John Forbes (sailor)


John Forbes is an Australian sailor and has competed at three Olympic Games. John has won seven World Championships, four European Championships and ten Australian Championships. He was voted Australian Sailor of the Year four times was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.

Biography

John Forbes was introduced to catamaran sailing on an international level at the age of 12. He and father Bob went to the USA to compete in the 1982 Nacra 5.2 North American Championships where they placed fourth. The following year John and Bob attended the inaugural Nacra 5.2 World Championship where they came second, and John then travelled to Monterey Bay where, with fellow Australian David Renouf, they finished 4th place in the Nacra 5.8 North American Championship.
After this "deep-end dunking" as a crew John took over the helm of various types of catamarans and with brother Rod on a Nacra 5.2 won the 1985 Australian Combined High Schools Championship outright, winning a couple of the races in the series on handicap/yardstick as well as outright.
John, with Rod as crew, also came 3rd in the 1985 Nacra NSW State Championship, 1st in the 1986 Nacra NSW State Championship, 2nd in the Prindle 18 National Championship and 4th in the Nacra Australian Championship.
John's first introduction to the International Tornado Class was at the 1986/87 Australian Championship in Perth where, whilst only 16 he helmed his first Tornado catamaran and placed 10th amongst a star-studded fleet including Multi Olympic Gold Medallist Poul Elvstrom, “the Great Dane”.
John's youthful success and versatility, together with his accumulated competitive experience on different sized catamarans, resulted in him being approached by 1984 Olympic Bronze Medallist Chris Cairns, who asked John to sail with him. Together they won the 1987 Kiel Week Regatta followed by a second place in the 1987 Tornado Class World Championship.
In 1989 John teamed up with Hobie legend Rod Waterhouse to win the Australian Tornado Championship with a perfect score winning all 8 heats. Rod Waterhouse's inability to travel overseas in 1989 led John to join up with longtime sailing rival Mitch Booth, and together they won the 1989 World Championship by an astounding 36 points from their good friend Giorgio Zuccoli from Italy. They also won the 1990 and 1991 Australian Tornado Championships.
A role reversal in 1991 saw John again taking over the helm to win the inaugural Nacra 5.8 World Championship. Mitch and John's credits also include winning the `92, `93 & `94 Tornado Australian Championships and in 1992 they won their second Tornado World Championship.
Gold and Silver medals were also won in the 1990 and 1991 Barcelona Pre-Olympic Games respectively, and the pair were rewarded when they won a Bronze Medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.
As a result, they were jointly awarded the prestigious New South Wales Yachtsman of the Year trophy in November 1991 and again in 1992. As a final toast they were honoured, again jointly, with the distinguished award - as 1992 Ampol Australian Yachtsman of the Year.
A creditable second place was scored at the 1993 Tornado World Championship and was followed up by a third place at the 1994 World Championship.
A twelve-year relationship with the Tornado Class has also seen John give back an enormous amount of personal time and effort to both the Australian International Tornado Association and the International Tornado Association. He was elected President of the AITA in 1994 taking over the reins from Dr Peter Blaxland who had been President for the past 20 years. John's significant contributions to the Class both nationally and internationally led him to be re-elected again in 1996. At the ITA AGM in Canada in August, 1995 John was also elected as President of the ITA in charge of International and Olympic affairs and was also responsible for the election of the new younger and pro¬active Technical Committee of the ITA.
January 1995 saw a major change to John's Olympic Tornado Campaign with the much publicised break-up with partner Mitch Booth.
John teamed up with his main competitor and longtime catamaran sailor Darren Bundock who had impressed Forbes during his 1992 Olympic Games Campaign. Together they established a successful two-boat training campaign as part of their lead-up to the 1996 Selection Regattas.
Their successes stream-rolled by winning both the Sail Sydney Regatta and the NSW State Titles. An outstanding result at the Pre-Olympic Regatta in Atlanta saw the pair place 4th.
One week later they followed up at the 1995 Worlds in Kingston, Canada with a final placing of 14th. Not bad considering on the second day of racing they were cut in half by an Austrian Team and were forced to miss both heats 2 & 3 of the series as their hull was beyond repair.
January 1996 saw Forbes and Bundock win the Australian Championship by a clear 10 points from a star-studded International fleet in preparation for the 1996 World Championships. At the 1996 World Championship, Forbes and Bundock finished a brilliant third overall.
With the Olympic Selections up for grabs these two sailors believed they had proven beyond doubt that they were at the elite level required to bring home a Gold Medal from Atlanta. However, as a result of the Australian Yachting Federation changing the AOC endorsed Olympic Selection Criteria after the first of the two Olympic Selection Regattas had been completed, John and Darren were denied selection to the Australian Olympic Team and forced to set their sights on Sydney 2000. Determined by the disappointment of denial of Olympic Selection, John and Darren kept the momentum of their Olympic campaign with training partner Andrew Macpherson. John and Darren dominated the Australian Tornado Regatta circuit and won the 1996 NSW and QLD State Championships.
1997 saw John and Darren top the Australian Yachting circuit by defending their National title crown in Perth, winning the International Sail Melbourne, Go for Gold regatta and placing second in the Sail Sydney regatta. John and Darren placed best Australian in both the 1997 NSW State Titles and the Australian International Regatta, Sydney, a 5th place at the 1997 World Championship in Bermuda and then topped off the year by winning the 1997 Sydney International Regatta.
1998 started off with John and Darren winning their third Australian Championship in a row. In May and June they went off to Europe to place third at both the European Championships in Greece and the Kiel Week event in Germany as well as winning the Danish Spring Cup and placing the best Australian in the Dutch Spa Regatta.
In September, John and Darren sailed away with the GOLD at the Sydney Harbour Regatta, organized by SOCOG as the first ever Sydney 2000 Olympic Test event.
In November John and Darren achieved their greatest feat to date winning both the South American Championship and the 1998 World Championship. They never looked back, winning the World Championship by an incredible 18 points from longtime training partners Roland Gaebler and Rene Schwall. This win made John the first ever Tornado sailor to win three world championships. Since 1967 there were eight sailors who had previously won two world championships but 31 years after the inaugural event Forbes became the first person to make it three wins.
John and Darren started off 1999 the way they left 1998 by winning Sail Melbourne which was represented by six nations. February saw the pair cross the Tasman to dominate the Sail Auckland regatta.
By the end of 1999 they had finished a four-month European campaign and captured the Number 1 spot on the prestigious ISAF O’Neill World Rankings after winning the Princess Sofia Trophy, the European Championship, Kiel Week and placing 3rd in Hyeres and 4th at the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. By the end of January 2000 they were selected into the Olympic Team to represent Australia in their hometown Sydney 2000 Olympic Games where they won the Silver medal. The Gold medal was won by Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher from Austria with it being Austria's first ever Gold medal at the summer Olympics.
Their achievements after Sydney 2000 continued with Bundock and Forbes clean streaking the 2001 Tornado regatta program by winning the World Championship in Richards Bay, South Africa in February and their second European Championship in Silvaplana, Switzerland in August. They also won the 2001/02 Australian Championship for the fourth time together and the 2002 NSW State Titles.

