Olympic bound?

TheDailySail speaks to Stevie Morrison, one of Britain's top Olympic hopefuls

Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes are currently Britain’s second ranked 49er team and with such a competitive GBR 49er fleet, that is good going. Helmsman Morrison has accumulated remarkable experience in a wide range of boats at a competitive level from 420s to Fireballs and now 49ers. TheDailySail spoke to Morrison after his recent win at the 49er UK Nationals in Paignton to find out a little more about his programme with Rhodes and their recent foray into the International 14.

Morrison comes across as an open friendly serial dinghy sailor who clearly loves what he does and is happy to share pointers with anyone. When we spoke to him he was packing his boat up as quickly as possible to head off to the Europeans in Copenhagen, but then he's always packing to go somewhere, or unpacking.

Aged 26, Morrison has been sailing the 49er full time for three years now. He is in the RYA Olympic Squad which provides the bulk of his funding along with the team’s sponsors Holt, Specialized Marine and clothing company Gul.

Winning the UK Nationals was a bonus says Morrison; he points out that although they were there to win, they were also trying to use it for boat speed development prior to the European Championships. The win was twice as pleasing. When asked about what his aims are for the Europeans Morrison says that they are looking for a top five result, but he is not unrealistic about doing a bit better or a bit worse, commenting: “Obviously once you are there anything can happen, so we will see.”

In British 49er squad terms, Morrison and Rhodes are a particularly long standing team. Having sailed together in the boat since February 2002 this makes them practically veterans. Personally they grew up together in Exmouth, Devon and have known each other since they were ten years old. That closeness matters: Morrison says that as with all Olympic sailing teams they have their ups and downs but being good friends definitely helps them overcome these problems.

As for the strengths of this partnership on the water Morrison puts it down to keeping the sailing simple: “I think we are just quite good at getting back to basics, doing the things that are important: Getting the boat flat, starting at the favoured end of the line and not going over the layline.” He then adds, reflectively, “Being realistic about things is our real strength. If you are fast one day and slow the next then it is probably you and not the boat. We are quite good at that, I think, but really just talking to each other that is the big secret.” There are a lot of Olympic hopefuls who could learn from that wisdom.

Morrison also points out that having known Rhodes for so long and living in the same place is not always a bonus. Although it means they have a good relationship and can talk to one another openly, he says that the downside is the difficulty sometimes with finding personal space and as a result they try to build some time into their program away from their campaign.

This does not appear to be much of an issue for them however. Both Morrison and Rhodes obviously and absolutely love what they do and are aware they are lucky to get to do it day in and day out. Morrison has his eyes very firmly focused on the next Olympics in Beijing. Given their performances so far, this does seem to be a very realistic goal. At the time of the Olympics in Athens last summer the pair were ranked fourth in the world.

However, the British 49er fleet is the strongest in the world and Morrison is very much aware of the toughness of competition at home. He says of the last Olympics: “I think we would have been good enough to have a chance of a medal but definitely not as good as Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks were at the time.”

This is something that Morrison clearly wants to remedy before the qualification for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. No doubt Draper and Hiscocks and a number of other contenders hold this view too.

Sticking with the Olympic theme we asked Morrison about the chances of the pair being at the 2012 Olympics for their ‘home’ event in Weymouth. “Well, I really hope we will still be going then.,” he says. “The chance to compete in an Olympics at home is really unbelievable, especially as we live in Exmouth. It’s about an hours drive from where we have grown up.” He reflects on that prospect for a while and adds, “We were there training a couple of weeks ago and you think, Christ this is an Olympic venue.”

Morrison is very obviously taken with the idea of competing in the Olympics in his home waters but comments with a slight chuckle that he will be 33 by then, clearly one of those older guys. While the bid win has greatly encouraged younger sailors coming up through the ranks, there will still be plenty of the established sailors fighting very hard for this goal too.

Like many Olympic class sailors, at this time in the Olympic cycle, the pair try not to sail the same type of boat day in day out. Variety doesn't just keep the whole sailing experience fresh, it offers new ideas and new approaches to explore. Morrison and Rhodes have also put some International 14 miles on the clock, posting second overall in the class’ recent world championships.

One of the most refreshing things with 14 sailing versus the 49er is that the former is a development class. “We really enjoyed sailing the 14,” says Morrison. “We didn’t really have enough time in it to fully get to grips with all quirks of the boat, but it was just brilliant! The most amazing boats downwind and the T-foils made a huge difference. I think that that makes them really fun boats to sail.”

But for pure competitive sailing Morrison’s vote remains with the 49er. “I think at the 14s there were maybe ten to 12 boats that had all the kit and knew how to use it, whereas in the 49er fleet, you’ve got 40 to 50 boats that are right on the button and there is just nothing in it.”

Morrison was clearly impressed with the International 14. Apart from the competitive numbers, he had never sailed anything like it in his life. He raved about the boats blistering pace downwind and said that, although he has yet to sail an 18 foot skiff, he would find it hard to imagine any boat that could be more fun to sail.

But somehow you know that for a team that love their sailing this much, there is a lot more fun and competition to be had before they hang up their harnesses. Morrison offers a final comparison of the two classes; for racing he would choose the 49er every time, but for sheer ear to ear grinning enjoyment it has to be the International 14. And off he goes, packed up, to Copenhagen.