|NICK BRIGHT| From Red Bull, this is Beyond the Ordinary.
|NICK BRIGHT| Hello and welcome to Beyond the Ordinary from Red Bull, where we meet the people and discover the events pushing the boundaries of sport, adventure, gaming, culture and more. Jimmy Spithill is one of two helmsmen for the Italian Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli boat, taking on the 2021 America's Cup.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| It's the oldest trophy in international sport. It predates the modern Olympics. It's like a boxing one-on-one, head-to-head match-up. That's what the America's Cup's all about.
|NICK BRIGHT| Pushing the limits of man and machine...
|JIMMY SPITHILL| A lot of risk. Very, very, fast boats and right on the cutting edge of technology.
|NICK BRIGHT| ...these boats are capable of travelling at three times the speed of the wind that powers them.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| It really is the F1 on water because you're doing up to, you know, 100 kilometres an hour. You make a mistake and there's going to be a consequence. It really is like a car crash. There's no seat belts, no airbags.
|NICK BRIGHT| And ahead of the event, we caught up with him to talk about his career...
|JIMMY SPITHILL| When you win an America's Cup, it's just an unbelievable feeling and once you've done it, you just want another taste of it.
|NICK BRIGHT| ...his love affair with sport's oldest contest...
|JIMMY SPITHILL| From my experience it's been difficult to find anything that's as tough and rewarding as this game.
|NICK BRIGHT| ...and to take us inside the team onto the boat and out onto the water to show us what it takes to succeed, and reveal what keeps him coming back for more.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| Oh, man! It's such an addictive feeling and it's one of the big reasons that keeps dragging guys back into the game.
|NICK BRIGHT| And don't forget, you can subscribe to Beyond the Ordinary for free wherever you get your podcasts.
|MAN 1| Hey, boys, going for a take-off.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| The simplest way to explain the America's Cup is it's the oldest trophy in international sport. It predates the modern Olympics. It predates American Civil Wars, being raced since 1851. So that's something pretty cool to say that you get to race for the oldest trophy in international sport. We've seen a lot of change, you know, I mean in 1851 the boats looked quite a lot different than they do now, but it really is the F1 on water. I mean, where we've got boats that are doing upwards of 100 kilometres an hour now, obviously powered by the wind, powered by athletes, short races, 20-25 minutes, stadium-type courses, so a lot of risk. Very, very, fast boats and right on the cutting edge of technology.
|MAN 1| Little soft down at this place.
|MAN 2| Copy.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| Typically, you're allowed to build two boats. You get what's called, essentially, a class rule. Just like F1 we'll get the, you know, their car, essentially, box rule of what you can and can't do, and it's the same for us. A team size of an America's Cup team, well, right now, we have 11 guys that race on the actual boat, but our team size is just over 100 people. We design, build, engineer the boat. Typically, the boats take around 10 months to build. Carbon fibre, composite construction, I mean, right up there with aerospace. Very, very, complex and sophisticated machines, hydraulics, the electronics, the software that's used, we're taking it right to the limit. So, yeah, it really is trying to look under every stone to get some sort of an advantage.
|MAN 3| Focus on performance here, guys. And one area left, nothing to worry about.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| These boats are extremely physical. They're undermanned and you're making decisions that are split second. And in the past, you could make mistakes, but it wouldn't lead to a big accident. You know, it's sort of like driving an F1 car around in first gear, difficult to sort of get anything wrong. But these boats because you're doing up to, you know, 100 kilometres an hour, you make a mistake and there's going to be a consequence.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| You push these things too far, you're going to flip, likely hurt people, significant damage, so it really is like a car crash. There's no seat belts, no airbags, there's nothing in these-- these boats. It's all about speed. I mean even the-- let's say, the uniform that you're wearing, it's really like you're going to race MotoGP and when you're in the room, full impact vest, you've got spare air, knives, helmets, you know, in case you do crash and get trapped under the boat.
|MAN 1| Full speed on the wind here. Trim up all the way.
|MAN 3| Trim, trim, trim.
|MAN 1| Trim, full speed. We're gonna go in here. Full speed.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| I think the attributes of an America's Cup sail have changed significantly over the last 10 years. You know, previously, I think people would think of America's Cup sailors back in the ‘90s and 2000s not necessarily an athlete. You know there'd be guys in the boats that didn't play much of a role in terms of the actual operating of the boat and they just didn't have the athletic ability. Now there's no hiding. Now, you really do need all-round capabilities. It really is a different breed of athlete, but it's someone that can operate at a very high athletic ability, but still be able to make good decisions when they're under serious pressure and exhaustion.
