The INEOS Interviews: Bleddyn Mon
by Mark Jardine 20 Aug 00:30 NZST
INEOS Britannia - AC75 - Day 21 - June 4, 2024 - Barcelona © Ugo Fonolla¡ / America's Cup
The vast experience that Bleddyn Mon has in sailing seems impossible considering he is just 31 years old.
He has medalled at World and European level in the 29er class, sailed on the Extreme Sailing Series, competed in the 2017/18 Volvo Ocean Race, and this is his third America's Cup campaign. He also studied Mechanical Engineering Aerospace at the University of Southampton, including a 12-month industrial placement with the Red Bull Formula 1 team as part of the Aerodynamic Development Group.
In our series of interviews with INEOS Britannia team members, I spoke to Bleddyn to find out more about his route into the America's Cup world and his role within the team.
Mark Jardine: This is your third Cup cycle. But when you first came into the team, you'd only just come out of 29ers and early days of 49er sailing.
Bleddyn Mon: My first one was in Bermuda back in 2017 but I joined the team pretty much as soon as it started, essentially after Ben Ainslie raced with Oracle in San Francisco. So I was in a bit of a limbo phase to be fair. I'd done my youth sailing in 29ers, and that had gone quite well. I transitioned to 49er sailing, and was kind of on the Olympic circuit with that, but never fully progressed through to competing in the Olympics.
At the same time, I was balancing an engineering degree, and a few doors opened. I was able to go and do an internship with Red Bull Formula One, which was really good fun. It was obviously cool to be working in such a competitive environment and a sporting environment as well, but at that time, I still knew that sailing was my passion, and that's what I wanted to do.
It was around the same time that the America's Cup was being raced in San Francisco, so following that I started thinking, "that's really what I want to be doing." Following Ben starting up the team, first of all I went into the Extreme Sailing Series, because back then obviously we were racing in the Cup in cats, so it was the obvious choice. I'd done some Extreme Sailing Series sailing previously with Lee McMillan, who's with this team as well.
Halfway through Ben's first season I got asked to come along and sail with them on the Extreme 40, and essentially that led into joining the team when they set up in Whiteley initially, and then in Portsmouth.
It was perhaps a bit of an unusual, non-traditional route into the America's Cup and I feel very fortunate with the timing of how things happened. It could well have been five to ten years earlier, and there wouldn't have been a team there for me to step in to.
Mark: Timing is often everything, but the route you took meant you went almost directly from youth sailing to being alongside Ben. What was your first ever sail with him like?
Bleddyn: That would have been in Cardiff, in the first Extreme Sailing Series event I did with him. As you say, it was quite the step up in a way, somebody that I've never sailed with before, and obviously knew a lot about. It was an honour to be able to go and sail with someone like Ben, and there were some other great sailors on that team as well. So it was really a big eye-opener for me, into the world of professional sailing at that level. It was great to be involved.
Mark: On the AC75 now, your role is split between trimmer and pilot. What is it like when you're transitioning between those two roles?
Bleddyn: Last time around I was purely trimming, and the way these boats have now evolved, the way different teams choose to sail them, changes every Cup. We've decided to split it as a trimmer / pilot role.
That would be quite unusual for most boats, where you'd have your role, and that would be what you do. On the AC75 it's actually very natural - you'd have thought that swapping your roles around gets a bit unsettling, but it isn't. It's all interconnected and it's quite a natural balance, and actually very useful to have the understanding of what both roles entail.
Mark: With your engineering background, you must be a vital link between the shore team who are continuously working on the boat and the sailors. Do you find it useful that you can effectively speak both languages?
Bleddyn: Absolutely. When I first joined the team, my primary role was on the engineering side, but as the Cups have progressed, my roles shifted more towards the sailing side, so that now that we're getting into the racing part, it's essentially 100% sailing focused.
For sure, there's still a very important role there, which is to be able to communicate with the design side, the technical side, the designers of this boat, and feed back on what we see and what we feel in the water, and be able to have conversations with them.
I think it's not just a skill that I have. I think all the sailors in this team have that skill, and it's important. Part of being an America's Cup sailor is that you can communicate with these top level designers who are modifying these boats.
Mark: As the tension cranks up you've got to think about how you have your downtime. How do you spend yours?
Bleddyn: I've got a young family, so that keeps me busy when I'm not here at work, but you're absolutely right - it's incredibly intense here, and especially the next couple of months are going to be really intense. At the same time, it's important to make sure that you come back fresh each day and hit the racing hard.
It's nice being here with the family, and being able to switch off a little bit when I go home. It's an easy distraction away from work, but at the same time, this is what we've been working on for the last three years, so it's the accumulation of a lot of effort.
Mark: What is the mood in the team like right now?
Bleddyn: The mood is good. This is what everybody's been working for since we left Auckland, with other people joining more recently. This is the fun part. This is the bit where everybody's looking forward to getting out there, getting racing, and lining up against all these other teams. It's brilliant!