RORC
Club page An absorbing interest
In January we lost a giant of the sport. Bob Fisher, a RORC member for 45 years, passed away peacefully at his home in Lymington surrounded by his family. He was a man who influenced sailors through insightful journalism not just in the UK but all over the world. He certainly had an influence on my life. We first met at a UK
dinghy championship which he was covering for a national news- paper, encouraging me to have a go at the Olympics and even fixing me up with a job as a sailmaker with his friend on the east coast so that I could campaign their works 470. Bob understood what it took to win having himself won many
dinghy championships, including the Hornet and Fireball Worlds, and crewed for Peter Schneidau on the C-Class cat Lady Helmsman
He also wrote a brilliant report after I got him an invitation as the
17th man on the Spanish America’s Cup challenger Bravo Espagna in Auckland, for which I was the coach. The race was a ding-dong battle with the crew battling with themselves and the boat as much as the opponent! The smile on Bob’s face at the end of the race said it all. It wasn’t a beer he wanted but his computer so he could recount every detail of the epic battle. Bob was universally popular and left an impression on everyone
he met and will be sadly missed by yachtsmen and journalists all over the world.
Vendée Globe It has been fascinating to follow this Vendée Globe which I am sure has gathered a much bigger audience because of the Covid situation and people having more time and wanting tales of derring-do and personalities to follow. But what excitement it has provided, with a full-on Southern Ocean rescue off South Africa and the closest finish in the history of the race – with the winner not decided by the first across the line but after time allowance given to those boats who went to the rescue of Kevin Escoffier when PRB broke up. Charlie Dalin was the first to finish but Yannick Bestaven had
somehow picked a perfect layline from 1,000 miles out which after time compensation gave him the 2½-hour winning advantage. The excitement started with British favourite Alex Thomson sailing
the socks off his boat to take the lead early on, only to find that he had broken his boat in the effort. Having retired he was joined on the detour to South Africa by Sam Davies who’d hit something so hard that it brought her eight-tonne yacht to a dead stop. However, after a brief stop in Cape Town to fix her keel Sam (bravely) continued her circumnavigation to support the children’s heart charity that she is fundraising for during her voyage. The RORC is very proud to have Alex Thomson, Sam Davies,
Miranda Merron and Pip Hare as members and with the retirement of Alex and Sam the British press highlighted the struggle of Pip Hare who is far and away the least experienced of the four. I have to say, using a line from my favourite film that ‘I am, as
ever, in bewildered awe of anyone who makes this kind of commit- ment’: 80+ days on a boat hurtling along at breakneck speed by yourself is not my cup of tea and Pip’s grit and determination finishing ahead of more experienced rivals in a 21-year-old boat deserve all the awe I can muster. Changing a rudder in the still waters of a marina is one thing but
RORC member Pip Hare really burst to prominence during the Vendée Globe when forced to replace a rudder in the Southern Ocean. She freely shared with those watching the struggles and fears involved yet somehow kept the overall tone humorous and self-deprecating (having said that she was clearly scared to bits.) Throughout the race Hare was sending similar updates to her loyal followers but suddenly and happily she had now hit the big time!
to win the Little America’s Cup. Later in 1989 he won the Round Britain and Ireland Race two-handed with Robin Knox-Johnston. His column in the former Yachts & Yachting magazine, for which he worked from the late 1950s, was always the first piece I and I am sure many others would read. He was always quick to praise and admonish, in equal measure, decisions made by those governing the sport. We sailed together many times, mostly in the annual Round the
Island Race, the last time on his classic yacht, the 1896 Solent One Design Rosenn which he shared with another multiple dinghy champion Barry Dunning. Bob’s love affair with the America’s Cup is well documented and
his multiple-volume work, An Absorbing Interest, is already recog- nised as a definitive record of the world’s oldest sporting trophy.
SEAHORSE
then carrying out the change in the middle of the Southern Ocean is something I thought would be impossible but Pip managed it. Her videos were honest and insightful, recording her disbelief at what her body and mind had been able to achieve; finishing just three hours behind a modern foiling Imoca and clocking a 400-mile day shows how hard she pushed. I am sure she will be back.
America’s Cup I know it’s not offshore but I have to mention the 36th America’s Cup which has been a welcome distraction, or should I say attraction, during the winter lockdown we have had to endure. The TV coverage has been exceptional and the racing between the challengers has been closer, more exciting and inspiring than anything I imagined it could have been in 75ft foiling monohulls. Just reverting to a windward start has been a positive change
and using courses close to shore where good old-fashioned sailing skills spotting and using shifts has often compensated for the speed differences. While there were only three challengers they are well funded and provided mouth-wateringly close racing until the unfor- tunate capsize of the New York Yacht Club entry. More entries do not mean a better competition especially given
the complexity of these boats which have made the 40kt AC50 multihulls used for the America’s Cup in Bermuda look pedestrian and safe. And that is quite something. Eddie Warden Owen, CEO
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RICHARD LANGDON/OCEAN HARE
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