Justin Chisholm Meets Melges 24 Newcomer Ian Ainslie of Team Proximo
The first event of the 2010 Volvo Cup Series in Italy saw yet another top-flight team join the Melges 24 regatta circuit in the form of Team Proximo, helmed by South African Ian Ainslie, a three time Olympian in Finn class and strategist aboard Shosholoza at the 2007 America’s Cup.
For the IM24CA, Justin Chisholm sat down with Ian recently to find out more about the Volvo Cup’s first ever South African entry….
IM24CA: How did your Melges 24 campaign come about?
IA: Back in 2007, Peter Kocsis from Hungary, formed Team Proximo to support some athletes in the Hungarian Olympic classes and stage a Hungarian Melges 24 team. After getting married and moving to Hungary part time, I became involved in Team Proximo during 2008. Initially, my involvement was as a coach, but subsequently Peter agreed to support my match racing campaign from July 2008 onwards.
I love one design racing and the Melges 24 is the ultimate one design class. Last year we did some match race training on Peter's two Melges 24’s (without lifelines and with bumpers fitted). For 2010 Peter wanted to mount a proper program to prepare for the World Championships in Tallin. Our plan is to do as many of the Volvo Cup events in Italy in preparation for the Worlds. In terms of aspirations, our goal is to try to develop the Team Proximo ‘brand’ in the same way that other successful teams have done on the Melges 24 international stage.
IM24CA: Introduce us to the Team Proximo Melges 24 crew?
IA:
Ian Ainslie - Helm (44) South African. Ex-teacher, now sails full time. I live in Hungary with my wife and new baby until it gets too cold and then we escape Cape Town between November and March.
Paul McKenzie – Tactician. Australian living in Perpignan, France. Ex-accountant, now sails full time.
Roger Hudson – Trimmer. South African living in UK. The driving force, along with his father David, behind the Race Ahead project in South Africa. Race Ahead gives talented South African sailors the chance to gain experience on the international regatta scene. With a hand-picked crew of race Ahead youngsters, Roger has campaigned very successfully on the European SB3 circuit over the last few years and achieved two podium finishes in last two World championships.
Adam Martin (22). Bowman. Australian. A specialist match racer since he graduated from 420's and 470's. When you see how big he is you might doubt that he ever sailed dinghies – and he is still growing!
IM24CA: What preparation did you do to get ready for the 2010 Melges 24 circuit? What help did you get? What were the most significant things you learned during preparation?
IA: We did a match race earlier this year in Slovenia where we met Peter Podunavac and his team. We arranged to train with them for a few weekends in Portoroz, which turned out to be very useful. When we entered our first event in San Remo, we arranged to have Nigel Young from North Sails Ireland come along to help us out. He showed us how to set the boat up properly. It seems that the setup has become really refined so that everything happens semi-automatically. For example, the rig tension, jib car, jib sheet, mainsheet tension all goes around in a loop. If you get the rig tension right then it pretty much sets everything else up. Of course, we still need to get the last five-percent of speed out of the boat, but we really feel we are learning a lot each time we sail against the speedy guys. Actually, I think it is really fun to learn a whole lot of new techniques like this. Having raced the SB3 so much Roger has the most asymmetric experience of all of us and is getting us up to speed on that side of Melges 24 racing. Although for the guys on the rail it is really hard work if you are not used to hiking off the life-line, overall the boat is so much fun to sail, especially downwind in a big breeze.
IM24CA: Tell us how you put all this preparation into practice at your first Melges 24 regatta?
IA: That first event in San Remo didn’t start off too well. In our first race we got a terrible start, got bounced around the first beat, rounded the first mark almost last and finished fortieth. The best way to describe that experience would be as a rude awakening. Fortunately by the end of the day we had managed to include a fourth in our score as well and at the end of the regatta we were delighted to finish sixth overall. Quite honestly we were stoked with that result, as we think that the standard of the fleet is extremely high at these Volvo Cup events.
IM24CA: What aspects of sailing the Melges 24 have you found most challenging?
IA: The boys tell me that the afore-mentioned hiking is really tough. Certainly when I call for a ‘big hike’ from my cushy seat at the back of the boat, I do sometimes get three pairs of fish eyes looking back at me from the rail. Personally I haven't raced in a big fleet for ten years or so and have done a really bad job with the starts so far. In the last few years of match racing, I have programmed myself to only listen to Adam telling me where to go in the prestart. Moving to big fleet racing with sixty plus boats on the line as opposed to one match race competitor has been a bit of a culture shock. We are working hard on this weakness and rest assured we will get it right.
IM24CA: What is your planned Melges 24 programme for 2010?
IA: Four Volvo Cups regattas, with some training in the days before each event and then the worlds in Tallin. Roger, Adam and I will also do a few match races interspersed in this schedule. Paul will also be doing some Star sailing too.
IM24CA: Any final thoughts or comments about your Melges 24 experience so far?
IA: Just to say we are really having fun in the Melges 24. The racing has been very tight and exciting. The downwind legs in the last race at our second regatta in Scarlino are definitely the highlight so far. Our training mates from Slovenia capsized next to us so hard that they seemed to do a tailspin (like when a 18ft Skiff launches out into the air and comes down on it's stern before wiping out). Incredible to witness and we are hoping we get a few more runs like that in the near future.