‘
Editorial Andrew Hurst It just all stopped
They lit up the Eiffel Tower in tribute in red, white and blue, the Sydney Opera House, the Empire State Building and other New York icons like Times Square. They lit up Christ the Redeemer towering over Rio de Janeiro, Toronto Tower, Los Angeles City Hall and Atlanta Airport… the list is endless and some of it, it has to be admitted,
verged on the bizarre. They flew flags at half-mast across the USA and Canada and in literally millions of places elsewhere in the world. They held a minute’s silence everywhere from Sydney Harbour to the New York Stock Exchange, from the NFL season opener to the start of a Europa League match at SS Lazio in Rome. It is a matter of great sadness that the most devoted, wise and
witty of monarchs has left us, but I believe that it is more important to reflect on how lucky we were to live in those times when she was omnipresent. Always there to remind our little country that things had been very much worse in the past and that things would in time get very much better. Calm, even when clearly emotional, with that steady reassurance grounded in her own personal experience. I cannot be alone in thinking that on the whole most people believed in her world view and were grateful for that.
And a little sailing It wasn’t a case of she came, she saw, she conquered but Roberto Lacorte’s Flying Nikka put on a heck of a show at the Rolex Maxi
Worlds in Sardinia. Bravo to the IRC managers for coming up with a rating too; they knew they were on a hiding to nothing – this was always a poisoned chalice but in Lacorte they were working with a competitive owner who ‘gets it’. The truly FlyingNikka had her own start for reasons of safety but
in any case we all know by now that you can no more fairly score a foiler against a normal yacht than you can a multihull against a monohull. In fact, the IRC rating they awarded to Nikka, with the full co-oper-
ation and agreement of the yacht’s owner, was more than double that of the rapid Maxi Rambler 88. But all shall win prizes and Roberto Lacorte can be proud at least
of arriving in Porto Cervo with the highest IRC TCC ever handed down…Nikka’s TCC of 3.866 smashing through the previous mark of 2.149 – the TCC of the ClubSwan 125 Skorpios. For now, handing Nikka an IRC or ORC rating is purely a means
to allow her to compete at events, not to win them; the variance in her performance between sailing and flying surely takes the concept of ‘every dog has its day’ to the ultimate extreme? But the IRC team are taking this seriously and, for the one race
in Sardinia steady enough to compare performances, they diligently calculated that a TCC of 2.178 would have given her the win and 2.268 would have put her mid-fleet. Only slightly higher than Skorpios, in fact (remember Nikka is a 60-footer, the ClubSwan 125 is just that). All dancing on the head of a pin, but the comparisons are inter-
esting and it won’t be long before we are discussing these foiler ratings for real. Think about it: a 60ft lightweight coastal-capable yacht that in medium conditions can already outpace the world’s fastest monohull of more than double the size (and cost). Tell me that at least a few of those instinctively competitive Maxi
owners in Porto Cervo who’ve made fortunes by taking risks were not watching Nikka and thinking about something similar for the future. It’s only inshore racing after all.
‘
In France Her Majesty was not ‘your Queen’, she was simply The Queen – Emmanuel Macron, President of the 5th Republic
A NATION LIKE NO OTHER The Queen’s passing led many across the country to suspend their duties as a mark of respect over that weekend: the Met Office stopped reporting the weather, the football was called off, the Bank of England delayed its decision on interest rates, Norwich Council stopped residents locking up their bikes (!) and Weatherspoon pubs stopped selling condoms in the loo. All as Her Majesty would surely have wished.
q
IMPOSSIBLE TO FOLLOW More than 70 years of unbroken public service, we expected her to go on for ever – and she almost did. A tiny woman who was a giant. We shall not
see her like again – Tom Moncrieff
HUMOUR Goodness, you look
That’s a relief – HM Elizabeth II
STEEL FIST VELVET GLOVE
just like the Queen – passerby on the moors
ONE DOES Hey, you, don’t barge in, you don’t own the
No, but my wife does – HRH
MARMALADE Thank you, Ma’am,
for everything – Paddington Bear (for everyone)
NO FINER WORDS Stand down, Your Majesty; you’ve done
Recollections may vary – Dealing with ‘that interview’
your duty – a Royal Marine messages home while on an undisclosed overseas operation
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
bloody water, you know – Cowes Week yachtsman to the late Prince Philip
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