America’s Cup this time for USA
As the challengers for the 36th America’s Cup prepare to square off this week, Suzanne McFadden finds Kiwi sailor Sean Clarkson making an eighth bid for the silverware – but this time for the Americans
Sean Clarkson is a rarity in the Americaâs Cup sailing fraternity.
At 52, the Kiwi professional sailor is lining up in his eighth Americaâs Cup regatta. No other sailor in this edition of the Cup has been on the grinding handles for as long as he has.
Itâs been 29 years since Clarkson made his Cup debut in San Diego on board NZL20 â the Red Sled â in New Zealandâs failed challenge for the Auld Mug in 1992.
Back then he was a marine biology student at the University of Auckland, and sailing in the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadronâs youth scheme. The New Zealand Challenge was looking for strong, young men to bolster their sailing squad, and the 22-year-old Clarkson ditched his degree, bulked up and joined the Kiwi crew.
Now seven campaigns â under five different national flags – later, Clarkson throws his considerable heft of experience into the New York Yacht Clubâs American Magic sailing team, who launch their assault on the Prada Cup challengers series in Auckland later this week.
When I meet with him in American Magic’s hospitality lounge – which, because of Covid-19, is empty apart from us – Clarkson asks: âAre you surprised Iâm still alive?â
Sean Clarkson (third from right) on board American Magic’s 38ft training boat, The Mule, with Dean Barker at the wheel (right). – photo © Amory Ross
Not so much thatâs heâs still breathing, but I’m definitely intrigued as to why heâs still sailing for the holy grail of yacht racing.
He explains that heâs just lucky he hasnât fallen to bits yet. âIâve never had an injury, never had an operation or broken a bone,â he says.
Sailing has always been the livelihood of this Kerikeri-raised New Zealand Olympic sailor, round-the-world race winner and multiple world champion, whoâs also a husband and dad.
And the passion to finally win the America’s Cup still burns bright.
Clarkson, his wife Shawn and their two teenage sons, Finn and Felix, arrived in Auckland in May, leaving their home in Mill Valley, just north of San Francisco, after a long pandemic lockdown.
Finn is driving a forklift around the American Magic base below us. Heâs working as a labourer for the team while on holiday from Auckland Grammar School.
âHeâs 16 and heâs already bigger than me,â Clarkson laughs. Finn is also an athlete – in water polo, mountain biking and rugby. Not sailing. âI told the guys, if I had just one of his lungs, Iâd be a better athlete than I am now.â
Clarkson is also in awe of the burly, powerful grinders he sails alongside on American Magicâs AC75, Patriot. Even though some are just learning the art of sailing.
Sean Clarkson in the survival gear of a modern-day America’s Cup gladiator sailing for American Magic – a far cry from the t-shirt and shorts of his first Cup campaign, with New Zealand, in 1992. Photo: – photo © Amory Ross
Swede Anders Gustafsson is a four-time Olympian and world champion canoe sprinter (as well as a former Royal Guard of Carl XVI Gustaf, the King of Sweden); and American Tim Hornsby also hails from an Olympic kayaking career.
âHaving been a frontline athlete in previous Americaâs Cups, itâs somewhere between humbling and downright embarrassing how good some of these guys are,â Clarkson marvels. âTheyâre 25 years younger, but theyâre also athletes who are the best in the world. Theyâre freaks of nature.â
As he works out twice a day in the team gym, spending six hours a week on the grinding machine alone, Clarkson is spellbound by his crewmates.
âYouâre in the gym blowing yourself out, and you look across and theyâre doing 30 percent more than you, and theyâre just talking away,â he says.
âBut these guys come from threshold sports where they just love the pain. And I can still hang in there.â
Knowing he needed to âfind some magic from somewhereâ to physically stay in the game for an eighth Cup campaign, Clarkson has done a lot of reading into the science of exercise. âItâs pretty impressive that I can look at the training programme now and understand why weâre doing it,â he says.
Fitness is one of the obvious evolutions Clarkson has witnessed in three decades of sailing at the apex of the sport.
âItâs a different world now. For a few of our guys, the Christmas Cup regatta [sailed in Auckland last month] was the first sailboat race theyâd ever done,â he says.
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by Suzanne McFadden/Newsroom