Editorial Andrew Hurst What’s going on?
You are running a mid-sized sports organisation that has recently lost its biggest commercial backer and was already getting very tight for cash and having to cut back on its most valuable works [like the Emerging Nations Programme]. Would you a) shave your costs, trim the frills, take away the company credit cards, open talks with your landlord about a rent reduction. Or would you b) go looking for fancy new and much more expensive offices, lose half your staff when you relocate and increase all your operating and employment costs by moving from a regional city with its own airport and good access, at the centre of the sport you manage, instead installing yourself at the centre of one of the three most expensive cities on the planet? Of course London restaurants are undeniably better and you bump into flash people when you entertain at the nicest venues. Then again they do have hot and cold running water in Southampton. PS: I hope that World Sailing remembered to secure a robust enough break clause in their lease… Anyone?
Inch by inch
Another close Rolex Middle Sea and an impressively wide range of boat types again filling the top 10 overall. In among good JPK designs (1st, 6th, 10th) were a Figaro Bénéteau 2, a Cookson 50 canting-keeler, a Sunfast 3600 (definitely not a canting-keeler), a Swan 651 (same…) and a custom Nivelt-Muratet 43, which like most racier new IRC designs has taken a while to consistently find the sweet spot but is now a race-winner.
Most of the top 10 were also covered by just one hour on corrected time after 600nm of racing, though yet again The Man, Géry Trentesaux, finished well ahead of his pursuers on his hot new JPK 1180. But more important than the close results is that more of the boats that did well this year are modern, fast designs that particularly revelled in the offwind legs.
pious, especially as I personally needed some convincing, we are proud that your issue of Seahorsenow arrives in the most biodegrad- able wrapper our green division – who wield more power here than you know – could identify. Thank you to those wise voices; we are after all an ocean racing magazine at heart.
Tiger
Delighted you included a few lines about Tony Bullimore in the October editorial. He drove us all mad of course, but we are all left with a feeling of shared comradeship, admiration and, yes, love. The tech side of sailing was not his thing, and we all have stories we can recall – some of which still make one’s hair stand on end. You hinted at his ability to make money whatever, and the story of the left-foot trainers is a classic. In fact, it’s not uncommon for factories in the Far East to make either a left foot or a right foot, but not both, to render their product worthless to the factory worker. I did ask Tony how he planned to ‘move them on’. He showed me the recently packaged trainers ready for the Saturday market. Clear heat-sealed plastic bag, one trainer in toe first, the other heel first. Impossible to spot the ploy and I should know… Hard to overlook? When we were building the trimaran WE, the wing mast moulds were set up in our over-extended boat shop with port side poking through one window, and the starboard side reversed with masthead poking out through the door. A regular time-wasting visitor whom most of us ignored tried in vain to quiz the motley crew about this new arrival. ‘It’s new tech, it’s a wing mast’ was all that was offered. He persisted: ‘But why are you making two identical sides?’ ‘Don’t be a prat,’ we rallied in unison. But doubt eventually set in, followed by abject disbelief: ‘… Oh holy shit, he’s right!’ In another couple of days we would have been laminating this folly.
This reinforces the theory that while IRC continues to protect the existing fleet, particularly sub-45ft, the rule has tilted just enough that well-sailed lighter, more fun designs are now consistently doing well (the runner-up position of Czech skipper Milan Kolacek’s Figaro 2 was an exceptional performance by the way). This steady advancement of both rule system and design will only encourage people to build new boats… rather than cruise the web for a plodding rule-bandit. Subtlety was never my strong point.
Baby steps
It wasn’t my idea and I have to admit that when the lobbying from the Seahorseteam became impossible to ignore my first question (as usual, btw) was ‘how much?’ However, without trying to sound
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When the Orma 60 Fujifilm broke up in the storm that hit the 2002 Rhum the first thing to go was the weather float, build techniques at the time leaving the structure insufficiently flexible for a big sideways wave impact. Loïck Peyron is still aboard at this point. ʻThings are looking good,ʼ he said once ashore. ʻFuji is drifting in our direction, I canʼt wait to get sailing her again.ʼ Not so much
experience? – Peyron
As we all say – happy days (on reflection!) Adrian Thompson
WHERE’S OUR KIMI? Q: How’s the circuit? Narrow in some places, wide in others, it depends where you are Q: Does the safety halo block your vision? Not unless you are birdwatching Q: You win in Austin!
Fu**ing finally – Kimi Räikkönen
ON THE SUBJECT I’d get Kimi to put Lewis in the fence at Turn 1 and go from there
FAIR PLAY, LAD q
Boats get faster – Fast40 skipper Peter Morton explains why Rán VII won every regatta in 2018
SIMPLES
Get the right people and feed them a lot of money
– How to win the America’s Cup, by Grant Dalton
MAYBE NOT?
– Red Bull boss Christian Horner shows he has what it takes when asked how Ferrari can beat Mercedes
I don’t do a lot of sport – Loïck Peyron completes his 50th transatlantic crossing
But I visualise well and I think they call that
anticipate any hassles – Peyron
I am a drug kingpin – Olsi Behelulli of Albania is jailed for 15 years after he posted a photo of himself on Twitter surrounded by £240,000 in cash
LEGEND – 2
Desk manager: Actually I’ve always wanted to throw a TV out a hotel window...
Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant:
Here (handing over a $500 note), have one on us
Seahorse magazine and our associate raceboatsonlybrokerage site are both at:
seahorsemagazine.com The editor is contactable by email at:
andrew@seahorse.co.uk
SEAHORSE 9
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