After enduring two painful Volvo Races in slow VO70s the race switched to VO65 one-designs when the first race of the new era was won by Walker’s Abu Dhabi team. This wide experience of the sport put Walker at the top of the list when the RYA went looking for a new director of racing. But success has also been tinged with tragedy. John Merricks (above centre) died in a car crash while leading the 1997 Melges 24 Europeans with Walker in Italy. Walker later stepped into the Star (left) for Sydney only after Mark Covell’s helm Glyn Charles was lost in the 1998 Hobart race…
Mixed Doubles is perhaps the most accessible sailing of all, with many countries having small keelboats that could be sailed for some sort of training or local racing, but the reality of evenly matched, one-design fleets of off- shore boats that stand up to Olympic scrutiny is beyond the means of nearly all. Above all else I don’t think Offshore
Mixed Doubles needs the Olympics to con- tinue its growth and become an increasingly key and well-respected component of our sport. It has been growing for many years, evidenced by over 60 double-handed entries in the 2019 Rolex Fastnet race, and that trend looks to be accelerated by Covid 19 and the realities of social distancing. Modern designs, systems and hardware
have many features that make boats manage- able two-up and make them less dependent on having lots of crew weight on the rail. When you are double-handed everyone gets the fun of
50 SEAHORSE
steering, trimming, navigating or fixing things – a true test of teamwork and endurance with no time to get bored. Double-handed sailing has many of the challenges of singlehanded sailing with the added safety of always having someone on deck and a team-mate to help you if you get in distress. What’s not to like? So what next if Offshore Mixed Doubles is
dropped for Paris 2024? I think the biggest risk is that the mixed element would become less relevant, and I hope that race organisers do all they can to continue to encourage mixed entries at their events. This really does represent a genuine career pathway for female sailors and that should not be underestimated. Perhaps the new Offshore Doubles Associ-
ation can work with World Sailing to adopt a design or maybe a couple of designs that are exciting, as affordable as possible and com- petitive enough under IRC and ORC. As well as joining existing races, hopefully in time
fleets of one-design boats can become estab- lished around the world. This will eventually create an ability to host events, develop rank- ings, crown regional and world champions and lay the foundations for a future submis- sion to be an Olympic event. It will be impor- tant to celebrate the achievements of these sailors just as we currently celebrate those winning line honours or the big singlehanded events. After all, double-handed entries have had a habit of winning some major offshore events on overall corrected time recently. Maybe RORC can lay the foundations by
choosing a Mixed Offshore Doubles team as part of a three-boat team in a new-look Admi- ral’s Cup? How about a singlehanded boat, a Mixed Doubles and a fully crewed team? By then my daughters will be old enough to sail with me if only I can persuade them to sail with their old man. This reminds me once again to be careful what you wish for.
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