Greg Gendell, On Point

In a Sailing World report, Dave Reed checks in with Greg Gendell, 49, one of the best bowmen in the grand-prix sailing game. Here’s an excerpt:

How do you stay so fit?
I still prefer swimming and ­riding the bike, and I do a bit of yoga before sailing each day—a 10-minute routine to loosen up. In the gym, I do a lot of upper-body and core-stability stuff. I spend a lot of time on the Swiss ball. Fitness for me has always been important, but as I age, especially, it’s one of the things I’m known for, arriving ready to go, which I take seriously.

You still fit the mold for a bowman, physically, but as raceboats get bigger, do they need bigger guys?
For the 52 Super Series weigh-in I’m at 172 pounds. A lot of the other bowmen are built like me: wiry and tall and thin, and it seems like that’s still the form. I’ve sailed on some bigger boats, such as Comanche, and to be honest, I wasn’t quite big enough for plugging in the big furlers and wrestling the zeros and stuff. I got it done, but it’s much more physical for sure with the big gear.

Are you a card-carrying member of the Facebook Foredeck Union group?
I’m not…no. I don’t do social media. About nine years ago I sailed a Mumm 30 regatta with a bunch of college kids and I was thinking to myself then that I should do the Facebook thing. I felt the generation gap at that point, but still haven’t done it.

How many days of sailing so far this year?
I’ll probably do about 160 days total. I turn stuff down because my wife works. She has the real job. A lot of guys chase every possible day they can, but fortunately I don’t have to. The 52s and the 44s work well together in that I can do both. The 52 has been my priority for the past 12 years and I’ve been in the 44 class for five years. Those are my two priority teams, and I come and go on a few other programs. I do some superyacht stuff as well.

Full report… click here.