Australia's Olympic quest report... 1984 !

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pierrec45

NSW

2005 posts

pierrec45

NSW, 2005 posts

17 Dec 2012 7:48am

A former roommate from Botany Bay found an old magazine lying around in his garage.
Could barely make out the prints from the cat piss, still, fun to read thems old stories...

Windrider Aug. 1984 "Olympic Update" by [Ed.: one] John Roberson

"After some rather acrimonious selection trials in the Windglider class, and some very poorly attended trials for the Windsurfer exhibition event (...). The trials were held in Adelaide, although no one from that state entered for either event. But, because all the other sailing classes were holding their trials there, the yachting authorities decreed that the boards must go there too.

There were only 14 competitors for the Windglider class, and only four of them stood any chance of selection [Ed.: nice for the others to be thusly ignored...] . Greg Hyde and Bobby Wilmot had both won their weight groups in the triangle racing at the Windsurfer Wolds last year [Ed.: surely meant Kingston 1983] . Bruce Wylie had come in 2nd to Wilmot in his weight group, and Phil McGain had won the Windglider Nationals the previous week. (...) Bobby Wilmot was the man to watch - he had started his campaign a year in advance, had given up work and gotten himself some sponsorship and a manager, as well as a lot of air time and column inches in Sydney's press.

The Nationals preceding the selection trials were close, with a different winner in each race. In the end, Phil McGain won, Greg Hyde was 2nd, and Wilmot third. Hyde won the 1rst race of the Selections, with Wilmot coming in 4th. Still, Wilmot took a small lead in points after race 3, having placed 1rst and 2nd in the subsequent heats to Hyde's two 3rds. Hyde came back to win race 4, while Wilmot placed 6th. That evening, when the protest forms came out, Wilmed claimed that the chances were being prejudiced by the races being sailed in the morning when the wind was lighter. [Ed.: good ol' days - race nights full of protests - Kingston was the worst, not sure how Perty 84 ended up]

Hyde won the 5th race and increased his point lead, but Wilmot went around the fleet with a petition seeking support for his protest. It was to no avail, though, as ultimately the protest was thrown out. In race 6 Wilmot, and Bruce Wylie, who had been training with him for 6 months, team raced Hyde back to 8th place, finishing equal at 6th themselves. Their efforts were in vain, however, as an 8th was good enough to give Hyde the series without having to sail the last race. Again the protest forms came out that evening, but none could be made to stick. Although it wasn't necessary, Hyde sailed the last race. He was so relaxed about the whole thing that he even gave a television interview as he sailed down one of the reaches! [Ed.: not sure he made friends with this move...]

Greg Hyde, a 21yo Sydneysider, had put together a very thorough and consistent training campaign while maintaining full time studies as a business management student. Because of the current patent situation in Australia, Windgliders only becamse available last October. But, despite the late arrival of the Olympic board, Hyde had managed to complete 200 hours afloat on his board before the trials. As well as having an enviable record of successes on sailboards, having been in the first 6 in his weight group at the Windsurfers 4 times before winning last year, and winning the Australian Nationals 4 times, he has a considerable string of titles to his name in sailboats (...).

In the selection trials for the WIndsurfer exhibition event, there were only 2 places for men and 2 for women. Bruce Wylie and Bobby Wilmot won the men's places and Melanie Braund and Sarah Kenny [Ed.: wow, had not heard those names in yonks!] won the women's places. Braund is a familiar name in boardsailing as she won the Windsurfer Team Sailing Worlds in 1983. Kenny, although newer to the sport, has received instruction and encouragement from the best in Australia, her boyfriend Greg Hyde."

[Ed.: Hyde ended up 6th overall in Los Angeles.]

fjdoug

ACT

548 posts

fjdoug

ACT, 548 posts

17 Dec 2012 9:27am

and on the next page, Kelby Anno doing splits on the rail

aus301

QLD

2039 posts

aus301

QLD, 2039 posts

17 Dec 2012 9:26am

want to watch some movies circa 1980 to 1985...

deejay8204

QLD

557 posts

deejay8204

QLD, 557 posts

17 Dec 2012 11:33am

aus301 said...
want to watch some movies circa 1980 to 1985...

I have been watching his videos. Some really good footage, and some really insane Windsurfers.

Zed

1274 posts

Zed

WA, 1274 posts

17 Dec 2012 11:09am

aus301 said...
want to watch some movies circa 1980 to 1985...

Great find :)

All credit to those guys, the gear they were on back then was so sh!t!

robhow2

NSW

56 posts

robhow2

NSW, 56 posts

17 Dec 2012 4:02pm

The boards weighed in excess of 22kgs ! A real horror of a sailboard ! Some information as follows : The Windglider used a 6.5m sail but the use of a harness was not permitted. The daggerboard weighed around 4 kg and was carried over the sailor's shoulder during the downwind legs. The 1984 Olympic course of nine nautical miles put a premium on the competitors strength and fitness.
I remember seeing Greg practicing and wondering just how he could possible sail for so long without harness assistance. Nobody would even think about windsurfing that way anymore.
A Dutchman, Stephan van den Berg won the 1984 LA Olympics windsurfing event on the Windglider board. In London this year yet another Dutchman won the Olympic windsurfing competition.

AUS4

NSW

1296 posts

AUS4

NSW, 1296 posts

17 Dec 2012 4:50pm

Greg finished 6th out 38 starters. Go Hydie.

jmetcher

QLD

144 posts

jmetcher

QLD, 144 posts

17 Dec 2012 8:00pm

robhow2 said...
I remember seeing Greg practicing and wondering just how he could possible sail for so long without harness assistance. Nobody would even think about windsurfing that way anymore.

I saw Greg Hyde on his Windglider on Sydney Harbour in a big open event. This one, as a matter of fact: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/Oldie-picture/

Or a better picture here:

Last I saw of him he was snapping at the heels of Scott O'Connors Crit D2. He beat a *lot* of Div II's over the line. Which, given the POS the Windglider was, makes him a gold-plated legend. As I recall I finished somewhere in the mid-300's.

Re harnesses: to be fair, a lot of guys sailed without harnesses most of the time (myself included), or just pushed the lines to the back of the boom to get them out of the way. Might just be age, but it seems to me that the modern fully battened sails driving a flat hull through footstraps generate a lot more load on the body than the older boards, especially the Div II's. Plus with the massive instability of those soft triangular sails hooking in wasn't quite the haven of peace and calm that it is now.
Still, we weren't typically doing 9nm courses, so all kudos to the Windglider guys.

pierrec45

NSW

2005 posts

pierrec45

NSW, 2005 posts

17 Dec 2012 11:29pm

jmetcher said...

robhow2 said...
I remember seeing Greg practicing and wondering just how he could possible sail for so long without harness assistance. Nobody would even think about windsurfing that way anymore.

I saw Greg Hyde on his Windglider on Sydney Harbour in a big open event. This one, as a matter of fact: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Windsurfing/General/Oldie-picture/

Or a better picture here:

Damn Jaime, if you'd told us that there was a Windglider on the pic, then we woulda known right away it was 1984 !

I don't think anyone sailed those once the Olympics were over, just like nobody would sail RSX if they got booted out of the Olympics. Where is the Windglider in the pic??

You're right about sailing without the harness: we could then, nobody can now, including us who used to...

Sounds from the article that Mr. Wilmot would not have been a happy camper...

jmetcher

QLD

144 posts

jmetcher

QLD, 144 posts

18 Dec 2012 8:26am

pierrec45 said...
Damn Jaime, if you'd told us that there was a Windglider on the pic, then we woulda known right away it was 1984 !

Never saw that pic before - just found it while seeing if Google could tell me what the finishing order was. I don't see the WG in the pic (hey, there could be 10 of them under all those wallies and you'd never know) so can't use that to pin down the date. You're right about the WG getting dumped with alacrity right after the games. There must have been a skip full of them in LA.

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