|MAN 1| Okay, we've got a piece of him here.
|MAN 3| No, don't think so.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| If anyone's seen, you know, Kai Lenny or, you know, some of these amazing athletes that are foil surfing now or foil kiteboarding, when they crash... just bang, you're straight into the water at high speeds and hitting the water at that sort of speed is a lot like hitting concrete. You know, it's similar with these boats. If we do what's called a nose dive or where you get it wrong, or ruin a manoeuvre, it can be a heavy amount of Gs you experience when you go from 50-plus knots to, you know, stopping quite quickly. There is risk and there is a lot more adrenaline there was in the past and there's no question in my mind that that is an attraction. You know, I've always loved, let's say, pushing the edge a little bit. These boats you have to be pushing the limit. If you're not, you're going to be slower, but because it takes you out of [your] comfort zone that's also the attraction for a lot of people as well.
|MAN 1| It looks like good pressure ahead.
|MAN 3| Yeah.
|MAN 1| I just want to try and build a little killer.
|MAN 3| Yeah, yeah. Mast with power?
|JIMMY SPITHILL| I've got a lot of mates in the military. I've always been fascinated with, let's say, human performance and decision-making especially under pressure and stress. And from what I've seen and learned, the worst thing you can probably do is to get stressed out, is to elevate your heart rate and then try and make smart decisions. Just part of our training, as an example, we've done with the Red Bull High Performance Team in the past has been with big wave surfers. You know I've jumped in with a squad and we've done, you know, breath-hold training just to-- to again put yourself under pressure. Okay. What is the best way to deal with, let's say, worst-case scenario for a surfer or a wipeout held underwater because that's something, it can happen to us. We can be, let's say, pinned under the boat if it flips over. And everything, whether it's guys, friends who have been in the military, in life-or-death situations, other athletes, one common thread that seems to shine through is that the ability to try and sort of calm yourself down and to, you know, really think things through and make smart decisions is-- is critical. And so, anything that can help lead to, essentially, do that, you know, I'm willing to try anything. I've changed my diet, recovery process. I've really sort of tried to leave no stone unturned because the great thing about all the technology we have at our disposal in this world is the ability to learn and to try and, you know, make yourself better. So, yeah, that's something I've been trying to work on and that's-- that's something I'll continue to try and get better at, is good decision-making.
|NICK BRIGHT| Jimmy spent a decade racing with Oracle Team USA, winning two America's Cups in that time. This time out, he's the only non-Italian on the Italian boat Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| You know, I sort of went really out of my comfort zone, to be honest. I went pretty much on my own to a completely new team living in a place where, obviously, they're not speaking English and really being immersed in a completely different culture. And that was, obviously, uncomfortable at the beginning, but I've got to say it's just been such a rewarding process because, you know, to really learn about yourself and to really grow you have to go out of that comfort zone. And I've been really fortunate, really lucky to be sort of embraced and accepted as part of this team and to really see how another, let's say, culture, operates.
|MAN 2| [Foreign language].
|JIMMY SPITHILL| I mean one of the cool things about these-- these boats in the America's Cup is that you're heavily undermanned and that because the racecourse is so tight, you're doing a lot of manoeuvres, you're doing a lot of laps around the racecourse. So you have to figure out as a team, how are you going to get a good cockpit layout and deck layout for the guys that one is very aerodynamic, because it's all about speed, all about performance, but also allows the guys some sort of user-friendly features to perform these manoeuvres while being aerodynamic. So a concept we looked at and went with early on was: typically you'd have one helmsman and one flight controller, so the guy steering the boat and then the guy flying the boat on the foil. But when you go to a manoeuvre both those guys have to swap sides. You know, the helmsman obviously has to run over and swap the other side. Someone has to hold the steering wheel for him while he does that. Also, while he's swapping sides, you're paying quite a big hit, an aerodynamic drag. So we looked at the concept of essentially just splitting the boat in two halves. We have, essentially, two trenches on either side of the boat and we have all the grinders, the guys that provide the physical power locked in evenly on both sides of the boat. So four grinders on both sides and then we locked our two helmsman in which-- which is myself and Francesco Bruni and we both lock in with the steering wheel on either side, but so far it's been working pretty well. And, look, every race we go out there and race, we're improving, you know, where it exposes-- okay, what? What do we need to work on? How can we make this even better? But it's, yeah, so far so good and we'll just have to see how it works in the America's Cup, because the Kiwis have opted for, let's say, a primary helmsman, a guy that swaps from side to side and a primary flight controller as well, who has to swap from side to side.
