Paul Goodison interview ahead of McDougall + McConaghy Moth Worlds
by Jonny Fullerton 8 Jan 2015 11:10 GMT
9-16 January 2015
Paul Goodison practicing ahead of the 2015 International Moth Worlds at Sorrento © Th. Martinez / Sea&Co / 2015 Moth Worlds
Jonny Fullerton talks to Paul Goodison exclusively for YachtsandYachting.com ahead of the McDougall + McConaghy International Moth World Championship 2015 about Moths, the America's Cup and foiling.
Jonny Fullerton: So Goody, you've sailed in some big regattas in your time - 160 boats here, very competitive fleet - how does this rank in amongst the regattas you've ever raced in?
Paul Goodison: It's definitely up there, it's pretty impressive to see the calibre of the fleet and some of the time, effort and some of the boats that are appearing out there - it's going to be a great regatta.
JF: The added dimension of the America's Cup teams, which you're part of obviously - are you sailing for yourself, or part of the team, or a bit of both?
PG: We're all here individually, sailing for ourselves. It's great to have the team around like Loick (Peyron), Nathan (Outteridge), Goobs (Iain Jensen) and Freddie (Fredrik Lööf) and it's quite good as a team building exercise as we're all getting along and all staying in the same house. The dynamics are great but I'm sure when it comes to sailing, we'll each be sailing to do the best we can.
JF: You're pretty accomplished in this fleet as it is, but have you had any tips from the masters on setup?
PG: I'm not sure it's any help that Nathan gave me, his boat was in San Francisco after I'd flown mine there and the plan was to do two weeks of sailing. I chopped everything apart and then Nathan disappeared so I actually got one day of sailing in! So I'm coming into this a bit rusty having only done 3 days sailing since the last worlds with a complete new boat that's not quite going how I'd like it to yet, so I'm not sure we've been helping each other in that respect! But no, we talk about a lot of stuff and obviously I learn quite a lot off Nathan and Goobs who've done a lot more of this than I have.
JF: About your boat, what type of boat have you got?
PG: I've just got the standard Mach2, but I was talked into chopping the mast down, changing the rigging, making things aero and I got here the first day and nothing worked and I've slowly, slowly worked back to where I was at the last worlds - I'm not quite there yet! I've been making different strops so I get the rake the right length as all the stays are too short, it's been fighting fires a little bit.
JF: So this is quite a bit of modification still out there to do on these boats, it's a bit different from a one-design Laser isn't it?
PG: It's very different. I just want to try and make it so that it works, when you pull one rope it does what you want it to do, and then try and race well.
JF: What do you reckon of the conditions over here? Have you ever sailed in this part of the world?
PG: I sailed here a long time ago in the 1999 Worlds at Sandringham just down the road. It's great, a little bit hot today, my boat was kind of working for the Bangin' the Corners Cup which was great to be involved with.
JF: How did you go in that?
PG: I won two races but I think that was more because people around me where capsizing! I wouldn't read too much into that, but it was great fun.
JF: How does the Moth rank as a class compared to the boats that you've sailed - would you say it's one of your favourites to race?
PG: I haven't actually done that much racing in the Moth, just the Worlds last year and one other event, so I'm still a bit new to the racing. It's more the boat itself that is amazing. I remember getting in it two years ago and it's like learning to sail again - the learning curve is so steep and every time you go out there you learn something new and you move forward. It's not refining like it has been in most of the other sailing that I'm doing, it's big learning steps which makes it really enjoyable and challenging. It makes you want to keep coming back and get better and better.
JF: So the GBR team is a little bit light on numbers this year. Back in Hayling it was all on for The Moth Ashes but you're missing Rob (Greenhalgh) and a few others...
PG: Rob's not here, Ben Paton's not here, Chris Rashley has injured himself and they were the top three British boats at last year's Worlds so we're a bit light, especially with the strength of the Aussies we've got here, so I think we might have a bit on.
JF: Finally, your year coming up. Obviously a lot of your time will be spent with Artemis now, but what other goals or aims have you got for 2015?
PG: My main focus this year is to do as much cat sailing in foiling cats as I can and to get as good at that as I can. Basically trying to get Artemis in as good a position as possible to try and win the (America's) Cup. It would be nice to try and do some other sailing but I'm not sure that time allows too much for that. The big goal is to get as good as I can at catamaran sailing.
JF: So mainly the AC45 or the A Class?
PG: There's a bunch of boats that we've been training in, Flying Phantoms which have been good and a big learning curve, obviously the AC45 and some other catamarans. Then we've all got our Moths back in San Francisco so we'll get to do a bit of foiling on those as well with some training camps out there.
JF: Goody, thank you very much for your time.
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