What it took to win A chat with the 2009 Audi
Etchells World Championship Team Racer XY (AUS 874): Jason Muir, Matt Chew, Paul
Wyatt & Bucky Smith. By
Paige Brooks NA
Etchells Class Correspondent March
20, 2009 Photo
by Andrea Francolini Last
Friday, March 13, this Queensland based team clenched the Etchells Worlds
with one race to spare. 85 boats, with
crews of highly decorated sailors, competed in the worlds hosted this year in
Melbourne, Austrailia by the Royal Brighton Yacht Club. When the last day was cancelled due to
weather conditions, Jason Muir’s team had won the Worlds by twenty points
over second place Damien King, and twenty-two points over legendary skipper
John Bertrand. This team of generation
X and Yers (perhaps the reason for the boat name), may be young in years, but
they are wise in experience. Muir’s
team sat down this week to answer a few questions about their regatta win,
and what it took to get there. Congratulations
to you! So has it sunk in yet? What have the first few days post winning
been like? Any surprises? Jason
Muir: No, just lots of phone calls
from family and friends.
Matt Chew: It’s
been surreal. At times I’m over the moon happy, at
times I’m quite just reflecting, and at times I think it was all a dream. [Paul Wyatt was
unavailable this week due to racing commitments] Tell
me about your other teammates. Are you all professional sailors? Matt:
No I’m not a pro, I have always had a supportive family which has
helped me remain a CAT1. Jason owns a
chandlery and is a CAT2; Bucky is a sail maker and is a CAT2; Paul is a CAT
1. Jason:
We are all accomplished amateurs.
I met Paul [Wyatt] when he took me overseas in
1984 to crew for him in the inter cadet worlds. We ended up 10th, I
think. Adrian Finglas [the team’s
coach] put me onto Matty Chew in 2007 for Mooloolaba Nationals and has been
with us since. Bucky [Smith] jumped on board just 3 weeks before Worlds and
slotted in straight away. Tell
me about your sailing experience. Jason:
I’ve been sailing since I was 11 in
sabots, 420s, and 470s. I have won a
couple of Australian championships in these classes. Bucky:
I grew up around sailmaking and sailing from a very early age. I’ve sailed a
lot of different classes and designs over the past 25 years, both racing and
cruising, but the highlight to date has certainly been this Etchells World
Championship win. Matt: I
won the 2001 youth world bronze medal in the 420, and more recently trimmed
main in one design racing on a Sydney 38 and a Farr 40. How
were the jobs distributed on the boat? Jason: We work together
like we are all joined at the hip - we just click! Matty on main and
rig; Paul does compass and works with Bucky on tactics and where all the
other boats are. Bucky does weather and tactics and does it very well. Matt: We work very well as a team as we have a lot
of respect for each other. As when it
all boils down, we are 4 friends! Bucky: Basically, Jason steered
the boat fast, Matt made the boat go fast with rig setup and mainsail trim,
Paul did higher-level strategy and compass numbers and kept in my ear the
whole time about all his thoughts, and I did tactics and headsail trim.
