The Tall Guy - part two

In the second part of our interview with him GBR Challenge's George Skuodas looks at the competition and explains his role as mastman.

Mastman

In his role as mast man Skuodas' role is to handle the pole and spend the rest of the time grinding. Because of his 6ft 7in tall frame he possibly grinds more than some other mastmen.

"The actual mechanics of the job is not too different to a 50 footer," he explains. "The tough part about sailing these boats is the physicality of each job and the fact that you have to do two or three jobs each manoeuvre.

"From the start, I occupy one of the mid-grind handles. So I’ll grind the mainsail and jib all the way upwind." Other mastmen might only work the forward grinders where less grunt is required.

"I’ll do the masculine bit at the weather mark, setting the pole up," he continues. "Generally there’s three of us on front. Simply put the mastman looks after the pole, the mid-bow looks after the sail and the bowman looks after the gear.

"So I set the pole up and make sure it’s in the right place, which is no mean feat, because it is 36ft long and pretty cumbersome.

"Then once you get to the mark, you’ve obviously got to hoist and pull the jib down. We pack the jibs downstairs - that’s something we’ve work on to clear the decks straightaway so there’s nothing to distract the afterguard. Then once you’ve got the sail up and got the sail down then it’s back on to the handles to get the boat downwind, helping the grinders on the spinnaker sheet.

"Even on a gybe, I’ll have to do the pole work and then have to get back on the handles for the pole square. So for every manoeuvre you’ve got a couple of jobs to do.

"At the bottom mark, you’ve got to get the jib up, the chute down, get the pole off. And you’re trying to all that within three lengths of the mark and get on the handles for the rounding. Any time there is a set of handles free you’ve got to look around to see who should be there. Because once there’s any sort of breeze you’ve got to have all the handles filled to make the boat work as efficiently as possible."

From a training point of view this makes his role a little different as he must have the strength of the grinders while having the agility to work his way around the bow. "It’s a good job and I enjoy it. It is pretty grunty. It is a bit like playing in the back row in rugby. You are in there with the forwards grunting away and doing all the hard work, but you get to pick up the ball and run with it as well."

To sum up

Although conclusions are starting to be drawn - who is fast, who is not, who is going to get the flick after the second round robins, who is going to end up in the top and bottom groups in the quarter finals - Skuodas points out that even during the racing nothing stands still and they are still progressing.

"We’re a happy bunch soldering on. We want to get some Ws on the board. We’re definitely still learning from the first round robins. We’re definitely moving our game on every day. Getting up close you can’t help but learn. And that’s something we’ve very keen on, progressing, just making sure that we keep moving on. If you’re only as fast as the first day you go out there, you’re going to be blown away by the end of it."