How does he do it?

Andy Rice talks to Tim Hancock - 505 and 14 champion, RYA coach, Commodore of Hayling Island and head of a £30m business

Tim crewing with Ian Pinnell at the 505 Worlds in 2001

Hancock has spent a year on a sabbatical from the working world, having led a company called Unicorn Consultancy Services to a management buy-out.

It gave him the time to concentrate on Hayling Island and do some serious sailing of his own, although by the standards of past years it is all relatively low key for this serial Olympic campaigner. In 1988 he came a close second in the 470 trials crewing for Kevin Sproul, but it was the young Jason Belben and Andy Hemmings who ended up going for Great Britain. Since then he has done two Soling campaigns and began a 49er campaign with Ian Barker before his old 505 helm finally teamed up with Simon Hiscocks.

Now he wants to concentrate on coaching the new wave of Olympic aspirants, and is excited to be part of the sophisticated RYA set-up. "I think I've got a fair bit to offer the Tornado sailors, as they're going through the same type of development phase that the 49er went through in the last Olympic cycle. The asymmetric issues are very similar and trimming the kite is pretty much the same.

"I'm trying to get them to understand the squad system and share information. But I'm also encouraging them to have an interest outside of sailing, whether it's another sport or something educational. It's important to have something that takes your mind completely away from the sailing, otherwise it can become too obsessive just focusing on the sport."

There's no danger of Hancock just focusing on the sport, he's got too much else on his plate. But that said, he's had a pretty successful year with a win at the International 14 European Championships and two second places at the 14 and 505 Worlds. "We weren't going too fast in the Five-Oh," he says of his stint crewing for Ian Pinnell," and we sailed pretty well to get second and it's the most we deserved.

"British Five-Oh sailors are wondering how these Americans, Germans and Aussies have started beating them, but the Brits just aren't putting the time in at the moment. They're all off doing other sailing like competing in one of the new asymmetric classes. In the 90s we were all putting in a lot of time and we got the rewards, but that's not happening in the UK right now. Other countries don't have classes like the RS800 to distract them, so they tend to focus on the 505 more. You can't expect success without putting the time in."

In the 14s at Bermuda, Elliott and Hancock finished an easy second, but came nowhere close to beating new world champions Zach Berkowitz and Trevor Baylis. The top three at the Worlds were all using new T-foil technology, using wings on the rudder to create a hydrofoil effect that Hancock says was awesomely fast. "We were 5 per cent faster than the fleet, but the Americans were 10 per cent faster. What amazes me is that the writing was on the wall at the Worlds in Beer last year, when Kris Bundy won with a set of T-foils. We were the only Brits to use them in Bermuda this year. I suppose it's because the Brits tend not to be too innovative in the class. I think we might just see T-foils on a few more boats next year, provided the class decides to allow them."

But Hancock's own sailing will take a back seat next year as he concentrates on getting the best out of the Tornado squad. He is fairly unique in the coaching world in that he is still at the cutting edge of competitive sailing in his own right. "I hope that gives the squad some confidence in my abilities, but I'm not pretending I've got all the answers. And while I may oversee the coaching I'm keen to bring in experts on other areas. We had Phil Morrison in recently to give some ideas on rig development, and that's the way I'm keen to see things continue."