Obviously, I didn't do tactics in isolation, I ran ideas past all the boys,
and often tacking or gybing was a confirmation from Paul or Matt. The key
about this was we really came together as a champion team and we all
performed our tasks well individually which meant each other person didn't
have to give anyone else's task a second thought. Jase and the boys put a lot
of trust in me tactically but operating in their team environment made
performing the job easy. There was no second guessing, no issues, just
positive comments and tactical contribution from the boys with information
and ideas to consider before I made the hard decisions. They put a lot of
faith in me and I'm very proud and relieved at the same time we were able to
put together such a clean consistent scorecard. Any
more about how you work together? Bucky: Jason asked me to come
on board as tactician and headsail trimmer. The great part about that was
Jason, Matt, and Paul were already very well rehearsed in running the boat,
making it go fast, etc. so I was truly able to come on as tactician and focus
99% of my attention on that task. I believe this was one of the keys to
our success. I had all the tactical information at hand and was able to sit
on the boat constantly running tactical options and scenarios through my mind
to make my decisions. This would not have been achievable without Jason
driving the boat perfectly, Matt making the boat go as fast as possible and
giving me his tactical input as well, and especially without Paul keeping in
my ear about our bigger picture strategy we had come up with before each race
and with things like our overall positioning on the race course, the compass
numbers info, etc. This enabled me to make informed, quick decisions. What
attracted you to the Etchells Class? What were your results in recent
Etchells regattas? How much did you practice together leading up to the
regatta? Jason:
The best sailors in the world
sail them. My record in the Etchells so far: 1. 3rd Winter Nationals Mooloolaba 2004 2. 11th Worlds Mooloolaba 2004 3. 3rd Winter Nationals Mooloolaba 2007 4. 2nd QLD state titles December 2007 5. 1st Austrailia National Titles 2008 6. 3rd Winter Nationals Mooloolaba 2008 7. 1st Worlds Austrailia
2009 Bucky:
In Australia the Etchells Class is currently the “top of the game” for one
design fleet racing. There is no fleet that rivals the Etchells racing in
Australia in my opinion and I wanted to sail against the best people. Not
only that, Etchells World Titles is one of my favorite regattas for the
competition, socializing, and general quality of the regatta. Matt: As
a kid I was totally attracted to the class.
They attract the best sailors in the world in a boat that is just
beautiful to look at. I have always
dreamt of winning an Etchells worlds, but thought it would happen when I was
45 years old due to needing to weigh 90-100kgs. The introduction of 4-up crews opened the
doors to many of us dinghy sailors. Bucky: Regarding our pre-world practice
together, basically I came on board about 4 weeks before the worlds. The boat
was already prepared very well and was up to speed. We did a few club races
together and the Brisbane Fleet Championships, which we won. After the fleet
championships we were able to identify areas of improvement in our on-water
processes regarding crew work, tactical information gathering, starting
strategy, and decision making. We then took the boat to Brighton and did the
pre-worlds regatta and kept building on what we were learning about how were
racing the boat and interacting together and communicating on board. Was
winning the Worlds a goal for your team?
How did you go about preparing to win?
Was physical fitness a big part of it?
How did you handle the weight limits? Jason: YES
it was a big goal of mine. Bucky:
I’m sure winning the worlds was a dream for all of the team and definitely on
our minds. But we set modest expectations before the regatta; we really
didn’t focus on the result too much in order to minimize pressure and also to
make the main focus the processes involved with sailing the boat well. Matt: Yes.
We won the nationals the previous season and the worlds were an achievable
goal, along with 10 other boats that in any given series could have won. Bucky:
Physical fitness did come into the program a bit. We are all keen cyclists
and Matt and Jason extend this to triathlons. Regarding the weight limits I
had to lose a few kilos to make my target! I switched my training focus to
aerobic based activities like running, swimming, cycling, etc., and basically
went on a diet for a month! What
did you all do to prepare the boat?
