News Around the World
A month before the successful use of IC37s in Newport at the NYYC event there was other good news for these ‘sportive’ Mark Mills one-designs when a lone IC37 entered Cowes Week under IRC and dominated its class with a string of race wins. If a sensibly priced and well-targeted one-design can win under IRC then there is a real prospect of some good demand in Europe as well. The mid-tech boats are also robust enough to take (modestly) offshore where they will be a lot more fun than some more expensive ‘rival products’
yachts. Say what you want about this and how it’s evolved since then, but the One World One Rule concept founded in IOR certainly helped offshore racing develop. The bias in believing ocean racing exists only close to La Manche
is no doubt driven by the strong commercial interests and the asso- ciated media intensity that thrives there, which of course is fantas- tique. This cutting edge generates all kinds of ideas, inspirations and technology that trickle down through all sorts of channels to eventually reach the amateur overnight sailors. Code Zeros devel- oped in the Whitbread 60s two decades ago are now in their various guises pretty common... now that the better rating rules are not as afraid of them as they used to be! This may take longer to reach outriggers and multiple short-overlap reaching headsails, although these are being considered now too. Having said all this, it is in France that a US-based team is now
training for their entry in The Ocean Race, with 11th Hour Racing stepping up to support them through the 2021-22 race. It is a sig- nificant step for this premier race around the planet to have received such a strong and committed entry at this stage in the race’s time- line, but also in the symbolism this team and sponsor represent. There is no sane person who can refute the damaging contribu-
tions humans are having on this planet’s ecosystems, and the poignantly named 11th Hour Racing organisation is committed to highlighting these issues through their support of ocean racing, one human activity that comes perhaps just a little closer to being compatible with the planet’s natural ecologies. Now 11th Hour Racing have chosen to support a new team of
sailors with the competitive spirit needed to excel in such a tough contest and whose youth and values reflect exactly what’s needed to inspire the rest of us to do our bit to turn these trends around. It was only a little more than a decade ago that Charlie Enright
from Rhode Island and Mark Towill from Hawaii were competitive sailors and classmates at Brown University, when they made the cut to be on Roy Disney’s Morning Light team of young offshore sailors to compete on a TP52 in the 2007 Transpac. The experience and exposure courtesy of Disney’s vision and largesse landed them their first big break on the world stage: Team Alvimedica in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, followed by Vestas 11th Hour Racing in the last edition in 2017-18.
30 SEAHORSE Now they are veterans of two past programmes and in their 30s,
this solid support from 11th Hour affirms their credibility, not just as sailors but as committed ambassadors for an important cause. Towill’s degrees at Brown were in environmental studies and busi- ness; with Enright their company 1 Degree is seeking other partner - ships such as that with 11th Hour to create greater awareness and change habits to be more sustainable ‘1 degree at a time’. ‘Everything we do is with the sustainability message in mind,’
said Enright. ‘From our food to the materials used in the construction of the new boat. We want to win this race, of course, but we actively consider environmental factors in all of our decisions. The goal is to show that in this context establishing new best practices can make a measurable difference.’ Towill will be among the sailing and non-sailing speakers at the first Ocean Race Summit in Genoa, which also has a theme ‘to advance efforts to restore ocean health’. Enright and Towill say training sessions over the past few months
‘have taught us a ton’ about the Imoca 60s, as they prepare for the Transat Jacques Vabre in November which Enright will sail with Volvo Race winner (on Dongfeng) and multiple TJV veteran Pascal Bidégorry. Enright says they are also in the enviable position of having time and enough support to either modify their existing 2016 Hugo Boss or build a new boat. The latter may be preferable, but without knowing the round-the-
world course yet there are too many variables to make a firm commitment to design. He says having a stop in Asia, for example, brings an upwind element into consideration that would otherwise not be so strong in the traditional downwind tracks around the planet. Similarly, the rig and sail development programme cannot be pursued without knowing the course. And while they do know there will be limitations on numbers of sails after the start (14), design variations will not be limited to the one-design concept as in the last two races. As a former sailmaker Enright appreciates this flexibility. ‘This is an exciting time for us, both a difficult challenge and a
huge opportunity,’ summarises Enright. ‘In our past programmes we did not have the same time and support to pursue these goals without making some serious compromises, so it feels great to be moving ahead more calmly in an organised and executable way…’ Dobbs Davis
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DANIEL FORSTER
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