Australian-born but with a British passport courtesy of his grandfather, 33-year-old Luke Parkinson has carved out an enviable niche as a high performance sailor with experience spanning Olympic classes, ocean racing, SailGP, and the America’s Cup.
After moving on from Olympic campaigning as a 49er helmsman, he graduated to ocean racing where his aptitude, fitness, and strong work ethic soon helped him make a name for himself on Australia’s maxi-yacht circuit.
After sailing with Volvo Ocean Race skipper Ian Walker on a race from Hong Kong to Vietnam, the British skipper snapped him up as a bowman aboard the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing VO65 which went on to dominate the 2014-15 edition of the gruelling around-the-world race.
After that victory doors started to open up within the America’s Cup – leading to back-to-back campaigns with Iain Percy’s Swedish Artemis Racing syndicate as well as Ben Ainslie’s INEOS Britannia.
Now, as well as being an integral part of Ainslie’s Emirates GBR SailGP team, Parkinson is based in Barcelona, Spain working on his second consecutive America’s Cup campaign with the British squad ahead of the AC’s 37th edition, scheduled to take place in the city in the autumn of 2024.
In this 25 minute extract from an hour-long episode of The Yacht Racing Podcast he chats with Cup Insider’s Justin Chisholm about his America’s Cup experiences.
Luke Parkinson