News Around the World
Well overdue… proper ocean racing returned to southern California recently with the inaugural SoCal 300, a challenging romp from Santa Barbara to San Diego through the Channel Islands in some of the lumpiest waters on the left coast. The debut of this new race drew a modest turnout but attracted those serious about going fast offshore, since most of the 300 miles were in big breeze reaching and running conditions. The race was also being used as a training run for those entered in the much longer romp off the coast in July, the 2,225-mile LA-Honolulu Transpac. Among these, Manouch Moshayedi’s newly renovated Bakewell-White-designed Rio 100 (above), having a fixed keel, is eligible for the iconic Barn Door Trophy awarded to the first-to-finish yacht that has no stored power or moveable ballast. In all there are 62 entries in Transpac this year, another solid turnout for the classic biennial race to paradise
family and fans, but to me offshore racing is about making your own decisions; so it will be interesting blending our thoughts with what the fleet is doing.
This has been an issue for this race, I think, where if five of the boats want to go north and one heads south, they all go south. It will be interesting to see the AIS dialogue for the next race; the organisers can obviously pass the information to the fans while still controlling the information going to the boats. SH: Is your biggest task now to understand the capabilities of the boat? TA: I think so, because I already have such a strong faith in the group. I know them all really well and trust them, so my challenge is learning the boat, what it likes and doesn’t like, so I can put it in the right spot. And these are busy legs in terms of managing shipping, coastlines and exclusion zones… The Channel leg is espe- cially full on, so we have to blend those housekeeping matters with the tactical side. There’s plenty to keep an eye on… Blue Robinson
USA Cheek to cheek
The advent of a Super 12 Metre as the platform for Tom Ehman’s brainchild, the San Francisco Yacht Racing Challenge, is in his words ‘just like that album Cheek to Cheekwith Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga: classic with a modern twist’.
When looked at in detail, the new event may be more classic than modern, but Ehman and it seems many others may have hit on a niche in the sport they say is currently overlooked: those who long for the glory days of big keelboat sailing, where tough competition and grandeur combined to create the elegance currently
20 SEAHORSE
missing from many other grand prix arenas. For Ehman it is also about the venue: San Francisco. This is undoubtedly one of the finest sailing venues in the world, certainly in the US, combining fantastic scenery, a progressive world-class city and some of the most predictably excellent sailing conditions.
When the AC left for Bermuda so did Ehman’s appetite to continue his support for the event, though he remains a Golden Gate YC vice- commodore. As it has for many of us trying to grasp wing-sailed catamarans in the Cup, his vision scrolled back to known reference points: Newport, Fremantle, San Diego, Auckland, even Valencia, where big monohulls kept the imagery of the Cup intact. But to create a new monohull class similar to the ACC does not make sense, so he and his supporters are looking even further back: to the 12 Metres, a class that at once evokes all the lost imagery of the Cup. Ask anyone in the US over, let’s say, 50 what they know about sailing, and they will undoubtedly have an answer using key words like 12 Metre, Dennis Conner, Ted Turner, maybe even Fremantle – that’s how powerful the media message was at the dawn of cable televised sports and in the pre-internet era. And this power seems to extend even beyond, because Ehman claims interest from teams representing 13 countries. The details of the SFYRC are forming rapidly as people register their interest – pro sailors for another paying gig, industry reps for some more equipment to sell, some wealthy individuals and their clubs who share the vision, and even some media execs, like veteran ESPN producer Geoff Mason, who swore to Ehman he’d never do an AC broadcast again but thinks this is inspiring and can sell. So what is it exactly? OK, so far this is what they have: (1) Venue: San Francisco Bay, between Alcatraz and the Golden Gate, perfect amphitheatre to draw a crowd, proven in the last AC.
SHARON GREEN
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