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Mom and Dad with the El Toro Championship trophy and the boat used to win the title. Built and later restored by his father, the boat is now in the US Sailing Hall of Fame Museum in Newport, RI
that the USA will conduct its selection regatta in the USA. This is a big step forward in the process of building depth here at home. America One Racing is about ‘doing’ and lots more needs to be done!
Wow!
I am honoured to become the latest President of the International Star Class, widely recognised as the pre-eminent one-design keel boat in the sport. For over 110 years the Star has raced on waters the world over. The best sailors in the world have won the Star World Championship: Elvstrøm, Conner, Melges, Straulino, Buchan, Kuznierewicz, Percy, North, Petterson, Blackaller, Hagen, Reynolds, Scheidt and Grael, to name a few.
While entries to our most recent world championship in Italy had to be capped at 100, we need to bring along the next generation; the winners of the 2023 Worlds are a young team (early 30s) from Germany and a product of our U30 programme there. Our partner of 97 years, Bacardi, is helping make Star sailing accessible by offering support to U30 teams looking to compete in the 2024 Bacardi Cup in Miami. Anyone who has been part of something great knows that remaining on top is not a stagnant process. You need to keep innovating and that is what the Star class will do for the next 100 years.
Refreshing
The Ocean Globe Race (OGR) is approaching halfway point in Auck- land and ‘my team’, Translated9, is among 14 yachts racing in this 50th anniversary of the first Whitbread Round the World Race. The rules require competitors to race with the technology of 50 years ago… sextant and barometer. Further, the rules require seven amateurs and three pros to make up the crew of Translated9, a Swan 65, which won leg 1 from Southampton to Cape Town. Six of our 10 are under the age of 23. I met the team as they arrived in Cape Town, finishing at 03.00 in 48kt of wind! I found the positive energy and genuine joy of the crew extremely refreshing. I think this type of sailing has a real future. OGR promoter Don McIntyre has created two more events based upon ordinary people having the adventure of a lifetime with moderate costs. This is how the Whitbread was born. Maybe it’s back to the future? The founders of Translated, a language translation company, noted that the values of the Ocean Globe Race were the perfect metaphor for their slogan, ‘We believe in humans’. My role has been to host the colleagues of Translated on their sistership Swan65 in San Francisco. In three years we have taken over 600 people out sailing on San Francisco Bay, more than half for their first time ever on a sailboat. I really enjoy being involved in projects where the sport I love plays a useful role.
Life is a journey. You have to love all of it. There will be ups and downs. In 1987, after recounting a loss in a $100,000 match race in St Tropez to Iain Murray, Larry Klein said to me, ‘Paul, regret is the poison of life. Let it go. Life is short.’
Larry died a few years later in a boating accident on San Francisco Bay. I am the product of those who have influenced me. I am grateful to all of them and thus my desire to pay it forward. Happy holidays!
SEAHORSE 31
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SAIL BLOCKS – DECK HARDWARE – CUSTOM PROJECTS
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ERIK SIMONSON
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