|MAN 1| Hey, Marco, tack, standby. Three, two, one, board down. I have my rudder, my trim.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| The big challenge, let's say, with the two-helmsman role is that when we're not steering the boat we're flying the boat and when you're flying the boat, it really is like you have to have the blinkers on. You know, you-- you've got tunnel vision and you have to be 100% focused. So, once you perform the manoeuvre and now you switch roles and you become the helmsman, the challenge there is that you've got to now switch gears instantly into, you're now running the race, you're now, essentially, leading the boat here and you got to start making decisions while you're doing high speeds and in a head-to-head battle on a tight course.
|MAN 1| I think we're hitting one more time.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| So that's-- that's something that's taken us time to-- to develop and just from a personal point of view, really cool, because it's so challenging. You know it's so difficult to do it 100% right and each day you're just trying to get better and better at what you do in both roles.
|MAN 1| Going around, boys?
|JIMMY SPITHILL| When you sail these boats, not-- no single person's in control. Everyone's playing and doing their role and you need every single person in that role forming it to make this boat get around the racetrack. You need everyone. If one person's off, it'll affect everyone else and it's not going to work.
|MAN 1| Let's dig into this a bit more.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| Preparing for attack on one of these boats, the guy driving the boat will pretty much say to the team, "Okay, stand by."
|MAN 1| Stand by. Three, two, one, we'll tack this.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| Which means ‘everyone get ready’. Guys have to engage certain hydraulic functions. The helmsman at that time has to put his foil to the correct angle of attack before he drops it. He has to also put his feet in the right position, ready to hit a foot button to drop the board, the foil, and the lower helmsman who at the time is flying the boat, but he now has to put his hand and sort of ghost his hand on the steering wheel. He needs to put his feet in the different position ready to lift the board after he turns the boat into the tack and, essentially, take over.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| There's a lot of coordination and that's just one manoeuvre. And, again, it's just building that sort of muscle memory, building that communication, that's why it does take just hours in the water and hours on the land just reviewing and trying to get that as perfect as you can.
|MAN 1| I have my rudder, my trim.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| Well, away from sailing, I really enjoy competing and pushing myself, you know, having fun. I do a lot of stand-up paddleboard racing, a lot of boxing. But what does boxing have to do with sailing? Well, quite a lot actually with these boats. Well, you're into a head-to-head battle on the water, but the other thing is that you get taken to exhaustion and you need to make decisions. If you get decisions wrong, if you aren't able to sort of change your plan quite quickly, there's going to be some serious consequences. Well, the same happens in boxing. It's funny, how different sports, different activities, there's a lot of ways you can actually take quite a bit from it. And I think just the fact of getting outside the box you're operating in. I mean we spend more time in this camp and in this base than we spend with our own families. We spend way more time with our team-mates than family members. So sometimes, you just need to get out, you know, to clear your mind. You need to sort of break yourself away, do something. Go foil boarding, flying, put some work in, in the ring, whatever it is. And that's a lot of the time I find where you generate ideas or concepts for the America's Cup or for the, you know, for the campaign, is actually when you step away and you're involved in a different activity that somehow relates to what you're doing.
|NICK BRIGHT| Spithill first fell in love with sailing whilst growing up in a small town north of Sydney, Australia. Pittwater is almost entirely surrounded by water with no access by road and only reachable by boat. So sailing became an everyday necessity for the young Jimmy.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| Well, I think you really are a product of your environment. And so, for me, if you look at, let's say, some of the best surfers in the world, a lot of that will be down to where they grew up. I feel like my upbringing-- we were in the Bush, but based on the water and the only way to get anywhere was by boat, so had to go to school by boat, had to get to the mainland by boat. Whatever the fact was you were just spending every single day of your life hours on the water, looking at the water, understanding the weather. That's a big part. You know, you just-- you can't shortcut those sort of hours, and if it wasn't for that sort of an upbringing, clearly, I don't think I'd be involved in the game or-- or in the sport today. That again, let's say, a real sort of fascination and addiction to let's say windsurfing, sailing, just getting out there and really starting to spend some time in the water and after a brief period of time, then land the competition. You know, the beginning was all about just sort of doing it for fun, but not long after, once we started competing then I've got the bug for high-level competition and-- and really trying out there and trying and win races.
