This is Part two of Double Olympic gold medallist Shirley Robertson's chat with US sailing legend Ed Baird. A World Sailor of the Year award winner, Baird also holds a coveted spot in the America's Cup Hall of Fame, he's a multiple Match Racing World Champion and is a regular across multiple Grand Prix Sailing leagues, from the 52 Super Series to the Maxi circuit.

Robertson and Baird regularly sailed against each other back in days of the Extreme Sailing Series, but their chat was a little less competitive as Baird dropped by while in Cowes training for this summer's Admirals Cup. In this Part 2 the pair begin their discussion talking about Baird's 1999/2000 Challenge for the America's Cup in Auckland New Zealand, a Challenge representing the Newe York Yacht Squadron that was going well, but did not end as planned..,:

"You could see the waves coming and we hopped up out of the water and smashed down on the next wave and the boat broke in half!"

Baird continued his involvement in the Cup and ultimately ended up in Valencia with Swiss Defender Alinghi, initially, again, under helm, Russell Coutts, but soon that was all to change...

"The team...were missing Russell and they expected him to come back, and they spent a year this way, expecting that he'll come back with us...but he didn't....so I went to talk to Brad and the team and they asked me to come and work with them." Baird ended up steering the boat, and went on to helm a Cup victory as Alinghi successfully defended in Valencia.

Throughout this two part podcast Baird and Robertson touch on a wide range of topics, from Olympic Sailing to nationality rules, and a whole host in between, as they wind their way down the fascinating road that is Ed Baird's long and distinguished career as a pro sailor.

This edition of the podcast is in two parts and is available to listen to via the podcast page of Shirley’s own website - www.shirleyrobertson.com/podcast or via most popular podcast outlets, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcast and aCast. The podcast is produced and written by Tim Butt - for further enquires, please contact podcast@shirleyrobertson.com.

Photos in this release courtesy of

Support the show