Editorial Andrew Hurst It’s all relevant
The release of a new America’s Cup yacht always prompts debate and the release of the AC75 flying monohull did not disappoint. The breadth of ‘wind-driven performance’
available on the water has never been as great. Boats raced at the élite levels are now as far removed from most racing fleets as anyone could
have conceived of even 10 years ago. No wonder relevance is always a hotly debated subject among the mainstream when each new super-performance class appears. Fortunately most will love it, but many still prefer to mutter… This one is aimed at you mutterers! If a sport is worthwhile then relevance in this context is completely
irrelevant. Every technical sport continually comes up against the same argument: how does this new thing improve our sailing? Why should we be interested? Why should we even care? I argue that you may not care but you are wrong. Of course you
don’t have to be super interested, but if you can’t at least acknowl- edge the merit of what the best sailors are doing, what the top designers, suppliers and boatbuilders are creating, then I argue you may not actually care that much about sailing. The ‘new new thing’ may be irrelevant to you, it very likely is, but don’t misjudge how important it is to the sport. I maintain that every sportsman has some small obligation to keep
an eye out for their sport – to encouraging new people in. For sailors that means maintaining a modicum of interest in how non-sailors see us and whether they see what we do as even remotely interesting. We have enough to deal with with the outside perception of
A maximum of 300 people on the planet can drive an F1 car both
safely and reasonably fast but millions watch them do it partly because of that. Amazing as it may seem, but thousands of those people then have a go at humbler forms of the sport. Relevance? Well, if even a tiny percentage of those who glimpsed
the last America’s Cup on TV were tempted to swing by a club or community sailing facility and have a closer look then that is an absolutely fantastic result. People who would otherwise never go near a sailboat. A sport that offers an élite level far from the grassroots, that
technically is only tenuously connected to those grassroots, is a sport that will stimulate and attract. It doesn’t matter a jot if an America’s Cup boat looks nothing like a club racer – it sails. A famous English dinghy club always hung a big sign in the
entrance. It read: ‘If you see someone you don’t recognise wandering around, please invite them in. We need new members.’ Quite so.
sailing. We may see Cup sailors in padded wetsuits dripping with net-cutters and breathing apparatus as titans, but what most people think of when they hear ‘sailing’ is blue blazers, great wealth and snobbery. We are a long way from getting past that one. And if we brag about how irrelevant those Cup guys are to ‘us’
then what we are actually saying is, ‘this is my sport and I don’t really want the new stuff… or too many new participants’. Serious racecars bear zero relationship to ‘what I drive’. God,
how bored am I to hear that. What does an AC50 flying along at 45kt and staying aloft for an entire race matter to me; I race a little lugger? Terrific, but nobody has the right to criticise those who do take things up a few notches. Fortunately, this view-
point is rare – but some of the negative stuff I have been reading about the new America’s Cup class still surprised me. Sailing will never stop
needing fresh faces who have yet (cliché alert…) to find out what they are missing. We always have to grab the attention of as many people as humanly possible and expose them to what is on offer. But we are more likely to get their attention with a photo of a flying foiler or an Imoca 60 trying to self-destruct, after which maybe they can then be introduced to the sport at a gentler level!
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Whisper it… but the very fine 1903 Monet of Waterloo Bridge that hangs in the editor’s home may not be an original. This one also looks pretty good value for the majority of those who fancy themselves as America’s Cup challengers. As those charity hustlers all say… ‘think of the kids’
SNOWFLAKE HELL People who just take the course but enjoy their social life can easily survive in many subjects – but not in
this one – Cambridge Natural Sciences Professor Eugene Terentjev welcomes his new students
SOMEONE HAD TO SAY IT Playing Call of Duty doesn’t make you a soldier and winning an eSailing championship will never make you
a sailor – James Dadd
We are very concerned that this statement could be extremely damaging to the mental well-being of the
students – Caring Cambridge responds
(Time we gave up? – ed)
concerns with my boat – François Gabart, Macif And we have an extraordinary capacity to remain between 37 and 42kt without
ever being dangerous – Gabart
ACTUALLY, YOU’RE NOT We’re completely
f*cked – Pascal Bidégorry takes a wrong turn on Dongfeng
STOP COMPLAINING We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience
REALLY Permanent moisture
caused – Public announcement after the Tsukuba Express departs from Tokyo 20 seconds early
tires – Alex Pella, Multi50 Arkema, TJV winner
CASUAL Up to 40kt there are no
23-24kt – Erwan Le Draoulec, winner of the Mini Transat production class
iPod charger – Le Draoulec
6.50 METRES! We were always sailing at 18kt or more and quite often we reached
– And I never broke anything… except my
FAT IS FAST I was always slowing down to preserve my boat – she is so easy to
sail fast, though – Mini Transat winner Ian Lipinski
Big Noses… – Lipinski
Actually, it was not even a race for the
‘keel’ as we know it – Andrew MacFarlan, Red Bull Technology
in that… – MacFarlan
OUTSTANDING Patel & Singh Builders… you’ve tried the Cowboys now try
Seahorse magazine and our associate raceboatsonly brokerage site are both at:
seahorsemagazine.com The editor is contactable by email at:
andrew@seahorse.co.uk
SEAHORSE 11
THEY KNOW Wow, very cool, so no
There’s a lot of work q
the Indians – Seen on a van in London
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GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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