Mitch Booth - a madforsailing interview

A change of nation and a change of boat, all in search of Olympic Gold

Mitch Booth has been sailing the Olympic Tornado for over 25 years and has won virtually every championship in the class, most of them more than once. Olympic Gold however, has eluded him and it hurts. Paired up with his long-time Formula 18 and Formula 20 crew, Herbert Dercksen, Booth is rolling the dice for one final attack on the pinnacle of his chosen sport. As he embarks on his seventh Olympic campaign, Peter Bentley had a chance to speak to him about his personal dreams and the future of the Tornado class.
Mr Tornado

Few people are prepared to change their national allegiances in the interests of Olympic gold and fewer still devote years of their lives to changing the class they love simply to improve their own chances of Olympic glory. Mitch Booth has done both.

A well-publicised and acrimonious falling out with the Australian Sailing Federation after he failed to qualify for the Games in 2000 clearly did nothing to cement ties to his home country, though I sense that this is not the primary reason for his defection to the Netherlands. Behind the imp-like grin and easy sense of humour Booth gives the impression that an injustice has been done and he will do anything to rectify it in 2004.

Booth has lived in Europe for over a decade and sailed with Herbert Dercksen in a number of non-Olympic classes for many years so the decision to switch nationalities was in some senses a natural progression. "If I am being totally selfish about it you have to have the best possible team partner to do the job. Herbert is the best Tornado crew in the world so it's a means to an end. Either he had to become Australian or I had to become Dutch," says Booth. Sensing that this might be misconstrued by his new home country he is quick to add: "Of course I am happy to live in Holland and represent the country." Despite this I do sense that his overriding goal is a personal one.

So what, I ask him makes a great Tornado crew? This provokes an instant if not terribly helpful answer - "to take all the shit from me basically". Further inquiry reveals that Booth is focused more on the interpersonal skills and less on the technical. "It's a combination of things. Every skipper is different and every crew is different so it's a matter of working together. It is very much a team boat. The crew works the mainsheet upwind - and a lot - so if the co-ordination is not right it won't work. Downwind now we have the spinnaker. The spinnaker is the motor of the boat so the crew is working the sheet. Speed in the Tornado is regulated by the co-ordination between two people."


See page two for Mitch's views on commitment to the class...