What sails did you use? How
much tuning did you do with other teams? How did they help? Did you have help
from a coach –what sort of work did he have you do? Jason:
We had a great team of guys who do
their jobs very well. We sailed AUS 874, but did very little to prepare the
boat and used North sails. Matt: We
do very little tuning. We use a widely used tuning guide on stock standard
sails. Our boat speed edge comes from what we see and feel. Bucky:
I was lucky enough to step into Jason’s program which already had a very well
prepared and fast boat and the boys had already put in a lot of the hard work
with boat preparation, equipment testing, tuning, and coaching. Luckily, my
longer-term coach happened to be the same coach as theirs – Adrian Finglas –
and this definitely helped me slip comfortably into Jason’s team and fit in. We
read a bit about your strategy for the last few races, what was your strategy
at the beginning of the week? What
were your toughest moments? Bucky:
The main element of our overall regatta strategy was based on being
conservative and going for consistent top 10 finish. My plan was top 15
places in the races would be respectable, consistent top 10 finishes would
put us in the top 5 overall and in a position to play the game at the end of
the regatta, top 5 finishes on average would easily win the regatta. This
meant we were on a mistake-minimizing strategy, risk-minimizing, but taking
the opportunities as they presented themselves. Essentially, keep it clean at
the start, get on the lifted tack or head to what I though was the favoured
side of the course, get the boat going as fast as possible for as long as
possible, minimise tacks upwind to keep the boat at full speed as long as
possible in the lighter conditions, sail in lanes of clear air, stay in
phase, etc., be top 15 at the top mark and chip away from there, if the
opportunity presented itself to win a race later in the race then we could
get a bit of separation and leverage but don't risk losing places in the
process - easier said than done though!! Matt: Very
simple. Sail the favored side, take minimal risks and let the other players
lose the event. That’s basically how
it happened. We nailed every first beat and we were in the top 15 at the top
mark. Bucky:
Our race strategy was initially based on the weather models I was
getting. I looked at what the models
were saying the wind would do around the start time, and then finalized
on-water when I was able to compare what the wind was actually doing to what
the models predicted and my own judgement. An overall start and first beat
strategy was usually agreed upon by 10 mins to go to the warning signal. We
also had to adapt to any weather changes in the final 15mins to the start. The toughest moment was probably missing a big
left-hand shift after the start of race 7 and having to take a lot of sterns
to get out to the favoured left side of the course. We made it out there
eventually and got to the first top mark in good shape but there were some
pretty tense times on the boat on the way. Jason: The toughest moment for me was steering at 110% for long periods
of time. Very mentally challenging
- it's hard work -you can't take your eyes of the jib at any stage. You won the regatta without a single bullet, does
that surprise you or was that part of the plan? Jason: It was part of the plan we just wanted to
finish inside the top ten in every race How
did you feel about the competition (John Bertrand, Jud Smith, Chris Busch
Stuart Childerly, etc). ? Matt: Amazing respect. Jason:
They are all awesome sailors it
was a big thrill to beat them. Bucky: The pre-worlds regatta gave us a good
idea of the main competition and really just confirmed in our minds who was
fast. In terms of specific competitors, I have always maintained that I was
well aware of the calibre of who we were up against. Every race I knew of the
company we were in, and I had the utmost respect for John Bertrand (and his
team of Ben Ainslie and Andrew Palfrey), Jud Smith, Chris Bush, Stuart
Childerly, even the Barry boys, along with many others in the fleet. In fact,
we went through the entry list after the pre-worlds and specifically
identified who we thought were going to be the top 10 (this was tough because
of so many top crews) and we memorised their bow numbers and sail numbers,
and the Barry boys [who finished 2nd
overall] were on the list right from the start. This made it much easier to
know who was where on the race course and I think this is testament to how
much respect we had for the fleet, basing some of our decisions on where our
top competitors were positioning themselves on the race course. Matt: I have grown up following all of those guys.
To race against them at the highest level is an amazing honor. The greatest
moment in my life was receiving a standing ovation from them And
finally, how was the Worlds event?
What was the club like, the social events…any good stories you can
share? What’s next for you Bucky:
The Worlds as an event itself was awesome. We got a great weather window at
the regatta location and had nice mostly sunny skies and light-medium air. It
was truly fantastic but tricky and shifty sailing conditions. The Royal
Brighton Yacht Club and Melbourne Etchells Fleet put on a fantastic event and
it was a real privilege to be part of such a successful event on and off the
water. Matt: What’s
next… Well I don’t know exactly. My
idea was to have a couple of months off and get a perspective on things and
to deal with some real world issues.
However I’m sure the holiday won’t last long as the phone is ringing
with some great offers . Jason:
No not really any good stories...I am fairly low key these
days, but let me say the yacht
club did an amazing job. As for
what’s next, I don’t know, I will go back and do some triathlons
for a while. Now that you have a berth in every future
Etchells Worlds, do you plan to go to Ireland in 2010 or San Diego the
following year? I didn’t know that -
it might change things a bit…. Once
again, congratulations to you all for a job well done. |