One man, five classes

We speak to the new B14 National Champion, Nick Craig

Nick Craig is arguably one of Britain’s best non-Olympic sailors. After nearly two decades racing at the front of National, European and World level fleets, Craig has won a variety of Championship titles. But while typically he is best known for OK, RS400 Finn, and Enterprise sailing recently he has made a move into two more high performance classes.

Since buying his B14 in November last year, Craig has been quick to make an impact on the class, training hard over the winter and taking solid positions in a couple of the bigger handicap events. However, as the National Championships loomed several weeks ago few people thought he might be in with a great shot of winning the event. True to form, Craig took victory in an impressive fashion, taking three firsts and a second in the four race series. “We were really pleased with our result,” he told TheDailySail. “The regatta did get a bit curtailed by the wind so only one day of sailing was possible, but it turned out to be a very nice day of sailing. We got it [the B14] at the end of November, so it has been a steep learning curve and it still is to be honest, but we are really enjoying it and it is really nice to do something a bit different.”

In addition to winning numerous National, European and World Championships, Craig has also taken victory at the Endeavour Trophy – Britain’s Champion of Champions regatta – on several occasions. After winning the B14 Nationals he has already secured his place at the event this year, which he says he is looking forward to attending. Making Craig’s B14 a real champion of champions boat, his crew is currently Toby Lewis who won the Endeavour Trophy crewing for Steve Tylecote in 2007. “Toby certainly knows his way around a boat and actually the front of the B14 really seems to suit him. He has got an amazing sense of balance and the boat really needs it. That is something that I am not very good at, so he tends to make up for me quite a lot on that front. He is pretty awesome,” Craig enthuses.



Despite winning the National Championship, there are still many things to be learned about B14 sailing for Craig and Lewis. “There are enough similarities between the B14 and an RS400 for it not to be a huge step. Certainly when it comes to downwind we seem to go quickly,” Craig comments. “There are places we are struggling a little bit though. Starts in particular I am finding hard because you can’t line up with two or three minutes to go and fight for a spot. If you try to do that in the B14 you just stop. You need to be planing off the line, so you need a big run up, however, I find myself over compensating and having a huge run up and by then everybody is gone.” Craig adds they are also having some problems when it comes to hitting the laylines. He says with the B14s sailing much deeper angles upwind, he tends to end up below the layline, but when he tries to compensate for this he goes too far and finds himself overstanding. Still, he did win the event and we get the feeling Craig puts greater demands on himself than others might.

When we spoke to Craig back in 2005 we asked him what other boats he might be interested in at the time he said; “I am enjoying playing in the Finn at the moment, and would quite like to sail a B14 a bit but I think five boats may be excessive even for me.” We wondered whether after three years of thinking about it Craig had decided five boats was acceptable or whether a boat had been sacrificed to allow for the B14. “I did sell the Finn last year to fund the B14,” he explains. “I had done three years in the Finn and I really felt as though that was as far as I was ever likely to go in it. So I thought it was about time to get something else. Stopping having to eat quite so much is quite nice as well!”

However, having sold the Finn and got a B14 instead Craig then went on to make yet another boat purchase this winter. “I was up at Rutland last winter and Richard Stenhouse gave me a go in his Musto Skiff and it was a huge buzz. I think I hit something like 15 knots in it downwind and I decided I had to get one even if it was just for the occasional blast and I never master it.” Sailing the Mutso Skiff represents a huge challenge for Craig who has only trapezed on a couple of occasions previously. At the moment he admits he is struggling a lot with the boat; “In the Musto I am not even quick in a straight line yet, as my trapezing technique is awful. I am slow in a straight line and no good at the corners. so all-in-all pretty bad at the moment. That is fine though - it is more for a blast and I will see where the racing takes me,” he confirms.

As if learning to sail the Musto Skiff and getting to grips with the B14 is not enough, Craig is still sailing his OK, Enterprise and RS400 this season. Specifically he will be aiming to win the OK World Championships for the fourth consecutive time. “The OK Worlds are in one month’s time so I am trying to do a lot of that at the moment,” he comments. “I think I will be a marked man at that event. There will be a few Kiwis after me.”



In fact in spite of all of his other commitments Craig remains a passionate OK sailor both at major championships and on the UK circuit. In recent years, he says there has been a significant upturn in the class around the UK. “We have got a new OK builder in the last year, a guy called Alex Scholes, who sails one which is always helpful. He is turning out outstanding boats. I think he has sold between ten or 15 this year which has been very good for the class as it has seen a lot of older boats get pushed onto the second hand market.”

While Craig is in full training for the OK Worlds he is also getting back into his Enterprise after spending the winter away from the boat. “I am going to the Enterprise Inlands this weekend and then the Nationals later this year in Tenby, I might be a bit rusty but Toby [Lewis] is crewing for me in that as well so he should keep me on my toes,” he comments.

With the Finn now gone from his fleet, Craig is back to sailing exclusively non-Olympic boats and we wondered the reasons behind this decision. “I keep saying to my wife that I would like to get a Finn again but she just laughs,” he comments. “I think I could see myself getting back into it when I get to the masters age because it is a really good fun scene. I am 34 though, so I do not want to think about being 40 just get. In the Finn the younger Olympic guys are not very social. It is the nature of Olympic competitors where sailing is their job, they are not about to go out drinking or doing that kind of thing much.”

Craig has often commented that he enjoys the social side of sailing and that trying to do an Olympic campaign inherently reduces that aspect. He has also mentioned when he was younger there was no way of professional sailing without getting into the big boat scene. We wondered, with all the success he has seen, whether he might have given it a shot had he grown up in these more professional times. “I think if I had the chance I certainly would have gone for it. However, the only boat I would like to sail would be the Finn which has Ben Ainslie in it. I do not really see anyone beating him unless he wants to change class to be honest. So even if I did have my time again I might not have bothered as it would have been a bit of a waste of my time.”. Craig adds that although this might sound defeatist, if he were to give up the enjoyment of amateur sailing and his current life, he would need to know there was a reasonable chance of a medal. Without that as a possibility he does not really see the point of hitting the Olympic campaign trail.

Craig himself says that the standard of Olympic sailors these days is just miles beyond regular amateur sailors. In light of this saying he is one of the few top sailors in Britain is probably a little trite. However, in amateur terms he is very much the Ben Ainslie of the non-Olympic world.