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Editorial Confluence of opportunity
Andrew Hurst
Earlier this summer the Admiral’s Cup was ‘ re-announced’ as an event in Cowes in 2025, coin- ciding with the 100th anniversary of the first Fastnet and the founding of the Ocean (later Royal) Racing Club. Also this summer the hardworking head of Cowes Week, Laurence Mead, a successful one- design racer, headed off to pastures new. A wet
February Tuesday in Cowes will do that to you. So in 2024 there will be a new face on point for Cowes Week and a year later there will be a new major international event; held at Cowes but not ‘during’ Cowes. Over the last 15 years of its previous cycle the Admiral’s Cup
moved steadily away from Cowes Week and suffered for it. Similarly, coincidence or not, since losing the Admiral’s Cup Cowes Week has seen a steady dwindling of interest. Were it not for the strength of the one-design classes, today’s Cowes Week would struggle to look like much more than a large local summer regatta. There were 400-odd boats competing this year and in recent Weeks there has rarely been any yacht larger in size than 45ft. A boost is due. Most of what is known about the 2025 Admiral’s Cup points in
the right direction. Having been closely involved with previous attempts to restart the event, and before that in many Cups as a competitor, I have a reasonable grasp of where reality ends and hope begins. So I can say with reasonable confidence, that with Great Britain’s most famous regatta in some peril, to fail to combine 2025’s two biggest sailing events in one big festival of racing is like dribbling the ball up to the goal then turning around and clearing it yourself. The Admiral’s Cup died, at the risk of repeating myself, driven by
the more likely you are to dig deep into your wallet and do it. Cowes Week is in trouble. When I was a kid in London my annual
day at Cowes with Mum watching the big yachts off Cowes Green was a real thrill. Take away the final few big yachts and one day there will be no Cowes Week as we know it. That I promise you. Take away all the chaos, crowding, bad behaviour, sailors of every type, and condition, all talking bollo**s on the high street, Admiral’s Cuppers and Folkboat crews alike… take that away and with it goes your critical mass. And because it worked well before does not mean we need be cute and find a ‘better’ way today. The 2025 Admiral’s Cup should consist of: Channel Race, a couple
the requirements of the sailors, not the yacht owners. It became anodyne, too competitively difficult, and when it drifted away from Cowes Week a historic sense of occasion quickly disappeared. No wonder everyone upped sticks and left for the Med. Critical mass is everything when trying to get bums on seats.
Crowds attract crowds; at its most basic that is why you are always offered a seat in the window at a half-full restaurant. When the Admiral’s Cups attracted its record entries, 19 teams
at the peak, it ran within Cowes Week. It was a crazy mad rush of offshore (Channel Race), multiple inshore races, once including the two great ‘Royal’ Cowes Week trophies, followed by a restock, clothes in bin-bags and off to the Fastnet… leaving the chaos behind for another two years. It was exhausting. It was brilliant, it was flawed, full of pitfalls. But it was quite the regatta. As Rod Davis was ever first to tell his crews and later his coaching charges, ‘This is the crazy one and you win it by keeping out of trouble. Everywhere.’ Yacht owners liked to have a shot at a historic Cowes trophy like
the Britannia Cup. Especially if they have just had a lousy start to an Admiral’s Cup campaign with a poor Channel Race; it immediately gave them something to aim for. When you bring an expensive professional crew halfway round the
world to race in a probably cold and wet regatta, in ridiculously tidal challenging waters like the Solent, then the more you can pack in
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In the face of escalating equipment costs, getting more people afloat on a budget remains a strong theme for Seahorse. The Caribbean IC24 fleet is now up to 30-odd boats; the first dozen were assembled under the watchful eye of Bill Canfield… take a bunch of throwaway J/24s, add a new, better deck and St Thomas YC put a fleet of 12 new boats on the water for under US$150,000
of dedicated inshores, a big Cowes Trophy (or two) and straight into the Fastnet with the mother of all parties in Cherbourg to finish off (who knows, France might even not win). Combining both regattas in 2025 is obviously the solution with the best odds for a good outcome. Surely a win-win all round. However, failing to combine the two for 2025 might later look like a choice that always carried a big risk of compromising both events. (And don’t worry, cheap shots following such a positive change q
will be ruthlessly dealt with by the Seahorse menagerie.)
BUSINESS AS USUAL Immediately after the regatta I saw Alinghi do a fast tow back from Vilanova, dock briefly in Barcelona, take on new crew and sails and then
head straight out again – Cup fan Pedro Doreste, Port Vell, Barcelona
We took the opportunity to hoist some sails and crew-train on the way back; then we had a new crew ready to jump in and head straight out sail testing. It was a good session.
We learned a lot – Pietro Sibello, Luna Rossa
OR NOT It looks like the other sailing teams are
taking the day off – Doreste
BAD FEELING To prevent teams selling any of their merchandise except through ACE (Team NZ) the Arbitration Panel must have agreed that the ‘ACE-controlled area of The Cup Venue’ includes the adjacent coastline, beaches, restaurants and also
the Port Olympique! – Barcelona lawyer, anon Wait until the bar
owners hear that!!!! – SUP rental owner, W-Hotel
VILA NOVA CHAT WATCH This is what you get [poor conditions] when you choose the god of money… really
it’s such a shame – Bizio to @EmiratesTeamNZ wouldI assure you guys we
if not worse, conditions in Auckland. And we would get less money from Auckland – Emirates Team NZ But you said earlier it wasn’t about money, then go on to say places such as Auckland wouldn’t generate enough money. So which one is it? – Robert McCormack to @EmiratesTeamNZ
have the same,
LIGHTER NOTE In 1976 the Chevy Nova failed to sell in Mexico because Nova is slang
for ‘no-go’ in Spanish – Nicholas Mace What were organisers expecting when they set the regatta in a
village called Nova? – Mace An appearance fee of
three million euros – Anon
HACKNEY DIAMONDS Differences? Now there’s no one going ‘Where’s the f*cking
album?’ – Mick Jagger Fast delivery? Yeah. The Stones do work
hard… when we work – Keef
Excited? I’m still the new boy at 76. I still wake up every day and think “Wow, I’m
in the Rolling Stones” – Ronnie Wood (member since 1975)
SEAHORSE 9
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