Series 1 - Ep10a - Jimmy Spithill Part 1

Two time America’s Cup winning skipper Jimmy Spithill joins Shirley Robertson this month, as the pair settle down for this the first of an extended two part interview ahead of the first round of the America’s Cup World Series in Sardinia. Spithill has long been a fixture in the America’s Cup scene, having first led the Australian entry to the 2000 Cup in Auckland, as skipper of ‘Young Australia’. He’s skippered in every Cup since, winning for the first time in 2010 at the wheel of Larry Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing. That first win, helming the giant 90 foot trimaran, secured his spot as the Cup’s youngest ever winning skipper. In 2013 a successful defence of the Cup in San Francisco saw Spithill lead the unlikely comeback against a New Zealand Team that was, at 8-1 up, just one race win away from reclaiming the oldest trophy in world sport. Having then lost the defence of the next Cup in Bermuda in 2017, Spithill is now in a key role at the long established Italian team, Luna Rosa.

Spithill grew up thirty miles north of Sydney, Australia in the stunning sailing hotspot of Pittwater. He talks fondly of his childhood, taking a boat to school, where he’d whistfully wait for classes to end so he could head back out on to the water. He’s also very candid about his upbringing, and discusses with Robertson how his formative years have contributed to the character we see today out on the race course…:

“We have a running joke, between Tom Slingsby, or anyone with red hair, and that’s there’s two things you get good at growing up with red hair, and one is running, for obvious reasons. The other is fighting, because you just get sick of running!….At some point you’ve got to decide what you’re going to do, are you going to continue to take this, or is it time to stand up, and when you do it’s an incredible feeling, and it’s an important lesson in life. That at some point you have to stand up for yourself.”

This is the first of two instalments of Shirley Robertson's interview with Jimmy Spithill, and concludes with his take on how he skippered that 90 foot trimaran to victory in the 2010 America's Cup.  Be sure to download Part 2, which sees Jimmy recount the fascinating story of how Oracle Team USA overcame that 8-1 deficit to defend the oldest trophy in world sport.Support the show