Olympic sailing couple outline grand ambition behind world record attempt
Olympic silver medalist Anna Burnet’s sailing world record attempt is fuelled by a desire to fight the climate crisis and issue a wake-up call to the maritime industry.
The Scottish sailor learned her craft amid the ferry routes of the west coast of Scotland and now her leading role on the British Sailing Team brings her to the frontline of environmental degradation.
Burnet and John Gimson - partners on and off the water - are aiming to break the world record for sailing between Belfast Ballyholme and Port Patrick, which currently stands at 1hr 37 mins.
They’ll be accompanied by the Artemis eFoiler, a state-of-the-art transport vessel that foils and is electric, which for Burnet shows the way for the future of the commercial shipping trade.
“Our ferries are currently diesel-guzzling, polluting things and they don’t have to be,” said Burnet. “The technology is there for them not to be producing any emissions.
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“The west of Scotland is the perfect place, ideal for the kind of ferries that Artemis are producing. We’re training and racing in ports where the air quality is terrible - hopefully, soon, we won’t experience that.”
The maritime sector accounts for about 2.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and the pair want to play a part in changing that.
Gimson added: “We were training in Sicily recently and whenever the wind was blowing into the town, our apartment would fill with diesel fumes. Living there for a few months was pretty horrible.
Great Britain's John Gimson and Anna Burnet pose in Tokyo (AFP via Getty Images)“The maritime sector is behind the times and it’s exciting to think that we could be part of using foiling technology to help make the world a greener place.”
Having won Olympic silver in the Nacra 17 mixed class on debut in Tokyo, Gimson and Burnet took a medal of the same colour from last month’s World Championships to qualify and fuel hope for Paris 2024.
They are putting their Olympic campaign on hold momentarily to chase a piece of sailing history that can’t be achieved within the confines of fleet racing, which is not timed.
“It’s going to be a big physical challenge,” said Burnet. “The racing we’re used to is 30 minutes long and then we have 20 minutes to recover.
“This is going to be flat out for around an hour, if it goes well! It’s going to be pretty tough on our bodies and it’s a channel crossing, so the conditions are going to be hard even if we get a good weather window.
“The record would be awesome but it would be a bonus in the wider context of what we’re trying to do and showing people what’s possible with the new technology.”
Artemis, led by two-time Olympic champion Iain Percy, who coaches Gimson and Burnet, have been supporting their campaign with cutting edge technology.
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“It’s really cool for us to be working with Artemis,” said Burnet. “Their expertise adds a lot to our programme and understanding the boat we’ll be sailing in at the Olympics.
“They’ve got a lot from working with us and making sure that we’re world-leading in this area, so we’re really lucky to be working with them.”
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