Polish contender

The Daily Sail speaks to match race World Champion Karol Jablonski about his forthcoming America's Cup campaign

Karol Jablonski is one of those rare animals, like Ellen MacArthur, who has confounded the laws of natural selection to get to where he is today. In the same way as MacArthur was a young girl from the Midlands who won the OSTAR and came second in the Vendee Globe, so Jablonski is the current Match Racing World Champion yet comes from northeastern Poland, which is up there with Derbyshire for spawning top level yachting talent.

Despite his country of origin, Jablonski's path to success reads a little like an RYA manual - Optimists, Cadets, 420s and 470s. "It wasn't that easy. We were always struggling with the materials, with the sails, with the boats. There was no chance that we could have the same equipment as the other guys so I'm really lucky now that match racing I have the same stuff," Jablonski told us over a beer while waiting for the wind to fill in at the Swedish Match Tour's ACI HTmobile Cup in Split last week.

Jablonski did most of his early sailing on the intricate complex of lakes in northeastern Poland to the north of Warsaw where he still lives and was part of Poland's elite sailing squad. He would have represented Poland in the 470 in Los Angeles were it not for the eastern block buoycott of the games that year. "We are lucky to live in such beautiful country. There's 1000s of lakes and a lot of forest and not much industry. It's a nice clean country," he says.

Firmly gripped by the sailing bug Jablonski realised he wouldn't be able to further his career on the water in Poland and in 1986 decamped to Germany. "For me there was no chance to continue sailing in Poland. So I started to work as a sailmaker and boatbuilder in Steinhuder close to Hanover. I had good teachers. The owner of the sailmaker, he was an experienced sailor and we raced on German yachts called Yolingcruizer, 8m long boats and gained much experience."

Through the sail loft Jablonski became firmly established in the German yacht racing community and rapidly proved his natural talent.

"I jumped to the One Ton class. I was on Saudade at the beginning of the 1990s and then I went to Thomas I Punkt, with Thomas Freise. That was a good relationship for me. He was like a father to me as he gave me the chance to sail with professional sailors. I was the only guy from an exotic country and then there was Tom Dodson and all the rock stars and I was driving the boat and they had to trust me. But I am able to bring the boat across the finishing line in first position."

Among these victories was winning the Admiral's Cup in 1993 when Jablonski was steering the 50 footer Container. He went on to sail four Admiral's Cups for Germany subsequently helming Willi Illbruck's Pintas - an ILC46 and then an ILC40 and finally the German/Polish Sydney 40 MK Cafe. "That was a really good time and I got three Corum watches! We were supposed to win a fourth, because we won two races in the Corum trophy in 1999, but there was no watch!"

In between he raced the Mumm 36 Thomas I Punkt, winning the Commodore's Cup in 1994 and the Mumm 36 Worlds in 1999 and two weeks later won the Sydney 40 Worlds in Cowes, both these latter events with John Cutler calling tactics.

Aside from his big boat sailing Jablonski attempted a Tornado campaign for Sydney but had to retire due to back problems. He has also been a successful coach and was trainer to Mateusz Kusznierewicz when he won Gold in the Finn at Savannah. He has achieved huge success in iceboating, popular in his native Poland and has won seven World Championships in the DN class.

But Jablonski's main drive ever since the 1999 Admiral's Cup has been match racing and that most coveted trophy of all, the America's Cup. "I am an all round sailor," says Jablonski. "I have been successfull in small boats and dinghy sailing and big boats and now it came the time to prove my skills in match racing - the most complicated kind of sailing!"

After just three years of match racing, Jablonski proved his mettle last year when he won the Match Racing World Championships and reached the top of the ISAF rankings, which he still leads ahead of Dane Jes Gram Hansen. At present he says he is concentrating on his position in the ISAF rankings but next year will focus more on the Swedish Match Tour.

Taking part in match racing events comes second only to making progress in his America's Cup campaign. "I am pretty busy with the American's Cup challenge in Poland and I spend a lot of time talking to sponsors and raising money," says Jablonski. "You have to stand by. When they say we have time to meet you, you have to be there - and this is the worst part of the game."

