News Around the World


‘You’re right, it’s true that a year ago I told you I would never sail on a boat with foils. I’m a big liar (laughs). To believe Vascotto is a big mistake (laughs).


‘A few weeks ago I sailed in a Moth for the first time, and my challenge now is to try to understand a game that for me is absolutely new and that previously I was not interested in. But I’m having fun constantly learning. I still do not understand the new game but I hope when I do I can help the team by contributing my experience.’ The tactician – and media darling – from Trieste has only missed one season in the TP52 since the first edition in which he achieved victory with Pisco Sour. It was a project funded by boat owners, but managed professionally by him and Postigo. ‘We were a group of very young friends who always sailed together. We had the help of three owners who financed our boat. Then there was a second boat and a third,’ recalls the Italian enfant terrible.


On the return to owner-drivers Vascotto thinks there is not actually much difference from the pros: ‘The owners sail a lot and currently it is difficult for professionals to find boats to drive. The starts are


the gun goes they really are just millimetres off the line. But it can make our calls quite challenging if they have more information than we do. Also the fleet is so even that sometimes it makes for problems at the finish – now they arrive so close together that we constantly have to check the order with the pin-end spotter.’ This technical evolution is great news for the sailors too. Provezza navigator Nacho Postigo says: ‘We made a huge leap going from the IMS to the TP52, with very light boats and big spis. When I was sailing with Vasco in the [America’s] Cup we dreamed of a boat as efficient as the IAAC yacht upwind and fast like a TP52 downwind, because the original TP52 was faster than the IAAC downwind. ‘One wonders how the designers keep improving the boats inside such a strict box rule. We have gone from 8.8kt of speed upwind to 9.4 and with narrower angles and all without losing performance downwind. In fact, we are faster downwind after the rule changes that introduced the bowsprit, larger spis and lighter boats. ‘Another thing that impresses me a lot is the change in loads. In 2005 the limit on the forestay was 5 tons, now we have 8.5 tons. And considering that the boats only weigh 7.5 tons, it shows the improvement in structures as well as design. The rigs and sails have also evolved a lot – now we sheet the genoa at 3.5° whereas before we thought we were close at 7°!’ Carlos Pich


AUSTRALIA A delightful challenge


Now you see me now you donʼt. During the pioneering days of offshore multihulls there were few qualification requirements for even the toughest races like the Ostar and Route du Rhum. So a little like those strange Weymouth Speed Weeks of the same era, all kinds of contraptions would turn up, some seemingly based on kebab skewers and garden twine. Skipper Guy Delage almost made it across the startline of the 1982 Rhum on this ʻfoldingʼ proa only to capsize/break up (your call) seconds before the gun


now easier for owner-drivers with today’s navigation systems plus the help of tacticians who have become used to directing them well. ‘The owners on this circuit now sail almost as fast as the pros. In addition the pros come good at the end of the year but at the beginning of the season the owners do it better because they do not try to be complicated… while we sometimes forget the basics.’ María Torrijo has been the circuit’s race officer since 2007: ‘Now with the mix of owners and professionals I feel more pressure when the conditions are strong, because the pros want to get in the maximum number of races while some owners may not want to risk damage to their boat – or to themselves!


‘But in reality everything depends on the tactician. If the tactician understands and respects my decision whether to race then the owner will do so as well. The best tacticians will always respect the owner’s position and not try to force the situation.’ In the early days of the MedCup Torrijo could travel with her own race team while these days she works closely with local teams from the hosting venue. There have been other evolutions as well. ‘Now we have more juries and all the incidents are decided on the water, with no protests. That’s better for everyone, because when you get ashore there are normally no bad feelings to spoil the evening.’ Torrijo has watched closely as this premier fleet has developed. ‘Our boats are always getting more competitive with more and better technology. Some of this affects us as it highlights the greater accu- racy required of our own navigation equipment – and judgement – especially during the starts. On the one hand, it helps me because the teams are very precise how they sail now – sometimes when


22 SEAHORSE


Sitting down to chat with Marcus Blackmore you have to be prepared for the shifts. They happen every two or three minutes, as he veers completely off question to discuss a previous Prime Minister’s exercise routine, a potential breakthrough in Alzheimer’s research, or his recent donation of a generator to a remote island in Fiji. It is fascinating stuff and pure Marcus, delivered with a dazzling smile to match his rapier wit and intellect, with a deep passion for the sport and people involved – particularly younger sailors. All of this is infused with a robust sense of humour bubbling just behind the eyes. It makes trying to interview Marcus such a delightful challenge. Seahorse Magazine: Your IRC class 1 win at Hamilton Island had its origins exactly a year earlier… Marcus Blackmore: I am very fortunate to have won Hamilton Island Grand Prix division three years in a row. My wife Caroline and I have a place there and we have had a strong affinity with Hamilton Island for ever. Even at the first race week I won the ‘arbitrary’ division on my Nantucket 43! I haven’t done every regatta but I’ve done most of them, plus I have a longstanding friendship with the Oatley family, so for me it is the best regatta in Australia. So exactly a year ago I sat down with crew Tim Wiseman, Paul ‘Flipper’ Westlake and Kiwi Don Cowie, and I asked what I had to do to win Hamilton Island again. The choice was to build new or buy another existing TP52, and I had such success last time with the TP52 I bought from Emirates Team New Zealand that buying a good boat became an obvious choice. With Flipper racing in the Super Series he identified the best boats to go for and we ended up buying the previous Azzurrafrom the Roemmer family in Argentina. Inter- estingly, while in Super Series the psychological benefits of sailing a brand new boat are clearly pretty powerful, the technical jumps each year have been much smaller than before, so for our purposes a non-current boat was fine. SH: And what mods to the boat when she landed in Australia? MB: Adolfo Carrau at Botín Partners advised us on the changes we needed to make for racing under IRC. Adolfo was in a difficult position as they designed most of the new TPs this year; it’s not that he was reluctant to give me advice but he was a little guarded as he already had all these other teams buying the new design. But he gave me strong support to buy the boat, then he did the mods, removing a couple of hundred kilos out of the bulb and some other minor stuff. The sail inventory was good, but when you have sailmakers racing onboard… well, to cut a long story short we bought some new sails; but not many, a main, two spinnakers and two jibs, just enough to keep the boys happy! Alby Pratt and Flipper sort the


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BERNARD RUBINSTEIN/ALEA


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