News Around the World
GA: Definitely the first part of the race, until Hugo Bossleft us. We sailed with four boats very close together. Intense, great fun and tactical… It’s rare to experience this in a round-the-world race. SH: Shortly after Cape Horn there were new problems on the boat… GA: We decided that in the Atlantic we would always gybe. We were quite relaxed, but maybe we sometimes fired the mainsail across too fast. On 6 March in one of these gybes the mainsheet took off all the antennas. It was night and we did not realise until the computer could not download the meteo! I checked the protocols a thousand times, until I realised we also did not have GPS. Then we saw the antennas with all the wires hanging loose. Oops! After that we could only communicate using our safety phone from the liferaft. SH: Did that make it harder to defend second place? GA: Much less than I originally thought. That was a relief… I had got in the habit of spending a lot of time studying navigation and positions on the computer and realised that it is more important to spend more effort concentrating on sailing the boat properly. I learned that too much information is bad. SH: Other problems… GA: Yes, food. Due to the stress and our irregular watch system we ate a lot during the first weeks. When we arrived in the south I saw we hadn’t enough food to finish, but I still didn’t do an inventory. That was another mistake, because when we stopped in New Zealand we bought some food but were once again badly organised. SH: You had some ‘fun’ with the ghost mode… GA: Well, it was disappointing. We had one opportunity to extend our lead over Cheminées, deciding to work east for the St Helena High. So I asked for the ghost mode. But there was a mistake with the tracking system and we appeared on the display! I didn’t notice it until suddenly I saw Cheminée’s jumbo lights appear at night. I couldn’t believe it – then I saw the ghost mode mistake. Actually, that east- ern strategy was the good option… but I don’t like to play ‘what if’. Carlos Pich
USA Unhelpful
The latest movement of the goalposts in the AC has done little to attract more US interest, probably just hardening the opinions of sceptics desperately trying to remain as loyal fans. ‘Save money’ – really? If so, then why was the AC62 proposed at all? It’s laudable that the Defender wants to help the challengers be competitive, but aren’t they just a little suspicious of this latest change? Yes, this was also discussed by the parties concerned, but there seems to be more sympathy for Patrizio Bertelli’s tough decision to cut his losses and bow out on principle than for the begging that followed to keep them in the game.
The fact that the announcement came on 1 April (April Fools’ Day) left many wondering if it weren’t a joke. Were these guys serious, or had they just missed the significance of the date because they were so anxious to get the news out before it leaked? Having made design choices diverge from what most sailors relate to, and now pulling it away from what even designers can relate to with only rudders, daggerboards and foils allowed to vary, it’s a wonder who’s left to provide any gawk and awe (OK, in foiling boats hulls have little worth, but this just reinforces the point). Another April Fools item announcing the return of J-Class yachts to the Cup actually seemed more interesting… and fooled more than a few. Forget 40kt bursts on a steady platform: the rolling and pitching and sheets of spray spewing from the bow of a majestic mono- hull are the images most conjure up there… We hate to burst their balloons, but the current AC regime is trying to sell a concept that does not have words like ‘grandeur’ or ‘majestic’ on the pitch sheet. This is the problem that won’t go away: a fundamental difference in the way the event is perceived by those who knew it ‘back in the day’ and the current generation of players racing for hefty pay cheques. It’s hard enough for Americans to get behind a defending team whose accents betray their alien origins, and laughable that one whose salary as a grinder was six times the US national average is suing the team over denying his wish to be paid even more to relocate.
20 SEAHORSE
These kinds of salary spats are common in US mainstream sports, where besides having talent there is a lengthy food chain of hurdles and qualifications a pro athlete needs to endure before having enough leverage to exert demands like this. Millions are watching as millions are spent on grabbing their attention to watch them play their game, whether it’s baseball, football (not soccer), basketball, hockey and so on.
In contrast, most AC fans in the US, being amateurs at their game, would not relate well to pro sailors trying to get that kind of salary with that kind of leverage. This case will be interesting, but expect the only winners to be the lawyers.
With the Oracle cheating scandal, the Artemis tragedy and the huge comeback against the Kiwis, the last Cup certainly provided plenty of surprises. Maybe this latest twist in reducing the size of the boats mid-cycle at the expense of a loyal challenger is just another interesting chapter in the long drama that is the AC. Maybe loyal fans will always find a way to support the event… Yet it’s safe to say that while the Americans and the French have had their love-hate moments for decades, when Bruno Troublé recently described the Cup as being ‘a vulgar beach event smelling of sunscreen and French fries’, there were many here nodding in assent.
The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated Since Peter Craig and his Premiere Racing team announced they would call it quits after two decades of organising Key West Race Week, the aftershocks were quickly quelled by rumours that another veteran organiser may step in: the Storm Trysail Club. For those unfamiliar with this club with no clubhouse, rest assured STC has built for itself a strong decades-long reputation of excellence with race organisation as its primary mission.
As the club’s history states, STC was ‘born in the middle of an Atlantic gale [in the 1936 Bermuda Race], and grew into adoles- cence through the desire of a few shipmates to have a drink or two together’, a tale that helps describe the convivial nature that bonds shipmates who have raced offshore together in tough conditions. Member ship of the Storm Trysail Club is therefore by invitation only and, to quote from the club by-laws, all must pass another qualifying test: ‘Candidates must have set a storm trysail under storm conditions, offshore, or have weathered a storm at sea under greatly reduced canvas. They also must be experienced bluewater sailors, capable of taking command of a sailing vessel offshore under any or all conditions.’ No wonder among the club’s members are some of the best offshore sailors in the US, whose dedication to the sport is as tenacious as their passion for sailing. But this is also tempered by a passion for fun: quoting again from club history, in 1964 two past commodores, ‘feeling that Cowes Week was too good for the Old World, were instrumental in urging The Storm Trysail Club to establish Block Island Race Week, which is patterned after Cowes Week. The dominant theme is fine competition and time for daily camaraderie in complete informality’. No wonder the first Block Island Race Week attracted 175 boats and it is still going strong with the 50th anniversary event this June. STC members typically fill the important positions on the race committee vessels at nearly every successful big-boat racing event on the US east coast, whether or not they also belong to other prominent clubs – and this includes 25 years of Key West Race Weeks. STC also organises Junior Safety at Sea seminars and an annual Inter- collegiate Regatta on Long Island Sound that has grown to be a major inshore regatta in its own right.
But the roots of the club’s activities are still in offshore sailing, and so it is STC that organises the longest race on the eastern seaboard, the 840-mile Pineapple Cup race from Ft Lauderdale to Montego Bay, Jamaica. There’s also been talk of reviving some of the long races of the SORC. And during a brief thaw in relations between the US and Cuba, in 2000 the STC organised a 1,000nm Havana- Baltimore Race, only to have its start relocated to Key West after a Cuban-American political fracas just prior to the start shut down Havana. So don’t panic, snowbirds, keep the third week of January clear. Dobbs Davis
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