Glenn Bourke Interview - Pt1

3 time Laser World Champion, running the most successful Olympics ever, now illbruck, Glenn Bourke has done it all...

Glenn Bourke is shaping up to be one of the most sought after project managers in the sailing world. He is the power behind John Kostecki’s throne at the illbruck Challenge. While Kostecki the skipper has the luxury - if you can call it that - of being able to focus almost exclusively on winning the Volvo Ocean Race, Bourke the Chief Executive must juggle the demands of the Volvo with illbruck’s imminent assault on the 2003 America's Cup.

The last few years have been a whirlwind ride for the tall, mild-mannered Australian, who has made a rapid transition from being one of the best one-design sailors in the world to one of the most adept administrators in professional sport.

His big break came when he was offered the chance to oversee and manage the sailing competition for the Sydney Olympics. It was a risk handing the management of 1,200 employees and volunteers to someone with virtually no experience in sports management, and yet the last Games is widely regarded as one of the most successful ever, particularly from a sailing perspective.

But if you take the view that a person who has been successful in one field of endeavour can be equally successful in another, then there should have been no doubting Bourke's ability to make it happen in Sydney.

Bourke has been-there done-that in most areas of the sport. His introduction to top-level sailing came when aged just 19, when he was on the verge of representing Australia as crew in the FD class for the Moscow Olympics in 1980. But then the boycott came in, due to the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan.

"I was pretty disappointed, they'd got me the suit and tie, and I was ready to go," says Bourke, who then took some time out cycle racing in Australia. "That was pretty good for me, it got me very fit and taught me a lot about competitive spirit."

Bourke then returned to top-level sailing in his mid-twenties, joining Kookaburra in their defence of the America's Cup off Fremantle in 1987, "but as everyone knows we were soundly beaten by Dennis Conner that year".

That was the launch pad for a couple of seasons of match racing with Peter Gilmour. "We had a second in the world championship and numerous wins on the circuit. At the same time I started to sail the Laser seriously. I'd learned a lot from the America's Cup about how to prepare yourself professionally, and I'd learned a lot from the cycling about how to train.

Success came quickly. "I started in the Laser in earnest at the beginning of '88 and ended up winning the Australian championship and winning the worlds that year in Falmouth. I then embarked on a full-time Laser odyssey for the next couple of years, won a few regattas around the world." These included winning the worlds in Aarhus in Denmark 1989 and again in Newport in 1990. He was as dominant then as Brazilian Robert Scheidt is now.

Unfortunately for Bourke, the Laser had not yet been selected as an Olympic class, so he was going to have find another class to realise his thwarted ambitions of 1980. "I always had that dream that I could go back into the Olympics and fulfil that unfulfilled dream. My father had been an Olympian when he competed for the Australian swimming team.

"So I packed on the kilos, from 78 to about 94, and embarked on a Finn programme. It was great to go sailing with a load of guys who were a bit more mature, and get involved in a more technical programme."

After the simplicity of the Laser, Bourke had his work cut out getting up to pace. "Matching the sail to the rig was a real problem, but I got the combination working for one half of the wind conditions. Anything over 14 knots and I was going pretty well, but anything under that and I was awfully off the pace."

After just a year in the class, Bourke came second in a windy worlds in Cadiz and missed winning it by just a few points. It was a remarkable progression in such a short time. A medal in Barcelona looked a realistic prospect. "And then I went to the Europeans in Poland and slipped over in the boat. I tore my medial ligaments, and had to rest up for a crucial six weeks before the Games. Then the Olympics came along and it was light airs and I guess I just didn't have the pace. I hadn't been in the boat much and it was a light air regatta that didn’t suit me."

Bourke cannot even recall where he finished in Barcelona, "19th or 20th, not too brilliant". And then the Laser was selected for Atlanta, but Bourke had new commitments by then. "I had a fling in the Lasers when they went Olympic, but I was married and had a small child. I didn't have the time. I would have been the oldest guy in the fleet. I did compete in the trials but didn't win them and was a bit half-hearted about it anyway."

Turn to page 2 to read about his experience on the incredible sinking America's Cup boat...