With another America’s Cup cycle complete, so there has been exodus of talent back to ‘real’ sailing classes such as the RC44. For Tom Burnham, the 37th America’s Cup last year was his fifth attempt at the ‘Auld Mug’ as a coach, since his first with Young America in New Zealand in 2000. For 2023 and 2024 he was again working for the US team, American Magic, this time in Barcelona.
Burnham now is back on the 44Cup with his long term team Torbjörn Törnqvist's Artemis Racing. “It's really great to be back in the class with the team that I've spent so much time with, seeing all the familiar faces and all the new faces. A lot of things have changed in the class in the two years I've been gone. There's a lot of new people, but there's also some new teams, which is great. But it's still the same superb racing and amazing venues. It's a great class to be a part of.”
Most significant is that several tacticians have moved, including Andy Horton who is now with Nico Poons’ Charisma, Nick Asher with Vladimir Prosikhin's Team Nika, Hamish Pepper on Artemis Racing, etc. Other crew have also come and gone. During Burnham’s absence there has also been another significant development: “The 44Cup’s initiative with women in the under-30s, I think, has been really, really positive - I'm really happy to see the class doing that and setting the standard.” In 2023, the RC44 Class Rules were rewritten so that teams now benefit if they include youth and female sailors.
Returning from the Cup means that Burnham comes with freshly honed skills and state of the art tools with which to analyse racing yacht performance, although RC44s are far more analogue than their fully digital foiling AC75 distance cousins. “The tools are evolving all the time for coaching, with the data and analytics and things that we can do with the data that we're getting off the boats,” Burnham continues. “And it's getting easier to use it. One of the best things about doing the America's Cup, is how much you can learn spending a couple of years working alongside some of the best designers and some of the greatest minds both on the design and sailing sides. But obviously with this you have a bit more room to breathe and things are a bit slower - one very big positive is spending the day in a chase boat that goes 10 knots instead of 50 knots all day long - that's much better for my back!
“The coolest things is to come back and to see how great the racing is here and how close everything is. It's so nip and tuck. And the attention to detail has to be so high in these boats which makes it really similar to the America's Cup experience.”
Since Burnham was last with the Artemis Racing, Hamish Pepper has taken on the tactician’s role with triple Olympic medallist and America’s Cup skipper Iain Percy on mainsheet. “That has definitely changed the atmosphere a bit, but that's all part of it - that's what's interesting about this sport. I guess every sport is like that – a lot comes down to the interaction people have with each other all the time - not just on board, but also in the debriefs – ‘how do we improve and get better and work together as a group?’ That is so important. And finding the balance and chemistry to help the team push forward. It's good to have fresh energy when you get some new people on board.”
While most modern day racing productions yachts have usually been and gone within a decade, the RC44’s 20th birthday is not far off. So what are Burnham’s thoughts as to the reasons for the RC44’s longevity? “It’s lasted a long time because it's, a) it's a really cool boat that it can sail really well in light air and very heavy air. It's a nice-sized boat. And it's also a really tricky boat – finicky and it’s a lot of fun trying to figure out how to sail them well. And I also think that the class atmosphere, the way the teams are all on the dock together, spending time together – it’s much more social than some other classes. And because of the way that you can move the boats around, they can go to amazing venues.
“It ticks a lot of boxes. While they're fun to sail in light air and in heavy air, they're also challenging at the same time. I wouldn't want to discourage anybody that thinks that they are not ready for it, because we've seen new teams can get into the class and do well within a pretty short period of time. But at the same time, it's really hard to be consistent…
“But the venue choices, the schedule, the limitations on practicing and the amount of days of racing - there's a lot of things that are really appealing to the owners of the teams. And they're darn quick… It was a very innovative design…
“And you must give credit to Bertrand [Favre] and the team for really doing a good job of keeping the boats up to date, with some small upgrades here and there, and strict tolerances within class rules to prevent a bulb that's the wrong weight… The one design aspect is really important.”
Welcome back Tom.