We are pleased to announce that as of January 2025, Santiago Sampaio has been appointed as the new Chief Technical Officer for ILCA, a role that blends his love for sailing with his technical expertise. Sailing has always been important for Santiago and has been a journey that evolved into a successful international career, with Olympic aspirations along the way. But even as his sailing career soared, he was drawn to another passion—understanding the intricacies of boat design and production. We had the opportunity to chat with him about his journey, the lessons he’s learned, and the exciting projects on the horizon for ILCA.
When did you start Sailing?
I first stepped on a sailing boat when I was around 2 years old during family vacations and from there it was smooth sailing! I started racing at 7 and moved into the ILCA at 15 and have been sailing it pretty much all the time for the last 14 years!
You have competed at a high level, right?
My dream to be an Olympian in Sailing was very present from a young age. The path to get there was also very clear and so the transition between hobby and professional sport is blurry and happened early.
After some success nationally, I naturally started to want more, and with the support of my parents, I was able to travel to international competitions. The snowball effect started and I soon found myself competing for Olympic qualifications. As my career in sailing has been quite natural and smooth, it was only when I took a step back from the Olympic campaigns that I understood where I had gotten to. When you are in the thick of it you only focus on pushing further I suppose.
What did you study at university?
As I was sailing quite a lot I was not totally sure what the best course was for me.
From all the options I had, I followed my brother’s advice – who was studying at one of the universities I was to go to – and went to study Yacht and Powercraft Design at Southampton Solent University. This ended up being the best choice I could have taken as I discovered something else than I loved and learnt the theory and physics behind sailing basically. In the end my university degree made me a better and more complete sailor in addition to all the knowledge I acquired.
For any young sailor unsure of what they want to follow, I highly recommend it.
What attracted you to work for ILCA as a Technical Officer?
I started at ILCA right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. It was one of these strikes of luck where I think I was the right person at the right place at the right time.
I had for two years been sailing full-time and was seriously lacking a different stimulus to get my mind away from my campaign but also to help me keep growing and challenging myself. Equally, the Olympics were about to be postponed or cancelled and I saw the opportunity to stay in control of my immediate future and challenge myself with something new.
I had met Eric Faust at the worlds in Japan a couple of months earlier and had taken a big interest in the legal debates that were unravelling, therefore, when I saw that the challenge was to help ILCA navigate the fallout of those and I could employ the technical skills I had learnt, I was thrilled and jumped right in.
During the past 5 years you have worked with Clive Humphris and Chris Tunstall.
How has that helped prepare you for this role?
I have been very lucky to have had these two mentors throughout this journey at ILCA.
When I joined ILCA and worked under Clive, I had just come out of university, and it was my first job. I had also spent 2 years mostly just sailing, so its fair to say I did not know much. Clive not only taught me all he knew about the class through his 14 years as Chief Technical Officer, but also as a lifetime sailor of the Class. His background in competitive, highly-efficient industries gave me access to knowledge and processes that I had not been exposed to before and supporting him in the challenge to establish six new builders was invaluable to learn all the details of the production on an ILCA, of our build Manual, our compliance processes, how we manage the relationship with the Builders and much more. I could summarise it as an extended and in-depth crash course into ILCA history, production, and best practices.
The transition to Chris leading the Technical team was, for me, another stroke of luck. Just like in sailing, learning curves do not have a constant slope. As someone that likes to absorb new knowledge, having a new mentor and superior with a different palette of knowledge and experiences that match my personal development needs was invaluable. Having established my foundations, Chris taught me how to manage stakeholders and situations, lead people with a common goal, and expand my knowledge of ILCA production through the eyes of the manufacturer, given his 50+ years of experience building these dinghies.
All this said, what has helped me most and was common to both my predecessors was their willingness to empower me, teach me and push me further. With my appointment being a nice confirmation of that continuous support.
The Technical Team’s strategy has been summarised under the acronym OSEPODS.
Good progress has been made, but is it still relevant going forward?
OSEPODS (Off-the-Shelf, Equal Performance, One-Design Sailboat) has been our motto and mission for the last few years. It was coined by our oldest active builder, but it has been brought to life by Chris and the Tech team. It has helped us focus and target our efforts in the most important aspects of ILCA production with a very clear objective to all. Starting with further standardisation of manufacturing processes, tightening of specifications, repeatability of results, and many others. Although much progress has been made so far, controls can be further developed, the Build Manual can be further refined and our scope of action can be enlarged. So yes, very good progress has been made but there is still further to go be the most OSEPODS Class we can be.
What key projects are the team working on?
The Tech team always has interesting projects ongoing. Whether they are long-term or short-term projects.
Looking at the project portfolio, the main projects are:
Sustainability & Life Cycle Assessment
ILCA’s commitment to social and environmental sustainability is focused on real change and in alignment with World Sailing’s and the IOC’s objectives. This project is divided in various work streams, with the Tech team leading the charge on a couple of fronts.
All change has to be based on data and knowledge and currently we are focusing our technical effort on measurement and quantification of the impact of ILCA production in our various approved Builders through a Life Cycle Assessment using the MarineShift360 platform. In parallel, we have partnered with a leading sustainable materials boat builder and together provided the platform for a feasibility study of alternative materials in ILCA’s production through a student’s master’s thesis.
ILCA 4 & ILCA 6 Sail Development
The ILCA 4 and 6 sail cloth has been established for several decades. Over the last few years, the sail cloth production industry has, like most other things, evolved, and in communication with our suppliers, we have been alerted to the lack of reliability in sail cloth production. This triggered us to find an alternative.
Given that changing a sail cloth is not as simple as swapping materials, we have taken the opportunity to explore a sail redesign that started over 12 months ago.
This project also allows us to tackle, for example, longstanding comments regarding the insufficiencies of the ILCA 4 sail or the lack of consistency in the ILCA 6.
We are currently validating a new design for these two sails that will soon enter a testing phase, where sails will be distributed in strategic locations to gather feedback prior to any decisions or possible equipment changes.
As an Olympic One-Design Class with a rich legacy, we have chosen to give this project a medium to long-term horizon where the upcoming 2028 Olympics are not affected by any potential changes.
IBM (ILCA Build Manual) Review
Following ILCAs purchase of the rights to the IBM, we have embarked on a reform of the Build Manual to clean up some lingering wording issues and make it align with the best interests of our builders and sailors.
The build manual is over 25 year old and today we are lucky enough to have Chris Tunstall on our team to help with this manual update since he has been involved for almost all that time. With this review, we aim to improve its functionality, limit production options, clarify and tighten all tolerances and ensure it is up to date with all modern technologies and practices.