Series 2 - Ep6 - Sir Robin Knox-Johnston Part 2

07/07/20 • 50 min

This month double Olympic gold medalist Shirley Robertson sits down for a two part podcast chat with the first man ever to sail solo non-stop around the planet, Britain's Sir Robin Knox-Johnston. In this, Part 2 of their discussion, the pair talk about life after the return from Sir Robin's incredible 312 day journey.

Having completed his voyage, and cemented his place in the annals of the history of exploration, Sir Robin's competitive streak soon saw him back on the global race course, and by 1977 he was joint skipper on an entry in the Whitbread Round the World Race, where amongst his crew was a certain Peter Blake. With the announcement of the Jules Verne Trophy, Knox-Johnston and Blake went on to famously form the eventual record holding team, ENZA New Zealand, breaking the established record in 1994 with a 74 day lap of the planet.

Robertson and Knox-Johnston then discuss how a trip with British mountaineer and expedition leader Sir Chris Bonnington inspired an idea that would become the 'open to all' crewed around the world adventure, The Clipper Race. It's a race that has been on going now for over twenty years, and is currently in it's twelfth, a fact that Sir Robin ranks as one of his greatest achievements.
"When I look at all the lives that have benefitted from the Clipper, and the number of those sailors, forty percent of them have never been on a boat before, who have taken up sailing subsequently as their sport, to my mind that is going to rank pretty highly because there's over five thousand people now that have taken the sport up all over the world." states Sir Robin, on being asked by Robertson what he sees as his greatest contribution to the sport.
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 iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact [email protected]

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Series 2 - Ep4 - Ben Ainslie Part 2

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The second part of Shirley Robertson's in depth chat with British sailing legend Sir Ben Ainslie sees the duo delve deep into the America's Cup, as Ben reveals his thoughts and experiences on a career spent chasing the illusive, oldest trophy in world sport.
Throughout this second part Ainslie and Robertson discuss the Ben's passion for the Cup, and how his early experiences in the Cup world did not go as he had hoped they would. As his experience in the Cup arena grew, his exploits elsewhere in sailing soon put him on the most wanted list, and after the highs of London 2012, Ainslie joined Oracle Team USA, then watched from the sidelines as the team lost race after race to a seemingly unbeatable Emirates Team New Zealand....:

"I was in the (chase) boat with Russell (Coutts) and Grant (Simmer) and I remember Russell's phone going off, and it was a bit, you know, slightly held off his ear, and it was pretty obvious it was Larry (Ellison) and he wasn't too happy about what he was seeing, you know. And then he just turned round to me and he said 'You, you'd better get your wet suit on."
Sir Ben Ainslie
Ainslie then goes on to share his version of how the team turned a massive deficit into a famous America's Cup victory, and how lifting the oldest trophy in world sport for an American team, solidified his resolve and convinced him that his future in the sport lay in creating a British team, with a long term goal and vision. His honest and insightful account of the 2013 Cup gives another angle on how this remarkable defence of the Cup unfolded.
The final points of discussion in the podcast relate to Ainslie's current position, leading the British outfit, INEOS Team UK, into the next iteration of the America's Cup. The pair discuss how the initial Team came about, the rigours of raising money for such a financially dependent endeavour, and how lessons learned in the last Cup in Bermuda are helping the effort as the Team prepare for the 36th America's Cup in New Zealand in 2021.

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Series 2 - Ep7 - Olympic Stories Part 1

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This month double Olympic gold medalist Shirley Robertson goes back to her sailing roots as she talks about success and failure with six very different multiple Olympic medallists. The interviews span fifty two years of Olympic competition, feature a total of twelve medals, seven gold, and include some of the biggest names in Olympic Sailing.
The two part podcast kicks off with London 2012 Laser gold medallist Tom Slingsby, and his emotional account of how the surprise of failure in Beijing 2008 drove him to the top of the podium four years later in London. Slingsby's is a fascinating account, starting with his memories of how, while watching Sydney 2000, he resolved to one day stand atop the Olympic podium.
"I'm not the most athletically gifted person, when I started training and sailing I was not a good junior sailor, before the Sydney Olympics, before I dedicated myself to it I finished 61st at the Radial Nationals in 1999, I was mediocre, but I said 'I love this sport, I wanna do it and I'm gonna train and put in the work' and I just felt like a regular kid, I just loved it and dedicated myself to it."

British 470 Women's Olympic Champion Hannah Mills tells how disruptive a postponed Olympics has been, having decided to return to defend her crown after her win in Rio 2016.
Mills goes on to reveal to Robertson how the relative disappointment of a silver medal at her home Games in London 2012 really fuelled the determination for herself and crew Saskia Clarke, as they resolved to go the distance one last time together, in a bid to go one better and win in Rio. Mills discusses the Rio regatta, and what finally winning Olympic gold with her best friend meant to the pair as they began to realise their achievement.
From the amateur Olympic era of the 1960s and 70s Robertson then interviews British Olympic sailing legend Rodney Pattisson, a double Olympic gold medallist from Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972 and a silver medallist from Montreal 1976. Pattisson sailed the Flying Dutchman Class, was a submarine officer in the Royal Navy, and is widely known as being one of the forefathers of the 'no stone unturned' approach to modern Olympic sailing. His tales of fine tuning and optimisation while simultaneously duping his opposition are not just amusing, but also show a ruthless and dogged approach to competition, here explaining a dominant display at the Munich Games of 1972...
"People didn't know I'd built another boat, they still thought it was the old one and I kept that a secret right up until after the Games. It had the same name on the side of the boat, it had the same colours. One of the things I did was that the old, slower boat had had a prang, and so there was a repair inside the boat that you could see on the varnish work, so I copied that repair and anybody that had a suspicion at all looked underneath the stern deck, knew about the collision and thought it had to be the same boat."

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