Podcast

The number 202.9 might not mean a lot to most but is a figure Glenn Ashby has become obsessed about. The two-time America’s Cup winner is now leading a group from Emirates Team New Zealand trying to break the wind powered land speed record.

New Zealand has a proud tradition in the round the world race and a lot of that started with Ceramco New Zealand in the early 1980s – the first New Zealand-flagged boat to compete in the gruelling event.

Karl Budge doesn’t purport to be much of a sailor, but he is one of this country’s leading event organisers having previously turned the ASB Classic into one of the world’s best tennis tournaments.

Mike Sanderson is one of the most successful sailors of his generation.

There’s not a lot Sharon Ferris-Choat hasn’t done in sailing. She’s a two-time Olympian, first woman to be part of a team to win a round the world race, world distance record breaker and the first woman to skipper a GC32 team.

Jo Aleh always maintained she hadn’t retired when she stepped away from top-level sailing after the 2016 Rio Olympics but it was still a surprise in some circles when she announced earlier this year she was targeting a third Olympic medal in Paris.

Peter Burling and Blair Tuke are never far from the action, whether it’s the America’s Cup, SailGP or in their environmental work, but the spotlight for this episode of Broad Reach Radio is on their Olympic sailing in the 49er.

Steve Ashley was an 18-year-old sailmaker living in England when he was asked to crew on a 34-foot yacht for the 1979 Fastnet Race.

The America’s Cup has long been at the cutting edge of yacht racing and we’ve seen incredible development over the last decade or so and a lot of that has to do with Dan Bernasconi.