaud loudly for that achievement alone. If they end up not actually needing to sail the final race at Hyeres, then it pretty much underscores the whole thing quite emphatically… So in terms of another riff, maybe you could turn to BTO and be Taking care of business here, or maybe it's this one...



Will and Sam Phillips did better on the scoreboard once they got their chartered 49er sorted, and of course they placed at Hyeres last year. One industry legend commented of the down to earth sailors from Sorrento, ‘…they will be much better with their own boat.’ Yep!

Australia is likely to have at least, two maybe three Laser sailors in medal race on Sunday, with Matt Wearn and Tom Burton both part of that action. So it has been good all around, which is nice. Like many, I cannot wait for the Aussie girls to join the action later in the European Summer.

Now like anywhere that does well, people come along to pick off the fruit. It would seem Australia may now be in the Olympic sailing management export business. First we had Malcolm Page to the USA, and now Mark Robinson goes to the UK, taking Stephen Parks’ job as head of GBR Olympic Sailing. Robinson was at one time a junior race officer at the CYCA.

So how many more countries will benefit from our ability to punch above weight? At any rate, it is a much better story to talk about than John Coates and the AOC, which is why this last riff probably came to mind -



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