Speed Made Good: Randy Smyth Interview

Whether he’s coaching Olympic sailors, setting records at the Everglades Challenge, or doing the stunt sailing in Hollywood blockbusters, Randy Smyth has made a living out of making sailboats go fast. We tracked him down between major events and asked about his sailing history, his favorite boats, and if he had a few performance tips for us regular mortals.

Your sailing biography and list of accomplishments is truly remarkable. Have any sailboat racing achievements eluded you? Anything you still want to tackle? Well, I was seriously thinking about doing the Race to Alaska last year on my F25C. Luckily, I was hit by a car while riding my bicycle in February so I had a good excuse to follow the race online.

How old were you when you starting sailing and when did you realize it was going to be such an important part of your life? My first distance catamaran race was when I was 11 years old with my 9-year-old brother as crew. On Saturday we raced 25 miles to Catalina Island with a camp-over, then a return race back to Los Angeles Harbor on Sunday. I presume that was when my parents realized I had caught the sailing bug. For me, I knew my life mission was sailing when my Dad, who was a professor at USC, took me to meet the dean of admissions when I was a high school senior. When my Dad and I drove home, both he and I confronted my addiction when I told him USC had nothing to further my sailing interests.

Your own youth was full of sailing and adventure—how do we get more young people interested in sailing? Perhaps we need to let kids have a bit of freedom. Drop the over-controlled “soccer mom” syndrome and let kids escape on small boats. I’m sure that if Children and Family Services found out about my adventure to Catalina in today’s world, my parents would be in jail and my brother and I would be up for adoption.

What boat class would you recommend for kids with dreams of someday driving an America’s Cup boat? Today’s America’s Cup is all about “big-name sailors.” So, the path to the America’s Cup means racing and winning in high-profile events. Kids today will grow up needing to be technically savvy, have match-racing skills and be able to manage a team. Initially, the boat is not that important. Basically, race the most competitive boat in your zip code. For me in Long Beach, California that was the Sabot. I quickly got attracted to catamarans, but one-design racing in large fleets is clearly required to get the basic skills first.

It seems you’ve made a career out of going fast (or faster than others) on sailboats. Is there such a thing as racing sailboats for a living? I describe myself as one dimensional since I talk, live, work, read and study performance sailing 24/7. Many chapters in my professional Grand Prix racing career involved being in the right place at the right time. When looking for a sponsor for a 60-foot singlehanded trimaran to race the French Multihull circuit, I failed at finding a corporate American brand to get on board. However, I did manage to sit next to the right person at a French banquet in New York at the finish of a Trans-Atlantic Maxi Multihull event. By the time dessert was served, he declined to sponsor my 60-foot trimaran dream, but essentially wrote a check for a Formula 40 European campaign. If I had done better in French class, my professional sailing career would have moved me permanently to France. To answer your question, professional sailing in the U.S. has always been a limited world. Currently it is centered around being a professional crew for wealthy owners generally on keelboats. European sailing is much more dictated by corporate sponsorship, which allows talented sailors to be paid for their skills.

We understand you’ve been the sailor and advisor on some major Hollywood movies (Water World, The Thomas Crown Affair). How does that work? Are you more or less the stand-in doing the actual sailing? Well, the reason Kevin Costner called was because no one on their staff (of 500) was confident enough to take the Hollywood movie set 60-foot trimaran out into the extreme waves and winds between the Big Island and Maui for the Water World movie. My first move when arriving on the Big Island was to leave the dock with two crewmembers to give the trimaran a genuine test. An hour later, after flying it on one hull, I told Kevin that I was ready to do the “sailing with a vengeance” scene in 17-foot waves, with him strapped to the top of the rig. The Thomas Crown Affair was a bit different. They called because I happened to own a ProSail 40, which is what they wanted for the “capsize stunt.” They asked, “Randy, do you think you can capsize your catamaran in a movie?” I responded, “I’ve spent my life trying not to capsize, so yes, I can certainly capsize on cue.”

When you’re not racing, do you ever sail slow boats? I try not to. I did own and race a Laser recently, but it sure was painful.

When was the last time you sailed a monohull? On a J27 with a good buddy, racing at our local Fort Walton Yacht Club.

You’ve been dominant at the Everglades Challenge events. Given your pedigree, some people might be surprised you’d even bother with this relatively underground adventure race. What is the appeal for you and how does the EC differ from the more conventional racing you’d done? How many times do you want to go around a windward mark and return to where you started? Unlike typical regattas, the Everglades Challenge tests so many skills: night sailing, navigation, weather routing, preparation, survival and my favorite aspect, conquering sleep deprivation. As a sail designer my hands are often tied with rules and my sails are now built by subcontractors so my computer designing doesn’t fulfill the same hands-on satisfaction that owning a sail loft and creating a product from start to finish did. Building the crazy Sizzor trimaran in my garage has been my true attraction (perhaps addiction) to the Everglades Challenge.

