(Cowes, Isle of Wight, England)- Steve Morrison, who was sailing on the J/111 JOURNEYMAKER II at Cowes Race Week, talks
about his sailing experience at Cowes with Y&Y correspondent Mark Jardine. Stevie is the current skipper of
the Oman Air Extreme 40 catamaran, an Olympic 49er sailor at both
Qingdao 2008 & London 2012 and former World Champion in both
Fireball & 49er classes.Mark Jardine: So Stevie, you're over here for Cowes Week, what are you sailing on and how are things going?
Stevie Morrison:
I'm here for a couple of days with some people who support me in the
49er, a company called BTG, and they've got a J/111 called JOURNEYMAKER
II. They are very keen sailors from Hamble. We've got some of the guys
from the company coming to experience it, and hopefully helping Louise
[Dame Louise Makin] and Chris who sail the boat move on to the J/111
Worlds here next year. They've got a good programme going forward to
that. It's great for me, usually sailing dinghies, I get a chance to
experience this side of sailing. It's all far too serious - I love it
for what it is - but this [Cowes Week] is the essence of sailing. When
you look in London, or anywhere, you find people who see sailing as
Cowes Week. To me it's about getting people excited about sailing, and
obviously Cowes Week does that. It lets the normal guy, who's maybe
trying sailing, come and race against some of the best guys in the
world. Terry Hutchinson's here somewhere and other guys like that are
kicking around Cowes, and they are some of the very best sailors in the
world. For me 
it's
great to see them, and hopefully for other guys it's even better to see
them. It is a unique experience and I'm glad to be here.Mark Jardine: As well as life on the water, how are you enjoying the social side of Cowes Week?
Stevie Morrison: It's fantastic. We've come along to the beer tent after sailing with some of the staff of BTG who have sailed for just two days. I think we were first J/111 today and these guys are four out of eight crew on the boat, so they had big roles to play. So, they are very excited about the fact we were first in our class. Then I bumped into some of the guys from the British Sailing Team, bumped into you, bumped into Ben Vines. I love it, it's an environment which encapsulates sailing under one roof. There's a lot of people here and it's really nice for me to bump into old friends. Sailing photo credits- Rick Tomlinson & Paul Wyeth/ Pwpictures.com. Read more of Stevie’s AAM Cowes Race Week J/111 experience here.
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