Awards and rewards

On 11 December 2001 Darren and John were one of five finalists for the NSW Institute of Sports “Athlete of the Year”. Other finalists included World Rowing Champions Vicky Roberts and Julia Wilson, Triathlete Peter Robertson, Louise Savage from wheelchair track and road and swimmer Ian Thorpe.
On 17 December 2001 John was inducted into the Sydney Northern Beaches Hall of Fame alongside other famous sporting personalities including surfing’s Tom Carrol, Netball’s Anne Sargeant and Swimming’s John Devitt.
On 27 February 2002 Darren and John were awarded the Australian Institute of Sport top “Athlete/Team of the Year”.
This was then followed by Darren and John being awarded the “2001/02 BEA Australian Sailor of the Year” award at Darling Harbour on 8 June 2002. Darren & John were ecstatic with this announcement having previously been finalist in 1999 and 2000 and it being ten years since John previously won the award after his 1992 World Championship and 1992 Barcelona Bronze Medal haul.
Darren and John continued their success in 2003 winning the three biggest and most important Tornado Regattas of the year being the 2003 European Championship, the 2003 Athens Test Event and the 2003 World Championship. The win for Darren and John put them again in the record books as it was John’s incredible sixth Tornado World Championship Title and Darren’s fourth. Forbes equalled that of Brazilian sailor Robert Schiedt who had recently won six Laser dinghy class World Titles. Combine all of that with winning the 2003 Sail Melbourne regatta in January and the pair were selected to represent Australia at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and were earmarked by many as being the Gold medal favourites.
As a result of the successes both in 2002 and 2003 Darren and John also received the following accolades:
Australian Institute of Sport – Team of the Year.
Australian Yachting Federation – Male Sailors of the Year.
NSW Yachting Association – Male Sailors of the Year.
NSW Institute of Sport – Team Athletes of the Year.
International Sailing Federation – Rolex World Sailor of the Year - finalist.
Whilst the Greek wind Gods didn't show up on time for the Tornado event in Athens, John and Darren still finished a credible 6th place overall and, after three Olympic Games and 18 years at World and Olympic level sailing, Forbes announced his retirement from the sport due to family commitments with his wife Caroline and two daughters Teigan and Bronte. Darren Bundock continued sailing Tornado catamarans and, with Glenn Ashby as Forbes' replacement, they went on to win a further world championship and the Silver medal at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Both Darren and Glenn then joined the highly spectacular and successful 2013 America's Cup teams.