Number two

Canadian Laser sailor, Mike Leigh, speaks to us about his success this year

It is rare in sailing these days to come across a competitor who is both relatively unknown, globably, and highly successful. However, this is the case with Canadian Laser sailor, Mike Leigh, who is currently ranked second in the ISAF World Rankings, behind Paul Goodison.

Now 21, Leigh’s first involvement with the sport was cruising with his parents in keelboats. When he was seven his mother suggested Leigh try the ‘learn to sail’ scheme at their local sailing club, the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. “I did that summer programme and then they asked me to do this event where they pick the top ‘learn to sail’ kids, put them in a boat and have a regatta there. I did that and I was really keen and did quite well,” recounts Leigh.

Following this promising start, Leigh’s mother again encouraged him to move onto the next stage by signing him up to the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club Junior Race Team, a team he would stay a part of until he turned 18.

During his time in the Junior Race Team Leigh favoured the singlehanded classes and has spent very little time sailing anything else. He started off sailing the Optimist then did a little bit of doublehanded sailing in Laser IIs. He then moved into the Byte for about two years when he was 12 before hopping into the Laser a year later. “I have been Laser sailing ever since,” he says.

Not long after becoming a part of the Junior Race Team he began attending big events. “My first Optimist Nationals was in 1995 in Kingston, Ontario. I must have been about 10 or 11 years old then. I did three or four Optimist Nationals and then did a couple of events in the US,” he recalls.

Aged 16 Leigh began to get much more serious about his sailing and started training extremely hard in an attempt to qualify for the Youth Worlds. During this period he started going to the gym four or five days a week, getting out on the water most days - a phenomenal devotion for a youth sailor. Leigh achieved his goal of attending the Youth World Championships and finished in fourth place in Lunenburg, a result he is extremely proud of.

Obviously this busy training schedule took up lots of Leigh’s time; however, he was lucky enough to have a school who looked favourably on this pastime. “I was not sailing for my school but they were supportive of my sailing and the extra-curricular involvement. They were pleased to see me branch out from just academics, so they made some concessions and allowed me time off for some events and training,” he says.

Currently, as mentioned, Leigh is second overall in the ISAF World Rankings and is living and training in Sydney, Australia. Although his second place in the rankings is very impressive a little analysis shows it to have come through a combination of both good results and the sheer volume of events he has attended. Looking at his schedule for the last year it is as though he has competed in as many event as it is physically possible to do. Leigh acknowledges this but says in the future he is going to try a different strategy: “I think I will try to be a little more selective with the events I do from now on. Over the last couple of years I just needed as much international exposure as possible to get myself up or near the top level. Now I am getting close to that I feel I need to focus more on the training and on the smaller things that I can do on my own. Also I have been able to meet some of the other top sailors and learn from them. I am very fortunate to have been able to do that.”



Being based in Sydney makes it hard for him to train with other Canadian Olympic sailors, but it does hold other benefits. “I am quite isolated from the rest of the Canadian Laser sailors at the moment,” says Leigh “In the past I have worked with them quite extensively and I do try to work with them when I can but logistically it is a bit hard being based on the other side of the world.” As he can’t sail with his Canadian team-mates, more often than not Leigh trains with the top crop of Australian Laser sailors, including Tom Slingsby and Michael Blackburn. This is good company to be in, as Blackburn and Slingsby were first and second respectively at this year’s Laser World Championships. In fact, the three of them nearly managed a one, two, three as Leigh ended up fourth at the event just six points off bronze medal position. Due to his living in Sydney and being a part of the Canadian sailing team, Leigh has effectively got two different coaches. “I have the Canadian team coach, Tommy Warden, who I do some stuff with and I also work with Bret Beyer as much as possible down in Sydney,” he explains.

Although Leigh has almost exclusively sailed singlehanders, he is by no means closed to the idea of sailing other types of boats. “In the future I would like to branch out into doublehanded and multi-crewed boats. Right now it is just the Laser,” he explains. Beyond just dinghies Leigh has grander plans for his future. “I would love to get into a Volvo or America’s Cup programme. I know it would take quite a bit of work for me to get there just to get the experience and knowledge of doing that and actually being able to do it properly,” he says.

However, before these long term plans can come to fruition there are more immediate goals for the young Canadian to try and achieve. “I would like to podium at one of the next two World Championships and take out a medal at Qingdao. I think it is quite ambitious for me but I still think it is a possibility if I improve enough, which I think I can,” he explains.

Of course for many potential Olympians the prevailing conditions in Qingdao are the biggest worry but not, perhaps, for Leigh. “I am just worrying about getting to the Olympic Games first. Vancouver, where I am from, is quite similar to Qingdao with big currents and not much breeze. I think my background suits Qingdao quite nicely. Just trying to do as well as possible internationally is my immediate goal right now,” speculates Leigh.

It seems quite likely we will be seeing a lot more of Mike Leigh over the coming years. His achievements to date have not been spectacular but he has been improving at a steady rate. This year, for example, Leigh has had only one podium finish at a big event, but he has had seven top tens. It seems he just needs to get up to the next level in performance consistently which would make him a big threat in Qingdao and further in the future.