• "Right of Spring"

• "An Interview with Tim McKegney"

"An Interview with Tim McKegney":

By HARBOR WATCH Publisher Ken Signorello

Tim McKegney

HW How long have you been sailing?
TM For about 28 years. The first time I went sailing I was 6 years old and living in Connecticut. Then my family moved to Vermont when I was 8 and I kept sailing at the Malletts Bay Boat Club sailing program as much as I could. It was something I liked. I loved it and I was good at it.
HW Was there any one person that was instrumental in developing your sailing career?
TM Probably my dad at the very beginning. He was really supportive of me. He had an Ensign and we raced that one design. It was the top one design class in the seventies. It was like a J24 around the country. There'd be 55 boats at the North Americans. My sailing instructors from Malletts Bay were pretty instrumental. One was Hale Wolcoff who has gone on to great things.
HW What about sailing has kept you racing all these years?
TM The fact that it's never the same. Never a routine at all. Other sports like running where you're pushing your body a little bit further - you are pretty well set. You aren't going to make huge leaps, because genetics have a lot to do with it. But in sailing, it is so much more of a mental sport that you don't require the parents of Joe Montana to succeed in the sport. It takes a lot of different factors put together. To me the possibilities are endless. No matter what age you are. You can do it till the day you die.
As an example, in the 1984 Olympics in LA, Carl Buchan won the gold medal in the Flying Dutchman and his father, Bill Buchan, won the gold in the Star Class. How many sports does that happen in. That was very inspiring to me. (also in 1948 the Smart father and son team won gold medals in the Star class.)
HW What is your best career accomplishment?
TM I never thought of it that way. Probably when I did the Adrenaline multihull program. I was given the chance to be involved in building the boat and managing the whole program and organizing everything. We raced in Europe in the professional Formula 40 multihull circuit. I did it for four years and Randy Smyth did it for a couple of years. We were winning till we broke the boat.
HW What are some high points from 1995?
TM I was on the "Primagaz" team for 7 months last year. I got to transport the boat from the west cost of France into the Mediterranean. I got to spend a few months training in Marseilles France. I was involved in the sail development. For that we had all new 3DL sails on the boat. We went for a trans Mediterainean record twice. The second time we did it the wind came up to 40+ knot. We were doing 30 knots down this wave with just the little jib up. Big huge waves. I was driving and it was really really exciting. For the summer I raced in the around Europe Race on "primagaz". We raced from Italy to South of France. We were in Morroco, Casablanca, and the West coast of France.
HW So you've been sailing for quite a few years on multihulls?
TM The last year and half I've gotten back into them. I really got into J/24s when I was young, I sailed those hard. Then I got into PHRF and working on them and IOR boats because that was where the work was. Then I worked for an owner that liked multihulls and that is how I got into the Adrenalin program. After that ended I still really liked fast boats so I worked on Hunter's Child for a while. I think that is the future of monohulls - water ballast, swing keels - outside of the sport boats I think that is where the future lies.
After that, a friend that worked on "Primagaz", got me a chance to work on the program. Here is how it works in professional sailing, unless you are a big name. I went over there and worked for a month and a half on the boat, on shore, for free. Then I went to a regatta and stood on the power boat, I didn't even get to race on the boat. Slowly I started to race on the boat and move my way up the team. Even though I am better known in France as a sailor than I am here, and even though I am pretty old and experienced I still had to go through that order to get on the boat.
HW You've sailed all around the world, in some pretty exotic places. How does sailing on Lake Champlain compare?
TM Sailing on Lake Champlain - it depends on which time of year. Other places around the world have certain geographic features that more or less guarantee winds, like San Francisco Bay and Florida with their thermal action. But, if you are hardy of soul and sail in the spring and fall, there is hardly anyplace better to sail. Unquestionably this is the most beautiful place. I've been to a lot of places, I think, what we have here, is very unique.
We take very little advantage of our waterfront area. You'd be surprised how promoted waterfront areas are in other parts of the world when, as a resource, they aren't nearly what we have. Even seasonal areas turn into a huge mecca.
HW How is the racing here?
TM I think the racing here is similar to a lot of places in the States that aren't total centers of racing activity. The racing participation has gone through its ups and downs over the last few years. That may be more of a reflection of cultural ups and downs not necessarily anything to do with sailing.
HW I've heard it said that a location such as ours, which is only seasonal, could never hope to compete with people that are racing all year round. What do you think about that?
TM I think that is totally wrong. If you talk to people that are in areas where they can race all year long they typically don't, and when they do, it's not as intense as the schedule we have. We can race every single night in the summer here except Friday. When I was growing up I used to do that. Also, as a seasonal game, it's a good way to keep your enthusiasm up.
HW Does it make sense to pursue sailing speed in a monohull?
TM One problem with multihulls in their present form is that its very much a speed game. It's more like ice boating, were you have to do a lot of setting up. Setting up the boat is very important because if you have just a little speed advantage you can end up a leg ahead of everyone else. Comparing sport boats to fast catamarans like the Tornado, it is brutally and physically demanding, to sail the Tornado in any kind of wind at all. I think that would take a lot of people out of the sport. Where as the sport boats are comfortable, fast and fun. You don't have to spend weeks and weeks a year in your garage making sure that everything is tweaked perfectly. As far as multihulls go they are very low on the development curve. If multihulls were developed to the point where BOC or IMS boats are now, I can't even conceive of what one would look like. It would be so awesome. It would be so fast and so easy to sail. "Primagaz" is basically a five year old design. It's newest competitor is only three years old. The future of multihulls seems very exciting.
HW What about fixed wing sails?
TM I talked quite a bit to Duncan McClain who designed the Little America's Cup boat. I had the good fortune to sail in this race called the Unlimited Regatta in Newport this past summer. Dennis Conner was there with a 60' Catamaran. The sister ship to the one that he used to win the America's Cup. McClain and Steve Clark had their two Little America's Cup boats there as well which these two fixed wing boats. They keep getting simpler, stronger and they keep gaining the ability to go through a wide range of wind.
HW What do you think sail racing has to do to get the kind of media attention of other sports like golf?
TM You need a professional corporate sponsored circuit similar to what we have in Europe. It has to be a separate circuit and set up so that corporation will know the package that they are buying. It has to be very organized and structured. The sailors have to behave in a professional manner. That makes a lot of people upset because you are controlled a little as to how you can behave and what you can do.

