The Yacht Racing Podcast

Australian-born Luke Parkinson is a high-performance sailor who has carved out an enviable career for himself in the ocean racing world – having won The Ocean Race 2014-15 with Ian Walker's Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing – and as an expert protagonist of the art of foiling in both SailGP and the America's Cup – with Ben Ainslie's Emirates Team GBR and INEOS Britannia, respectively.During a wide-ranging conversation Luke talks about his early days as a young sailor, his aspirations of following in the footsteps of his Olympic gold medal winning sister Tessa, his ongoing passion for ocean racing, his first experience in of racing around the world, as well as his thoughts on the America's Cup and SailGP.

Tom Morris is a talented British dinghy sailor, who aside from his sailing achievements – that include a national championship victory in the RS800 twin trapeze skiff class and winning the UK’s champion of champions Endeavour Trophy last year – is also host of the highly popular YouTube channel Mozzy Sails, where he and some of his sailing friends provide some fascinating and much needed analysis of the technical side of the 37th America’s Cup. So far, Morris' channel has racked up close to four million views and has a subscriber base of just short of 22 thousand and counting.

British sailing writer and America's Cup aficionado Magnus Wheatley has been obsessed with yacht racing's oldest and most prestigious competition since he was in his mid-teens..

Justin Chisholm catches up with fellow British sailing journalist Andy Rice, who as well as being a regular contributor to all the major sailing publications also hosts the Sailjuice Podcast as well as running the Road to Gold 12 step coaching programme that helps sailors of all abilities improve their racing performance.

Justin Chisholm is joined by friend and colleague David Fuller – host of the Yacht Business podcast which examines new innovative technologies, trends and business models that are having an impact on the global marine industry. On this crossover episode – which will be jointly published on The Yacht Business Podcast, (available on all major podcasting platforms) – the pair discuss how various technologies are having an effect on the professional yacht racing world.

Justin Chisholm’s guest this time is British Olympic medallist and SailGP competitor Hannah Mills.Hannah won silver in the women’s 470 class at the London 2012 Olympics and followed that victory up with back to back gold medals at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 making her the most successful female Olympic sailor of all time.She called time on her Olympic campaigning after the last Games, but was snapped up by Sir Ben Ainslie’s Great Britain SailGP Team where she has raced in the strategist role on the British F50 foiling catamaran, as well as spearheading the team’s initiatives around the SailGP Women’s Pathway Programme and indulging her passion for sustainability with the the team’s Protect Our Future climate education platform recently launched with its charity partner, 1851 Trust.THIS EPISODE ID FREE TO LISTEN TO UNTIL JUNE 26 2022. AFTER THAT DATE PLEASE SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS OUR ENTIRE BACK CATALOGUE.Image © Thomas Lovelock/SailGP--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm’s guest is Dutch offshore sailor Rosalin Kuiper who has just been announced as a member of Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia  IMOCA 60 crew for the upcoming edition of The Ocean Race which sets off around the world in January 2023. As you will hear in the interview the young Dutch sailor has a fantastic back story. Whereas lots of people just dream of being a professional sailor and racing around the world Rosie came up with a plan and went out on her own into the world and made it happen.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm’s guest is British yachtsman Freddie Carr a five time veteran of the America’s Cup who has recently signed on for his sixth campaign to win yachting’s oldest and most prestigious trophy.Aside from his racing skills Freddie has also carved out a sailing media career for himself and is well known to high-performance sailing fans for his role as a mainstay of the SailGP commentary team.The interview turned into a wide ranging discussion that spanned Freddie’s illustrious career in the America’s Cup, his thoughts on SailGP, as well as a debate over the relative merits of cycling versus grinding in the next America’s Cup – and much more besides.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm’s guest is American Olympic silver medalist and renowned performance coach Morgan Reeser. Reeser won a silver medal in the 470 class at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona sailing with the legendary Kevin Burnham and has since coached the Greek women’s and British men’s pairings to Olympic gold and silver respectively and established himself as a sought after performance coach across a range of classes from small one-design keelboats to TP52s.Unsurprisingly, he has a treasure chest of great stories from his long career in yachting and is always keen to share his enthusiasm for the sport that has served him so well throughout his life.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

When it comes to ocean racing achievements Damian sets the bar pretty high. He has six editions of the The Ocean Race under his belt, as well as wins in the double handed Barcelona Race, and record setting non-stop runs aboard monster sized maxi catamarans like Steve Fosset’s PlayStation and Cheyenne.Damian grew up on a farm in Ireland close to the water and spent his childhood and teenage years on the water with his friends sailing a range of craft from windsurfers to dinghies.Over the last few years, as the Sustainability Programme Manager for the 11th Hour Racing Team he has been instrumental in demonstrating how performance, sustainability, and business can merge into a successful and replicable model for the marine industry and beyond.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

