In his early 20s Robert Hopkins found himself coaching the British America's Cup team Victory 83 through to the finals of the Louis Vuitton Cup where they came up against the mighty Australia II. A year later, aged 24, he was head coach of the USA Sailing Team at the Los Angeles Olympics, where the Americans grabbed four gold and three silvers from all seven medal disciplines. SailJuice asked Robert what he has learned about good team communication through his 25 years of coaching and sailing with the very best in the business...
America's Cup veteran Terry Hutchinson says that opposites may not necessarily attract, but putting different personalities together was still a vital part of creating a Quantum Racing team that was strong enough to dominate the European TP52 circuit in its heyday...
For the Oman Sail campaign for the Tour Voile, skipper Rob Greenhalgh was tasked with training up three inexperienced Omani sailors as part of the crew. Using this Excel spreadsheet, Rob got his sailors into top form in the shortest time. To get the Omanis up to scratch in every aspect of their jobs on board, Greenhalgh divided every routine, every manoeuvre - both inshore and offshore - into the tiniest detail. Now you can benefit from Rob's experience and apply it to your own sailing. For anyone looking to organise complex manoeuvres between a crew, this document is gold dust.
Having done the tactical job for a few years, Terry Hutchinson found it hard to relinquish control of the decision-making habit when he started steering the TP52. Now when he's helming the AC45 multihull in the America's Cup World Series, more than ever it's vital to be absolutely clear with his communication. Things happen fast and communication needs to be heard and understood first time, every time...
Nik Pearson won the Etchells World Championships doing the bow for skipper Stuart Childerley and Simon Russell working the mainsheet. Every team is different in its make-up of skills, but there are some good general principles of communication here that will work for any sailor looking to improve teamwork in the boat.
Before you get too far down the track with a new sailing partner, make sure you have the same goals and aspirations, warns Jon Emmett. Do otherwise, and you're storing up trouble for the future....
Terry Hutchinson says you've got to talk about when things go wrong, but not WHEN things go wrong... Er, not quite clear, well listen in and see what this multiple keelboat and multihull champion has to say about communicating with your team mates in a constructive way...
Ed Baird likes to take time out from the rarefied world of America's Cup racing to do some good ol' fleet racing in sportsboats, including the Melges 32. Talking to Justin Chisholm, the American pro sailor shares his views on mental approach, learning from mistakes, and how the team works together...
Peter Greenhalgh won the 49er Europeans in 2010 with Chris Draper after a 'disappointing' sixth place at the Worlds. What changed? One of the primary things this British team worked on was their communication, talking the same language. Justin Chisholm interviewed the sailors...
Emirates Team New Zealand is competing on the Audi MedCup Circuit as a test bed for everything they do as and when there is an America's Cup for the Kiwis to get their teeth into. Team coach Rod Davis says one of the key areas that they are focusing on is how the sailing and design teams work together. "My job is to try to promote the learning process between the sailing and design teams, to build up the communication between the different parts of the team," he says. "It's a good dress rehearsal for the same process that we'll have to go through when we start building up to the next America's Cup."
Professional sailing teams love to measure stuff. If it can be calibrated, it will be calibrated. And so America's Cup teams will go through 200 or more keel bulb designs, and test hundreds if not thousands of hull shapes, sail shapes, mast configurations, deck layouts, and so on. But what about the human element? Do sailing teams invest as much time and effort in perfecting the human technology on board the boat?
Video: Sven & Kalle Koster are one of the top Men's 470 teams in the world. They are one of a number of brother teams competing in Olympic sailing, but is sailing with your sibling good, bad or both?
America's Cup veteran Terry Hutchinson says that opposites may not necessarily attract, but putting different personalities together was still a vital part of creating a Quantum Racing team that was strong enough to dominate the European TP52 circuit in its heyday...
For the Oman Sail campaign for the Tour Voile, skipper Rob Greenhalgh was tasked with training up three inexperienced Omani sailors as part of the crew. Using this Excel spreadsheet, Rob got his sailors into top form in the shortest time. To get the Omanis up to scratch in every aspect of their jobs on board, Greenhalgh divided every routine, every manoeuvre - both inshore and offshore - into the tiniest detail. Now you can benefit from Rob's experience and apply it to your own sailing. For anyone looking to organise complex manoeuvres between a crew, this document is gold dust.
Having done the tactical job for a few years, Terry Hutchinson found it hard to relinquish control of the decision-making habit when he started steering the TP52. Now when he's helming the AC45 multihull in the America's Cup World Series, more than ever it's vital to be absolutely clear with his communication. Things happen fast and communication needs to be heard and understood first time, every time...
Nik Pearson won the Etchells World Championships doing the bow for skipper Stuart Childerley and Simon Russell working the mainsheet. Every team is different in its make-up of skills, but there are some good general principles of communication here that will work for any sailor looking to improve teamwork in the boat.
Ed Baird likes to take time out from the rarefied world of America's Cup racing to do some good ol' fleet racing in sportsboats, including the Melges 32. Talking to Justin Chisholm, the American pro sailor shares his views on mental approach, learning from mistakes, and how the team works together...
Emirates Team New Zealand is competing on the Audi MedCup Circuit as a test bed for everything they do as and when there is an America's Cup for the Kiwis to get their teeth into. Team coach Rod Davis says one of the key areas that they are focusing on is how the sailing and design teams work together. "My job is to try to promote the learning process between the sailing and design teams, to build up the communication between the different parts of the team," he says. "It's a good dress rehearsal for the same process that we'll have to go through when we start building up to the next America's Cup."
Professional sailing teams love to measure stuff. If it can be calibrated, it will be calibrated. And so America's Cup teams will go through 200 or more keel bulb designs, and test hundreds if not thousands of hull shapes, sail shapes, mast configurations, deck layouts, and so on. But what about the human element? Do sailing teams invest as much time and effort in perfecting the human technology on board the boat? 