Hamish Bond is used to physical suffering for sport.
It’s been part of his life for more than two decades and he has always thrived on the challenge.
That’s why he asked his parents for a rowing machine for Christmas when he was 15, so he could train during the school holidays; that’s why he used to scull alone on a lake for hours as an 18-year-old, despite the 60km round trip from his house; that’s why he set erg records at Rowing New Zealand and why he and Eric Murray were unbeatable across two Olympiads and 69 races.
That’s why he was able to set the standard in the men’s eight in Tokyo and that’s why – after a brief retirement – he joined Team New Zealand last year, becoming a key part of the cyclor team, the muscle and grind that power the flying, foiling machines of this America’s Cup.
Bond knows what it takes to push himself to extremes – but maybe, just maybe, the greatest test of his storied career is coming, as the Cup match between Team New Zealand and Ineos Britannia gets under way on Sunday (NZT).
Races are expected to be tight, conditions variable and the sea state heavy, as witnessed in the Louis Vuitton Cup final. Add in the pressure of defending the Auld Mug and there is a lot on the shoulders of those in the engine room, mainly because no one knows exactly what will be required in any given race.
“That’s the biggest challenge here,” Bond tells the Herald. “It’s completely unknown and not your decision either. We can think we have done the hard part of the race and for whatever reason the sailors decide that we need more manoeuvres, or that is thrown at us by the conditions [or] you come off the foils, [or] your opponent does something that requires a response. You thought you were through the tough part of a race but you are not and you have to go red zone again.”
Bond describes it as “unstructured suffering”. That’s compared with the “structured suffering” of rowing or as a cycling time trialist, where you could anticipate or gauge – to a certain degree – the level of pain, lactic acid and fatigue that was coming.
“The more the sailors need to sail the boat – wind conditions, wave heights, adjusting the sail – the more that is demanded of us,” says Bond. “That is compounded in a race situation when you are having to react or dictate to an opponent and the requirements on us as a unit to put out power increases.”
The nature of the modified AC75s has also upped the demands. In Auckland at the last regatta, seven or often eight of the 11-person crew were grinding to provide power. On Taihoro, it’s limited to four cyclors (of an eight-strong crew), with increased requirements.
“The [three-minute] pre-start period is potentially the hardest part of the race,” says Team New Zealand head of strength and conditioning Kim Simperingham. “Then the rest of the race can be manageable or it can be maximal. It’s hard to predict but potentially you are asking them to put their head down and go as hard as they can for half an hour.”
Simperingham says Bond was a perfect fit.
“He’s got a massive aerobic engine which he has developed over the years and he is super driven,” says Simperingham. “He is driven by big goals and plots a path towards them.”
Bond first took to the water in April last year. He has become accustomed to the unusual new job, though not completely.
“The novelty is not quite as in your face as it was,” says Bond. “But it doesn’t take much; you stick your head up, get the g-forces in the turn and you are foiling at three metres off the water and thinking, ‘this is a bizarre situation to be in, riding a bike on a boat’.”
But perhaps the biggest change has been a psychological one. As a rower, he was always at the forefront – involved in everything from logistics, campaign planning, training programmes, equipment tuning, as well as executing the race. This role is narrower.
“It was a bit of an adjustment, to be honest,” says Bond. “I knew that was the game but it was different, not being the centre of your own little universe. We are kind of like pistons. You are vitally important to the job but no one really cares about you, until you don’t do it right … we have our own jokes about it.”
But Bond has also noted the “one in, all in” approach at Team New Zealand, where everything is subservient to making the boat go faster.
“It does work harmoniously and everyone mucks in where necessary,” says Bond. “That is a hallmark of the team. I’ve heard the stories of Bermuda, where they had to rebuild the boat overnight, and that is what I have witnessed.”
Around his training commitments, Bond watched the Paris Olympics avidly. It was enjoyable – given the spellbinding performances of the New Zealand team – but also bittersweet, for someone who had been at the previous four Games and is only the second Kiwi athlete, after Dame Lisa Carrington, to win gold at three consecutive Olympics.
