Henri van der Aat - a madforsailing interview

The man who has changed the face of racing as we know it.

As a driving force for change in small boat racing, you would have to look a long way to find someone more influential than Henri van der Aat. Peter Bentley took the opportunity to interview him at the beginning of the second day of the SPA Regatta at Medemblik, in the Netherlands.

Once a coach for the Dutch Sailing Team, van der Aat worked for a short period as racing manager at ISAF before moving to Sports Marketing company Treffpunt. As the mastermind behind the SPA regatta, van der Aat has been responsible for many of the innovations in small boat regatta organisation that we all now take for granted. Short-course racing, fleets split into groups, more than one race per day, coloured spots to identify leading competitors; all these and many more were originally introduced by van der Aat. Once again, this year's SPA regatta sees a whole host of changes to the established structure and not all of them have proved popular.

When questioned about the undoubted and ongoing success of the SPA regatta van der Aat puts it down to the fact that "we always try to do something new". The sailors would probably suggest that it was much more due to the fact that SPA is without doubt the best-run and best-organised regatta short only of the Olympic Games. Over the 17 year history of the SPA regatta they have been most innovative. "We were the first ones to do match racing. We were the first ones to do board sailing for women. We were the first to have coloured [leaders] dots." And a whole host of other innovations. The fact, as van der Aat is quick to point out, that the same sponsor has stayed with the regatta for 17 years also says a huge amount in a sport where single year sponsors are all too common.

Sailors are a conservative bunch and by and large they do not like intrusions into their well-ordered lives. When I suggest to van der Aat that his determination to try new things has at times made him the most hated man in sailing he simply flashes his disarming smile and agrees. He is however, at pains to point out that the vast majority of the once despised changes he has introduced have now become an established part of the sport.

Despite the opprobrium heaped upon him, van der Aat remains cheerful, smiling and above all approachable. He personally attends the coaches' briefing every morning, always willing to write down the details of some small comment or suggestion in his trademark pocket-sized notebooks. Always supposing that you could read all six languages in which van der Aat is fluent, those notebooks would certainly make fascinating reading.

As with so many innovative people it often seems that van der Aat is trying to drive things forward faster than those around him are prepared to go. As soon as you start talking to him about innovation the rapidly rising note of enthusiasm in his voice is echoed by an almost equal impatience that those around him - especially the sailors - do not appreciate what he is trying to achieve. Certainly his time as Sailing Manager at ISAF in the 1990s was marked by acrimony with the hugely conservative committee-led ISAF management continually at odds with the fast-moving approach of a man who simply could not see what was holding things back.

Following his departure from ISAF, van der Aat has tried to work within the system where he can try out new ideas, even though they might not always be a complete success. "We have always offered to ISAF that they can use the regatta for experimenting," he says, obviously disappointed that the response has been unenthusiastic. "I have always believed that if you want to experiment you have to experiment at the highest level." He has certainly shown no fear of putting his words into effect.

Read page two for to find out what changes van der Aat has introduced at SPA this year