You may have a picture in your head of what sailing looks like.
Maybe there’s a big metal wheel to steer with. Perhaps jaunty hats are involved. At least one person is definitely wearing a nice cardigan loosely knotted around the neck.
Things are a little different for West Vancouver’s Nikola Girke, who has plotted a course to her fourth Olympic Games this summer. She can’t seem to find a spot for a trendy sweater what with all the body armour she has to wear when she hits the water in a Nacra 17 catamaran with sailing partner Luke Ramsay.
“It’s definitely different sailing from what most people think sailing is,” Girke told the North Shore News on a recent overcast morning spent at Hollyburn Sailing Club. “We don’t have beer coolers or cup holders on our boat.”
What the 17-foot Nacra 17 catamaran does have is three sails, two hulls and two curved “dagger boards” that lift the boat out of the water at speeds up to 25 knots (approximately 40 kilometres per hour).
“Most people would be holding on for dear life, and here we are balancing off the side of the boat ripping through the water, making little adjustments just to keep the boat upright and slicing through the water,” said Girke. “If you haven’t ever watched catamaran racing, it’s something that will blow your mind.”
This death-defying act is the latest phase of Girke’s sailing career that started with a summer camp at Hollyburn Sailing Club and lessons at Eagle Harbour Yacht Club before blossoming with the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club. The now 38-year-old began her Olympic career in 2004 sailing a two-woman 470 dinghy before switching to windsurfing for the 2008 and 2012 Games. Windsurfing, however, was cut from the Olympic program for the 2016 Games, forcing Girke to switch events once again. The new Nacra 17 Class was designed for the Olympic Games and it is the first co-ed sailing event, and one of the few co-ed competitions on the Olympic schedule. The switch to Nacra 17 has Girke plotting a course from sailboat to windsurfer to catamaran that no one in Olympic history has come close to matching.
This latest challenge, however, may be the most difficult. Girke and Ramsay were both catamaran rookies when they decided to try the Nacra 17 and it’s been a steep – and painful – learning curve.
“I really like speed and adrenaline, and these boats go incredibly fast,” said Girke. “But it’s not how fast it goes that scares me – it’s how fast it stops. I liken it to taming a beast. These boats are beasts, and we never got the manual on how to tame it. We learned the hard way, by trial and error.”
It’s the “error” part that hurts the most, particularly for Girke who always seemed to be on the wrong end of their crashes. Ramsay, the skipper, remained relatively unscathed as they pushed the limits of the catamaran, while Girke suffered multiple serious injuries that kept her sidelined for more than eight months. There were several fingers broken by getting caught in various riggings, and then a nasty fall that got Girke run over by the boat, ripping both her shins for 17 stitches.
“If you’re in the wrong place, or you do it wrong, then the boat is like a bucking bull,” said Girke. “It can go backwards, or basically nosedive and chuck you forward – catapults you. Neither of those are very pleasant experiences because there are a lot of things to hit. They’ve called it a cheese grater sometimes because you don’t know what you’re going to hit on the way down.”
Girke and Ramsay have mostly figured out how to keep Girke riding in one piece and have posted solid results in the lead-up to Rio, although they’ve still got a lot to learn. Sailing is a sport that you can practise for a lifetime without every mastering it, said Girke.
“It’s so multi-dimensional in so many different ways,” she said. “I’ve always been asked, like, ‘Don’t you just learn after all these mistakes you make? Shouldn’t you be good by now?’ And it’s like, ‘Of course,’ but there are so many different situations and experiences. All these experiences help you make decisions for future experiences, but no experience is the same. There’s always different things that get thrown at you. You don’t ever master it, really.”
It’s not just the wind and the waves you have to worry about. There are also dozens of other boats whipping around you, making moves and counter moves to gain any possible edge. Girke likens it to playing chess while dangling horizontally off the side of a speeding boat.
The venue in Rio presents other “challenges” as well. Earlier this year the CEO of World Sailing said he was ousted from his position because he was vocal about wanting to move the races from polluted Guanabara Bay to a more traditional sailing venue outside of Rio.
Raw sewage flows continuously into the Bay, while garbage ranging from mattresses to cars to couches, tables, dead animals, trees, and even human bodies has been spotted in the water and on the shoreline, according to several news reports.
“There are definite concerns. They haven’t followed through with the promises to clean up the water,” said Girke. “The stuff that we can’t see is the stuff that is probably most scary. We try not to have it enter us. We’re really careful with how we eat and drink and cleaning ourselves afterwards properly. … We definitely have to take a lot of precautions.”
No matter the colour of the water, it will be the colours gold, silver or bronze that the Canadian team will be most worried about once the sailing starts. Girke’s top finish in her three previous appearances was a 10th-place showing in London.
“For Rio I think that we have a definite medal chance,” she said. “We aren’t one of the favourites, but Rio is not a favourites venue. Anything can happen in that venue. It’s really crazy wind and current. … We are quite a consistent team in every wind condition, and what it’s going to take to win is consistency. We have that. We’re excited.”
Girke has sailed through a lot of rough seas during her long career and will face more obstacles this summer, but it’s all worth it for a shot at that elusive Olympic medal.
“It would be a dream come true,” she said. “It would be so satisfying and rewarding for all the hard work and effort that we’ve put in, for all of our supporters that have stood behind us for so many years. It would mean so much for Canada, and for sailing as a sport in Canada.”
