Series 3 - Ep24 - Tom Whidden Part 2

This month on the podcast it's America's Cup Hall of Famer Tom Whidden who in this second part of his chat with Shirley Robertson discusses in detail the events of the famous 'race of the century', the America's Cup race that saw the New York Yacht Club finally relinquish their one hundred and thirty two year ownership of the America's Cup.

It was a landmark edition of the Cup, in which Tom Whidden, onboard with Dennis Connor and his American Team, lost the Cup to Alan Bond's Australian syndicate, Australia II - the loss was the very first time the Cup left ownership of the New York Yacht Club since the first victory in 1851 in front of British Queen, Victoria, in a now famous race around the Isle of Wight.  Yet despite the implications of the loss, as Whidden reveals, humour was somehow still on the agenda...:

"We had a little dock house where the telephone was, and I walked down the dock and the phone was ringing and I pick up the phone.  Dennis is still on the boat at that point...and the voice on the other end says "It's the President, they would like to talk to Dennis" and I say "Yeah yeah yeah",  and they say "No, it's really the President, it's President Reagan"...so I get on the loudspeaker and I said "Dennis Connor, Dennis Connor, you have a phone call, it's the President and he wants to tell you you screwed up!"

Whidden's lighthearted and amicable style is wonderful to listen to, as he discusses his sailing career with a transfixed Robertson.  There are Dennis Connor stories aplenty, including his much talked about "plastic boat" quote of the 1987 Challenger Series campaign, but of course there's far more to Whidden than his America's Cup campaigns.  For decades now he's been at the forefront of one of the industry's leading corporate entities as the driving force of new technologies at North Sails, where he currently sits as Executive Chairman.

Whidden discusses the growth of the company, the adoption of the revolutionary new production techniques, 3DL and 3Di and the future of the company as they continue to develop sailing technologies.

The pair round their discussion off back at the modern day America's Cup, and Whidden's position within the New York Yacht Club, as he discusses his thoughts on the new AC75s, and American Magic's position representing the Club as the Cup heads to Barcelona.

This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website, at www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact podcast@shirleyrobertson.com.