Paul Cayar
Rob Weiland
Floating butler
Just realised it is roughly 12½ years ago I started as TP52 class manager, which in Holland is labelled a copper anniversary. During those years many have asked ‘what is it you actually do?’ Non-sailing friends I try to satisfy with describ-
ing it as a mix between boat owners’ association secretary, making sure the boats comply with the
rules, and organiser of events for racing yachts. But for sailing people I feel I get closer with a butler analogy, managing a complex house creating the best possible ambiance for the people living in it. As owner’s representative having project managed the construc-
tion of about 50 new builds of mainly racing yachts between 1980 and 2006 I had quite a history working for boat owners before taking the class manager job, as well as with others working in the sailing business and with sailing officials of every kind. A long list of designers, structural engineers, boatbuilders, boat parts manufac- turers, sailmakers, suppliers, logistic experts and specialists as well as officials of all sorts, whether club, federation, ISAF/World Sailing, class officers etc etc. Till 1980 I more or less happily pottered around on boats, did
countless deliveries and slowly got into pro sailing, being a boat captain, meeting others with similar ambition and countless with other ambitions, always passionate about sailing. There was a time I was nicknamed ‘the mayor of Lymington’ for bringing so much work to that village, once a centre of the marine industry and for many years the European capital of the racing yacht business. During the years as class manager I got to know better what it takes
to run races and events as well as the experts working in that field; I must say it opened me up to a world that I like, of passion and skill but at the same time very much focusing and relying on team work. There is no project manager who has the same level of knowledge
of all aspects of boat construction as the experts involved. Likewise there is no class manager who has the same level of knowledge of all aspects of running a class and its associated events as the experts you work with, or who are brought in by the teams, whether race officers, umpires, measurers, media, marketing, legal advisers and of course those monitoring the technical aspects of the boats and their equipment. But somewhere along the line it takes a person with broad
experience in competitive sailing to set and steer the class course, manage the action and uphold the law! Preferably in a relaxed atmos- phere based on communication, reason, trust and mutual respect.
30 SEAHORSE
It is a real job requiring seven days a week availability, being a good observer and listener, organisational skills, impartiality, composure and patience, even under pressure. A sense of humour will help, integrity is a big word but you better try to live up to it. I sometimes hopelessly fail but seem to get away with it. The basis for each racing class is of course its boat but the focus
soon shifts to how to rule it and arrange for fair and fun competition. World Sailing has a template for class rules. Like most WS rules it finds its basis in one-design dinghies, but with a bit of tinkering you can get to a workable product that because it follows the familiar template is easy to relate to for officials and sailors. A good rule is realistic in what can be achieved and certainly also
in what can be checked and upheld. Ideals and ambitions should preferably be parked in class bylaws. If you want discussion just introduce terms like Corinthian or gentleman’s spirit, or measure- ments that are hard to execute or repeat for the same result. Possibly strange at first sight but potentially the hardest to achieve
is boats being equal, as we expect one-design boats to be. Then again one-design is the obvious road to control cost, I like to add ‘if we accept a certain tolerance on construction quality and accuracy’. Less tolerance equals less cost benefit – I feel this is a defendable statement, certainly for seagoing yachts. I wonder how much it did actually cost to sort of equalise the eight Volvo 65 class boats? Another invitation for stress is to have rules managed by outsiders
operating at the heart of your class rule, for example when you are involved with a rating rule. Being at the mercy of organisations with different interests than the well-being of your class can be tedious, but, to be fair, tedious to both sides. Then again, to have a rating rule managed by a class itself most likely will result in turkeys discussing Christmas all year long… before for sure being bitten. There are several ways to run a class. Personally I would go for
professional management, hired and steered by the class members, quite often represented by a class president and/or executive committee, elected by and from the class members. In general I feel there shall be a distance, if not a strict border, between management and competitors, reflected by ruling that the daily management cannot be a competitor/member. It is interesting to see the structure of the Imoca class, where
the members are pro sailors. If I read its constitution right and see the names listed for its various committees these are populated by members elected by the other members. And then there are quite a lot of them in each committee, I guess to avoid protecting
HANNU HILLOS
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