Forward-thinking veteran

Bob Preston is amused by the suggestion that had fate followed a slightly different course, he might now possess an Olympic yachting gold medal. Actually, he admits he was never really that close, despite his former tornado skipper Rex Sellers eventually winning gold with Chris Timms at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. Sellers would also win silver in the same class four years later in Seoul. The fact is, Preston recalls with some humour that Sellers had sacked him as his crewman about five years before Los Angeles. They'd sailed together at the 1972 world cherub championships, finishing second, and moved up to the tornado class before a personality clash eventually ended their relationship. Preston's not the least bit concerned about the failed partnership. The seasoned 61-year-old Nelson sailor has since followed an entirely different path and just 10 days ago in New Plymouth, he won his sixth national paper tiger championship title. He'd won his first way back in 1979 – the same year as his split with Sellers – ahead of further successes in 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2010, with this year's title completing a handy half dozen. Preston freely admits that he could do without the competitive intensity and financial pressures associated with Olympic campaigns. "You needed that extra level of killer instinct which I never had or wanted really," he says. "I think I just realised that I didn't have that extra bit [and] you've got to be good at raising that extra finance and that just wasn't me, which I accepted." He's now clearly found his niche on the New Zealand yachting scene and the one-man multi-hull paper tiger provides the perfect fit. He's been sailing tigers since 1974, having followed the customary procession of P class, cherub, laser, 470 and moth classes since first hitting the water as a 12-year-old. The tiger's now his domain and there's little he doesn't know about the boat. "Skippering a trailer sailer or skippering another boat is all right, but the laser, which is a class that everyone relates to, is a very physical boat, and I'm not that sort of yachtie really. "I'm a touchy-feely type – and I like the tuning side of the paper tiger because you've got quite a lot of choice with sails and foils, so it's a combination of things. "It's just like a car really; you've got the steerage, and some people's steering is better than others. It's knowing what you're looking for, which is the feel of the whole boat and knowing how to go about getting that feeling. Ad Feedback "The ideal yacht is one that you don't have to change many settings because it's tuned for overall conditions, whereas some people do fiddle a bit, but I don't. Too many people fiddle; it's a mental thing; and I'm not a fiddler." Nor is Preston interested in the mind games that some of the other sailors indulge in. "I don't get psyched out and there's a lot of psyching going on. I don't do it to other people, but other people do it to each other and try to do it to me but give up after knowing me for a wee while. "Just before the race I do settle into a different mode than what I would normally be sailing in. I've always been able to switch on just before the start gun goes – it's just a concentration level that's really intense. You've just got to stay there." Six titles clearly place him among New Zealand's all-time elite in his class, although several of his successes haven't come without incident. He almost knocked himself out during his 2009 championship-winning campaign in Nelson. He'd already sewn up the title ahead of the seventh and final race of the series in Tasman Bay, and despite not needing to sail, opted for one last dash on the water. However, it turned into the most eventful race of the week for Preston when trouble struck on just his second approach to the bottom mark. "I was heading toward the bottom mark and a couple of boats got a little bit out of control and sort of forced me to take evasive action," he recalls. "I gybed; the boom hit me on the head and I capsized and ended up with a bit of a dizzy head." He eventually regained his composure and continued but eventually decided that enough was enough and, with the series already in the bag, withdrew from the race. This year's successful campaign also produced some anxiety after Preston was forced to compete with a patched-up mainsail. He'd torn the sail on a marker pile in Nelson Harbour during his buildup, requiring local sailmaker John Leydon to complete some urgent repairs. It meant Preston entering the five-day regatta with the sail untested. "I didn't know if it was going to hold together or what, but it didn't seem to affect me too much. That sort of thing can play with people's heads a bit, but I've learnt not to let that sort of thing come into it. "The first time I used [the repaired sail] was the first race. I didn't have a chance to try it out because when we got up there it was pissing down with rain." He also had to fight off the effects of flu during the first three races, with illness actually forcing him out of the first race sailed in heavy 25 knot winds. As his health improved, however, so did his competitiveness. If his extensive sailing experience has taught him anything, it's ensuring he's always competitive at the start line. "The starts are so important and over the years you develop your own style of sailing and your own style of starting and you get to know the people around you, you know, who to be near and who not to be near. "Starting is one of my strengths. If you get a bad start and you end up in the 20s or 30s, you can catch up, but it's very hard to get past the top eight or nine. There's lots of boats going at very similar speed, so you can catch up to them. But it's very hard getting right to the top. "Most of the time you'll find the guy who gets the clear air start – there's usually four or five guys who will get good clear air and you'll all meet at the top mark together and it's all on from there. "The idea of not making any mistakes is high in priority and I seem to be able to pick what is a mistake and what's not." Preston likes to use the analogy of a snooker player thinking "five or six shots ahead" in his approach to sailing. He tries to stay mentally ahead of the competition. "I can see [what's developing] in five seconds time and I know where I want to be in five seconds time, whereas with a lot of other people, that five seconds time is now. In another five seconds they're where they shouldn't have been." Squash provides another useful analogy, specifically a player's ability to control the T and dominate an opponent – something Preston's also familiar with in a yachting context. "You can sail against someone who's a little bit better than you and wonder how the hell he does it, but you can still do that same thing to other people. So I relate to that squash scenario quite a bit and I quite often think about that, about who's going to try and dominate me and how do I counteract that." Preston's consistency on the national scene is also remarkable in the sense that Nelson doesn't have a competitive paper tiger fleet. Dave Shaw, who won last year's national title in Wellington, is the only tiger sailor in Nelson, and the pair interact freely and frequently when it comes to preparing their boats and training for regattas. Preston certainly isn't concerned about the absence of a local fleet, with six training sessions usually enough to get him ready for a national championship event. "I just cruise and go windsurfing when it's blowing and have a bit of an idea how many times I'd like to sail my tiger before the contest. It doesn't bother me, no, but it would bother other people. "It's just part of the overall plan that I've followed. But it's quite good to set a goal each year, which is the nationals and then peak at that time." Increasing age doesn't faze him either. Despite the obvious stress on legs, back and arms, Preston's learned to adapt. "Everyone when you get to this age, you've got your joint problems and neck problems and if you push it too hard you can actually do more damage, so I sort of know how far to go. "It's knowing how to relax and that concentration thing, being able to switch off and switch back on again. "That's the good thing about the tiger, it's not too physical. "It's like most things, you get out of it what you put into it."