| Must-See
TV: Jobson's '25 Years Of Sailing'
By
Rich Roberts
For YachtRacing.com
The
title, "25 Years of Sailing," may not
excite the masses. Even a young Ted Turner states
in an opening film clip from the eve of the U.S.'s
loss of the America's Cup in 1983: "I wouldn't
say the nation's prestige is at stake. It's just
a sailboat race, really."
 But
a sneak preview of Gary Jobson's one-hour special
on ESPN Classic Wednesday night (6 and 9 p.m. PT,
9 p.m. ET) reveals it as more than just a sailing
show, skipping from highlight to highlight. There
are plenty of those, but this is just for sailors
like "Seabiscuit" was just for horse racing
fans.
Jobson,
who produced and narrated the program, instills
the heart, soul, evolution and emotion of the sport
into the production, ranging from kids sailing Optis
to pros winning America's Cups and braving the Southern
Ocean.
In
the best circumstances it could not have been as
easy task. Jobson, 54, is into the second year of
his personal struggle against lymphoma. But this
time he has outdone himself, drawing deeply from
his own life as the sport's top TV personality.
He
was there, at Newport, R.I. in '83, when Alan Bond
and skipper John Bertrand turned the America's Cup
on its ear. Jobson dug up what he says is aerial
footage "unseen in 21 years" showing the
desperate downwind jibes by Dennis Conner's Liberty
trying to fight off the wing-keeled Australia II.
He
was at Fremantle in 1986-87 as lead commentator
for a fledgling network called ESPN whose staples
were kick boxing and cheerleading contests when
Conner faced off with his unfriendly rival, the
late Tom Blackaller. One press conference exchange
was more memorable than their battles on the water.
As
they discussed New Zealand's first venture into
the AC with fiberglass 12-meters, Conner said: "Since
'78, 12-meters [have been] built all in aluminum,
and so if you wanted to build a glass boat, why
would you do it unless you wanted to cheat?"
Blackaller:
"Woop! Ooooh, I don't think he should have
said that . . ."
Conner
(smiling): "I take it all back."
But
it was out there, for all time: DC had called the
Kiwis cheaters---and then had the last laugh. He
brought the Cup back to America and his hometown
of San Diego and, in the process, Jobson says, "revolutionized
the America's Cup game."
Until
'83 few people knew a Kiwi from a kangaroo. After
'83, the AC---and sailing---changed dramatically.
The 12-meter and IOR SUVs of the sea were out; light
and fast were in to stay.
Sometimes
they were too light, too fragile. Masts toppled
like tenpins. Keels fell off. Hulls fractured. There
was the unforgettable moment on a foggy day at San
Diego in '95 when oneAustralia cracked open like
a clamshell and slipped gracefully to the watery
grave it still occupies off Point Loma.
At
another memorable press conference that night Louis
Vuitton moderator Bruno Troublé asked Bertrand:
"Can you describe what happened on this leg
to windward?"
Bertrand:
"Well, the boat broke in half and sank."
Later,
Jobson comments over scenes of hysterical Kiwis
when Russell Coutts, the late Peter Blake and the
team took the Cup home to Auckland and "even
the sheep had tears in their eyes."
Alas,
San Diego's eight-year era as an AC defender would
be remembered most for its "outrageous"
mismatch of a defense against New Zealand's blindside
big-boat challenge with a catamaran in '88. "The
protracted legal battle that followed was much more
interesting," Jobson noted.
The
Kiwis' era also would end with a sour taste---not
tears in their eyes but anger in their hearts at
Coutts and company for taking the Cup away for another
country.
Beyond
the America's Cup, the sport also was changing.
"Aside
from all the well-organized races around the world,
ocean racing in this quarter-century has taken a
backseat to one-design racing," Jobson says.
"[The year] 1985 marked the beginning of the
cycle of round-the-buoy racing that has grown by
leaps and bounds. Today's sailors prefer the hand-to-hand
combat of short-course racing. It fits more comfortably
into business schedules than offshore racing."
Women
claimed their own ground. When the Olympics gave
them their own 470 class in Korea in '88, America's
Allison Jolly and Lynne Jewell-Shore won the first
gold medals. By 2003 there were 67 entries in the
Rolex Women's Keelboat Championship at Annapolis.
The
show ends on a glorious note as Jobson narrates
over scenes from
England: "Shamrock and Endeavour were the belles
of the ball at the most spectacular yachting event
of the past 25 years, the America's Cup Jubilee
in Cowes in 2001."
There
were 208 boats, and the climactic reenactment of
the historic 1851 race around the Isle of Wight,
Jobson says, was a "once in a lifetime sight.
The old schooners fighting the current at the Needles
in the overcast were right out of a painting by
Buttersworth."
No,
not Brad Butterworth, Coutts' celebrated tactician,
but Thomas Buttersworth, a leading maritime painter
of the 19th century.
At
the end Jobson lists his personal choices for the
best five sailors of the quarter-century, but you
won't see them here. You'll have to watch the show.
You'll enjoy it. |
