Spithill has come a long way

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

A red-headed, freckle-faced boy runs around the OneWorld spectator boat on race days giving a running commentary of his big brother's performance.

The elder brother shakes his head at the boy's enthusiasm, and says with an Aussie twang and a smile: "It'll be good when he goes home."

Tommy Spithill is 14, a skilled match-race sailor and unequivocally chairman of the James Spithill fan club.

Each morning of the Louis Vuitton Cup, Tommy rides his bike down to the OneWorld base in Syndicate Row to beg a ride on the team's motorboat out to the racecourse on the Hauraki Gulf.

As the launch sidles up to the raceboat, USA-67, the kid points out his brother to OneWorld's guests, calling him "Jimmy Fatboy Spithill." Even though OneWorld's all-conquering helmsman is a long, lean streak of a man, it's a term of a brotherly endearment.

Tommy Spithill wants to grow up to be an America's Cup helmsman just like his brother, who has already made an auspicious entry in cup annals. In 1999, at the age of 19, James Spithill became the youngest skipper to sail in the regatta for the world's oldest sporting trophy.

Things sure have changed since Jimmy was a boy - even if that was just three years ago.

Back then, he drove a run-down old America's Cup boat, with sails like Swiss cheese, that sat on a rusted floating crane in the Viaduct Basin.

The Sydneysider rode a bicycle and ate bags of rice that some kindly soul donated to the hungry-looking boys of Young Australia.

Today, Spithill feasts gourmet-style in the glass-fronted dining room of the OneWorld base. He drives a nice car, and a very fast yacht.

"Yep, it's a huge jump up," says the 23-year-old, who led Syd Fischer's Young Australian syndicate in the last Louis Vuitton Cup.

"It's nice to have a competitive boat out there."

Not that 1999 wasn't fun. But OneWorld this year is at the other end of the spectrum of speed and success. After almost two weeks' racing, the Seattle challenge are "six and oh" with Spithill steering.

OneWorld skipper Peter Gilmour, who is almost twice Spithill's age and with five cup regattas to his name, has handed the wheel to his fellow Australian for the opening two round robins. Yesterday, Gilmour stepped off the boat for a day, giving Spithill the chance to be skipper.

It hasn't been a gamble. In the violent combat zone that is the starting box, Spithill has fought and won against such battle-honed opponents as Russell Coutts and Ken Read. Yesterday he had a scrap on his hands against Frenchman Luc Pillot and his Le Defi Areva men before taking another point.

Gilmour watched Spithill as a small boy racing dinghies outside the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. When they raced against each other in the final of the Nippon Cup match-race grand prix two years ago, Gilmour knew he had to have Spithill in his OneWorld crew.

Gilmour, who calls tactics on the cup boat, stands by Spithill's shoulder, but don't think the canny "Gilly" whispers instructions into his protege's ear. Spithill can adeptly make decisions of his own.

In the fury of a pre-start, there is no time to consider all options. "It's split-second stuff - I don't have time to talk things over," Spithill smiles. "As a kid I looked up to Gilly and it's a highlight sailing with him. And it's the same sailing with the Team New Zealand guys on our team and the Americans like the McKee brothers. I've learned so much - it's huge."

The boy from Broken Bay already had a fair idea about boats. For the first 16 years of his life, Spithill travelled by dinghy like other kids ride a tricycle.

The Spithill children grew up on Scotland Island, just north of Sydney, where the only way to get from their house to school or to the shops was by boat. Now the family live in the more accessible Sydney suburb of Newport.

Spithill is ever grateful of his parents, who, he says, "didn't have much money but made it all work when it was tough." Their repayment is watching him do well in the pinnacle of sailboat racing.

His father, Arthur, has been in Auckland this week to see his son shine. Says the proud dad: "Standing at the wheel of a fast boat, and having Peter Gilmour on your shoulder, what more could a young sailor wish for? Now, that's paradise."

* For two days there's been a notable absentee from Oracle BMW Racing's crew list - but experienced navigator Ian "Fresh" Burns has not been made to walk the plank.

Burns was riding his bicycle to the base early on Thursday morning when a dog ran out in front of him.

The Australian sailor and designer dodged the dog but crashed on to the road, suffering a serious collarbone injury. He is unlikely to be back before the quarter-finals.

His place has been filled by Harvard graduate Matt Wachowitz, sailing in his first America's Cup.

Burns is not the only biking casualty in this cup so far - Team New Zealand tactician Hamish Pepper broke his collarbone in a mountainbike accident and Olympic rowing champion Greg Searle snapped his arm when he crashed off his bike.

nzherald.co.nz/americascup

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