Q&A with David Brookes and the Hobie Cat Association of Western Australia
by Susan Ghent 2 Dec 08:57 NZDT
AS Official of the Year - David Brookes © Australian Sailing
The Olympics is a unique experience that many sailors and officials aspire to be part of. We often hear from the sailors and coaches about their preparation to qualify to compete in the Olympics and what it's like during the games. We see them on our screens, follow them, and cheer them along. But we don't often hear about those who are there to run the racing.
We speak to David Brookes about the Olympic experience and gain insight into a day in the shoes of an official at the event.
David has spent a lifetime in the Hobie Cat sailing community as a sailor and in a race management role. In the Hobie fleet these days, he is a regular on the start boat as Race Officer for the Hobie Worlds and Australian Championship events. We call him Brookesy, and he began racing a SportsKat (12-foot cat built in Brisbane) in 1974 and bought his first Hobie 14 (with a lot of help from his Dad) in 1977.
He belonged to a yacht club on the Brisbane River. All club members had to take their turn to help out with the duties and David got involved in a race officer role. It was 1977 when he started his first boat race. For the Hobie class his first big event was the Hobie 16 Nationals at Wellington Point 1981, they had over 110 Hobie 16s on the start line. From there, he did race management and kept up with his own sailing too. In 1996, David hurt his knee and became more involved in race management for the sport.
For the Hobie sailing community, it is great to have one of our own achieving such heights in the sport. A proud moment to have Brookesy involved in Paris 2024.
HCAWA: Firstly David, congratulations on your role as Deputy Principal Race Officer at the Paris 2024 Olympics. It must be quite an honour to be part of such an event and this would have been your fourth if not for the travel restrictions in 2020.
DB: It was a huge honour, we had six chiefs who were made up of the chair and deputy chairs of each race official area, Race Officers, Judges and Technical Committee. I was the only one not from Europe. My previous Olympic experience was Sydney in 2000, 2016 Rio, and the 2019 Olympic test event. I had my bags packed and ready to go to the airport for the 2020 Olympics, but the plane was cancelled due to the Covid restrictions.
HCAWA: You've had a long association with the Hobie class as a sailor and in official roles. It is very positive for the Hobie community to have you involved in the Olympics and we hear there were others too, can you tell us who they were?
DB: Yes, the Hobie Class was well represented at the 2024 Olympics. Ricardo Navarro, the South American Hobie Class Chairman, was the World Sailing Technical Delegate. Juan Antonio Llabrés, the Spanish Hobie Class President was one of the two Digital Officials assigned to race management and me as the Deputy Principal Race Officer.
HCAWA: You've been a regular official at some major Hobie Class events, including being the Race Officer for the World Championships and Australian Championships. How does the role at a class worlds or nationals differ from being in a lead role at the Olympics?
DB: The roles are entirely different. At Hobie Worlds, I usually fly in the day before the event and meet most of the team for the first time. Try and form an instant team bonding. The locals often don't want you there as they know the area and think they can run races and have more experience. So, for the first few days, it is more about forming teamwork.
The Olympics' fleets are so much smaller. You have the best sailors in the world, the best equipment and technology available, the best race management in that country, and a team of World Sailing Race Officers to assist you on the course.
It is one of the easier races to run between the raising of the Orange Flag and the Blue Flag. Just getting to the stage of raising the Orange Flag and knowing a lot of the sailing world is watching the racing makes it a bit harder.
The Deputy Principal Race Officer and the Principal Race Officer don't run the races on the water. Six weeks before, I had been in Hyeres on the water running the final Olympic Qualifiers for the 49er, FX and ILCA 6. But at the Olympics, it was all land-based and planning for me.
HCAWA: Wow that's quite different, that explains why we didn't spot you on the committee boats in the TV broadcasts. What do you prefer, being on the water or ashore running things?
DB: Definitely on the water running races. I started as someone running races, and it was never a goal to sit on shore. I learned a lot more about race organisation, working with a big team and then with a small core of officials. I would like to think I am a better official than before.
HCAWA: For sailors, it's a long time preparing for a major event like this, there must be a huge amount of planning and administration for you before the Olympics too.
So, when did you get the invitation to be involved, and can you tell us about the work that goes into it from your position?
DB: I was appointed over a year before the Olympic Games. From then on, we had meetings every two weeks, sometimes weekly. The "Chiefs" attended these meetings. Some were general discussions about the venue, scheduling, documents. Others were specific meetings about the documents that affected the race committee, just about all of them. We had many documents specific to race management and many meetings with Paris 2024, the Olympic hosts, regarding the equipment. Equipment doesn't magically arrive. The list has to be made and modified to meet our needs.
As with every event, what race management would like to have to run races and what organisers will provide in their budget are different. Sometimes, we are forced to compromise on other essential items. We tried to use autonomous, robotic marks, to be environmentally friendly and sustainable. This has limitations, such as being seen over a long distance and battery and holding issues. Our marks underwent much testing and had larger batteries and dual motors.
Countless meetings and meticulous document preparation were undertaken well before the Games commenced and the boats arrived.
HCAWA: That's good to hear that you ran testing on the markers during the event preparation, that's certainly something that is important to the sailors. I'm sure it means a lot to the officials on the water too. So what's a typical day at the Olympics like for you as Deputy Race Officer?
