It’s been a lean patch in recent years for Philipp Buhl, Germany’s leading light in the Laser class. After a disappointing Olympic result of 14th place for a sailor who was considered among the favourites for a medal at Rio 2016, Buhl has ploughed on with his campaign for Tokyo 2020 and now seems to be rediscovering some of the old magic that brought him podium places at Laser World Championships back in 2013 and 2015.
A gold medal in June’s Sailing World Cup Finals in Marseille was a welcome return to form. “I think it's the first gold medal after my World Cup win in 2016. It’s been quite a tough time since then, but I think that I have had a good, consistent year last year, even if I only made it to the podium once. This year, every regatta I've made some steps forward. You improve and improve and then you learn, and at some point it's time to turn those improvements into hard results. Marseille was a good build-up for Kieler Woche, which is the last big test before the World Championships in Denmark this August.”
The battle for gold in Marseille couldn’t have been closer as Buhl surfed alongside Norway’s Hermann Tomasgaard. No one knew who had won the photo finish until a few agonising seconds of waiting. Eventually Buhl was able to punch the air in the certainty of having clinched gold, but he was also quick to sail over to Tomasgaard and congratulate him on a race well fought. The added bonus for these two is that they have been training together recently and working with the same coach. So the gold-silver finish in such dramatic style couldn’t have been a better endorsement of their decision to work together.
Buhl isn’t getting carried away with his victory in Marseille, however. “There were quite a lot of the top guys who weren’t there, so it was a pleasing outcome but it's not enough to say now we have time to rest or anything like that; we have to keep pushing forward.”
The differences between success and failure are always small at this level. “Usually, the steps are very little ones. Unfortunately, sailing is very complex where you sometimes learn things again -mrather than new things. Suddenly, you remember how to do some things which you have already done in the past and then you're just more ready to connect them again. I think that's kind of getting the best version of yourself back together again, and maybe here or there a little step forwards and little improvements here and there.
“This is true especially in the Laser, because right now at the top of the game there are so many sailors who are so close together, so the racing is extremely tight, the speeds are tight, the tactics are deciding a lot. I mean, when you look at the different regattas and the different winners, it shows how intense the racing is. And I think the more intense the races, the more important are the little things such as mental strength, how long are you able to maintain your highest level of ability?”
Buhl feels like his confidence is coming back, something that is difficult to switch on whenever you want it. “I think the answer is to be realistic with yourself and to be unemotional in your analysis of the regatta. What was the reason for those results? And then you should just build up on that, just work out your mistakes and try to improve those and go into the next event. It's actually pretty difficult to build up confidence if you don't have it, so I think you have to gain it over a long time.”
The German has competed in the Star Sailors League Finals once, and he loved it. “It was last year, it was together with my crew Markus Koy, and we finished fifth which was a really good outcome. I wanted to make it to the top ten, and once we did that we wanted to see how much further we could go.”
Buhl was just pipped at the line by another Laser sailor, Paul Goodison, who went on to win the regatta against his old nemesis in the Laser 15 years ago, Robert Scheidt. Despite the move from small singlehander to large, complex, doublehanded keelboat, Laser sailors seem to adapt to the Star very quickly. “Laser sailing has more in common with Star sailing than you’d think; so I wasn't expecting for example that such a heavy boat would surf so nicely down the waves but it really responds to movement in a very similar way to the Laser. And upwind it's hiking and it's very tactical. So you have no speed mode like in other classes, but you can see the example of Ben Saxton, the Nacra sailor who also did great last year in the Star Sailors League.
“The Star is also a great equaliser of weight - so you can have a light helmsman on a heavy crew or a Finn sailor on the helm with a little bit lighter crew and it just equalises out between different crews. It's just great to compare and match America's Cup sailors, Olympic sailors, Nacra, Laser, Finn and Volvo Ocean Race competitors or winners with each other. It's a great format and really a lot of fun. I’d definitely like to do more SSL racing in the future.”
Aside from being a successful yachtsman with European and National titles to his name in various types of racing boat, Andy Rice (pictured centre) started his career in yachting journalism in 1992 writing for Seahorse Magazine. SailingIntelligence.com