Show Notes
Finishing fourth at an Olympic Games is one of the hardest things for any athlete to go through and, unfortunately, it’s what happened to Paul Snow-Hansen and Dan Willcox at the recent Tokyo Olympics. What made it even more emotional was the fact the medal race was probably the last time the pair will sail a 470 competitively together with the class going to a mixed format for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Paul and Dan are presently in MIQ in Christchurch but Broad Reach Radio caught up with them just before they left Enoshima, the sailing venue for the Games. They reflected on that Olympic campaign as well as the nine years they had been sailing together. But their association goes back way further than that, to the time they competed against each other as young Opti sailors and went to junior world championships as teammates.
Paul and Dan have some good stories to tell, like the time they scrambled to get out of Spain as Covid-19 took a hold on the world and how their Rio Olympics was scuppered by illness but they also give a good insight into what it’s like being an Olympic sailor and the impact it has on loved ones. And, of course, they tell the stories of their worst wipeouts ever.
More from Broad Reach Radio - The Yachting New Zealand Podcast
The number 202.9 might not mean a lot to most but is a figure Glenn Ashby has become obsessed about. The two-time America’s Cup winner is now leading a group from Emirates Team New Zealand trying to break the wind powered land speed record. They need to go faster than 202.9km/h on the salt flats of Lake Gairdner in South Australia to do it.
New Zealand has a proud tradition in the round the world race and a lot of that started with Ceramco New Zealand in the early 1980s – the first New Zealand-flagged boat to compete in the gruelling event. It was a campaign headed up by Sir Peter Blake and something that captured the imagination of Kiwis everywhere. But disaster struck on the first leg of the race when the boat’s mast came down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean as the team were vying for the lead. It was a devastating blow for the crew, including Simon Gundry who is today’s guest on Broad Reach Radio.
Karl Budge doesn’t purport to be much of a sailor, but he is one of this country’s leading event organisers having previously turned the ASB Classic into one of the world’s best tennis tournaments. He consistently attracted some of the world’s top tennis players to this country and now he’s looking to sprinkle his magic dust on the New Zealand leg of SailGP.
Karl Budge doesn’t purport to be much of a sailor, but he is one of this country’s leading event organisers having previously turned the ASB Classic into one of the world’s best tennis tournaments. He consistently attracted some of the world’s top tennis players to this country and now he’s looking to sprinkle his magic dust on the New Zealand leg of SailGP.
Mike Sanderson is one of the most successful sailors of his generation. He’s a former World Sailor of the Year, two-time winner of the round the world race including when he skippered ABN Amro to victory in the 2005/06 Volvo Ocean Race, been involved in multiple America’s Cup campaigns, a record breaker, a successful maxi yacht skipper and now co-owner and CEO of Doyle Sails.