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Editorial Andrew Hurst Pent-up demand
How do you deal with it when a sport is benefiting on the back of a global tragedy? But the news from raceboat designers and builders around the world is to be honest pretty phenomenal. Same from race organisers: those able to keep the flame alive are seeing enquiries at record levels. So where to begin? As an amuse bouche let’s give a nod to a gentle
revival of the 5.5m class, with superb turnkey Séb Schmidt designs steadily flowing out of the Mader yard in Germany and new one-offs popping up around the world… There are even two coming together in the sleepy backwater of Cowes. For the entrée, how about 15 – that is 15 – new Class40s already
on order for delivery in time for the Transat Jacques Vabre. Expect the number to grow as more skippers find funding to join the scow-train. And for main course, for that it is… Three new Imoca 60s had been
ordered before the winner of the 2020/21 Vendée Globe crossed the finish, including a replacement for the blisteringly fast if trouble-prone scow L’Occitane – also the first Imoca from talented designer-skipper Sam Manuard. And as has become usual several teams are well into the sale of their current boats. Again while the fleet is still at sea. For a spectacular choice of desert look no further than the Mini 6.50
class. Numerous new boats are being got ready for this year’s Mini Transat in September. At the time of writing 58 competitors have qualified for the 84 places available. That leaves 68 committed campaigns to fight it out for the remaining 26 slots. Those odds are not easy with a steep set of criteria to meet – all while knowing that you are in a race within a race so it may well come to nothing. Elsewhere other fascinating designs are appearing at different tables
There, we said it Amazing, brilliant, the boats, the racing, the challenge, the spectacle. Riveting to watch the onboard, even better to hear it. There’s never been anything close. Unmissable from start to finish. All our doubts about one-sided speed tests… in the challenger racing one error wiped out the biggest leads. All concerns totally unfounded. The guys who dreamed up the AC75 concept and then made it work, utter genius. Guillaume Verdier, Benjamin Muyl and Dan Bernasconi, take a bow!
PS Word to the wise (brave before the main event): Team New Zealand fly their stunning AC75 fast and smooth on small, thin, less draggy foils without dihedral for dynamic stability. But the Kiwis still, to quote Dennis Conner, put their trousers on a leg at a time. They are not supermen. The Kiwi sailors are good but American Magic still beat them one-
and-a-half times before Christmas (and the Poms have way more Olympic medals!). But to fly so well with a nervous foil configuration suggests they have again really cracked the issue of control systems. Four years ago in Bermuda the Kiwis won the Cup flying finer, less
draggy much less stable foils than the defender, made possible only by having more control. No one else could fly such critical, nervous foils successfully, though Oracle tried and failed. Worth bearing in mind.
for more modest offshore events, none more fascinating than the 60ft foiler for Maxi yacht and Le Mans racer Roberto Lacorte. In Brittany Multiplast are also in talks with VPLP to build a production IRC 40-footer alongside their new series of VPLP-designed Class40s. One reason underpinning this interest, aside from sailors being
starved of sport for 12 months now, is that there is a new world of performance on the horizon stimulating excitement. Scows are changing the face of ocean racing – they are both faster and also more fun to sail. Offshore foiling is attracting a new type of owner and prompting many existing skippers to replace their current model. The America’s Cup is also playing its part, making it obvious to
anyone with a screen that sailing is moving remorselessly towards a game of two halves (one ‘half’ will always be much smaller but it is the half that will draw the interest of the kids). While ‘it’ has undoubtedly increased our appetite to get out on the
water – and drive a shorthanded explosion – then it is some spectacular leaps in technology that will give sailing a fantastic boost for years to come. Let’s take it.
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It’ll all be worth it, buddy… win this one and in a few years’ time you will have earned the right to be mortally offended by a pronoun
And also Get off the handles, Terry. You’re the world’s best tactician. We need you out front where you belong (and flying the Seahorse flag!). Either way we are lucky to have you on our team.
THE FLIPSIDE Whatever you
SAD FACE [American Magic] need
we have it for you – Grant Dalton, Team NZ
THE ALARM CLOCK FAILED TO RING It’s going to be a really
hard manoeuvre!!!! – Paul Goodison, American Magic
Standing by, standing by, keep going, keep going…
– Dean Barker It’s that British politeness – Paul
Goodison is too nice – Anthony Kotoun
HELL OF A RACE My first Cape Horn, in
4th position too… – Damien Seguin, Groupe Apicil
It is crazy, I cried many tears
– Seguin (a double Paralympic gold medallist)
MEDIA BALANCE? Posh sports face funding cuts for Paris
2024 Olympics – The Guardian newspaper I’ve always said there’s a place for the press –
they haven’t dug it yet – (the late, great) Tommy Docherty
I could never see myself sailing a boat because you put so much effort in to go so slow
– Daniela Moroz, four-time Kitefoil World Champion
WE LOVE YA, JEFF Thanks for another great year of Seahorse, the best sailboat publication ever! I’m thinking of moving to London just so my
issues arrive sooner – Jeff Burch, Newport Beach CAN’T WIN
Impeach Joe Biden! – It’s day 2 and Biden offends his first minority
If I walked across the Potomac River the headline would read ‘Proof Johnson unable to swim’
– Lyndon B Johnson
THE OTHER JO It’s not the man who votes that counts, it’s the man who
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
q
counts the votes – Joseph Stalin (just sayin’)
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