Contributors EDITOR Andrew Hurst
DESIGNER Stephen Stafford
Mischa Heemskerk used his latest DeckSweeper rig to crush a 118-boat fleet at this year’s A-Class Worlds by winning 7 straight races
SUB-EDITOR Sue Platt EUROPE
Patrice Carpentier Carlos Pich Tim Jeffery Rob Weiland
Torbjörn Linderson Andy Rice
Giuliano Luzzatto Jocelyn Blériot Brice Lechevalier
USA & CARIBBEAN Dobbs Davis Peter Holmberg Cam Lewis Dee Smith
Javier Soto Acebal mixes superyacht design with the creation of a nice line in very fast but affordable small and mid-sized designs
JAPAN
Yoichi Yabe Ken Toyosaki
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE Ivor Wilkins Blue Robinson Rob Brown Rob Mundle Julian Bethwaite
COLUMNISTS Paul Cayard Rod Davis
Sebastian Carlini is a former Germán Frers design protegé about whom we should soon be hearing a great deal more
AC TECHNICAL Terry Hutchinson David Hollom Steve Killing Andy Claughton Jack Griffin
ACCOUNTS AND CIRCULATION Kirstie Jenkins & Wendy Gregory
ADVERTISING MANAGER Graeme Beeson
Bernard Schopfer is the Swiss driving force behind the Yacht Racing Forum – into its ninth edition in Malta this November
Email:
graeme@seahorse.co.uk EDITORIAL
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Sir Ben Ainslie looked unusually emotional (but not ‘angry’…) after winning AC World Series Round 6 on home waters
6 SEAHORSE
Seahorse International Sailing is published monthly by Fairmead Communications Ltd, 5 Britannia Place, Station Street, Lymington, Hampshire SO41 3BA, UK. USA subscribers: Seahorse International Sailing (USPS 010-341) is distributed in the USA by SPP, 75 Aberdeen Rd, Emigsville, PA 17318. Periodicals’ postage paid at Emigsville PA. POSTMASTER: please send address changes to Seahorse International Sailing c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville, PA 17318. Distribution by Comag Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction without prior written permission is prohibited.
Kiwi Boats, Florida, November 1976 and the aluminium spaceframe is ready to be lowered into designer Ron Holland’s breakthrough 40-footer Imp, which would go on to be top boat in the 1977 SORC and the 1977 Admiral’s Cup. With more powerful aft sections than typical designs of the day, Imp as expected powered away from her rivals downwind… but upwind she surprised even her designer
segment. We are proprietors, jointly with UNCL in France, of a longstanding, popular and widespread rule, managed by dedicated and specialist staff. We are lucky to run some amazing races. And we are looked upon as a credible leader in the evolution of our sport.
Many fine men and women have worked long and hard to simplify and globalise a common rule – sometimes gaining a couple of steps forward, only to lose a few back. We are inching forward on the universal measurement system, a model of IRC/ORC co-operation. We continue to organise and expand our race programme and to ensure that IRC evolves to satisfy our many thousands of clients around the globe. As many of them have requested, we plan to offer them an IRC world championship and hope that World Sailing will soon give us that recognition. The goal of a common international system, in the interest
of sailors, remains and, to quote conflict negotiators, ‘we continue to work on confidence-building measures’. Our peace table, however, is sometimes a target for grenades... La luta continua– the struggle goes on. Normal service will be resumed as soon
as possible. Meanwhile, congratulations and felicitationsto the winners at the hospitable IRC European Championship in Cork and the splendid Brewin Dolphin Commodores’ Cup in Cowes.
Michael Boyd Commodore
q
Commodore’s letter A
t this halfway juncture in my term of office the editor has asked me to share some thoughts on the possibility of a common rating system that he believes would benefit sailors worldwide. So here are some disconnected thoughts on a complex and sometimes colourful subject...
I often think that rating arguments have a very long history and am sure that Cleopatra’s skipper challenged a Nile fisherman to a felucca race and they then agreed a rating formula taking length, breadth, draft and sail area into account. It has been downhill (or downriver) ever since. I wonder if rating systems are a new religion in our largely secular Western world, the inclining test the substitute for the immaculate conception and hull factor the transubstantiation. The rules certainly attract some religious zeal. I have been struck by the considerable passion generated by the subject and seen some correspondence on the topic with language that would make a sailor blush.
I am a simple man with a non-scientific background. I have
sailed under several rating systems. I have yet to lose a race where I could blame our rating for a poor outcome. Our great club wears a few hats in this debate – we are, above all, an international association of members, the majority cruiser-racers, but with a strong and vital high-performance
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