News Around the World
Foot in mouth time: no sooner had the editor finished sharing his excitement last month about the Multi50 offering a real alternative for serious offshore monohull racers, being ‘a lot safer than they used to be’, than the Multi50 Drekan promptly capsized on the third day of the TJV (thanks – ed). However, the three newer 50s did enjoy a good fight with Lalou Roucayrol/Alex Pella on Arkema, finishing a few hours ahead of Erwan Le Roux/Vincent Riou on FenêtréA (above). The resurgent 50 fleet is attracting amazingly good sailors; it would be a very long task to list all of the major successes of these four giants of ocean racing let alone total up their racing miles
SH: A lot of people are asking about an Australian challenge… TS: Everyone is receptive. Talk to any Australian: who wouldn’t love to bring back that emotion we had in 1983 and the feeling of national pride? Any time you see a boxing kangaroo flag or hear Men At Work singing The Land Down Under, it’s really powerful and everyone is behind it. At the moment we need someone to take the plunge. We are not treading the corporate path yet as we want to get it
underwritten by some individuals, then we will engage with the corporate world. I have been in a few boardrooms and there is a lot of interest, but it has to be underwritten. We need to pay the one million dollar entry fee and start securing sailors. As soon as you enter and have a team, you can say we have the names, we are going to win this Cup, this is your chance to get onboard – then they will come. I believe corporate Australia will back us heavily once we get up and running. That’s now my focus. Blue Robinson
USA The political Olympics World Sailing’s annual conference moves around each year to venues selected largely by where the executive board feel there is some development potential – but mindful to avoid more remote locations on Olympic quadrennial years where maximum participa- tion is sought for the important process of elections of officials. Being a non-quadrennial year, the conference for 2017 was held
in the semi-tropical resort of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and in the searing heat and humidity the usual process of politicking was in full swing. Nonetheless, there was an agenda of topics and concepts to discuss and under the leadership of Stan Honey the Oceanic and Offshore Committee made some progress on items of safety, environmental rules and event formats. But for most people the most interesting topic was always going
to be the proposal to include a two-handed offshore race in the Olympic regatta. World Sailing manager Andy Hunt and Noboru Kobayashi from the Japanese federation gave an interesting presentation about a demonstration event on these lines that is now proposed for Tokyo 2020. First, some basics: the IOC has long been concerned about the
balance between the relatively high expense yet low revenue generated by sailing in the Games. The usual excuse is its lack of
26 SEAHORSE
TV-friendly formats and spectating opportunities, which have been addressed in various forms. Accordingly, the number of sailing events has been under threat of being cut down to within more acceptable bounds given its popularity relative to other sports. Yet an Olympic offshore race has drawn strong interest from the
IOC for several key reasons: l Endurance format: a 300-mile, three-day two-night race doublehanded, with twists and turns that will challenge teams tactically enough to be entertaining to a TV and/or internet audience. The premise is a race that cleverly televised will resemble a TV reality show with all the joys and pains brought directly to the audience. Not only is this appealing to the IOC for its adventure-related human interest content, but by being accessible 24 hours live it can help fill holes in the stream of content coming from the Games when there would otherwise be just reruns of previous highlights. l Timing and resources: the proposal is to run this exhibition event prior to the main sailing so there is no overlap in coverage, utilising the equipment and personnel that were going to be in place anyway for the main events. Therefore minimal added cost. l Gender equality: the mandate to have more women in the Games has been clear for some time. Each doublehanded team would have to have both genders, shown to be effective in drawing greater interest in other high-profile competitions. lThe racecourse itself can be stretched or contracted according to the needs of TV to maximise audience interest. For example, if the wind dies the race can be shortened to fit the timetable. l 20 teams are anticipated with boats to be offshore-capable and around 30ft. Bénéteau Figaro 3s have been discussed. Much of the detail is being worked out by the Japanese federation,
who have a significant challenge ahead of them: the proposed start in Tokyo Bay will draw thousands to watch on site but getting out of the bay means crossing one of the world’s busiest sea lanes (which also brings issues of radio frequency compliance for the broadcast team). Then there is the selection process. What criteria will be used to qualify the teams and will this mimic the current WS focus on an even spread of geographic representation? World Sailing is so keen to make this work well for the IOC that
Hunt plans to have the details mapped out by the end of the year. Dobbs Davis
q
JM LIOT/DPPI
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94
