Another Gold medal?

We talk to Iain Percy about his prospects in the Star and his America's Cup plans

While team GBR are sneaking ahead in the Finn, 470 Men and Yngling, so another strong medal prospect for the British team will take to the waters off Gylfada on Saturday in the first races for the Star.

Iain Percy needs no introduction as the Finn Gold medallist from Sydney. Having teamed up with Steve Mitchell in 2002 the duo immediately stamped their authority on the class by winning the World Championships in California that year. Since then apart from two Bacardi Cups, both lost due to two bad results, and a seventh place at this year's Europeans when they suffered an OCS, Percy and Mitchell have not been out of the top five in any major regatta they have competed in. Yet since SPA 2003 they also haven't won anything. Curious.

"From the beginning we were very good in 10 knots plus and we would really dominate in that," says Percy. "The truth is that everyone has spent three years in the gym and caught up, but I’d still say we were ahead in those conditions. The Worlds in LA were in those conditions and we won and we would have won every Worlds since if we’d had had similar conditions I believe.

"We haven’t been out of the podium for a long time. We were fourth at SPA and third in the Worlds and we were equal points going into the last race. Anyone who is watching it closely probably sees ourselves and Freddie [Loof] slightly ahead on paper but that is only slightly and that has been the same for two years."

Percy believes that those such as he and Loof who have come straight from the Finn have the edge because they can hike almost as hard as the crew. Weight-wise Percy and Mitchell have a combined weight of about 197kg and unlike Ben Ainslie who is almost twice the man he was since his Laser days, Percy says his weight personally has changed little since his Finn days. Compared to sailing the Finn Percy says that you don't need to be as fit aerobically as the hiking is more static due to the boat being a lot bigger and heavy relative to the waves.

While he and Loof might have the smallest of edges over the competition there is no doubt that the men's keelboat includes some of the world's most experience racing sailors, Torben Grael, Paul Cayard and Colin Beashel to name just the well known ones.

"My perception is that there are no dummies," says Percy of the Star class. "It is full of incredibly competent high level sailors who will not make a mistake. So you can't pass easily - people don’t make mistakes to let you by. We may have at times an edge of speed but that it pretty much taken away here [in Athens] because the winds are so shifty. Once someone has a good break in the shift they’re not going to mess it up. So it is going to be very close and it is going to be different to a venue where there is a steady sea breeze where you might look towards ourselves and Freddie, and say ‘it is going to be close between those two and maybe they’ll get a jump on the rest'. Here all that is taken away. It is going to be down to keeping your head and putting in the results."



The experience within the fleet also means their competitors are less likely to get the jitters during racing. "Because the Star is more expensive, it is for older people and people migrate there having won in other classes. They have not got issues winning races and they not going to make mistakes when they are out in front.

"People are cool - they’ve been there before. So I would say people aren't going to lose the Star because they blew up. They are going to lose it because on the day they didn’t sail as well. This is the kind of venue where you have to fight for every place there is and accept that sometimes you’ll be fighting between 16th and 17th and some days you’ll be fighting between second and first. But there’ll be people doing it every different way, so all that matters is that you are taking places."

We put it to Percy that it is odd that there appear to be clear favourites in the singlehanded dinghies, yet not in the other classes such as the keelboats.

"The difference I feel with the Star is that the speed differences you can gain are so much smaller than you get in the dinghy class," he explains. "If you are in a Laser or a Finn, by manipulating the boat in all conditions you can have a bigger speed edge. To give you an example - our tuning runs last for 20 minutes whereas the Finn tuning runs last for about two minutes before someone is spat out the back. The speed differences in absolute terms are much smaller, but the shifts here are the same huge shifts and realistically it is not going to be about your speed differences."

With a small fleet relative to normal Olympic class regattas, Percy feels that even getting the best start is not as crucial. "You can have a slightly slower start, tack out one boat length behind everyone and you get a shift and that is five or ten boat lengths..."

In addition to getting the shifts right on race day they have been concentrating on the 'controllables', attempting to eek that little bit more out of the gear. For example they have a fibreglass boom. "To be honest we are hardly talking the world’s biggest advantage. There are definite advantages but they’re small. But if you do small things in every department hopefully you get a measurable gain. Because the gains are small doesn’t mean you don’t do them. That’s the game we are in."



Percy is slightly loath to discuss his America's Cup plans at a time when his focus is entirely on the Olympics. Back in May he was announced as helmsman for Luca Devoti's 39 Italian America's Cup campaign with a crew line-up that will include many of his old Finn buddies.

So why them? "Mates. Wanting to enjoy it. That is a big part of what I do. I could go and get a job if I wanted. It’s about having say and control. That increases the enjoyment."

Was it to do with getting the place behind the wheel? "I could have done that at other places. Nothing is set in stone and I wouldn’t want them to be anyway. The main thing was people I know well, get on with and are old friends with, because I’ll be spending a lot of time with them and that counts for a lot. And I haven’t got a lot to go on. Ben [Ainslie] was a big influence and part of his motivation to his leaving OneWorld was that he wasn’t enjoying it. That’s why we do it. You enjoy things by winning and having control and making decisions, but you also enjoy having mates around you and having drinks at the end of the day with friends. Maybe that is higher up my priority list than it is for some others, but you are what you are. I am new to this game. Luca is good at making grandiose claims on my behalf, so I don’t need to make them!"

Despite his new America's Cup role that will commence once these Olympics are over, Percy is emphatic that his graduating up to the big time will not mean an end to his Olympic career. His plans are to continue with Steve Mitchell in the Star and one of the attractions of signing up with Devoti was that he is sympathetic towards Olympic campaigns recognising that racing regularly in Olympic classes is a good way of staying race sharp.

"I’m enjoying the Olympic side of it and I will enjoy it more when it is running alongside something else. A bit of variety keeps you fresh and I always seem to do better after a long break in the Star!"