“I won’t lie, there was a part of me that thought I could have been there and I definitely missed that atmosphere,” admits Bond. “Looking back at post-Tokyo, my decision to retire and I find myself here at the time of the Olympics and I am still fit, fit enough to be competing at the Olympics.”
While it’s easy to wonder about what Bond’s presence could have done for one of the crews there, it’s also a bit of a daydream.
“You can think about it but I also forget the reality of the amount of physio tape and rehab sessions that was required to get me to Tokyo. It’s always easy in your head but the actual process [is something else]. And of course logistically – where we were as a family and the dedication required to successfully compete at the Olympics – I think that chapter had closed.
“It is playing woulda, coulda, shoulda. When I retired I didn’t see myself still being in fairly elite physical shape so that is where you naturally make the leap, could I have done it? But it’s one thing to think it, another to actually do it.”
Bond retired from rowing in January 2022 with a memorable speech at his farewell function, laced with humour, honesty, gratitude and anecdotes, before he signed off by saying he was “happy to fade away and become fish and chip paper in a few days”.
That was never going to happen – given his legacy to New Zealand sport – but it was meant to be the end. His wife, Lizzie, had a position at Duke University in North Carolina and there were then three children to focus on. There were no plans to be involved in elite sport again, though he was made aware of the Team New Zealand opportunity, once cyclors returned to the Cup.
“I thought that was something I could do – they needed heavy, big people who can ride a bike ... that’s basically me,” says Bond. “But I didn’t think it would work, if you would need to be based [somewhere] the whole time.”
But discussions were had, then Bond completed the gruelling week of tests, with 15 other candidates, before the final six were selected, with Simon van Velthooven, Dougal Allan, Louis Crosby, Marius van der Pol and Cam Webster the others chosen.
He has appreciated the team’s flexibility – with a fly in, fly out approach at times during the buildup – while the nature of an extended Cup campaign also made it more feasible.
“Some of the periods fell naturally in sync with what we were doing as a family,” says Bond. “It’s definitely had challenges but overall you just make it work and it has been a good segue for me. It was initially pitched as more of a sprint requirement, but the aerobic demands have steadily increased which has even gone further into my wheelhouse.”
The training and preparation was brutal. The sailors and cyclors have a total weight band – corresponding to what is needed on the boat. Bond has put on about five kilos – “about half muscle and half fat” – as he readied himself for what will be required. Data is closely guarded but it’s believed Bond has recorded close to 500 watts for a 20-minute time trial on the stationary bike, which is remarkable, even by elite cycling standards.
“I see people asking Hamish how he does what he does; how he produces the numbers, sometimes they are after a secret,” says Simperingham. “He often looks a bit puzzled and points out it’s not about what he is doing today or what he has done in the last week. He has been pushing his body – in a controlled way – for 20 years. It’s consistent, hard training, weeks on top of weeks, then stacking years on years. There’s obviously a genetic component but he is fully driven to turn up and go through some pain. If he has a goal in mind he knows the steps needed.”
Since late August, Bond has been boosted by family support, with wife Lizzie and their four kids – Imogen (6), Phoebe (5), Finn (3) and Heath (4 months) – joining him in Barcelona. From Sunday, Bond will be back on the boat. He has been one of the busiest cyclors, used in around 75% of Team New Zealand’s races so far. As well as the grunt, Bond will often chime in on the team radio, ahead of a big manoeuvre or keeping things in sync.
“He’s good on the comms,” says Simperingham.
But mostly, like the other cyclors, Bond will be dancing the fine line between extreme exertion and expiry.
“Everyone is prepared to do whatever they can,” says Bond. “In terms of the demand, they can never have too much power, so the challenge is setting it up so that the sailors and the boat ask of us something that is challenging but manageable. We don’t want to get to a point where they are asking us to do something that we can’t … so it’s a fine balance. It’s finding the optimal load that we can handle and sustain for the period of a race.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns.
Luna Rossa have been active in their recruitment drive for the next America's Cup.