EXTRA! Interview
7 Questions for Gary Jobson, Sailor Extraordinaire

America’s Cup winner, ESPN
announcer guiding U.S. Sailing
toward 2012 Olympic Games

By Doug Thompson

Gary Jobson learned irony can lurk nearly anywhere, especially when you volunteer for something. In 1994 Jobson raised his hand as a volunteer and became the honorary chairman of the Leukemia Cup Regatta sailboat series, and traveled about the country lending his name and expertise to events.

Then in 2003 he was diagnosed with lymphoma, and spent two years battling the disease, including enduring a bone-marrow transplant. He’s now cancer-free, but during his recovery he resolved to be of more service to sailing and to his fellow man.

Jobson, 62, is still the chairman of the Leukemia Cup Regatta, and is also in the third year of his term as the president of U.S. Sailing. Southern Boating Magazine interview Jobson on how he got his start in sailing, the U.S. chances in the 2012 Summer Olympics and his life on and off the water.

SB: How did you get started in sailing, and who were your earliest teachers of the craft?
GJ: I grew up in Barnegat Bay, N.J., and started sailing when I was 6 in 1956. My father was the enthused one. I sailed with him on a snipe, a variety of cat boats, and a pram, like an Opti. I was a post World War II kid at the Beachwood Yacht Club doing what kids did in the summer. At age 12 I got my own boat, a Penguin, a little dinghy and realized this was a sport I could really do well at. I showed a couple and their kids from Philadelphia a boat, and they ended up buying one. I was being a teacher and promoter of sailing. That was the defining moment when I thought “Gee, I could get more people involved.” But to do that, I had to get good. From that point own I dedicated myself to the sport of sailing.

In high school I started writing about it, becoming the editor of my newspapers in high school and college, so I had that journalistic bent. It was a combination of talking about it, writing about and being enthused. I was also a high school wrestler, and to be a good wrestler, you had to do a lot of drills. So I took that and did a lot of drills in sailing and that helped me a lot, and I write about how those drills helped me. Wrestling is one on one, and in match racing in sailing, it’s often one on one.

Then I met a guy name Sam Merrick, who was a lobbyist in Washington and great scow sailor. He and I become good friends even though I was in my teens and he was older. With Sam I took on the role of tactician, and he would listen to me and ask me questions. He helped me with my writing and speaking.

The next guy that came along was Graham Hall. He was a coach at New York Maritime where I went to college, and Graham had a system that he helped me develop to win sailboat races. I used this very methodical system on how to win sailboat races, no matter what kind of boat I was on, from a dinghy, scow, or later on to a 12-meter or maxi boat. It served me very well for a long period of time, and I had 2,000 races in during my four years of college. I was really able to develop my system for sailing. I ended up college sailor of the year twice and an All American for three years.

My motto, since I started teaching sailing at the age 17 in 1967, is: It is more important what you learn than how you do on the race course. I try to instill that to my audiences all the time.

SB: In 1977 you were the America’s Cup Winning Tactician with Ted Turner, describe that experience.
GJ: In 1973 I ended up being a coach over at the Merchant Marine Academy. That helped me with my speaking and writing, and somehow I got the attention of Ted Turner, and I teamed up with Ted. Ted was like Sam. I never appreciated until later in life that Sam was teaching me a lot of things, but I was also teaching Sam. And it was the same way with Ted–he was helpful to me in some ways, and I was helpful to Ted in some ways. When I won the America’s Cup with Ted that launched me in a whole new direction, that’s how I got to ESPN and the combination with all my writing, and speaking and sailing, it was a unique thing.

SB: You are the voice of sailing in the United States–has that provided a bully pulpit? If so, how have you used it to affect change?
GJ: That is a very nice compliment and I thank you for that. I have been the president of U.S. Sailing for two and a quarter years, and it’s a lot of work for a volunteer position. Everyone is emotional and passionate. The question is: what do we do with our sport, when money is an issue, time is a huge issue, and there are environmental problems and concerns. There are also aging rosters at yacht clubs and youth are either being pushed too hard or not at all.

