of all competitors – this is, after all, the America’s Cup. But COR/D are honourable men, so let us assume that changes to the FCS will only be made to improve safety and the quality of the racing for all. As I said above, it took a minor miracle to write such an almost-
complete rule for such a never-seen-before type of yacht. There were sure to be points that had not been anticipated during the drafting. By choosing a completely new concept for the boats ETNZ took on an immense burden to write the class rule. They have left themselves some wriggle room to make necessary adjustments. One more thing about the burden on the Defender: organising
the match in the 21st century means providing a system for umpiring in real time and for communicating to the spectators what is happening with augmented-reality graphics. Larry Ellison funded the genius development of LiveLine by Stan Honey and his incredibly talented team. ETNZ need to come up with something equally good. The AC75 Class Rule contains an impressive collection of
three- letter acronyms (TLAs ) in addition to FCS. These include crew information system (CIS), instrumentation logging system (ILS), not instrument landing system, and electrical control circuit (ECC). CIS, ILS and ECC are all part of the class rule for the Media System, which presumably includes the yet-to-be-developed wizardry for umpiring and augmented reality. We can be sure that ETNZ are working on something that will be PDG (pretty damn good). More on this in good time.
TIME IS SHORT – Alistair Skinner … and it has a habit of flying by when you need more of it The way that the last edition of the Volvo Ocean Race panned out is a result of the way that Mark Turner and Knut Frostad before him collectively produced column inches, internet hits and seconds and minutes of video, either terrestrial or online… and not on a sailing website, in some sailing comic or whatever but mainstream. Exactly what the sponsors want. I mean, when did you last see the finish of a sailing race on BBC or CNN (MainSail doesn’t count)? I don’t know about other countries but here in China the team
responsible for the media achieved that. Lead news in People’s Daily (readership 500m) and TV channel CCTV 1 talking about a 50-minutes special (viewership up to 800m). In fact, the metrics for China exceeded every other country measured by the VOR. To put that in perspective every team sponsor (and I have said
this elsewhere before) in the latest edition of the race had an interest in being promoted in China either from a business point of view or, in the case of Turn The Tide on Plastic, the fact that China is a large polluter of the oceans. If you doubt this for a moment just check each and every sponsor’s business interests. Besides, who wouldn’t want exposure in the world’s second largest and fastest-growing economy? It doesn’t matter what the sport is. Apart from in very rare
instances, sponsors do not throw corporate money at a sport for altruistic reasons, they do it for one reason and one reason only – to increase their bottom line by an acceptable percentage return greater than the cost of the sponsorship. That percentage may vary from corporate body to corporate body but they need to see a return on their investment. The dreaded acronym of the Volvo Ocean Race and every other commercially supported programme: ‘ROI’. Of course this event has one other string to its bow, that being
the B2B opportunities. Eleven stopovers around the world present to sponsors an opportunity, should they use it, to showcase their brand to potential and existing customers. I believe the expression is to ‘press the flesh’! As this is a vital part of the value proposition to sponsors it is
only logical that those B2B opportunities, be they rides on boats, VIP visits to the village, Clean Seas conferences, product seminars and so on, happen in the natural markets or potential markets of the companies concerned. So to ignore a nation like China for such an event, or any other country with large markets or even the potential for large markets, doesn’t help the position of those working towards the funding for a team in the next edition. A priority of the current, and new, management of the ‘former’ Volvo Ocean Race should therefore be, as I see it, to get the route
Flipside… the end of the 7-masted Thomas Lawson (pg44) was not the first ‘episode’ for the doomed ship... Loading in Boston, only the adjacent wharf kept the top-heavy 385-footer upright
at least roughed out early so those trying to raise sponsorship have something to sell now. Time is short. I recall the first NoR of the race four editions ago – it was the
first time I got involved with the Volvo. It had the legs on it along with approximate distances but included no names of ports. Nevertheless at least people, team sales people, had something of the route to show sponsors early on in the cycle. And of course if you want to include China and not be late in the season at Cape Horn then your race start has to be earlier than October 2021…
So which boat would you choose? In many ways it doesn’t matter what boat is selected for the next lap of the planet, except it has to provide close racing and a close leader- board, otherwise the interest of the general public will rapidly wane. Here the VO65 has an advantage in terms of selling to the sponsor.
It is a proven product! One-design keeps it close especially when there are so many teams of quality. Also, it is already there. Sure, they need a refit but once again the race has the T-shirt, they have proved they can get the fleet in and out of the boatyard in record time. Of course it costs – I heard a refit figure of 1-1.5million euros per boat but that delivers a cheap boat ready for another go-round. There are already examples from the past where the race was
lost before it started. Ian Walker knew after a record-breaking Fastnet that the first Abu Dhabi was fast but not in the right direction, the direction of the prevailing winds of the Volvo course. If Peter Blake hadn’t asked if there was a rating advantage between fractional and masthead rigs he wouldn’t have had the extra couple of feet of waterline that Steinlager 2 enjoyed over Grant Dalton’s Fisher & Paykel. Let’s be certain of one thing: huge gaps between boats is not good media and that media coverage is where a significant percentage of the ROI comes from. One thing I do wonder about, however, which could actually solve
some of the problems and meet most of the requirements, is the ‘Super 60’. A lot of work was done towards this concept which was, after all, being designed to be 100 per cent Imoca compliant. I know it turned out to be a deal-breaker as Volvo ultimately didn’t want to spend the cash to build another fleet of one-design boats. Especially as the Super 60 package included a second, brand new fleet of one-design multihulls purpose-built for the in-port races... That’s a big chunk of change. However, if the design work and research could be completed
then a one-design hull – at least – could be produced with the tooling costs being gradually amortised as more teams entered and ordered their boats. The one-design concept could be as tight as the race organisers wished – or a box rule if they prefer – with suppliers sourced by the race and each boat having common elements serviced by the boatyard to keep costs down. Leave sail choice open perhaps. Sure, the boats would be built for fully crewed work and therefore w
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