HW What does that mean, behave in a professional manner?
TM For example in the multihull races in France when we come in to the finish there are TV stations and film crews. You've been out there for three and half days - it's easy when you've won, to be and act happy because you are. If you haven't won you have to act the same way because there are people on the shore there that have come to be entertained and we are damn lucky to be out there regardless of how we finish. I think you really see that attitude in car racers. They are really nice to the people and explain what they are doing out there. I think you really have to appreciate how lucky you've been. To me, that is part of behaving in a professional manner.
HW Do you think cash prizes are part of the package?
TM Well with professional sailing that goes without saying. But that's not as important as giving the sponsor the exposure they deserve in exchange for the support they are giving you. You can't have a situation where a sponsor sponsors you, they give you money, you where their clothes and then you don't meet your obligations to give them exposure. The car racers make millions a year but they show up at the minimall in Tennessee, with a model of their car, and they may not like what they're doing but it is part of the deal.
HW Do you think you've made a lot of sacrifices?
TM I don't look at it that way at all. I've been extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to do the things I've done. I don't look at it as a sacrifice. I'd have to say no.
HW What advice would you give to a person that wants to become a professional sailor?
TM Don't do it! Especially in this country. It's not a highly respected vocation. When asked what I do I say I race sailboats. Then they ask what do I really do. People seem to suspect that I have a trust fund or do something else. You have to be willing to live a certain life style that is not very practical.
"Primagaz"

HW You're working with Paul Beaudin at North Sails?
TM Yes and on the "primagaz" team - "Primagaz" is a North boat. Although I work directly for "Primagaz" I do a lot of work with the North group on the boat. I talk to the designers, salesmen, and the production guys, because I have more practical experience than anyone else at the North organization on this particular boat at this point. "primagaz" is the leading 60 footer as far as design and innovation when it comes to rigging for the sails in particular battens, hardware, roller furling, genaker design. It's cheaper for the other boats to just let "Primagaz" break new group and then copy.
HW What do you have planed for '96?
TM Hopefully, I'm going to stay with the "Primagaz" group. I plan on going to France on April 10th and doing a day regatta there. Then back in May for another regatta. Then August 10th I hope to be on the boat for a race from Quebec City to Stmole France. This is still up in the air since they take fewer people on the transatlantic races then the day races.