Rob Wilson: Inside The Life Of A SailGP Coach

The coaching role in SailGP has changed considerably over the last  five seasons. Originally coaches were based on the water in the team chase boat with limited data and no comms with the sailors during a race. 

Now for Season 5 they are shore-based, working from a coaches’ booth where they have ready access to live data from their boat (and the rest of the fleet) and they are able to talk to their sailors at any point in a race.

Yacht Racing Life editor Justin Chisholm sat down with Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team coach Rob Wilson to get his take on the coaching role and how it has evolved over time.

Justin Chisholm: You have been coaching the British team since Ben Ainslie took it over in Season 2. What’s your take on the changes to the coaches’ role since then?

Rob Wilson: Two or three seasons ago–before we moved into the coaches’ booth–you could just about get away with one person in the coaching role. In fact, even in that first season when we moved onshore into the booth, we were only really giving a little bit of tactical information. I don’t think we had access to the data the sailors can see on the wing display on board the boat, so we didn’t really have the full tactical picture. The sailors had that data, plus a close-up view of the racecourse and so were in a much better position to make judgement calls for themselves. We were really just monitoring comparative performance and general wind trends. 

Justin Chisholm: So what’s changed?