Sailfaster: The Podcast For Racing Sailors

Tom Kassberg's the owner of Malolo, one of the fastest performance cruising catamarans in the world, with victories in the ARC and class honours at the Caribbean 600.  In this episode, Tom joins Pete to unpack how he built a championship offshore racing program from the ground up—from choosing the right platform and assembling an elite crew to developing boat-specific performance data and making high-pressure decisions at sea. They also discuss the unique demands of racing high-performance multihulls, managing risk at speed, weather routing with Vendée Globe sailor Will Harris, and why preparation, teamwork and continuous learning are the real competitive advantages.  Please forgive the dodgy sound quality!

Olympic gold medallist, America’s Cup winner and SailGP superstar Tom Slingsby joins Sailfaster from San Francisco airport for a fascinating deep dive into what it takes to perform at the highest level of sailing. From surviving one of the toughest and most dramatic SailGP race days of his career to the mindset shifts that helped him overcome Olympic heartbreak and become a world champion, Tom shares the lessons, habits and psychological edge behind his success. He reveals why sailing is really a game of marginal gains, how he makes split-second decisions at 100 km/h, the single performance metric he obsesses over, and the leadership lessons learned during Oracle Team USA’s legendary 2013 America’s Cup comeback. Packed with insights on pressure, preparation, competition and continuous improvement, this is a masterclass from one of the greatest sailors of his generation.

Offshore racing has long been seen as one of sailing's toughest frontiers—physically demanding, technically complex, and historically dominated by men. But Emma Rosenbaum and Marianna Fleischman of Spite Sailing are working to change that.
In this episode of SailFaster, we dive into the story behind their women-led offshore racing campaign, their journey into short-handed sailing, and their ambitious goal of competing in the Bermuda One-Two aboard a Mini 650.
Emma and Marianna discuss the barriers that still exist for women in sailing, why access and representation matter, and how they're creating a performance pathway to help more sailors progress from local club racing to offshore competition.

GPS-based starting systems are changing sailboat racing — whether sailors like it or not.  In this episode, Pete Boland talks to Todd Wilson, co-founder of Vakaros, about how RaceSense and modern GPS technology are transforming starts, protests, race management, and training.
(Note this is NOT a sponsored episode!)

Todd explains why even elite sailors struggle to ping a line accurately, how RaceSense works, why starts are becoming tighter and more aggressive, how Olympic, J/70, and TP52 fleets are adapting.. and why he was “happy to lose a protest” using his own system’s data
It’s a fascinating look at the technology reshaping competitive sailing — from club racing to the Olympic level.

Ambre Hasson went from learning to sail in 2020 to completing the Mini Transat just five years later. In this episode, she shares her rapid rise into offshore racing, including losing her first boat during qualification and rebuilding her campaign from scratch.
She discusses resilience, managing fear, and key performance ideas like pacing, pushing to the “friction point,” and preserving the boat as a critical part of racing fast. Drawing on endurance sports, Ambre explains how handling discomfort and risk is central to success offshore.
Now moving into the Class40 circuit, she outlines her next goals and what it takes to keep progressing at the highest level.