Worlds Silver Fleet Winner Jens Wathne Interview

Many classes would struggle to get a total entry of 60 boats for a championship, but the Melges 24 Worlds in Hyeres boasted two fleets of that size and racing for the Silver fleet honours was just as hotly contested as that in the Gold fleet. Fi Brown took the chance to chat with Silver Fleet winner Jens Wathne of Norway about his Party Girl team, their campaign and how he sees the Melges 24 fleet right now.

FB - Tell us about the Party Girl crew?

JW - The boat is owned by me and my brother Jorgen. We have had the boat since 1999. Over the years the crew has changed. For this championship we were suppose to have the same crew as in the Europeans last year, but one of the crew could not go because of work commitments so this year’s crew were:

Jens A. Wathne, helm, tactics (pictured right)
Jorgen A. Wathne, trimmer (pictured left)
Simon Koch, bow/trim/tactics (pictured centre top)
Anne Helene Lilleaas, bow (pictured centre bottom)

FB - What do you all do professionally/away from sailing?

JW - I am a marine biologist working for the Directorate of Fishing in Bergen Norway. My brother Jorgen is a civil engineer working in the building industry renovating houses and apartments. Simon Koch is a student economist and part time sailor and Anne Helene Lilleaas is studying medicine in Hungary.

FB - How long have you been sailing together?

JW - All but Anne Helene have sailed together before. Joergen and I have sailed together since the early 80's. Simon has been sailing on and off the last couple of years. We have a crew pool of 8 persons that are sailing with us. I sail all the regattas, Jorgen 90% of the regattas. The core is small, but the dream is to sail a whole season with the same 4 persons.

FB - Tell us about your training for the Worlds

JW - In preparations for the worlds we did the national circuit in Norway which involved 3 regattas - Spring Cup, Hanko Race Week and the Nationals. We had some training sessions before these regattas. We came early to Hyeres to train as well. We arrived on Tuesday the 22nd of August. We have not done enough and we know were we can become better. After every race or training session all the crew has to complete a form on performance, so we can judge the performance and establish were the energy to get better must be focused.

FB - What were your hopes going into the regatta and did you achieve your goals?

JW - I'm all for realism and our goal before the worlds, looking at the line up, was simple - reach the gold fleet. We ran into an Italian boat and were hit by an Italian and a Suisse boat during the qualifying round robins. The windy days we had for the qualifications were a bit too much survival for us to reach the goal. It was with the narrowest possible margin - 1 point. That was after a redress was made when we got our best race in the qualification ruined by the Suisse boat. One more point and we would have reached our goal. I sat down after the jury decided my fate and was really disappointed. The goal was not reached, but we decided to turn this into something positive. The next day we turned up with fire in our eyes. We led the silver fleet by one point and had all to loose. We had a 5 and a 23 on the Thursday and were second in silver fleet. On Friday we posted a 5,13 and 6 with no good starts. We had speed and sailed the shifts, which worked well. We thereby won the silver fleet with 20 point margin to the next boat. That is the best manifest that we belong in the gold fleet! We had a good last part of the worlds and it’s always nice to end on a high.

FB - How competitive was the racing in the silver fleet and who did you see as your major oposition?

JW - The major opposition was:

ITA – 638 Marchingenio – Giorgio Colato
ITA – 597 Imagination 2 – Carlo Gullotta
GBR – 648 Team Panasonic – Adrian Peach
NED – 117 Tape That – Carlo Vroon
ITA – 598 Wolano – Antonio Binacchi
ITA 567 Conte of Florence – Andrea Magni

All these boats were close to us in the beginning but Team Panasonic won a race and got 9 on Thursday that brought them into the game. The Conte of Florence had a worse race than our second on Thursday but he was the most consistent opponent in the silver fleet. Carlo in NED 117 was right behind us after qualification, but he only finished better than us once in the silver fleet.

