What It Takes...To Be A Grinder

Competing in Sail GP requires a core of steel, upper- body strength and stamina fit for the high seas

Matt Gotrel, 30, started sailing when he was eight years old, alongside his father and grandfather. At university, however, he switched disciplines from the Olympic 49ers to take up rowing. Three years later, he joined Team GB Rowing and, with two World Championships to his name, he won Olympic Gold at Rio in 2016. Now, though, Gotrel is back where it all began, and here he reveals to MF the unique challenges of being a grinder.

REGIME

“A grinder requires a lot of upper-body strength: to power the winches that trim the sails to the optimum settings and help to manoeuvre the boat,” Gotrel explains. At 6ft 5in tall and over 100kg – but with an Olympic rower's engine – the man his teammates call Shrek is ideally suited to the role. “The biggest difference in SailGP to rowing is the use of different muscle groups. Rowing involved a lot more leg power, which I already had, but as a grinder you need the fitness. There are a lot more peaks and troughs, and it's all upper body.”

To make the transition, Gotrel has been on a focused development programme which combines weight work and gym circuits with hardcore sessions on a portable grinding machine – a purpose-built replica of the ship’s winch mechanism – which has a resistance setting to help separate the sailing men from the marker buoys.