Jablonski's rise up through the match racing league table has obviously been part of a bigger goal of doing well at the Cup. "I think there is no way to be successful at the America's Cup without the match race experience. At this stage we are lucky that we, the Polish team, can compete with the best guys and America's Cup teams in the world and to beat them. On the match racing circuit, we have beaten almost all of them. It is good to know that we are able to compete on the same level and we are not second class sailors. It is good for us and it gives us a chance to talk seriously about an America's Cup project. Because human power is still number one in the America’s Cup."

Jablonski says their Cup campaign has been modelled on that of Team New Zealand. "We plan to have a family of four or five sponsors, because we are not able to find one rich guy who will finance it. Team New Zealand showed many times that with less money and good management you can be successful. Everything ends up with human power. When you don’t have good management and when you have problem with the sailors, even if you have good money you can't fight it."

Now it is the right time for Poland to mount a Cup campaign he maintains. "There is no problem with money in Poland," he says. "We have a few rich companies. But it takes time to make such a project well known and to explain to them what the project is all about, because they ask 'why do you need 30 million Euros for only one sail boat?" And now this project has to be a national project to promote Poland and has to show that Poland is a country with big possibilities. In the next few years we are going to join the EU so it is the best time to do such a project. For sure we won't be able to do this without support from the government. And we would like to make it popular in Poland so that everyone will know about it and will be able to identify with it." If they do succeed in getting the money it will be the biggest sports sponsorship in Poland and possibly in the whole of Eastern Europe, says Jablonski.

Far from being an idle dream, the team have already purchased the 1992 generation Spanish IACC boat DECA1 on which his team have been training for the last 18 months. This is fulfilling two roles - crew training and increasing the awareness of the America's Cup and what it means in Poland.



America's Cup training on DECA1

"We don’t have too many experienced big boat sailors," Jablonski admits. "We brought the boat in October 2001 and spent the winter in Valencia. Then we bought the boat to Poland and last summer from May to October the team sailed the boat five days a week. And the team have improved very well and I am very impressed by the job they do. The key is we have a great match race team. The guys have match race experience which is very very important on such big boats. That is the key. We spent all the summer sailing with sponsors and learning how to sail the boat."

While the team will be largely Polish Jablonski admits that there is not enough Polish talent to fill all the necessary roles. "The sailing team will mostly be Polish. For sure we will hire good sailors and they will be our coaches. Design-wise, we already have interest from young creative designers who have worked on this America’s Cup. But we’ve not employed anyone yet. The final call we will make at the end of this year. Because I don’t to make the next step without the budget - 30-40 million Euros. Now all the money we have we have spent promoting our project and for sailing."

If they don't get 75% of the budget by the end of this year, they will attempt to get work with other teams, while attempting to get the budget together for the subsequent Cup. Aside from Polish companies they are talking to other foreign companies who are looking to make inroads into the Polish market.

The next Cup coming to Europe Jablonski says is a mixed blessing. "The problem is that we still don’t know where it is going to be. But it is something new. The America’s Cup is much closer and everything is easy, but that doesn’t mean it is cheaper. It is going to be easy for TV transmissions and it will be much easier for spectators to get there and to get a sponsor who does business in Spain or Europe."

At present all is going to plan in their build-up to the Cup in 2007, but Jablonski is realistic about their prospects. "It is going to be the first time for us. We will be lucky to have the same potential as the other teams. But we would like to show a good sailing performance and show that we can handle these boats perfectly. It has to be successful for the sponsors and the sailors as well. I am not saying that we are going to win the America’s Cup, because the chance are really really small. But we will be a young and creative team and probably competitive as well."

Aside from his America's Cup activities, Jablonski is also IMS racing in Germany and will be sailing in the IMS600 Europeans in August. Later in the year he will be a hired gun on the new Wally Y2K in the Maxi Worlds and the Middle Sea Race. He says he doesn't go offshore unless he is paid well!

Jablonski is an impressive individual considering his background. He is approaching his America's Cup campaign from a position of knowledge and is under no illusions. We hope he makes it.