DB: The routine was the same daily when the games started for nearly three weeks.
6 am wake up and check the emails.
7 am Breakfast and a discussion with all the other team members of plans for the day.
8 am We had a chiefs meeting, during which the meteorologists gave us the latest weather briefing. The medical team also updated us on water quality and whether we need to extend rest periods due to the heat. We also received safety plan updates and media updates regarding their requirements. It was a chance to catch up on all the different areas of the regatta.
At 9 a.m., I would brief the four World Sailing Course Representatives who oversaw each course. They would get the latest weather briefing. They would collect the trackers for their boats. The trackers are critical for all websites to show the boats' locations and the TV and graphics. They would also be given the overall plan for the day.
After the meetings, I will head to the bridge. The bridge has an excellent view of the whole racecourse. At the back, we had an office for meteorology, as we constantly went there during the day to get updates and pass the information to the teams on the water. The Technical Delegates also their office., We had a communication centre with people listening to the VHF radio. Also, the French Navy looked after both safety and security. At the front, we had my desk, the PRO, and the Field of Play Manager.
When arriving at the bridge, I checked that the onshore flags were ready. The timing of the flags was correct. The marshal boats were on the water to ensure nobody entered the sailing area. The race committee had boats out on the water, getting weather and giving that information to all the water teams. When the weather was sailable, or we could see the sea breeze building, we released the fleets.
We would work with Field of Play to ensure the course didn't overlap or interfere with each other. If racing is postponed, we will communicate with the media, judges and the shore teams on new start times. We need to inform the media as it is expensive to keep helicopters in the sky. Also, they had video camera boats, still photography camera boats, and journalist boats. Also, the athletes support teams as they have both on-the-water and off-the-water teams for the larger nations.
When we have medal races, with the light winds, when was the last time we started all the classes? Everything needs to be calculated when we cut classes and have them race the next day. This was all worked out to the last second.
At the end of the day, I debriefed the Course Representatives and gave them ideas about the next day. Then, after another chief's meetings, I wrote the schedule and had it published before 2000.
I would leave the Bridge at about 2100, walk across from the venue, and eat at one of the restaurants across the road. Then, I would return to the hotel to do some work and get some sleep before starting all over again. Every day, it was the same routine: hotel-venue-restaurant-hotel. I was always at most 1 km from the hotel and on the bridge from 1000 to after 2100 each day, never leaving.
HCAWA: There's a lot going on each day, I feel tired just thinking about it, you must have needed a recovery plan like an athlete after the event!
I've seen you run some excellent Hobie championship events, in particular the Hobie Worlds. Last time you were on the water a lot, we had some long race windows over the three week event and your whole day was spent on the boat. Often us sailors can wait ashore while you and the Race Committee team are out there monitoring the conditions and preparing the race course. Which role is tougher for you?
DB: Thanks for the difficult questions. Both are difficult and require long hours of concentration. When on the water, you are on the water before the sailors. You check the wind to set the course, and when the race starts, you watch and follow the race. You see where the fleet is going, constantly checking the time to see if the course needs to be adjusted for length and direction. So I mentally sail every race. You are the last boat back to ensure the fleet gets back to shore safely. All this on a boat that is rocking and rolling.
For the Olympics I was there before any of the race management teams. We had meetings and discussions all day to take the pressure of the on-water team. While not as physically tiring as I was not on a rocking boat certainly more mentally tiring due to the length of the day and all the associated pressures.
HCAWA: With a four year break between each Olympic event there must be quite a difference in how things are run. What sort of changes have you seen?
DB: I was on the race committee for the 2000 Olympics. Since then, technology, documents, and race management policies have changed. Most of the sailors are professional or semi-professional sailors. The teams are large, with managers, physios, doctors, meteorologists, rules advisors, and more. We also have far more media presence and obligation. We have kites doing over 40 knots and sailboards doing 35 knots. All the starts and finishes are videoed at both ends of the line with slow motion settings. The kites are umpired by drones and the umpires are in a room with multiple monitors making decisions.
HCAWA: Now, being a Hobie sailor I have to ask about the social side too, it is an important part of our community. What's it like at an Olympic event?
DB: Totally different, the sailors at the end of the racing go back to the Olympic village. The national race officials go to their accommodation. The World Sailing officials to their accommodation. As such we all socialise in our own separate groups.
HCAWA: Can you wrap up how you feel about your involvement in the Olympics?
DB: The experience you gain from such events and the lead-up events can't be measured. The hours are long, and you spend hundreds of hours in meetings before the first race starts. The Olympics are run differently from any other sailing event, with other areas taking control of what is normally the function of the race committee. That is part of making the Olympics a unique experience.
HCAWA: Thank you for your time David and congratulations again. Your friends in the Hobie community feel proud that one of our Race Officers is working in an official role at this level. We look forward to seeing you at the next big Hobie 16 event.
DB: Thanks Suzzi and look forward to catching up with you and the Hobie sailors at the next Hobie event.
After this interview David was awarded Official of the Year at the national 2024 Australian Sailing Awards. Another big congratulations to him for this recognition of his role as an official for the sport of sailing.