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Castaway
1 appearance
The most successful Olympic sailor in history, also an eleven-time world and nine-time European champion.
On the island
Eight records
Well, I think you've gotta have a little bit of Elton John if you're gonna be stuck on a desert island, and it's just a very uplifting song, isn't it?
This song Coming Around Again by Carly Simon is one of my father's favourites and really my dad was the person who got me into sailing and inspired me to be a sailor.
Apart from just the most amazing voice was of course some of the music based around the London twenty twelve Olympics, which is very special for a lot of people and certainly great memories for me.
Danielle de Niese and Bruno Lazzaretti
I have to admit, I'm not really a classical music lover, but but I do really love this particular piece of music, which is from the movie Hannibal.
I'm a massive Formula One fan and so The Chain by Fleetwood Mac. I would just sit back and think of all the great Formula One races and heroes and really enjoy it.
This is a very poignant song for me because it takes me back to my great friend Andrew Simpson, who we tragically lost last year in an accident in San Francisco training for the Americas Cup. And he actually was the one who got me into cold play. And he loved cold play, and they played this song at his funeral in Sherbourne Abbey. So there wasn't a dry iron in the Abbey, and it's very, very moving.
Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)
This is a very beautiful piece of music which whenever I listen to it it really sort of gets the the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I would love to uh just be lying on the beach looking out over the sea and and playing this music and and feeling very proud about being British.
What a Wonderful WorldFavourite
It's a Wonderful World by by Louis Armstrong. Um I'm quite a fan of of jazz and um of course it's just a fantastic song, isn't it? And things wouldn't seem too bad if you put this on.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:47The feeling of wanting to win, how does it physically manifest itself?
Well, it's a strange thing'cause as you said, in my life and most other things, I'm not really that aggressive or concerned about winning or losing. But for some reason, when I when I get into a boat, um, that's all I really care about. It's sort of a I morph into almost a different character. And um I suppose in the past I have scared myself on the odd occasion. But no, I'm I'm very focused and determined to try and be the best sailor I I possibly can be and whenever I'm out there racing I of course I want to win.
Presenter asks
12:36You've described yourself as a worrier as a child. Where did the worry come from? What was the problem?
Well, uh many things I suppose, but um I didn't really have anything uh at school as I was growing up until I found sailing that uh I really could get my teeth into that I really loved doing. And um it was just a case that uh would I sort of be able to um find a path with my life moving forwards, which I I suppose at the age of sort of ten or twelve it's a little bit deep thinking, but um for some reason that was that was something that bothered me.
Presenter asks
14:14There was a moment at school, I understand it was at the school assembly, when things changed quite dramatically for you. Tell us what happened.
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Dickens
I just love the characters and it's a wonderful story about life.
The luxury
I've been trying to learn to fly and I really haven't been able to find the time. And this would enable me to sit there in my simulator and fly anywhere in the world in any type of plane. And then you know after I've done that, perhaps I might be able to find wreckage of a plane somewhere in the jungle on this island and uh if I can get it back together I'll be able to fly off
Well, it was a great story because I was fifteen and my parents packed me off to New Zealand to go and race in a world championship and somehow or other I managed to win this world championship. And so I came back home and the first school assembly, the headmaster stood up and he said, Well, you know, we've got this world champion, sort of the first world champion we've had in this sort of age or whatever. And and all of a sudden my my classmates were looking round and they were in complete disbelief and and after they said, Well, we knew that you were really into sailing, we didn't realise you were any good at it. And suddenly then I got there was an element of respect there and that changed things for me.
Presenter asks
21:42Well, let me take you then to the two thousand Sydney Olympics. You won your first gold. You beat the legendary Brazilian sailor Robert Scheidter. It was a fraught and controversial victory. Sir Roger Bannister criticised what he called your unsportsmanlike methods. So how would you sum up your behaviour in that race?
Well, Robert Scheidt and I had had an intense rivalry for four or five years, and it was amazing psychologically, because nobody else thought they could beat him. They were racing for second place. And I was the only person who really said, No, I'm gonna take this guy on and I'm I'm gonna beat him and he didn't like that. So we had some in a very intense rivalry, we had a lot of ding dongs and inevitably it came to the final race showdown in in the Sydney Olympics. And what I did really was to use the rules and my boat to slow Robert down and put him to the back of the fleet. And the way that the scoring system worked in those days in in sailing, if I could get Robert Beneath twenty-third place, I think it was, in a fleet of of thirty-five, forty boats, then I would win the gold medal. And the conditions on that day, that was a far safer bet than trying to gain those points by just sailing.
Presenter asks
24:58I wonder when somebody is such a dear friend and also you've been through great victories with them and they die in a sailing accident. I wonder how it has affected your relationship with the sport that you love.
Well, uh I suppose I hated it for for for quite a while and um we all we all came back to the UK to to try and support Andrew's family and all of his very close friends and um something like that of course it it stops you in your tracks and it makes you um really wonder what life's about. … Sony puts things into perspective. And um yeah, for a while I wasn't I wasn't sure um necessarily if I wanted to go back to San Francisco and and keep training for the Americas Cup. Um but in time you you don't recover, but you um I think you go through that period of reflection and then what would Andrew have said? He would have been the first guy to say, Don't be ridiculous, this is your life, this is what you love doing, get back out there and and get on with it.
Presenter asks
29:30So let's go then to the Americas' Cup, to your dream of heading a British team. Where are your plans right now?
Well, since the success of the Cub I've really been working very hard to get the funding together, the budgets will be around $100 million. So it's a huge task to get that money.
“I morph into almost a different character.”
“I didn't really have anything uh at school as I was growing up until I found sailing that uh I really could get my teeth into that I really loved doing.”
“Suddenly then I got there was an element of respect there and that changed things for me.”
“I suppose I hated it for for for quite a while... what would Andrew have said? He would have been the first guy to say, Don't be ridiculous, this is your life, this is what you love doing, get back out there and and get on with it.”
“I still have sort of one burning desire, which is to try and win the Americas Cup with a British team.”
“I think initially I would struggle, but then, you know, with this fantastic music I'd get over it quite quickly and I'll look at the waves and I'll think about the sailing that I've been very fortunate to do.”