Irish Star

We talk to Irish Olympian Mark Mansfield winner of the Star Spring Europeans

Athens 2004 will the fourth occasion Irish Olympic sailor Mark Mansfield has attempted to make an impression on the Star class and will probably be his last. As a result he is pulling out all the stops and demonstrated how he means to go on with a win last weekend at the class' Spring Europeans on Lake Belaton in Hungary ahead of numerous top contenders including the recent Hyeres winner Freddie Loof.

Mansfield turned 41 the day they won the Spring Europeans and it was a great present. "It was generally a light wind regatta," the World ranked no.5 told The Daily Sail. "It was down as far as two knots at one stage and it never went much above 11. So it was challenging. Lake sailing is often challenging but this was especially challenging." As a result only five races of the six scheduled were held even using up the reserve day.

"Of those five races, three were good and there were two that were quite shifty and fluky," continued Mansfield. "We’re quite happy that in the three good races we got good results - two firsts and a fourth - and in the other two we got a second and a 19th. We’re happy to get the good ones in the good conditions which is important."

The win came as a slight surprise because Mansfield and his crew Killian Collins usually show better form in stronger conditions. "It was flat water, so your set-up had to be suited to that. We were using a jib from an American company called Jenkins, who are from Annapolis and I think that helped us a lot. We’ve been testing their sail. We used it in the first half of the Worlds last year when we were lying fourth. We used it then in lighter winds and we used it again in this regatta and that helped us for sure."

They have also taken the last three months off after a relatively poor show in the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta. "It was encouraging having not sailed or trained to pull out that result," says Mansfield.

The Spring Europeans were the first European Grade 1 ISAF event for the Star class this year. Mansfield and Collins were in a fleet that included 15 of the top 30 world rankers and 14 of the top 20.

"We had a ding-dong regatta with Freddie Loof all the way through," says Mansfield. "We were ahead of him then he was ahead of us, but that was before the discard came in when we were ahead of him again. The last race was interesting. He was ahead of me for a while and we were ahead of him and it changed a couple of times but we were always close enough to be within range of beating him. We had a three point lead going into the last race but whenever he was ahead of us we were within that three points of him and in the end we were able to keep him behind us at the finish of that race and that clinched it for us."

Most importantly they did the event because in Ireland funding their world ranking directly relates to their funding. "It is not at the same level as the top guys in the UK, but it is certainly as good if not better than a number of the European countries," says Mansfield of the money they get each year from the Irish Sports Council. "Going into 2003 we had a world ranking of 3, so we get the top level funding." They are also supported by Helly Hansen.

It is also important for their chances of getting the spot for Athens. At present they are well ahead of their main competition Max Treacy and Anthony Shanks, but at present there is some major politics taking place in Ireland following the Irish Sports Council's review of the Irish Sailing Association's handling of the selection procedure.

In terms of hardware, Mansfield and Collins are sailing an Italian-built Folli that they acquired last year and seem pleased with. "Immediately after buying that we came second in Kiel and eighth at the Worlds in that boat. We didn’t have a particularly good Miami Olympic Classes regatta but it was a very strange regatta with very strange winds. And now we’ve won this one on that boat again. So so far we are very happy with our speed and with the boat."

However in addition to this, the Irish Sailing Association have also just bought a new Lillia boat as used by the likes of Iain Percy and Frenchman Xavier Rohart, currently ranked no.1 in the world. "That will be placed in Athens, and we will use it for the test event," says Mansfield, "with an opportunity maybe to use it next year as well. We’re happy with the present boat, so I don’t plan to be using it, but we will test the Lillia against it."

One of several unusual aspects of Mansfield is that while carrying out his Olympic campaign he holds down a full time job at the EBS Building Society in Cork. When we speak Mansfield is already back in his office doing a week's work before heading out to SPA. "A lot of the others have the benefit of being able to come back and relax and just go out and train. I also have a wife and two children, so I have a lot of commitments," he says. Over the course of this year Mansfield says he will have to take 15 weeks off work. "Fortunately the bank have been very accommodating."

Because of his other commitments Mansfield has been taking a slow run up to Athens. Over the last two years he has sailed 4-5 major regattas each year. Now that is all changing.

"We really haven’t upped our game yet," says Mansfield. "It is only now that we have done this event and we are going to SPA regatta and a regatta in Germany called Pfingst-Regatta (near in Kiel), then a district championships up in Flensberg then Kiel Week. So we are basically we are winding it up now. Whereas for this event we went to we weren’t wound up."

Following the stint in northern Europe and Scandinavia, they will be heading for the pre-Olympic test event in Athens and then on to Cadiz for the Worlds.

Another unusual aspect of Mansfield is his background. He is now 41 and on his fourth Olympic campaign in the Star but before this he sailed big boats. "Prior to the Olympic sailing I skippered and sailed a lot of Admiral’s Cup boats and it was only in the late 1980s when the IOR thing started falling apart and there wasn’t much money over here for sailing that I decided to make my move into One Designs. So I’ve done it a bit arse about tit."

Of the reason for his move into One Designs at the end of IOR he says "I believe that is where the good sailing is at the moment - first over the line, no handicaps or anything, no blaming anything. If you’re good enough you get the results, if you’re not good enough you don’t."

During his AC days he sailed Moonduster in 1981, Yeoman XXV in 1985, Turkish Delight in 1987 and a 2 tonner Platon Finans in 1989, helming the latter three. Since then he has dabbled in bigger boats as tactician on one of the boats in the 2001 Mumm 30 Worlds and twice winning the 1720 Europeans. He says he may return to big boats after Athens, but at present doesn't have time.

6ft 4in tall, Manfield is ideal Star material and says that he aspired to the angular keelboat even as a kid. A background in big boats also helped. "Sailing big boats you spend a lot of time working on rigs and runners and backstays that is what the Star has. So I fitted neatly into it."

For Mansfield, the Star also has the attraction of providing an opportunity to sail against some of the great all rounders in our sport including the top Americans such as Paul Cayard, John Kostecki, Mark Reynolds aside from younger hotshots like Iain Percy, Freddie Loof and Philippe Presti.

"I really enjoy sailing against these top professionals. It is good to go to events and beat them and head back to your job again. I suppose a lot of the professionals sail a lot of other types of boats, to earn money on the side doing big boats, so they have a job to a certain extent as well. It does lift your game sailing against good people."

As for his medal prospects in Athens his current form would suggest he is up there. "We’ve had a reasonable run of World Championships. We finished third in 2000, and 2001 and 8th in 2002 in the Worlds. So we’ve been fairly solid. We just have to get a bit more brilliant. The Spring Championship hopefully will be the start of that we hope."