Brute force, green water and a risk of sinking (fast). Dennis Conner oh-so-nearly lost one of his several Stars & Stripes 12 Metres training in Hawaii for the Fremantle (above) America’s Cup, the lead-filled yacht only saved by a plethora of fire boats and others which rushed alongside with all pumps blazing. This is Marc Pajot’s 1987 French Cup Challenger – the best of the challenges put together by the Flying Dutchman silver medallist and then star of the first big-multihull era who famously showed off his commercial savvy when, leading the 1982 Route du Rhum, he hung around off Guadeloupe before finishing to allow TV crews to film in daylight…
Perhaps the main advantage, however, is that in theory all should
have the same performance potential so that other owners should not be able to arrive with a faster boat. The result should thus depend on sailing skill and not the ability to get a faster boat designed and built. In practice, however, this is seldom achieved. Old boats get tired
and, because one-designs are usually built to a price, in many cases they do not retain their stiffness as well as boats built from better materials and are thus not as stiff as newer boats in the same class. Also, clever designers pull the shape around within various allowed tolerances to produce what they consider to be a faster shape so that you may still be able to campaign a boat with a better speed potential. As a matter of interest, the time difference between the first and
last in one-designs is generally greater than in open classes, which might give the lie to the competition being more equal. But this could also be down to the fact that the skill spread in a lot of one- design classes is far greater than in more advanced open classes. However, the biggest trouble with one-designs is that ‘globally’
they dilute the total number of boats that can race level. When a builder comes out with a new one-design other builders will often bring out their own boat to compete in the same market sector. Once the initial shine has worn off and before you know it you can have a multitude of one-designs racing against each other on handicap, which rather defeats the object. By contrast formula or restricted classes allow controlled
advances in boat and rig design that allow similarly moderated advances in performance… You can certainly argue that this dis- advantages older boats, but bear in mind that in every class more competitive sailors replace their boats more often anyway, because, as mentioned, boats get tired. However, if you are going to replace it why not replace it with the equivalent of a modern BMW or Merc rather than a 1960s Ford Cortina? Also, more and more established open classes have introduced
separate divisions for older boats – the latest is the burgeoning Class40. This is a pragmatic arrangement which allows earlier boats to continue to enjoy a useful life rather than becoming giant land- scaping features – the fate of more than a few ageing one-designs. It also ensures they still command value when next passed on.
14 SEAHORSE Many owners of larger offshore boats, which are more often than
not only raced around the cans on handicap, are getting tired of having to find and sometimes pay for large crews who, for a large part, are only there for ballast. This is why many are turning again to classical day racing classes, such as the 6 and 5.5 Metre boats and in the USA even 12 Metres. These have small crews who all have a genuine sailing function other than being heavy. They also have the advantage of racing level so racing is far more exciting. Some might consider that these classes represent an older era
and are not now as exciting to sail as a modern light-displacement so-called cruiser-racer. However, when you do sail one most helms- men say that it is a totally different experience and one to be enjoyed. Malcolm McKeag, in words much better than mine, once
described the progress of a 12 Metre as rather like a giant dynamo, generating energy and momentum to be released later. The way a 12 moves through lulls or through tacks has to be seen to be believed, and part of the skill in sailing them to windward is to exploit that momentum. By 1987 in Fremantle, as Challenger, Dennis Conner raised to an artform his ability to scallop a 12 Metre to weather – an ability that proved devastating against Defender Kookaburra. With the long, deep Metre boats to be managing so much weight
with such finesse is a revelation. No fighting the helm on the verge of a broach, common in some modern light-displacement designs. Indeed much is made of the extra excitement of sailing a light-
displacement boat, but if you have ever sailed a heavy 12 Metre in 25kt true in a seaway, with green water everywhere, you really know what excitement is. I have nothing against light-displacement boats, indeed over much of my life I have pushed the limits of making boats lighter and lighter, but usually within the confines of a measurement rule. Often by tiny amounts but enough to have a competitive advantage. That tiny increase in speed might have made them more exciting
to sail but I doubt it. As well as heavy keelboats I also design Inter- national 14s and Moths and, although the Moth is considerably faster, I have never met anyone who considers the Moth to be as exciting to sail as the Fourteen. Speed is relative and foiling high above the water at 25kt does
not, I am told, give you a particularly great sensation of speed, whereas doing 18kt on a nervous International 14 with spray flying
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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