Chris Nicholson - Self Reliance is the Key to Success

It’s 25 years since the 49er burst onto the Olympic scene, making an immediate impact around the world as young sailors learned to get to grips with the frisky skiff for the first time. Designed by former 18ft skiff champion Julian Bethwaite, it was not surprising that the early success in the 49er class came from the professional sailors on the televised 18ft skiff circuit in Australia.

A lot of good sailors pronounced the 49er unsailable in more than 12 knots. It was just too difficult, too prone to nosediving or capsizing. Chris Nicholson (AUS) and Dan Phillips (AUS) soon proved the doubters wrong, however, setting the benchmark for how to handle the high-speed skiff, and winning the first 49er World Championships in 1997. Nicholson went on to win the next two Worlds and cemented his place as one of the all-time skiff greats.

A quarter of a century later and with six Volvo Ocean Race campaigns behind him, Nicholson is back on the Olympic scene. “I’m filling in for one of the Australian team coaches who couldn’t be here, working with the young 49er sailors,” he explains. “You see all the teams here. There’s quite a lot of boats and coaches, and a lot of support. I’m just trying to help out a little bit, filling in the gaps with the Aussie 49er squad.”

One senses a bit of scepticism from Nicholson about whether so much coaching support is a good thing. “I was pretty much self-taught. But you know, way before the 49ers we’d been doing a lot of years in 18 footers, so we’d kind of taught ourselves how to race those boats. And they were quite a handful back then.”

What only Nicholson and Phillips could do in 1997 has since become standard stuff for any team on the Olympic trail. The manual has been written, the mistakes have been made and the boat handling standard in the fleet is higher than ever, thanks in part to the new standards set by the six-time 49er World Champions Pete Burling (NZL) and Blair Tuke (NZL).

The level of coaching support is also at a much higher level today, but Nicholson warns against over-reliance. “What I’m really trying to do here with the guys is to try and to teach them how to self-coach and trying to get them to drive the program more, rather than the coaches driving the program. I think it’s a much better outcome quite often, if the drive comes from the sailors themselves.”

Nicholson is enjoying looking closely at the class that brought him so much success. It has changed in a few significant ways, not least in the newly launched black sails that give the skiff such a radical new look. “It’s been a while since I’ve been on a49er but, you know, the game hasn’t changed in regards to the discipline and the priorities. The important things are still the important things.”

Following on from his three World Championship victories, Nicholson went to the Sydney 2000 Games as the hot favourite for gold but it didn’t happen for him. Sixth place did not reflect the level of talent and effort that he and Phillips had put into their campaign. Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen went on to win 49er gold at London 2012 and silver in Rio 2016, so Australia has created world beaters in the skiff. Like Nicholson and his career as one of the greatest offshore skippers, Outteridge and Jensen used their success in the 49er as a springboard into the professional grand prix world of America’s Cup and SailGP competition.

Nicholson is keen to see who the next young Aussies will be to start challenging for the podium. Who will be hungry enough to do the hard yards required for Olympic glory? “It’s going to take a group of similar level teams with similar levels of motivation to work together as a squad. They need to push each other along. We have a fantastic climate in Australia that allows you to sail all year round, and there’s good support from the Australian Sailing Team, so it’s all there for them.”