Too light, too heavy… one of the joys of offshore racing is that nine times out of 10 the race starts on schedule and after that the weather is just, well, the weather. There was a time when that nine out of 10 was a solid 10, but the trend to litigation-driven caution by many race organisers is now eating away at that ideal. Opposite: Mapfre and Brunel ‘battle it out’ approaching Newport and the finish of Leg 8 in the 2018 Volvo Ocean Race. Newport RI is famous for light air and fog and the America’s Cup 12 Metres lost numerous days waiting for breeze. Here (left) Clipper waits to start – or go home – during the 1980 Defender series. Or maybe they have started… Tom Blackaller is in charge as Russell Long steers so a very generous degree of raucousness is inevitable
the race committee – stop the racing. See, I do have some commonsense!
And when the king is not happy, when the kings get grumpy… heads will roll! Or the Gatling gun will start spraying lead… at the regatta director, race committee, the jury or about anyone else foolish enough not to duck!
So we sit, and sit, and don’t race. Hour after hour, until we go back in. Not winners, but all losers for the day. You have to admit, it’s kinda dumb. Only hot air ballooning is more weather dependent than our obsession around perfect-sailing-racing-conditions. What if we… (we being all of us this time) lighten up and expand our racing windows. What if we start races whenever there is enough wind to get around the course within a very generous time limit. Noon start, 5kt of wind. Fire the guns, we are off. A few cases to consider:
The wind is just enough but is supposed to get much better a couple of hours after the first scheduled start. Start the race on time. If you can add an extra race when the ‘perfect’ conditions arrive, do so. There could be a 180° wind shift during the race. Start the race on time. If there is 180° shift do the best you can resetting the course. But keep the race going. Race goes inside out because wind died and filled in from the other side. Keep going, do the best you can. Same for everyone. Wind picks up to the point that it is unsafe for the sailors or
The point is ‘we’ will race if at all possible. We are not waiting around. Enjoy.
OK, while I am at it… one more thing. This rule that you have to have five races to make a regatta… it should go. We (that will be the NZ OK fleet) have a rule – one completed race is a regatta. By the way, the Olympics have that rule too.
No one wants just a one-race regatta, but if it actually plays out that way then the winner of the race wins the regatta. Give ’em the trophy and spray the champagne.
Lighten up and don’t let the red mist of road rage mess you up. We all need to enjoy our sailboat racing more; let’s all loosen up on this perfect racing thing.
The world is not perfect and does not look like it will be that way any time soon. Most racing series now have nine to 16 races. Some of them, like TP52s, have 50 races per season. A couple of light- air races are absorbed and not even felt. And if they do affect the final results, so what? Was it the same for everyone? Come back… Next time you have a whinge about a race being bullshit, I expect you were on the receiving end of some bad moments. Just remember whipping up the fire will take the fun out of racing for the RC, sailors and owners. And, as you well know, if you step out from behind the red mist of road rage, you will include yourself in the burning. We are here to have fun and let everyone have as much fun as we can. Simple.
SEAHORSE 35
PAUL MELLO/OUTSIDE IMAGES
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