Bar Karate - the Sailing Podcast, Ep321 Flying Fifteen World Champions Graham Vials and Chris Turner

**Jordan Spencer** (0:00)
G'day, everyone. Proud to say Bar Karate is bought to you by Radix Nutrition, makers of the most technically comprehensive nutrition products that have ever existed. Unlock your potential with Radix. G'day listeners, welcome to Bar Karate The Sailing Podcast. My name's Jordan Spenter, and it's that time of the week where we get to hang out with some really cool sailors. But of course, I have to share the mic with my two idiot mates. So first off, let's welcome Mr. Brett Perry.

**Bret Perry** (0:40)
Greetings, exalted one.

**Jordan Spencer** (0:42)
Are you not in the mobile studio?

**Bret Perry** (0:44)
G'day, well, now I'm out of my mobile studio, but I can tell you, I went for a sail yesterday, boys, on one of my favorite boats, of course, the MC38. Oh, yeah, I had an absolute ball, 25 knots, the best time. Rorkeford Yacht Club, pretty long windward, Lewids, end of the winter season. I'm just drawing this picture for you because I want you to understand how much I love this boat and how much fun it was. So I'm sailing downwind, gust of the day. I've got young Dolly Devola on the helm, a water legend, got a shout out to him. The crew is all excited.
We're pretty well bow under water. The boat is just going down sub-ring. But I'm holding him in a good spot. I've got him in a nice spot. We're looking good. It's coming up every now and again for a bit of air. Next thing you know, I'm saying, hold it there. That's a good angle. We're turning hard right. We have turned hard right and the boat is on its side. I turn around and I see Dolly down to Lewids, leg over tip, and he's holding the tiller extension in the arm and the tiller is completely separated. Oh, he's gone to bear away on this little gust of the day and the tiller is separated from the tiller extension.

**Jordan Spencer** (1:58)
Wow.

**Bret Perry** (1:58)
And yeah, very, very much fun.

**Jordan Spencer** (2:03)
The joys of MC 38 All right, let's bring in the other bloke.

**Nick Bice** (2:06)
He had a voice that could make a Wolverine purr.

**Jordan Spencer** (2:09)
Mr Nick Boss.

**Nick Bice** (2:11)
Yeah, you've moved from the mobile studio to the laundry. It looks like BP.

**Bret Perry** (2:16)
Yeah, I've tried to set it up here and, you know, trying to keep the family happy. You know, they've put up with five years of Bar Karate episodes. Got to give them some grace. What?

**Jordan Spencer** (2:25)
They didn't like you for the other year?

**Bret Perry** (2:28)
Yeah, that's it.

**Jordan Spencer** (2:30)
Six years now.

**Nick Bice** (2:30)
Oh, good boys. One more week back home and then on the road again. Back to the, where were we going this time?

**Jordan Spencer** (2:39)
Maxi Wells. Maxi Wells.

**Nick Bice** (2:41)
Yeah.

**Bret Perry** (2:41)
It's a horrible place to go.

**Nick Bice** (2:42)
Kind of where it all started, if you remember Jordan Spencer.

**Jordan Spencer** (2:45)
I do. I do.

**Nick Bice** (2:47)
Yeah.

**Jordan Spencer** (2:48)
I know there's a joke there, I want to say, but I'll bring our guests in and we'll touch back on the Maxi Wells later on.

**Nick Bice** (2:53)
Yeah, we'll go back. We'll go back. So pretty excited about this, though. This is good. Oh yeah.

**Jordan Spencer** (2:58)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's bring in our guests because we're all excited. We've been very keen on supporting a lot of different classes. And I know personally, I've been always a fan of the Flying Fifteen class for quite a while because there's so many crossovers with the Five-O's. So it's obviously, there's some similarities in the way they set up their boats and all the tuning and the rigs and everything. So natural bias, cool little boats. But there's a thing going on in that class that's just, it seems a bit weird. See, they've just finished their World Champs. They have them every two years. And the World Champs were won by Graham Vials and Chris Turner. Now, the thing that's important to understand here is that they have done six World Champs in the Flying Fifteens. They've won the World Champs 16 times.
Six times. What?

**Nick Bice** (3:51)
Six times?

**Bret Perry** (3:54)
They've only done six World Champs, they've won it 15 times.

**Jordan Spencer** (3:58)
That's the thing that's going on. And yeah, won it six times, and I think four of those times they didn't have to sail the last race. So there's a clear dominance going on. So we thought we'd see if we could have a chat to the boys. There is one risk of literally they've just finished the World Champs. There's a big risk that they may be a little bit hung over and a little bit dusty, but we're willing to take that risk on. So we're going to welcome to the show Graham Vials and Chris Turner. How are you boys?