A First Olympic Appearance

Ed Gorman talks to Hugh Styles, Britain's Tornado representative in Sydney

History shows that to do well in the Tornado catamaran at the Olympics you need to be around in that class for a very long time indeed - 15-20 years is about right. Given that, what chance has any pairing that have been sailing this tactically demanding boat for just a year got, when up against others with this sort of experience?

Not much you may think. However, newcomers do occasionally burst through the ranks. Take the Spaniard Fernando Leon who got out of the Soling after the 1992 Games in Barcelona, where he finished sixth, and two years later won the Tornado World Championships. He followed that up by winning the gold medal in Savannah four years ago. Significantly Leon was an accomplished sailor before he made the switch - he had previously just missed a medal at the 1988 Games where he was fourth in 470s.

All of which goes to show that Hugh Styles, who sails with Adam May for Britain in Tornados in Sydney, is not quite the longshot for medals that his precious little experience in the class may suggest. After just two-and-a-half years in the boat and only a year racing with May, he knows he's an outsider, but he and those who coach him believe a podium finish is possible.

In any ordinary generation Styles, aged 26, may well have made it to the Games in Lasers, but the former number five in the world found Ben Ainslie blocking his way. Yet his career in the single-hander was a distinguished one with a win in the class European Championships in 1997 and fifth place at the Worlds the same year. That quality has been obvious in the impressive start he and May have made in the Tornado.
After a five month work-up from scratch, their first serious competitive outing came at the class World Championships in Sydney in January, where they were disappointed to finish eighth, after leading with two days to go. They followed this with a fifth place finish at the Europeans in Italy and then fourth at Spa. All of which has convinced Styles that he and May - a 23-year-old former International Moth, 14, 49er and 470 sailor - have more in the tank.

"We're learning just heaps all the time and improving all the time and we really believe we are still on the way up and still have plenty to learn," enthuses Styles who is certainly not short of self-belief. "We've really shown that we're capable of getting into the medal zone - it's just fine tuning and attention to detail we need to strive for now," he added.

Dave Williams, who represented Britain in the class at both Savannah and Barcelona and helped Styles and May in early training, put it this way: "I make them an outside chance and definitely top-eight. I think everybody will be a bit wary of them. If all things go well and they keep their concentration on the event, I don't see why not - they've got the hunger."

So what has been the biggest challenge for a former top Laser sailor making the transition to multihulls? "I think it's really the tactical awareness in the downwind," said Styles. "The Laser is all about sailing for clear air all the time and sailing the angles on the waves - you always feel the influence of other boats around you. The Tornado is a whole different ballgame because it's more tactical downwind than it is upwind.

"Everybody knows how to tack on shifts upwind but I know very, very few people who know when and where and why to gybe on shifts downwind and that really has been the biggest hurdle for me to overcome. In addition we're sailing a catamaran that doesn't plane but just displaces all the time."

Styles has also had to learn how to race with someone else on board. The partnership with May has yielded effective decision-making between the two very quickly, and their skills compliment each other well - Styles is a superb natural sailor and May, the more technically-minded of the two. "We are working very well together," said Styles. "Out of everything that's happened in the last year teaming up with Adam has been the biggest bonus of the lot. There's just a constant stream of communication. I'm constantly talking about what's happening - what I'm thinking, feeling and what's happening through the steering - and Adam's just feeding back into me about the strategic side - so decision-making just appears to happen."

The last month of training in Britain before moving out to Sydney featured work on jib shapes and foil development, an area where May takes the lead. The pairing will use Pentax Mylar jibs from North Sails in Hamble and a mainsail supplied by Ullman/Zuccoli. North's Paul Hobson, who shares the view that Styles and May could do well in Sydney, said: "We've done a lot of testing with Adam and Hugh and we definitely feel they've now got an edge in boatspeed and are faster than they were."

Britain has not won a medal in Tornados since Reg White captured gold in 1976. Standing in Styles and May's path this time are some consistent and very experienced sailors with many tipping the Australian pairing of Darren Bundock and John Forbes for gold, alongside the Germans Roland Gaebler and Rene Schwall and the Austrians, Roman Hagara and Hans Steinacher.

But Styles is not phased by the task ahead. "Everybody else in the class has been there, been around and is established," he said. "We've really built up our performance in a short space of time which means we are a bit of an unknown quantity. Nobody really knows what we are going to pull out of the bag next," he added. It could just be a medal.