The latest episode of The Yacht Racing Podcast was recorded in San Francisco, California where eight international professional sailing teams have been practising out on the bay ahead of the million dollar grand finale of the second season of SailGP.Justin Chisholm’s guest this time is the prolific Australian skipper Tom Slingsby who as well as leading the SailGP rankings with his Australia SailGP team, has also in recent months won the Moth World Championship and line honours in the Middle Sea Race aboard Comanche – to say nothing of mixing it with the top teams at his first ever TP52 Worlds.Slingsby has a mainstay of the SailGP movement from its inception and is very enthusiastic about its future. However he is also an past Americas’ Cup winner, and – as he reveals in the interview – he has not ruled out getting involved with the 37th America’s Cup.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm speaks to British America’s Cup sailor and Olympic gold medalist rower, Matt Gotrel, who has just re-signed as a member of the powerhouse grinding team for the British Challenger of Record at AC37 – Ben Ainslie’s Ineos Britannia.Gotrel comes from a sailing family and began his career crewing in dinghies on lakes in the south of England. He quickly progressed through the 29er class and into the 49er to join the British Olympic Sailing Team before putting his sailing on hold to go to universityThat’s where he was lured into the world of competitive rowing – a sport in which he worked his way up to Olympic selection and won the gold in the Men’s 8 at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.But Gotrel wasn’t done with sailing yet and joined Ineos Britannia for the British syndicate’s 36th America’s Cup campaign. Now he is back for another try at winning sailing’s oldest and most prestigious trophy.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm’s guest is British sailor Laurence Mead – the regatta director at the world’s oldest and largest regatta week: the annual UK spectacular that is Cowes Week.The first Cowes Week regatta was back in 1826 and it now takes place every year on The Solent – that narrow tidal waterway between the English south coast and the nearby Isle of Wight.Laurence – who took over at Cowes Week in 2018 – is an accomplished sailor in his own right, having competed internationally in the Etchells class and on World Match Racing Tour, as well as at the Admiral’s Cup and in the Sydney Hobart.During the interview the pair discuss the unique experience of competing at Cowes Week and Laurence gives a glimpse behind the scenes of what goes into running an annual week of racing for around 600 boats and 5000 sailors.[Image © Paul Wyeth]--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm’s guest this time is the New Zealand high performance foiling supremo, Phil Robertson.Robertson made his name as a professional sailor on the international match racing circuit where he twice won the World Match Racing Tour World Championship.Now though he is fully fledged disciple of the high performance foiling revolution and best known for his role as a helmsman and skipper on the SailGP regatta circuit – where he specialises in developing new teams as they join the circuit.After working with the Chinese and Spanish teams to good effect in the first two seasons of SailGP Robertson has just been announced as skipper and helmsman of the newly announced Canada SailGP Team for Season 3.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Pip Hare is the British solo sailor who set the social media world alight during her single handed circumnavigation of the world in the last Vendee Globe.Hare was sailing on one of the oldest and least technologically advanced boats in the fleet and faced a raft of issues along the way. But she made it around and finished in 19th place – the first British skipper home.As you will hear in the interview – Pip had to overcome plenty of hurdles just to get to the start line. The Covid pandemic didn’t help, and financially it was touch and go for a while.But – just as she was beginning to doubt whether she would make it – an email from a prospective sponsor changed everything.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm chats with British Olympic campaigner John Gimson whose 16-year Olympic career culminated last year in he and his sailing partner Anna Burnett winning the Silver medal in the Nara 17 class at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.Justin caught up with John just before Christmas and shortly after he and Anna had returned from kicking off their Paris 2024 Olympic campaign by defending their Nacra 17 World Championship title in Oman.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm’s guest is British solo racing skipper Alex Thomson. Thomson is a veteran of no less than five editions of the Vendée Globe solo around the world race. He made his first attempt in 2004 but damage to his boat put him out of that race and the following edition in 2008-09, but he went on to finish third in the 2012-13 edition and second in the 2016-17. Despite starting the 2020-21 edition as a firm favourite to become the first ever non-French Vendée Globe winner, Thomson was again forced out of the race after first having to effect running repairs to the bow of his state of the art ultra high tech IMOCA 60 and then suffering catastrophic damage to one of his rudders in a collision with floating ocean debris. The British skipper shocked the sailing world recently with the announcement that he would not be competing in the 2024-25 Vendée Globe.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm’s guest is Ed Gorman – a veteran British journalist who during a 25 year career with the British Times newspaper was deputy foreign editor, deputy news editor and a war correspondent – before switching gears to cover Formula 1 and sailing.Ed was instrumental in introducing two British sailing legends – Dame Ellen MacArthur and Sir Ben Ainslie – to the mainstream public and has reported from a multitude of America’s Cups, Olympic regattas, and around the world race stopovers.As well as reporting on the America’s Cup and SailGP for The Times – Ed’s latest project is helping the French–centric IMOCA 60 class spread it’s message to the English speaking world.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm's guest is fellow-Brit Sam Holliday, co-founder of the Race Around – a single and double-handed multi-stage around the world race in Class 40 yachts, scheduled to take place in 2023. Sam is no stranger to the professional yacht racing scene having been involved in Vendee Globe campaigns for British skippers Mike Golding and Mirranda Merron, as well as helping to run successful Class 40 events like The Atlantic Cup and The Pineapple Cup. Although the Race Around start isn’t until 2023, interest from potential competitors is strong – and, as Sam explains in the interview, he and his small but growing team are working flat out to get everything in place.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message

Justin Chisholm's guest is British yacht racing journalist Andy Rice who had just returned from Enoshima, Japan where he had been reporting on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic regatta for World Sailing.Andy is a veteran Olympic sailing correspondent so well positioned to comment on just how different things were for the sailors in Japan as they coped not only with the pressure of Olympic competition out on the water bit also strict Covid 19 restrictions back ashore.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yacht-racing-podcast/message