Going monomaran

After a Tornado silver in Beijing, Darren Bundock describes the painful process of starting an Olympic 49er campaign

Well we never thought we’d see the day….

It feels like we’re announcing someone having a sex change operation - but Darren Bundock, Australian Tornado and catamaran stalwart and silver medallist in both Sydney and Beijing has gone monohull. He was spotted last week sailing a 49er at the Princess Sofia Trophy.

“I guess it is very disappointing for me that I am here for the first time without the Tornado,” admitted Bundock to thedailysail. “I’ve been coming to Europe since 1991 sailing the Tornado, so it is definitely is a change to be here without it.”

Impressively the first time Bundock says he sailed on a monohull was around Christmas time last year! “It is all a real change for me - a completely different discipline, going from two hulls to one and it certainly has been very difficult for me. Realistically I had only done one or two weeks training before we got here, so I guess I can’t be expecting too much.”

Fortunately he has in his crew the highly accomplished Ben Austin, who with his former helm Nathan Outteridge were the 2008 World Champions, only to finish the alarming up-in-the-air 49er medal race in Qingdao a disappointing fifth.

“I guess the hardest thing is keeping it up the right way, because it is amazing how unstable they are!” continues Bundock of his move to the monomaran. “I guess it is really a boat handling thing I need to get up to speed with because tactically they aren’t much different. But boat handling - it is just a huge mountain to climb.”

Aside from the rather key issue of it being at the opposite end of the scale in terms of stability, the 49er is otherwise about as close to the performance of the Tornado as one can get on one hull. Both rely on apparent wind sailing. “I guess the 49er is not quite as exciting as I thought it would be downwind. The speeds aren’t anywhere near what we were getting on the Tornado, but the excitement at the bottom mark when everyone is coming in and you are very limited as to where you can go with the 49er - you can’t round up around someone with the spinnaker up - the only option is to gybe. So it does get very exciting at those bottom marks.”

Bundock and Austin will be campaigning their 49er at all the ISAF Sailing World Cup events this season with the exception of Kiel and will also be at the promising World Championship on Lake Garda, which, annoyingly for Bundock, conflicts with the F18 World Championship in Belgium.

Meanwhile Bundock, along with the rest of the Tornado/catamaran community are poised hoping that the 11th medal is reinstated for the 2012 Games following the International Olympic Committee meeting in August.

Does he have any feel for the outcome? “I don’t really see any reason why we shouldn’t get it back. It is obviously one of the classes that is media friendly and things like that and we haven’t introduced any new Olympic sports, so I don’t believe we need to reduce any other Olympic disciplines either. So I don’t see any reason why the IOC shouldn’t look favourably upon the request from ISAF to have the 11th medal.”



If the Tornado or a catamaran is reinstated then Bundock’s 49er career may prove to be short-lived.

Should this come to pass then there has been talk of it not being the Tornado in its present guise. The Hobie Tiger F18 has been talked about as a more reasonably priced alternative. Meanwhile the International Tornado Class Association are at present looking at turning their boat effectively into a one design.

“If we do get the 11th medal I think the obvious choice would be the Tornado,” says Bundock. “I think it is for sure the best multihull suited for the job, it is such a fantastic boat.”

While there was of course the red herring of the Tornado Code Zero immediately prior to the Games last year, otherwise the Tornado is already pretty much one design - for example all but one of the boats in Qingdao was built by Marstrom. “Everyone had identical carbon masts, the same beams, the same foils – the only thing where there was a little bit of development was in the sail plan,” recalls Bundock.

The sail plan in fact would be the principle area of focus with plans afoot to limit the number that can be measured in over a season. “That definitely will reduce the costs and I guess it will make it easier for newcomers into the class as well - so they have to get used to the boat, but they don’t have to get into a sail development program. You have always been able to buy stock standard sails from one of the manufacturers, but there has always been the perception that the other guys have got their private sail makers… I guess it was probably made worse by us all going to Qingdao where there were very light winds and a lot of the teams did focus a lot on the sail program to handle that.”

There is also the issue of how far to go with the one design. According to Bundock a one design hull for example would require considerable retooling and there might not be time for this, in what will end up being a particularly short Olympic cycle. “It is a huge cost for manufacturers to retool if they are going to do the hulls, but things like the foils, the beams, the boom and the mast and the sails - it is not a great expense for the class to make that one design.”

We find it amazing that the Tornado, designed during the 1970s remains such a state of the art boat. The mods made prior to Athens, to the rig, introducing the spinnaker, the flat top main and the twin trapeze certainly helped keep it contemporary even if a modern day Tornado might feature with the reverse sheer ‘wave piercing’ bows as seen on modern day A-Class and F18s. “The only other thing that is negative for the Tornado is that it has got centreboards rather than daggerboards. But once you have had the centreboard you don’t really want to go back to daggerboards. Otherwise it has always stayed up there and that is one little problem with going one design - we won’t probably be able to keep up with the times,” says Bundock. However he is adamant that the class will do whatever is required of it to keep the boat as an Olympic class and if this means pure one design, so be it.

Between 49er events, Bundock will be campaigning an F18 at a few key events such as Round Texel and at the Eurocat in Carnac. He has had a hand in the development of the soon-be-unveiled Hobie Wildcat, the replacement for the Tiger and having been out on the first boat a couple of weeks ago in 20-25 knots, says it is all it has been cracked up to be.

“The problem with the Tiger was that it was a little bit outdated when the Capricorn came along. We were just lucky that we were able to keep the results going for the last three years to keep the Tiger surviving. But everyone knew, and Hobie Cat knew, that its time was up and it was time to move on. I think they were right to hold on for another three years until things developed a little bit further and they can come with a really good quality product.”

As to the Wildcat as a new sailing experience Bundock says: “You really notice that type of wave piercing tear drop hull it sits more on top of the water rather than cutting through it. And also with the rig develop with the wingmast rather the tear drop shaped mast as well, the rig acts completely differently. You are bringing the mast rotation in when it gets windier and the mast is flicking off to leeward rather than rotating it around and bending it to windward.”

The hull shape also promotes earlier planing: “It is very lively for sure - it gets up and motors along. I haven’t planned upwind. The day we sailed it was in 20-25 knots, so we have given it a good flogging and it stood up to it. So I must admit I was very impressed after getting off it.”

After the 49er, another major commitment for Bundock this year is the iShares Cup for the Extreme 40s. Last year after the Games he competed at the final event of the season in the cramped confines of Amsterdam helming Nick Moloney's BT and this year he will return to do the whole circuit with Moloney, fellow Tornado sailor Ed Barney on mainsheet and Iain Percy's former Star crew, Steve Mitchell.

“I think it is going to be a really tough season with Franck Cammas on Groupama and then Gitana as well with Yann Guichard, who is an ex-Tornado sailor as well and then you have the BMW Oracle guys. James Spithill did extremely well at the A-Class Worlds earlier this year. I was there and watched a few days.”

So how come Bundock, the cat guru, hasn’t gone into the A-Class? “That is Glenn’s thing,” says Bundock of his Tornado crew, Glenn Ashby who for the last few years has been the undisputed king and multiple world champion of the solo cat. “I thought about doing the A-Class Worlds and maybe one day I will, once I get this 49er thing out of the way! They are very cool. It is the latest technology. The whole boat is 70kg. Everything is carbon fibre – moving them around on the beach is so easy with them being so light. It is just one mainsail to push up and go sailing. So it is really simple basic stuff, but with good technology!”

Anyway in the meantime it is back to the painful process of returning to kindergarten and learning to stay upright on the Olympic skiff.