The secret of successful boat co-ownership

by Helen Hopcroft on 2 Jan 2007 In this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart co-owners Graeme Ainley and John ‘Willo’ Williams sailed their Peterson 44 ‘Bacardi’ into second place overall on handicap. They also placed second in their division. Sail-world asked the long term friends how they have managed to successfully share ownership of Bacardi?

‘Because Willo’s such a terrific sailor and I’m such a terrific person’ deadpanned Ainley, a former president of Yachting Australia, Victorian Yachting and Commodore of Sandringham Yacht Club.

Like many jokes, this crack contained an element of truth.

Co-owning a boat is a notoriously difficult affair. There’s horror stories about people who just can’t agree on anything; what brand of antifoul to use, how to sail the boat, where to keep it.

Their successful sailing relationship seems to boil down to two things; mutual respect and complementary personalities. Ainley has a great deal of respect for William’s leadership and sailing skill.

‘Willo is an extremely competent sailor…He’s a land surveyor… runs a big land surveying company, so he understands angles and directions….He’s a clever sailing person.’

‘I’m not as good a sailor as a lot of people on the boat. But I’m a person that is able to mix in with a lot of people’.

Ainley’s communication and people skills were very much in evidence when Sail-world spoke to him dockside in Hobart. Although they had just tied up, he chattered away happily to a television crew. Then he launched into our interview with ease. Williams was happy to leave him to it, preferring to spend time talking to family and friends.

The leadership roles on Bacardi appear to be fairly clearly defined. Leadership and decision making is a key area in which many co-owners often experience conflict. They don’t make committee type decisions about racing the boat.

‘I don’t try and run the boat because Willo runs the boat… And you can’t have two skippers on one boat’.

But Ainley does assume a leadership role when required. ‘I don’t try and tell the crew what to do. But I certainly tell them when they’re doing something wrong.’

I asked Williams how they had managed co-ownership successfully for so long?
Although more reticent than Ainley, he agreed that a strong friendship formed a good basis for co-ownership.

They are ‘both very easy going people’ with ‘more or less the same interests.’

Williams had his three sons and his son in law on board this year as crew. When asked if there was any sibling rivalry, Williams joked that the boys would argue with him but not each other.

Ainley chipped in. ‘The three of them are absolutely fantastic sailors. You could go anywhere on the boat in the world with them.’

They had 11 people on board. Ainley described the race as an ‘easy sail’ because the crew were a ‘mix of people that were competent in all areas of the boat.’

One of the crew cheekily described Ainley and Williams as the ‘clown and the ghost’ He was referring to Williams white hair and pale face. Ainley was sporting a rather bright striped top.


This race was William’s 24th and Ainley’s 23rd. They have done approximately 20 races together. They are both proud of the fact that Bacardi has started, and finished, 22 Sydney Hobarts. Ainley says that few boats, if any, can claim such a good finishing record as Bacardi.

Ainley was effusive about the IRC handicap rule which he believes is democratising the sport.

‘The older boats can compete with newer boats…It means that you do not have to have a state of the art boat, with state of the art gear, and professional sailors…to get your boat to a winning position and be competitive.’

‘It’s taking the huge monetary involvement of canting keels, maxi yachts and all the rest of it out of the calculation of whether it’s worth while you competing or not.’

‘The handicap rule is showing that it is worth our while competing in the boat, albeit in a boat that is 27 years old.’

‘You can start the race and if you sail the boat well, with good crew and good equipment…you’ve got a good chance of winning’.