FB - Tell us how the regatta went for you, sailing in the round robins, being so close to making the gold fleet and then going onto win the silver fleet.

JW - We came down early to be well prepared. That is one of the things about one design racing. You, the crew and the boat must be ready and prepared. All went according to plan.

The heavy breeze came and sort of ruined our regatta. We raced hard but we were not fast enough up wind to compete with the best in the survival conditions. Our series in the round robin was very consistent with results ranging from 26-30. That indicated that our speed is lacking to compete with the best. Some of the races we sailed fast upwind with the like of USA 600, USA 505 and others. In general they picked up boats where we lost them. We sailed a bit too long on the course as well. We like heavy wind but this was a bit too much survival. There was a lot of protest in the beginning, which is a part of the game but it’s exhausting. We always have a goal to stay out of trouble and sail our own race.

We were very disappointed when our goal – gold fleet sailing – didn’t happen. The team were down and it was not fun. As a team we decided to turn this into something positive and do what we came for – sail fast. Remember that the only thing we could do in that fleet was to sail ourselves down in the ranking. Going into to the silver fleet with a narrow lead of just one point is exciting.

We focused on getting clean starts and let our speed work for us. We sailed the shifts and sailed really fast down wind in all the races. In the second race in the silver fleet we didn’t get free our opponents and therefore our speed could not help us. Winning with 20 point margin in the silver fleet is a moral boost for us. In Norway the biggest fleet is 30-32. Therefore winning a fleet of 60 was great. The guys in the silver fleet try as hard as the can. You can see that in the starts, mark rounding and in the protest meetings. They give away nothing! We had superior boat speed and boat handling in the silver fleet and that is good to bring into next year’s regattas.

FB - Do you believe the class is right to split the fleet into two groups when the entry exceeds 100 boats?

JW - Talking to Jes Holger (3x 505 world champion) on board Team Pegasus (USA 505) about gate starts in a fleet of 170 505s was interesting. Splitting into two fleets works and both the Melges 24 worlds in France (La Rochelle and Hyeres) have proven that. If gate start is something for the Melges 24 class is another thing.

Sailing is great in the way that the ordinary club sailor can meet world-class sailors. A pre-qualification system together with the shifting of locations (US, Europe) for the big event like the worlds would maybe hurt the number of entries. A split in Corinthian fleet and the rest is important. So is the gold/silver fleet split as well. Melges 24 should be a class for the elite, but to make it the very best class we need to let everybody compete in it.

FB - Away from the sailing you are always a very sociable crew. How important is it to you that the class you sail in has a good social scene and how would you describe the Melges 24 social life?

JW - The social side has and will always play an important part of our sailing. We have cut back on being out late, but we are still social. In Hyeres we invited all the other Norwgian teams and the one Swedish team for a get together. Team J&J provided food and drinks for the teams. This proved to be a huge success for all parties. It was good for the new teams and it will over time strengthen the Norwegian Melges class. My brother and I have been mentored by the Nergaard brothers and were happy to host this outside our humble apartment on the beach.

The social scene in the Melges 24 class is awesome. All the guys that you meet at a championship are great. You sort of know every body after a while in the class and you can ask them just about everything regarding racing. The same faces keep turning up year after year. Having a beer tent and place were people can gather, talk, joke etc etc is of outmost importance. It should be put in every document for planning a championship. Had the information about the food on the opening sermony been given in English I can guarantee you that the food would have been gone. Communication is vital for the social scene to work.

I made some new friends in Hyeres and I got to talk to the already existing ones.

FB - And finally how is the Melges 24 class going in Norway?

JW - In Norway the class organizers have been working hard to promote the class. It is working and the Melges 24 is a very hot class in Norway again and some of the countries best sailors sail in the class. The event management is important and the sailors know (and get) what they want. That has been proven over the last year.

There is always room for more sailors in the fleet!

Congratulations again to the Party Girl crew on their win in the Silver Fleet and our thanks to Jens for sparing time to talk to us.