Hoffman and Gargett keep calm in rough seas

If you’ve ever wanted to know what’s worse than being stuck up a creek without a paddle, just ask New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) scholarship holders, Sarah Hoffman and Archie Gargett, two of Sailing Australia’s emerging stars.

The pair, who represented Australia at last month’s World Sailing Championships at the Hague, The Netherlands, will most likely say it’s having the mast of a Nacra 17 craft snap in half like a carrot . . . and, just to make a precarious situation even trickier, snap two days before the regatta started.

Gargett and Hoffman spoke about their experience at the recent induction for NSWIS Sailing Program scholarship holders at tranquil Middle Head Yacht Club. The pair used their story to highlight the importance of keeping a calm head when unexpected situations occur.

“The water off the Hague is known for its huge waves and swell,” said 20-year-old Gargett, who learnt to sail with the Kurnell Catamaran Club. “It was windy, and in those conditions, we’ll wind a lot of tension on our rig meaning it’s at breaking point.

“We had a big crash and capsized, and as soon as we hit the water the mast overloaded and snapped in half, and we found ourselves out there with no mast. It’s not the worst thing we’ve ever had happen, but knowing we were only two days out from the regatta with a shipwrecked boat was bad.”

Hoffman, from Lake Macquarie, and who is studying a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Law at the University of Newcastle, said she and Gargett’s automatic default was to draw upon their previous challenges.

“We’ve sailed together for a year and a half, which is not long in sailing terms,” said Hoffman. “But in that time we’ve been through a lot of intense moments that have helped our relationship.”

Their challenges includes the training session earlier this year when their craft was picked up by heavy winds while they were sailing on Botany Bay and it was sent cartwheeling like a child’s toy across the water.

The freak accident left Gargett nursing a broken wrist when  the boat was washed up on the break wall at Sydney airport. While aircraft activities were suspended because of the accident, Hoffman was forced to swim three kilometres to the safety of Kurnell after being hurled from the boat.

“We’ve had previous experiences where we’ve had things neither of us had any control over what happened, and we’ve learnt that we can’t take the blame for things out of our control and to just to roll with it,” said Hoffman.

“That’s how sailing goes sometimes. It was just another challenge for us to work on resetting. That was always one of our goals coming into the event, just being able to reset when things don’t go our way. It was good to be able to apply that.

“We did a big session with our psyche called Rolling With It which was about being able to choose how you react; what you do after something [unexpected] happens. It’s being aware of the problem, taking a breath, understanding your role, and then doing what you can to take control in that moment.

“We had the choice at the Hague to either derail ourselves by making the experience become worse than it already was, or we could reset. We chose to reset. [The Australian team members] helped us by cutting things off the boat, bringing out a new mast for us, and starting to re-rig [the boat].”

While the new mast made their boat feel ‘foreign,’ Gargett said that presented him and Hoffman with an opportunity to back their instincts and sailing skills.

“Sarah and I realised we could make it work,” he said. “It was just a matter of us trusting our instincts to get the job done and then going through some trial and error on the fly. And we also accepted that when you’re trying something brand new during the race you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

The pair have set their sights on representing Australia at the 2028 Los Angeles or 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games, and Gargett revealed that he visualises his journey as a puzzle.

“I like to think about what we do as being a puzzle and every little bit of training we do . . . every experience we have . . . is a piece we’re going to put in our puzzle,” he explained before joining Hoffman on a training sail around Sydney Heads.

“You might be doing all the training and learning all these things, and while you might not be seeing results, you need to remember you’re only one piece away from slotting that last piece in so the whole picture makes sense.

“It’s about knowing everything you do is making a piece of that puzzle.”

Daniel Lane, NSWIS