From the following interview by Gary Jobson of Jimmy Spithill of Oracle Team USA:
http://www.sailing.org/news/37075.php
part 4 of the interview
Gary Jobson
"The first couple campaigns you were in, in the America's Cup didn't go as well as you would have liked. So you must have learned some lessons along the way that helped you out a little bit later, particularly a couple weeks ago."
Jimmy Spithill
"Most definitely. These campaigns are incredible. It's a big people game too. You've got over 100 people working together. It's not a day job. It's an obsession. You're there six days a week usually. For a lot of guys it's almost seven days. Long hours. But it's a passion. You love it and you just can't wait to get up every day. You learn a lot. For me, the best opportunity for learning is usually in a defeat or usually when you go through a hard time. As Gary said, you know, it took me quite a few campaigns before we were able to finally pull off a couple wins. But even the successful campaigns, this past one is a great example, we capsized. We were the first ones to capsize in an AC72. We had a situation right before the competition where we had a couple team members involved in a Jury decision. So quite a lot of distractions. But it is during those hard times, that's usually the ultimate test for a team.
"And now, at the end of it, for instance I look back on the capsize as a real highlight or key moment because of the learning. Not because I've destroyed a $10 million boat but because I got to see how our team reacted in a tough situation. It wouldn't have been such a …I don't think people would have judged us too much if we said oh, if we split up or if it was just too hard or said hey guys this isn't for us. But this team doesn't do that. It's hey, no problem. There's no finger pointing. Let's get together. Let's work hard. Let's solve this. For me personally after the capsize I kept waiting for someone to come up and say something or at least point their finger at me and blame me for something. Someone must be a bit wound up about this? But they didn't. All they kept saying was don't worry, we're going to get you guys out on the water soon. We've got your back. This is fine. I think that's…when you face that as a team, that adversity, you almost get that sort of immortal feeling that hey, bring on the competition because if we can get through those sort of situations, we can take anything else on. It gives you confidence."
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Interview of Jimmy Spithill part 5
http://www.sailing.org/news/37097.php
Gary Jobson
"If you were doing the football, there's always a sport where you compare the Peyton Manning's of today and who did he equate to in the past. So I would take an America's Cup skipper, who would I equate you to in the past? And I have read quite a bit about the America's Cup. Have you heard of the name Charlie Barr?"
Jimmy Spithill
"Yes."
Jobson
"So Charlie Barr was fearless and had very radical boats to sail, particularly with Reliance in 1903. And Nathanael Greene Herreshoff made the boat as radical and threw as much sail area and was the longest boat to sail in the Cup because he knew Charlie Barr was the one guy in the world to handle it. I think you are kind of the Charlie Barr of our era after what you did. Are you contemplating any Olympic campaigns? You haven't done an Olympic program I don't think."
Spithill
"No, didn't really have the opportunity as a kid. It's obviously one thing that is…that our sport is probably one drawback is that it is quite expensive. So it does take some resource to get it out there and that's something I think whether it's yacht clubs or sailing associations, I think that I'm really pushing for hard is to have programs where kids don't have to own a boat. So they can still come in and race. It's cheap. They can get out there even if it's on a weekend or something and learn the sport of sailing and be competitive. And then if they really want it, then they'll get there eventually.
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