Sailing legend gets Olympic berth

Former Kookaburra skipper/designer Iain Murray talks about trying his hand in the Star class

The Star is traditionally the class where many of the most welled capped individuals in our sport go to refresh their skills. For next year's Olympic Games in China, Paul Cayard looks set to be tied up with his new role at Desafio Espanol and Torben Grael will be busy preparing to kick butt around the world at the helm of Ericsson. So one of the few sailing legends left in the class, and confirmed yesterday as definitely having a berth in Qingdao, is Australian Iain Murray.

One hopes Iain Murray needs no introduction to well informed readers of thedailysail. But to refresh our memories, on his sailing CV are six consecutive 18ft skiff world championship wins (1977-1982) and an Etchells World Championship win in 1984.

But Murray is of course best known for his involvement in the America's Cup. After Alan Bond's historic win in 1983, during which Murray was helming the 12 metre of Syd Fischer's Advance Syndicate, it was Murray who orchestrated the Kevin Parry-backed Kookaburra team that nobbled Bond in the 1987 defender trials only to lose the Cup in Perth to Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes.

As the Cup moved into new IACC boats for 1992 Murray attempted his third campaign with Spirit of Australia, but it was the oneAustralia campaign with John Bertrand in 19955 where Murray scored one of his top results. OneAustralia of course is best remembered for the TV images of their newer boat AUS35 snapping in two and sinking. What is less well remembered is how the Aussies - a team including the likes of Nick Moloney, Andrew Cape and Volvo Ocean Race boss Glenn Bourke - picked up the pieces and reached the Louis Vuitton Cup final where they were defeated by the then new kid on the block, Russell Coutts, behind the wheel of NZL 32.



Aside from his talent as a helmsman, Murray has managed campaigns ever since the days of Kookaburra and in addition to this has been heavily involved on the design side. If the likes of Dickson and Coutts are known for their breadth of involvement in Cup programs, criticised for this in the case of Dickson, then Murray's shoulders were even wider. A qualified engineer and naval architect Murray and his team also designed all the Cup boats they sailed up until 1995 when Reichel Pugh were brought in as co-designers. To this day a design house exists bearing his name - Murray, Burns and Dovell - although of this trio only Andy Dovell has yet to make his bid for freedom from their Pittwater-based office, Ian Burns having managed the sizeabledesign team for BMW Oracle Racing during the last two Cups.

As a designer Murray has not been afraid of innovation as demonstrated by the design of Spirit which used three foils to attach its keel, while oneAustralia, initially at least, was fitted with a tandem keel.

Since the mid-1990s Murray has been fairly low key in terms of his sailing. Instead he has pursued a career in business, in particular property development, at which he has proved extremely successful. He has had a long association with the Oatley family and Murray has for many years been a regular on their Wild Oats series of yachts including their back to back Rolex Sydney Hobart wins.

Among his present projects is the development of the Hamilton Island complex, up in the magnificent Whitsunday Islands and owned by the Oatley family. At present there they are building a new yacht club of which Murray is Commodore and given the amount of time the Oatley family spend at their villa in Porto Cervo, one imagines their new club house will be based on the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda's splendid building.

These days Murray is also a significant player in the marine industry, owning Azzura Marine, the largest yacht manufacturer in Australia. Within this group is Azzurra Yachts, a custom builder that has constructed several race boats including the Admiral's Cup winning Wild Oats and Stephen Ainsworth's Reichel Pugh 60 Loki, but who's principle business is the building of large motor yachts up to 100ft. Murray's operation up on the Gold Coast also owns Sydney Yachts who today have a range spanning 32-47ft including the 32 and 38ft one designs.

Two years ago Azzura Marine also acquired the defunct Marten Yachts in New Zealand. Murray shipped the whole operation across to Australia where Steve Marten now works building his range of Reichel-Pugh designed Marten 49, 67 and 72ft hi-tech fast cruisers (sold by Ancasta in the UK). In addition to this Azzura Marine own a service facility in Sydney Harbour with travel lifts and cranes and a marina on Pittwater. They are soon to open a new facility in Newcastle for motoryachts of up to 160ft. In total Murray says they employ around 170 people in the marine business.

So why with this incredible background in our sport is this 49 year old titan now undertaking a Star campaign? According to Murray it is because it is one area of the sport he has yet to succeeded at.

His first foray into the Olympic keelboat was back in 1995. "I started sailing a Star because of Paul Cayard and in particular Stevie Ericsson. When they sailed together I was very good friends of theirs and they always used to talk up the Star. It is not a native boat for us in Australia. We have to travel and that makes it all the more difficult as well. Certainly you can see the attraction of the Star. It is a rewarding boat to sail because it is physically difficult and you are racing against such strong competition and there are a lot of things going on. When you can get a result it is very rewarding."

But his time first off in the class was short lived, coming 19th in the Worlds that year and then shelving the idea. It was only when he began sailing with Andrew Palfrey around six years ago that he says they started to get serious about their Olympic pretentions.

Initially their campaign was for Athens. "At the Cadiz Worlds [in 2003] we came 13th, which qualified the country, but we lost the national selection to Beashel. So we didn’t get to go," recalls Murray.

While the Star may not be indigenous to Australia, Colin Beashel has traditionally been their man in the class. A Star World Champion in 1998, Athens was the sixth occasion he had gone to the Games in the class, a formidable run that began the year after he was part of the Australia II crew in Newport and included winning bronze in Savannah in 1996 with long term crewman David Giles.

While Beashel was entered in the Cascais Worlds this summer he didn't show up and Murray was once again able to get Australia country qualified, finishing this year's World championship in ninth place, despite very awkward conditions. "We’ve been getting better and getting more consistent. We’ve leapt the hurdles," says Murray.

With Beashel out of the picture, Murray and Palfrey got the slot to go to the Pre-Olympic regatta in Qingdao where they finished 11th in the 16 boat fleet, but ahead of US representatives John Dane and Austin Sperry and the highly experienced Bermudan Peter Bromby. This was enough to qualify the duo to go the Games proper, formally announced yesterday.

So how, after all the other sailing he has done, is Murray enjoying the Star? "Coming back to sailing a dinghy after many many years of sailing yachts has been quite a challenge. I went to work for 10 years and although you don’t forget how to sail you certainly forget how to race. The Star class, in particular in the last five years, has seen a significant growth in the professional approach to how to sail a Star. Not only have we had to catch up and try and reinvent ourselves in becoming Star sailors, we’ve had to keep pace with the people who have come into the class who are a bit younger with a bit more time on their hands. So that has been challenging."

As to wheher he would ever get involved in another America's Cup campaign, Murray is non-commital. "I don’t know. It is such a full time all-encompassing thing. It hurts me greatly that Australia is not involved. There are lots of Australians involved and lots of Kiwis. It is great to see people from our old syndicates whether it is Grant Simmer or Ian Burns or Mark McTeague, scattered throughout all the boat and doing well. That is good."

And when was the last time he designed a boat? "I drop in to see Andy Dovell occasionally. And Ian Burns has been pretty busy with Oracle. So it has diluted a bit. It is just a case of going different ways and distractions of time. It is all good fun, but one can’t do everything."

Leaving the comfort of a big Cup or Volvo or maxi boat program to go Olympic sailing is going out on a limb, particularly for someone with a track record as long as Murray has. One gets the impression he feels he has nothing to prove, other than to himself. But it will be good for the Star class that among nippers like Robert Scheidt, Percy and Simpson, Xavier Rohart, Freddie Loof, Mateusz Kusnierewicz - all to a man hotshots from the Finn and Laser classes - The Big Fella will bring some much needed gravitas to the line-up in China.