News Around the World


capital’s waterfront cafes. ‘Little did we know,’ says Petersen ruefully. The wind dropped and they found themselves going backwards in the fast-flowing Karori Rip. They then endured a painful six hours of being tossed about in


washing machine tide rips as they were pushed back the way they’d come while the rest of the fleet came barrelling down the coast. ‘Yeah, there was quite a bit of foot stomping and sulking onboard…’ Finally, instead of that much-anticipated early morning coffee, they made it across the line in time for the consolation of late afternoon beers. Leaving Wellington also produced a ‘moment’. Running flat off


the wind towards the harbour entrance, confused waves close to the eastern shore were powerful enough to spin the boat around. Finding themselves heading fast towards rocks required an emergency (and sanctioned) resort to the engine to get clear. Ultimately, with stiff opposition from the Reichel/Pugh 52 Miss


Scarlet, Ran Tan II completed the race with line honours on every leg and second overall on handicap behind a phenomenal performance by Josh Tucker and Damon Jolliffe in a demo Jeanneau Sun Fast 36.


USA (Very) mixed feelings With the America’s Cup nearly upon us (or upon those in the Onion Patch), there are as many opinions about this cycle of the event as there are observers. The offshore island venue has deprived anyone here of direct observation without having their own super - yacht, so opinions will be formed from what comes off the island through media channels tempered by personal expectations of what the event is, was… or should be. So time for a brief poll of a few well-known sailors from this side of the pond. As a key sailing member of the winning Alinghi team in 2007,


after trying to organise his own home-grown USVI challenge in previous Cup cycles, as well as having spent years as a match racer and Olympian, Peter Holmberg from St Thomas has a breadth and depth of knowledge beyond most pro sailors. He considers the current America’s Cup format exciting, but maybe not suited for the rich culture and history of an event that has been at the top of the sport for so long. ‘The technology and foiling cats are incredible, but I really wish


they had not hijacked the America’s Cup for it,’ he said. ‘This foiling show is awesome and should be a standalone league in our sport. ‘But I now believe strongly that the America’s Cup in high-


performance monohulls with all the key virtues that made it so successful before would be the better format for our pinnacle event.’ Holmberg takes issue with a – the – key premise of AC35: that


the appeal should be towards mainstream audiences who want to tune in on TV or online rather than on site, and that these audiences will be drawn to high-speed action rather than seeing a more nuanced depiction of sailing skill. ‘I have never bought into the idea that sailing will ever be the TV


sport some hope, so we should stop selling our soul trying to be something we are not. Sailing is an incredible sport, and we should be focusing on doing a better job at explaining and presenting it to the general public.’ Dawn Riley grew up in the Heartland in Detroit, and worked her


A yacht designer in the New Zealand tradition of fast, clean hulls with little attention paid to rating rules, Greg Elliott drew the 15m canting-keel Ran Tan II a dozen years ago but she continues to be a strong performer and exciting to sail – especially offshore where older ‘free’ designs still embarrass rule-constrained rivals


These best mates, who first sailed together as teenagers in the


1997 Sydney-Hobart, have amassed about 200,000 offshore miles between them. Now both fathers with growing families and godfathers to each other’s kids, they have lost none of their passion for hard sailing and hard partying. In addition to taking out the overall PHRF victory, they recorded the fifth fastest elapsed time around the track, including beating every boat in the division above them across the line. Josh: ‘The dream has always been to race the Round North Island


together. Well, I think we can tick that off as a success!’ Despite recording the fastest elapsed time, Ran Tan was denied


that prize because the race rules limit the major trophies to yachts that complete the course without a crew change. As it happened, Richard Bicknell had to leave Ran Tan II after three of the four legs because of a longstanding commitment as one of a largely Kiwi crew on the J-Class Ranger in the Caribbean. Shrewdly spotting this as a potential issue, before the race started


Brian Petersen donated a new trophy for the fastest elapsed time... with a crew change! ‘I’d originally intended donating the huge trophy I won with the 2003 Melbourne-Osaka victory. But, when I discussed it with my wife and two daughters, they said that was our trophy and did not want to lose it. So I had to go out and buy a trophy, which we donated as the Petersen Family Cup.’ Strangely enough, their closest competition all the way around


the track was Miss Scarlet, which also had a crew change, so the battle was well and truly on for the new piece of silver. Luckily the first recipient of the Petersen Family Cup turned out to be its donor. Ivor Wilkins


18 SEAHORSE


way up into pro sailing through the 1980s and 90s, taking in an all-women’s Whitbread, and has also been through multiple Cup cycles as a sailor, project manager and also a syndicate CEO. Her current role as director of the Oakcliff Sailing Center places her in another leadership position – of building the sport through a unique series of sailing programmes for both youth and adults. Dawn says her Acorns and Saplings (beginner and intermediate


members of the Oakcliff programme) are ‘intrigued but not excited’ about the current Cup. She says part of the reason for this is the infor- mation coming out of Bermuda is just too ‘packaged and sanitised’. ‘We had Gino Morelli as a guest at Oakcliff recently,’ she said,


‘and only then with his explanations did I finally see where the subtleties are in development, and I got excited about it. ‘But we are not getting any of this technical information from


Bermuda, it’s just endless boring announcements full of predictable PR superlatives and without any substance whatsoever.’ Being a veteran of challenge attempts in past cycles, Dawn also


appreciates the political dance between defender and challengers, which like good government should have ‘checks and balances to limit the power of one side, and force good decisions that benefit all. I do not see that in this cycle!’ Some of our best-known younger sailors are less keen to go on


record to share their thoughts… maybe they also don’t have the same historical perspective as their elder peers but the main reser- vations understandably lie around the politics. These are guys (and girls) who still have hopes of being involved in a future Cup, but given the rolling tenures of those who remain clinging to the top of the Cup scene these hopefuls are right to be careful about what they say in public… (By the way, how did we ever get to such a grey place?) Bora Gulari is also from Detroit, and with the benefit of a good


degree in aerodynamics he has for years been busy tinkering in boats like foiling Moths, where he has twice been world champion, often building his own foils to his own designs. He has been a champion in the Melges 24 Class, and also represented the USA


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IVOR WILKINS


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