Update
Some idea of what we lost when 70-80kt winds struck the Orma 60 fleet during the 2002 Route du Rhum. Incredibly no lives were lost but this magnificent fleet of boats was torn apart and the class never recovered. Eighteen Ormas started the race, six boats capsized in the first few days and 15 retired in total, most through structural damage or dismasting or both. Pressures of the inshore Orma Grand Prix had driven boats to being too rigid structurally, too hard to manage solo and probably just too fast for long offshore races
DIFFERENT RULES – Blue Robinson
I could feel the anxiety around me as I walked down the dock towards the athletes. Gradually becoming aware of this, I looked around, slowing my pace as I started to take in just what was happening around me.
For 20 years I have been doing this job, chatting to athletes who were about to compete for Olympic medals, or head off searching for Volvo leg wins, or battle it out for the America’s Cup. In those circumstances there is always an underlying tension masked by a supreme and confident calmness. Not here.
This is different, this is the Invictus Games, and the journey these athletes have taken to get to Sydney has been utterly extraordinary. I spoke to athletes who survived Black Hawk helicopter crashes and emerged from that experience broken – in every sense. Physically and mentally shattered, and that rebuilding process never stops. But while all this was going on, they got up, strapped on their prosthetics and journeyed to Sydney, with many of them competing in multiple events.
Here at the Cruising Yacht Club each Elliot 7 has a boat captain onboard and I spoke to one of them, Katie Spithill (yes, before you ask), who talked me through the procedures to keep everyone safe. The boat captains take an observer’s role but that changes if any issues crop up – and crop up they do. Out on the water there is always a medical assistance boat ready to deal with any emergency. On a race training day one of the crew needed to get off the boat fast – something had triggered severe anxiety and so they pulled up to the support boat where medical staff had a procedure in place with dialogue, iPads and earphones to quickly calm the athlete. And it worked.
Everywhere I looked I saw the extraordinary. I saw men and women 10 SEAHORSE
wearing the colours of their country, representing their nation after years of staring at hospital ceilings, while filled with drugs to sedate, battle the pain and kill the infections. And when the teams left the dock I could hear the emotion in the shouts of wives and children around me, immensely proud to see their partner or parent achieving something very special here.
So if you ever think that bike ride in the rain, or that on-the-water session in the winter is tough, think again.
INTERESTING TIMES – Jack Griffin
Three well-funded, strong challengers and a super-talented, experienced and tenacious defender in the America’s Cup are building yachts unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Until they launch next April we can puzzle over the foils and the double-luff mainsail, and debate whether they will be more likely to foil-tack or to capsize. We’ll have to wait almost a year to see them racing.
Challenger of Record Luna Rossa is organising the AC World Series, kicking off with two events in Italy in 2019. They’ve told us that the next World Series will all be fleet racing. No doubt they are working on a special version of the Racing Rules of Sailing. The RRS AC for the foiling catamarans introduced staggered entries into the box before the reaching start, and a dramatic change to Rule 18 (mark room). The new RRS AC (or the AC75 Class Rule) will probably specify when and how the foils may be canted and how big the exclusion zone around each yacht will be. This means they also need to develop tracker hardware and umpiring software to cope with the new rules. All fascinating stuff. Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa are sharing the task of developing the most important piece of supplied equipment
BENOIT STICHELBAUT/ALEA
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