Shirley Robertson interview - 1

The trials and tribulations of putting a Yngling campaign on the road to glory

Miami was Shirley's first serious competition in the Yngling

mfs: So with a crew of three, an old boat and some new sails, what do you do next?

SR: Well like any Olympic class, you just have to go sailing. We are at the stage at the moment where we are learning how everything works. We are looking at the sails, looking at the mast and collecting information. We have spent most of the winter in Miami training with the Americans who I felt were the best sorted crews and we are certainly up there with them

mfs: What about trying to get some input from outside in terms of experts in the class or people who have experience in other classes?

SR: We felt quite quickly that the class wasn't being sailed at a very high level. There were two or three men's boats that had been they had sailed properly; they had worked on the sails, they had good crew work, prepared the boat and so on but apart from that the Yngling has been sailed at quite a low level. We could see that pretty early on and when we went to the Worlds last year there were something like four American women’s teams in the top six having just sailed it for a couple of months. That kind of shows you that it was pretty low level, so we really haven’t looked to the Yngling class for help. We are much more looking to people who have experience of small keelboats.

mfs: I understand you have worked with some top coaches such as Ed Baird and David Howlett how useful have they been?

SR: They have both been really useful. Part of the problem is that we don't know very much. Ed was particularly useful. He has done a lot of sailing in Solings and he also coached Kevin Mahaney to a silver medal in Barcelona so he has seen it from both sides.

Ed was very good at helping us decide what to do first. It was a little bit overwhelming at the beginning, there was so much work to do we just didn’t know where to go. He helped up prioritise what would actually make the biggest speed difference early on.

mfs: How does the deal work with the Americans? Why do they want to sail with you?

SR: Well they obviously think I am quite good as well. We are training with Hannah Swett, in particular. We have hooked up with them and we are just going through a big tuning loop. At the moment we are trying to get some settings and moving everything around to try and gain an understanding of how the boat works.

mfs: In what some people might regard as a bit of an unusual move you have had Paul Brotherton sailing the boat with you. What’s that all about?

SR: We needed a small bow man and he is a perfect size to fit in. We also felt that he was a tremendously good coach and as he sails a huge amount we thought he would bring a fresh eye to the whole thing. Mostly of the time, the coach is in the coach boat but actually being in the boat, you see things more clearly. You see the problems that the crew have and how all that works. Paul was really, really good, he brought a fresh approach and really nice to sail with.

mfs: David Howlett another key player who has done some work with you. What does he bring to the programme?

SR: David brings 35 year of experience to the programme. If he hasn’t seen it, it is not worth seeing really. He is also a world champion, he’s sailed Stars a lot so he has huge experience of small keelboats. I suppose we are also looking to him partly as a mentor in the whole project. We keep him up to date with what's happening and ask him advice but he is also involved in the rig and sail development.


Shirley had plenty of experience sailing crewed boats and
has taken some of her crew with her to the Yngling

Read tomorrow's second instalment to find out what Shirley's plans are for the coming year.