|NICK BRIGHT| That love of racing began age 10 when Jimmy won his first sailing regatta with his eight-year-old sister as her crew. His America's Cup debut came aged just 20 when he became the youngest helmsman in the race's history. Ten years later Jimmy broke another record as the youngest-ever winner of the America's Cup. But it's for the race in 2013 that he's perhaps best remembered for so far, achieving the seemingly impossible. Jimmy led one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in sport when his Oracle Team USA came from behind to beat Emirates Team New Zealand and claim his second America's Cup victory.
|COMMENTATOR 1| The Stars and Stripes say it all! The comeback of 2013 is complete. America's Cup will stay in America.
|MAN 4| Oh yeah, baby!
|JIMMY SPITHILL| You know, the 2013 America's Cup was raced in San Francisco. We were the defender. We were straight in the America's Cup final and we came up against Team New Zealand. We started off probably in the worst way you could start off. I mean, we pretty quickly found ourselves at match point in a series that was first in nine wins. We found ourselves over after a week of racing at eight-one down. And that's typically what I love about sport, is that you get to see people's true colours. Not-- not when you're winning and I think when things are going well or, you know, you're having a whole lot of success, but typically when you've suffered tough defeats, you've made a big mistake, or things aren't going to plan. Then you usually see the guys you want to be surrounded with and it's just one of those amazing sort of stories that we see in sports so often and in life that it's, you know, it's never over. It doesn't, you know, it doesn't matter how tough the obstacle or how big a challenge it may be. It's not over till it's over. And it was, yeah, one of the-- probably one of the most rewarding experiences I've been through where you really learn a lot about yourself, but you especially learn about the people around you.
|MAN 1| Nice work, mate! Good one, brother.
|NICK BRIGHT| And so, on to 2021 and Jimmy's latest challenge. What is it that keeps him coming back for more?
|JIMMY SPITHILL| Well, the America's Cup really, I think, I've got to say has become a real addiction for me. You know I love team sports. I love working with a group of people. I've always found that the-- the most rewarding things are-- are always the most challenging things and that really push you and test you. And the America's Cup just seems to do all of that, especially now, you know, over these past sort of 10-12 years with the huge change in-- in terms of the boats that we're sailing. You know, when you win an America's Cup it's just an unbelievable feeling and once you've done it, you just want another taste of it, you know. It's-- it's so difficult to get it right, but when you do, it's just one of those things. It's very difficult to put into words. And, obviously, it-- it drags you back into it again, because it's from my experience it's been difficult to find anything that's as tough and rewarding as this game.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| For race one of the America's Cup, you line up and you're just about to hit that pre-start period. What an unbelievable feeling! I mean, you know, it's a real mix of emotions. There's anxiety, a bit of nervousness, but the biggest one is probably just excitement and adrenaline. Yeah, it's very difficult to explain what that feeling is, you know, just with those minutes leading into sort of entering that starting box and engaging in the other boat, but, oh man! It's-- it's such an addictive feeling. That's one of the big reasons that keeps sort of dragging guys back into the game, is that it's so hard to find that feeling in anything else that I've experienced anyway.
|MAN 1| Nice one, boys! Pull on.
|JIMMY SPITHILL| To be able to go against Team New Zealand on their home waters in New Zealand is, man, it's a lot like a rugby player getting to play, let's say, the All Blacks in a Rugby World Cup final at Eden Park here in New Zealand. I mean, as a competitor, it just does not get any better than that. You know, what a privilege to be able to go out against the world's best team in their own home waters. Man, that's-- that's what it's all about. Clearly, it makes you an underdog, but it also makes it, you know, something that's worth fighting for. I mean, if-- if it was easy, it just wouldn't be worth doing.
|MAN 3| Nice, boys!
|MAN 2| [Foreign language].
|MAN 1| Come on, boys! Let's spin up and get these sails down, so we can get out for a beer.
|NICK BRIGHT| That's it for now on Beyond the Ordinary, but there's plenty more where this came from, so hit subscribe, so you can get the next episode as soon as it drops. If you've enjoyed listening, remember to share the pod with a friend or on your socials as well as leaving us a review so more people can find us and don't forget to check out RedBull.com for more articles, interviews, and video features on Jimmy and the America's Cup. Thanks for listening. Take care and we'll catch you next time.
