Season 3 - Ep6 - Mike Sanderson Part2

07/10/21 • 57 min

Part 2 of this month's podcast which sees Shirley Robertson talk to one of the world's leading offshore and Maxi yacht skippers, from New Zealand, Mike "Moose" Sanderson. With tales to tell from the America's Cup, the Volvo Ocean Race and a host of successful Maxi yacht campaigns, Sanderson is a man who very obviously loves to talk sailing. Having left school early to pursue a career as a sail maker, he has spent his entire adult life immersed in the sport, and from his very first answer his enthusiasm and passion is there for all to hear.
Having sat down to talk just days after Emirates Team New Zealand's win at the 36th America's Cup, the pair kick things off with a short chat about the successful defence of the Cup, before moving on to Sanderson's early love of sailing and desire to make a living from the sport. HIs early inspiration was New Zealand's 1987 Freemantle America's Cup campaign, and of course Sir Peter Blake, and "Steinlager 2's" Whitbread win of 1990, both of which drove him to quit school and take to sailing. Within a few years he had attracted the attention of some big names, in a country where big things were happening in the sport of sailing. At twenty one he was on the crew of New Zealand Endeavour, off around the world on the Whitbread, and his career was well underway.
"What was unbelievable about that campaign was that it was only four or five years after Freemantle, and all my heroes from Freemantle were actually sailing on the boat, these guys had literally all been on posters on my wall, and now I'm getting to sail around the world with them!"
That 1993/94 Whitbread Race was his first of many circumnavigations that made a big impression on the young twenty two year old.
"My first time around the world was like honestly, it was like reading a book about the round the world race...in the Southern Ocean we broke the mizzen mast, everything which I dreamt about, good and bad, it all happened. It was a very surreal time."
The 1993/94 Whitbread was the start of a career that would take in America's Cup campaigns, multiple Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race campaigns, and a World Sailor of the Year win in 2006, having become the youngest skipper ever to win the prestigious Volvo Ocean Race leading the famed "ABN Amro I" campaign. His career spans the modern era of yacht racing, and has seen him sail with some of the biggest names in the sport.
He talks candidly about the Cup period in 2003 in Auckland when Alinghi beat Team New Zealand, and of the implications that had for the sport...:
"That 1989 to 2000 period was interesting times....post 2000 of course was probably the biggest turning point in professional sailing that we've seen....because it went from something that you could possibly live on to literally overnight salaries tripled, quadrupled, whatever you like, suddenly every man and his dog was putting up there hand. It was a great time to be a professional sailor"
As an insight into the modern professional era of competitive sailing, this honest and engaging interview opens the door on life as a professional in our sport, and takes the listener down a multitude of different avenues, as Sanderson opens up on a lifetime spent sailing at the highest level.
This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website, at www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact podcast@shirleyr

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Season 3 - Ep4 - Brad Butterworth Part 2

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Shirley Robertson's guest this month is one of the most successful tacticians of the modern era. From the America's Cup to the Whitbread, the Admirals Cup to the Sydney Hobart, New Zealand's Brad Butterworth has been at the sharp end of competitive sailing for his entire adult life, and has a grand prix sailing CV few could match.

The duo sat down together at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland where Butterworth had been consulting for the official Challenger of record, Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli. The pair kick things off by discussing various aspects of the thirty sixth America's Cup, including the adoption of the new Cup Class, the AC75, and Brad's role as mediator between the Challenger and the Defender.

Sailing since his early school days, Butterworth has strong opinions on various aspects of the America's Cup, and as a winner of four consecutive Cups for two different nations, has more back to back race wins than any afterguard member in Cup history, a fact that in 2004 saw him honoured in the America's Cup Hall of Fame.
In Part 1 of this two part podcast, Robertson and Butterworth talk about his days campaigning with Sir Peter Blake, in the Whitbread Race of 1995, a race that saw 'Steinlager II' dominate the fleet, a fact that had a great effect on the up and coming Butterworth, but in Part 2 the talk centres on Butterworth's successes in the America's Cup, winning for New Zealand in 1995, successfully defending the Cup on home waters in 2000 and then, in a move hugely unpopular with the sailing mad New Zealand public, moving from Team New Zealand to Swiss rivals and eventual 2003 winners Alinghi...:
"It was crazy, it was madness, they were trying to put bullet proof vests on us when we towed out, he (Coutts) had protection, I had protection, a lot of the guys, Kiwis, had protection....they started a movement called Blackheart, which was a great name, for a group that hated us guys. It got out of control. They tried to make it as hard as they possibly could to leave here and compete."

As an insight into the behind the scenes goings on at the highest level of our sport, this two part podcast is a fascinating discussion with one of the most candid, high level names in sailing. From nationality rules to classes of boat through to race formats and court cases, all told from the perspective of a man who openly admits few people would ever call him diplomatic.

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Season 3 - Ep7 - Glenn Ashby Part1

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This month's edition of the podcast sees Shirley Robertson talk to one of the modern America's Cup era's most influential sailors as she interviews Australian Glenn Ashby. An integral part of Emirates Team New Zealand, Ashby has just won his third America's Cup, and talked to Robertson after celebrating the team's successful defence in March 2021.
Like many of Robertson's guests, Ashby reveals that his early life in sailing saw him working in a sail loft, having left school at the age of sixteen, but by then he had already made a name for himself out on the water. Growing up sailing on a lake in Bendigo, Victoria, the first time Ashby sailed on the sea was at eleven years old, in a regatta that saw him become junior state champion. From there, only a potential career racing motorbikes was going to stop the young Ashby becoming a professional sailor - motor sport lost the battle, for the teenage Ashby, Europe was calling...:
"There was a French guy, I heard a bang bang bang on the window, he was throwing stones from on the street to wake me up...and I got down to the boat park and the whole fleet had left, my boat was the only boat on the beach with the cover on. If I hadn't made that race I'd have lost the regatta!"
That admission from Ashby from his first A-Class Worlds regatta win in 1996. He would go on to claim nine more A-Class world titles, three Formula 18 World titles and three Tornado world titles. His ability to sail fast cats fast soon saw him claim a spot at the Olympics where in 2008 he won a silver medal in the outgoing Tornado Class with fellow Aussie Darren Bundock
Inevitably Robertson and Ashby turn to chat of the America's Cup which was itself beginning to look at multihulls for the 2010 Deed of Gift Match. Once decided, Ashby's inclusion was inevitable. Having joined BMW Oracle for the 2010 edition, Ashby then began a career with Emirates Team New Zealand, as they looked to win the 34th America's Cup in San Francisco. What followed for Ashby has been a three Cup campaign with one of the most successful teams of the modern era, but as Ashby reveals, after the shattering defeat in San Francisco, things could have been very different in deed.
"Sitting in the board room with seven or eight people having to make a decision, with Dalts saying 'it's up to you guys, do we shut the doors, or do we keep them open, what do we do?' The brutal reality of the doors of a team that had been around for twenty odd years, to have to be part of that decision making process to shut the doors after being so close, it just didn't feel right."
And so as Ashby reveals, the comeback began. It's a revealing chat, as Glenn talks through the "clean sheet of paper" that saw Emirates Team New Zealand ultimately win the 35th America's Cup in Bermuda. It's an inspirational tale told by one of the team's pivotal members.
Robertson's interview with Ashby is a fascinating discussion, looking behind the scenes of some of the modern era's most talked about Cup moments, from trying to keep the foils of the AC72 a secret pre San Francisco to redemption in Bermuda and the foiling monohulls of AC36, all told first hand from one of the modern day sailing's genuine pioneers.

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