Sitting down with Nathan Outteridge

Shirley Robertson

British Double Olympic gold medallist and sailing broadcaster Shirley Robertson has launched her new monthly Sailing Podcast, and the series kicks off with a candid interview with Australian sailing star Nathan Outteridge.

Outteridge has been at the forefront of competitive sailing’s foiling revolution for a decade. He’s been Moth World Champion, won gold and silver Olympic medals, has sailed in the 34th and 35th America’s Cup Challenger Series, and is currently fronting one of the exciting new SailGP teams.

Robertson corrals the likeable Aussie for an hour of chat that takes in a wide range of topics, not least Outteridge’s ground breaking role at the forefront of the sport. Here’s a tease…

“I just feel really lucky that I was at the right age when this (foiling) technology came out. I would have been 22 when the Moth started to become quite popular, so from a really good point in my sailing career I was actually accessing all this technology.

“After sailing the Moth for four or five years, when the Americas Cup went to the foiling catamarans, it just made it very easy for me to get involved at the very top of our sport.”

Now 33 years old, it hasn’t all been a smooth ride for the Aussie, and in this candid chat with Robertson, he admits that lessons have been learned along the way…:

Nathan Outteridge

“All off a sudden I had the three big teams, other than Oracle, asking if I wanted to get involved (in the Cup). I was still on a high from the 2012 Olympics and thought ‘this is great, I get the pick of any team!’

“So I ended up deciding to join Artemis and I remember the first day I showed up at the shed and I walked in there, and I saw the boat, and realized I should have asked if they’d planned on foiling, because that boat didn’t foil!! I was like ‘oh no’, and that was a lesson in learning to ask as many questions as you can before you make a decision!”

While Outteridge has a need for speed, he also likes sleeping in his own bed.

“I’d love to it sail (offshore) for a few hours, but there’s no way I’m going over night. The idea of going offshore for days on end and going sailing just doesn’t tempt me. I’d love to get dropped on by helicopter in the Southern Ocean and spend four hours sending the boat, and then get picked up and go home and go to sleep.”

Enjoy the complete podcast here:

Shirley Robertson’s Sailing Podcast is available to listen on her website or via most popular podcast outlets, including iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast.