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This can have a significant effect on the preparations for not only that event, but on a whole campaign. The wealthier owners may be sitting with their sail co-ordinators and sailmakers looking a few years ahead, deciding what they want in the sail wardrobe for several seasons with their varying regatta programmes – hence focusing on a relatively small number of events but covering each and every base for each one. This may include building potential designs that have a narrow but effective window of use or testing new options and then selecting a new path of development. All great for us to learn, but also very expensive. But surely such development should only be happening at the very top, with what is learnt from sponsors’ dollars helping to improve the everyday sailor’s enjoyment of the sport? The interesting thing is that in the case of these top events, be it inshore such as the America’s Cup, or offshore such as the Vendée Globe or The Ocean Race, the sail inventories are reducing in size, not increasing. Over the past 20 years in particular we have seen sail material and manufacturing processes develop in a way where sails are holding their competitive shape for far longer and, alongside the improvements in deck equipment and spar controls, have a far wider range of effective use both in terms of windspeed and direction. These modern sail structures cope far better with varying sea states and general abuse over time.


We are all seeing some elements of the


trickledown. Some may recall last century when a new sail was only a new sail for a few weeks’ use at most. After that it was clearly past its best. Today we all see new race sails staying at their


prime for far, far longer. But have we seen the whole trickledown yet? I think not. Back when we developed the VO70 rule I recall sailmaker Grant Spanhake bucking the trend and, instead of suggesting a typical inventory of 14 sails onboard, suggesting that just seven sails were needed. Prior to the 2005-2006 Volvo Race many argued


this was nowhere near enough. When we got to the end of the race the question was not how many more we needed, but if we could reduce it further. Today I find it hard to believe that an America’s Cup boat can start a race with just one headsail available, or that an Imoca 60 can start the Vendée Globe with fewer sails than the rest of us need to get around the cans in a couple of hours. To me, we need to be embracing what is possible.


Particularly in modern straitened times. Event organisers should do their part to drive us to turn up to any event with small but efficient sail wardrobes. Each sail should have a wide and effective range, and sail choices should be made onboard the boat from the whole inventory, not via emails a week before the event. With both code zeros and outriggers I have seen


International Rating Certificate


Sail choice... at least today most of the head- scratching takes place on the dock. This is Kialoa drying some of the washing in Hawaii in the early 80s


both sides of the argument: as individual items they are expensive. But a code zero can cover the range that used to require two or three spinnakers and a genoa. A code zero doesn’t cost as much as four sails! Similarly an outrigger might be an extra bit of kit to buy, but again offshore it might mean that you don’t even need that code zero at all. Today we know that you don’t need a container full of sail options to compete in an event that includes windward/leeward racing one day, a coastal course the next. So why are we still seeing a huge range of sails being loaded on and off just before dock-out? Is it making our racing more enjoyable? Let alone more attractive and accessible to new owners? When I was a boy I rode around the neigh- bourhood on a Raleigh Chipper, longing to inherit my brother’s bigger Raleigh Chopper. I could go everywhere on it, spend all day on it and always felt it was the ideal bike. Now as an adult I have a summer road bike, a winter training bike, a hardtail mountain bike… and am being told by friends that I really need a gravel bike to fully enjoy my cycling, and should also be upgrading my mountain bike to a full suspension model. I’m sure I enjoyed cycling more when I was a kid. James Dadd, technical and rating consultant q


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