Do you see a big difference in personalities and attitudes of racers at something like the Everglades Challenge versus a big-money racing event? Let’s start by saying that most of the Everglades Challenge characters have a lot more facial hair than the yacht club crowd. If you had to rely on someone for your survival, the Everglades Challenge racers would win hands down, including the gals with no facial hair.

How important is familiarity with the course in the Everglades Challenge? And besides a fast boat, what are some other keys to doing well? Excellent question. Unlike conventional buoy racing, where you are going 100% to win, that is a losing strategy in the Everglades Challenge. While “If you sleep you lose” is my Everglades mantra, it is also important to know when to eat, reef, add clothing layers and even sleep when “you can’t get there from here”; like when you’re fighting a strong tidal flow in light air or when the tide is down and the checkpoint is nothing but quicksand-type mud. The last leg to the finish in Key Largo is only 35 miles. However, it takes the most critical decisions regarding how to navigate to the finish. The shortest-distance option can leave you high and dry for two days if the wind blows out of the east, causing Florida Bay to virtually dry up. The longest route is about 60 miles, but it is the deepest and easiest to navigate since much of it is along the Intercoastal Waterway. So there are plenty of unusual aspects to getting to the finish line.

Many of our readers sail small and inexpensive trailersailers or boats they’ve built in their backyards. What inexpensive older boat design (and general modifications) would you suggest if one of them wanted to build a real rocket on a tiny budget? Don’t be afraid of building an older boat design using modern materials. Like switching a plywood-construction design to foam sandwich. For small boats you don’t need carbon, good old glass and foam can shave lots of weight from many old designs. As a sail designer I see many designs that are held back by non-rotating masts and pin-head profiled mainsails. Neither one needs to cost more, but the enhanced performance sure is sweet.

What are some of your favorite small production boats? The WETA trimaran combines a bunch of wonderful features: Light, fast, maneuverable, trailerable, affordable, and able to sail solo and with some (lightweight) friends. My personal favorite is the A Cat which is leading the stampede toward stable foiling. With either boat, it is hard to have a bad day.

Are you presently sailing Sizzor? Can you tell our readers about the design and her unusual features or attributes? Sizzor is a 21-foot trimaran designed to be sailed solo in the Everglades Challenge. The mast can be quickly lowered to go under a bridge and its 18-foot beam can “Sizzor” to squeeze between bridge pilings. It’s very light (175 pounds’ sailing weight without food, camping or safety gear) and can be paddled efficiently. Extending my physical endurance was a design goal. It has no trapeze, and when sitting on the windward rack I have sailed in over 30-knot winds without getting drops on my sunglasses. I can tie up to a mangrove and get to sleep quickly without looking for a beach devoid of alligators or raccoons. Sizzor has transformed from its first Everglades Challenge seven years ago. The amas now have wide, flat bottom shapes for much improved top-end speed. New this year is a “T” foil rudder that gets the entire main hull flying level. It can sail at high speed in very thin water, causing a nonstop grin even in light winds.

Are you working on anything new? Yes, I’ve got some revolutionary sailplans in the final testing stage and am helping to create a larger catamaran that sails with its hulls dry. I would say more, but these are currently top-secret projects under construction.

What’s a common tactical or technique-related mistake you see less-skilled racers make? What separates first place from third place? Looking at the past rather than the future. I mean tactically, it’s easy to look at your compass to see that you have been lifted. The boat ahead of you looked at the wind on the water and saw that lift, and is now to windward of you inside that shift.

How about from an equipment standpoint—are there some simple things the average trailersailor could do to his boat to improve performance. I am a minimalist. Weight, especially on a multihull, is death for performance. So, first eliminate what you don’t need and try to have synergy so equipment has multiple functions. My hypothermic kit “space blanket” biv-sack serves a second purpose as a sleeping bag when I’m in my drysuit. At about 3 ounces it clearly saves weight, is tiny and reduces the time from sailing to sleeping dramatically.

You’ve got a great reputation as a sailmaker. Do you mostly do specialized racing multihull sails? How about sails for some common multihull classes? I am focused exclusively on multihulls sails. Sizes range from Hobie Adventure Islands to 110-foot around-the-world record-breaking catamarans. I continue to evolve my one-design beach cat sail designs and build a lot of Corsair trimaran-sized sails. Most of my customers are performance oriented but not necessarily racers.

If you had only one day left to sail, where would you sail and in which boat? It would be with Linda and our destination wouldn’t be important, although I can guarantee we would be sailing on more than one hull.

What’s next? Any races or events on the schedule? Right now I’m in Clearwater Florida at the Nacra 17 World Championship as coach. My team of Bora Gulari and Louise Chaffee hope to be our U.S. Olympic representatives in Rio by the time you read this. They just won the first half of the U.S. Olympic Trials in Miami. The Worlds make up the second half. Two weeks later is the Everglades Challenge where I’ll take Sizzor and Linda will be sailing her WETA to try to be the first WETA to finish and the first Solo Female to finish in a multihull. •SCA•

First appeared in issue #102