You also have the question of how do develop a good Olympic sailing team with amateur sailors and no government support, when all these other countries have government support. What do we do with our handicap rating rules, which are all over the map and there are too many of them.

So there are a lot of issues. I’m happy to report that U.S. Sailing has no debt. We have 42 full-time employees, seven which are coaches, so we are under staffed in many areas. We are making it work the best we can.

I’ve made a list of everything we need to do, and with less than a year to go—my term ends Nov. 1, 2012—here are some positives. Our membership numbers are up, with 2,000 members today than when I took office. Financially we are good with sponsors, partners and benefactors. We also have a strong board of directors with people with a lot of experience around sailing.

But with the offshore rating rules, sadly, I’m not going to get it fixed. I have brought up an awareness that we have to consolidate our rules from five rating rules down to one rating rule. In the age of computers we ought to be able to pull it off. While I won’t get it down to one rule, consolidate it down to three rules in this country and not five. It will be better but not solved.

As for our U.S. Olympic team, we have changed the format with our trials, and I won’t see how well we are doing until the actual games. We have raised more money, and have great coaches, and hopefully it will result in more medals at the Olympics, but the jury is out.

SB: Recreational sailboat sales are about 8% of overall boat sales in the United States; do you see those sales growing in the future?
GJ: What I think can really help is if yacht clubs, community sailing centers, sailing schools and colleges go and acquire a fleet of boats, so the casual user can use these boats. The use of these boats will lead people to buying their own boat.

We have to do a better job of introducing more people to the sport. The best way is for clubs to give out free sailing lessons. We did this experiment in Annapolis for two straight summers. We had a couple of boats, and advertised “Free Sailing Lessons.” All you had to do is sign up and show up, and get a free sailing lesson. We sold out, with 474 people on the water the first year and last year 630 people. It was one, three-hour sailing lesson, and we later learned some of those people were buying boats and taking more lessons.

SB: Your role with ESPN and sailing coverage seems like a dream job–is it has fun as it looks?
GJ: Covering sailing is the ultimate kick for kick me. I have 27 years of experience with ESPN, I have covered eight America’s Cups, I plan to be doing the Olympics this coming summer, and it will be my sixth time. One of the smartest things I did was doing all my lectures. Last year in 2011 I spoke to 124 groups in this country.

In each one of those groups I get a network of friends, and every group I speak to is an in-person focus group. So when I say something that people like, I note that, and something they don’t like, I get rid of that. So when I do my TV shows I have all these in-person lectures backing me up of what people like and don’t like.

SB: In 2003 you were diagnosed with lymphoma and are now cancer free—how did that experience affect you?
GJ: It affected me a lot. The irony for me was that in 1993 I was a volunteer with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and became the honorary chairman to run the Leukemia Cup. So to get diagnosed with lymphoma myself after 10 years of chairing the Leukemia Cup Series and going to lots of events was quite ironic. It gave me a different perspective on life. I spent two years battling it and was unbelievably lucky. I went through a bone-marrow transplant which is a tough procedure to do. I am eight years out now and the disease has not come back.

One of the things that I resolved, laying in that hospital bed for all those months, was that I would be more of a service to my sport.

SB: Your accomplishments afford you opportunities to sail worldwide–however, where do you enjoy spending your free sailing hours?
GJ: I have sailed on all seven continents. I have been to Antarctica three times, and all the major sailing centers. I am lucky. I have been everywhere. I like to race off Newport and Nantucket. I really like cruising the waters of Maine. Overseas, I find the Solent off the South Coast of England to be a kick, it’s so wild and crazy and confused.

It’s funny. You go to a foreign country to sail. The language is weird, life is different. But once you get on the water, and see the city through the same eyes on the water, and the city becomes very comfortable. Being out on the water and on a sailboat, the whole thing seems more relaxed.