Rob Weiland
Keep a lid on things
In the heat of the Mediterranean summer the 52 Super Series is now in Puerto Portals where the 10 TP52s stick out like extraterrestrial beings between the hundreds of motoryachts moored in this popular marina.
It is, however, a good place to race from. The boats are close to the sailors’ lounge area, close to their containers and close to the shops, restaurants and bars with tourists parading the promenades. Add a few palm trees, beaches and plenty of accommodation and you get the picture. Never a dull moment, certainly not on the water, where the sea breeze functions like clockwork this year with all of the boats dialled into the conditions with consistently impressive levels of precision. During the practice race we had our first and hopefully last accident of this year, a collision that took Xio Hurakanout for the duration of the event. Her port side carbon rigging was severed cleanly by a bowsprit wiping over her deck at the shrouds. Since the changeover to composite rigging we have seen more damage with rigging than we did previously with Nitronic rod. Not surprisingly as rod rigging has gone through decades of evolution whereas composite rigging only recently moved into the smaller sizes of raceboats.
Most of the damage has been operator related. The learning curve is steep but I feel we stepped onto the train at the right moment and for sure we should not get out at the next station but
26 SEAHORSE
enjoy the benefits of composite rigging and learn to avoid the pitfalls. The accident was resolved onshore in an amicable way and all is now focused on getting Xio Hurakanback in racing mode before the TP52 Worlds in Mahon, Menorca, in September. Following recent ponderings, on cost and time supposedly being the main causes of the decline in numbers racing in international events, I feel there is easily as much blame that can be laid in the other corner, of too much money creating too high a level of equip- ment and sailing that in turn equally undermines potential interest. Especially when racing on corrected time, so not within any class rules, there is not much control of spending. Within a class structure one has a little more grip by setting rules aimed at cutting or containing costs, as well as by creating an event schedule that is friendly in terms of the logistics.
Racing on corrected time, no matter which rating rule, invites non-stop spending on your boat and sails. There is always that next step one can make in optimising crew, boat and sails, especially in the absence of any limit on the number of certificates issued or of any dimensional limits as employed in a box rule. To take one typical example, it is recognised that adding draft
is an area of performance-over-rating gain in IRC. This obviously brings with it expensive and practical consequences – unless IRC soon introduces some limits that are in line with what is currently out there racing today.
Besides spiralling costs one has to worry about both safety and
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