Editorial Andrew Hurst Please?
Another month another accident involving a Nacra crew, foils and an ambulance. This time fortunately with no longlasting consequences. But surely everyone is thinking the same thing,
the worst case scenario with foiled-boats travel- ling at 20kt+ in close proximity carrying long, sharp and immovably rigid blades. There is more
attention given to the subject now yet still no sense of urgency. Things change very fast when something terrible happens and
outside forces step in. All motor sport was banned overnight in Switzerland after the disaster at Le Mans in 1955. There was no motor racing of any sort in that country for another 60 years until a round of the electric-power Formula E series took place in 2015. Racing of any sort involving non-electric power remains illegal. The original Nioulargue Regatta in St Tropez could not survive
the tragic death of a sailor on a 6 Metre run down by a much larger yacht. A few years later the Voiles de St Tropez rose in its place but it is a different event lacking the intimacy of the original. It’s a dreadful thing to write, but every hazardous sport is a
numbers game and sadly the worst always does eventually happen. The numbers only improve when you work at the problem. Peter Heppel wrote a considered piece on this in our September issue, also conceding how challenging a problem this is to solve. At the very least we must be more open about the scale of the
risks and throw much more effort into trialling possible solutions. Things change very fast when something terrible happens.
Impossible to overstate We speak often about recruiting and hanging on to young sailors. When I heard our friend Kimball Livingston had talked at length with Russell Coutts on the subject we were happy to be able to share his comments. The five-time Cup winner and gold medallist is now very active in youth sailing – his son Mathias also competes suc- cessfully, winning the 2017 Under-13 Bic world title aged 11. Russell Coutts: I didn’t have a lot of coaching as a kid. Now sailing has herded kids into structured programs with constant coaching at ages that are way too young. We see a painful dropout rate. I’ve been involved in
the Bic class in New Zealand, and the Bic is about simplicity and fun. Early on, we’d arrive at a venue, and the race offi- cial would say, ‘We’ve got a great day, and we can run five races.’ I’d say, ‘We could, but we’d rather run two short races, take a break and let the kids interact with each other over lunch. We’ve channeled our-
selves into this wind- ward-leeward mentality. We’re killing ourselves with a formula where the same kids are always at the top and others come ashore disillusioned. Why send kids on a
20-minute beat when two-thirds of them are
So excited were we putting this issue together we forgot to wish ourselves and all of you our wonderful loyal readers a very happy birthday on the 50th anniversary of the first November 1969 issue of this humble journal. Now expect an outpouring of unbearable nostalgia in the next issue. Or maybe even to see yourself in black and white
the wrong size for the boat? A couple of kids will thrive but we shouldn’t structure everything around them. In our program, we take young sailors out in big winds because
going fast is a thrill. We have reaching starts. We mix things up and run different formats, like distance races that are mostly downwind. We put them in doublehanded boats and the kids love the variety. There were parents who opted for a more traditional path, per-
haps aiming for a junior championship, but after a few years our best sailors were outperforming kids who were being coached three or four nights a week. When you’re talking 11 or 12-year-olds, it makes little difference how that kid performs at a world champi- onship. The important thing is to develop a passion for the sport. The best Ben Ainslie ever did at an Optimist worlds was 37th.
‘ SYMPATHY
There was nothing to suggest that he would grow into the greatest Olympic sailor ever. Let’s forget about assessing kids at a young age and work on getting the numbers up on the water and feeling good about life. Those with an eye on the Olympics or even SailGP will get there. I had the good fortune to grow up alongside the water, and my friends and I would just go out and sail. That freshness is still out there.
TWO CENTS WORTH Round here we haven’t ‘lost’ a generation of sailors, but we don’t got no junior program out here in Cheeseland
to ruin the kids – Gene Rankin, Wisconsin
OOPS Without a doubt there’s been an upswing [in the US program]. I’ve even received a few job offers because they
see things moving here – Malcolm Page, head of US Olympic sailing
part ways – US Sailing (four days later)
YEH RIGHT I sincerely hope my departure will help ignite a much-needed
We’re all screwed – US Olympic hopeful
MAKING LIGHT Don’t worry, it is not as bad as Marlborough
[school] – Japanese POW camp guard welcomes a new British arrival
I regret that the war has not turned out necessarily to Japan’s advantage
US Sailing and Malcolm Page have agreed to
– Emperor Hirohito address- es the nation, August 1945
go to bed with it – Freddie Mercury
OBVIOUSLY Men, women, cats – you name it, I’ll
“invisible” kerb appeal – A London estate agent reaches out to the tantric buyer within all of us
LOWERING THE BAR Hidden Scandi-style mews house with
turn the page – New Ferrari star Charles Leclerc’s (21) engine fails when leading the Bahrain Grand Prix
evolution. Stay tuned! – Olympic sailing COO Greg Fisher quits the same week
good handyman – Baronet Sir Benjamin Slade’s (72) girlfriend has run off with the handyman
OLD SHOULDERS OLD HEAD I’ve just lost a damn
HIM AGAIN My speaking style was criticised by no less an authority than Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was a low moment, my friends, to have my rhetorical skills denounced by a monosyllabic
Austrian cyborg – (Current) British PM Boris Johnson
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 9
YOUNG SHOULDERS OLD HEAD I’ve been racing since I was three so I simply
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