Catamaran technique series - part 7

Darren Bundock on the secrets behind his immaculate Tornado campaign with John Forbes

Darren Bundock is the most successful small cat helmsman of modern times. He has won the Tornado World Championships six times, and won a Silver Medal at the Sydney Olympics. With less than a year to Athens, he and crewman John Forbes are favourites to win Gold next August. Here he tells Andy Rice about his approach to excellence, and begins by dispelling the myth about a special boat that he uses only for special occasions.

The boat that people are talking about is the one we used at the Sydney Games, but we are a one-boat campaign. We used it for the whole of our European season this year, for example, so it has done a lot of sailing. But it's still going strong, not bad for a four-year-old boat. However, we do have a new one on order for next March. We don't actually have a boat in Australia at the moment, so we haven't sailed since Cadiz in September, although there is still plenty for us to do here. We have been busy developing sails and equipment, so that when we pick up the new boat we are ready to put it together quickly and go sailing straight away.

Meanwhile, I've been doing a lot of coaching with youth cat sailors, and I'll be doing some racing in a Hobie Tiger, so I'll still be on the water but not in a Tornado. I think it surprises people just how little training we do in the Tornado, although John and I have been sailing them together for nine years now, so we know what we are looking to achieve when go out. Also, we have very high quality training sessions with our training partners, the Greek team and Roland Gaebler from Germany. We don't hide any information from each other, and it means we have people out in Gran Canaria at the moment to see who's doing what and who looks like they're going quickly. Gran Canaria is the site of next year's European Championships so there is a lot of Tornado activity there right now.

We've had good speed over the past year, and while there is a concern that someone might come up with something new, we're pretty confident in our technical programme. I think we've been leading the way with a lot of the developments. There was a period just before the Grand Segel spinnakers came into flavour, when there was a huge gap in performance. But now everyone is either using them or copying them. We've developed a good spinnaker that we're happy with.

We've got our own sails which aren't branded. I suppose you could call them Mike Fletcher Sails, because our coach makes them for us. I can't stress just how important Mike is to our campaign. He's the best around. But we do also use standard kit. For example, we used one of our own mainsails at the Pre-Olympics in August [which they won], and we used a standard Ullman Italy mainsail for the Worlds in September. Getting your sails right is absolutely critical, but it's good not to be reliant on one set of gear. We've got four different mainsails, all of which we'd be happy to race with. As for our boat, it's a standard Marstrom and the mast is a standard tapered Marstrom section. The only thing that's different are our centreboards, which we designed and built ourselves. They're pretty much the same underwater as the standard Marstroms, they're just a bit more crew-friendly for ease of handling, and they look better.

Generally, though, there's really not that much difference between our gear and what others are using. I think some people are too concerned about we're doing rather than working it out for themselves. A lot of rumours fly around about what we're up to, and I must admit we have been known to start a few of them ourselves. It can be quite funny - it's amazing what people will believe. It's also interesting to hear how they change along the way. Say we start a rumour that it's going to blow 40 knots the next day, it'll come back to us as 50 knots a few hours later.

But to be serious again, if you asked me what our strengths are, I would have to say it's our consistency. Compared with a few years ago, we've managed to limit our bad races. If you look back over our results over the past year or so, I think you'd find that we've been finishing in the top 10 of most races. There was a period where we would win a lot of races, but we'd also have some real shockers, and we've closed that out of our game now.

We can thank our coach Mike for that. He's steered us back to playing the percentages rather than backing our own judgements. If the majority of the fleet is going one way, we'll go with them now, even if it's against our own hunches about what we think is right.

It's also important to do your homework before the start, and make a call about what sort of conditions you've got, whether it's steady, oscillating, or persistently shifting around one way. With its centreboards, the Tornado tacks much better than other cats, so tacking is an option, more than people might think. At Athens with the offshore breeze we were doing up to 10 tacks in an upwind leg, which is almost unheard of in a multihull fleet.

A big thing in our favour is just how well John and I work together. It's coming up for nine years that we've been sailing together. We're very different personalities. I'm very quiet and John's very loud. John is very outspoken on the beach, but people might be surprised just how mellow and calm he becomes on the water. It's very easy for us to get over difficult situations because we stay calm and focused. Over those nine years we've never had an argument.

But tactically, our roles have changed dramatically. Initially when I got on the Tornado, John had more experience and was calling the shots. But I've been doing more sailing than John recently, as he's had family and business commitments, so I've taken over the role of tactics. It's good that we both know how to do it, because we can give two lots of input rather than relying on one. We can come to a bit of a concensus about what's right, which means you can keep your head out of the boat and see what's coming. Downwind, though, it's easier for me to take on the tactical role and look around while John focuses on the kite.

In terms of advice to other sailors, well, when you look around I think there are some guys who try to make things too complicated. They're always looking for an edge. If you look at our boat it's just so simple. If you can keep it simple and keep going the right way without making mistakes, you're a long way down the track. There's no doubt we're fast, too, but a lot of it comes down to feel. If you can become sensitive to feeling when it's fast, that's a great skill to have. John and I have a good understanding between us of steering and sheeting for speed, and we know when to change gears. A lot of that comes down to experience, but also confidence in your ability.