Editorial Andrew Hurst The most important issue in sailing this year
Another foiling accident in the Nacra 17s with a major injury to a Danish sailor, but ‘no more’ than that, thank goodness. The Nacra class have just drafted comprehensive guidelines to try to minimise further, potentially worse, incidents; but this is a one-design Olympic class so those guidelines can only focus on maintaining your
equipment to minimise the risk of falling off, plus standards for essential safety gear including helmets and a whistle. World Sailing have also responded with an online database to report incidents. Of all the foiling multihulls it is inevitable the Nacra is under the
spotlight because of the class’s Olympic status and the intense schedule that brings with it. Crews aiming for Tokyo 2020 are on the water for 200+ days each year. As far as we know the worst foiling injury to date was suffered
by Franck Cammas, one of the most experienced and successful sailors on the planet, when he fell off his own GC32 training for the last America’s Cup. Sailors always fall off high-performance boats or are inelegantly
lobbed into unforgiving obstructions. (This is less of an issue in monohull foilers like the Moths, there are obviously risks but they are reduced by the boat normally departing before the airborne helmsman is eventually defeated by gravity). Improving maintenance of trapeze gear to reduce the likelihood
of leaving the boat is a good step but it ignores the elephant in the room. Like many foilers the Nacras use T-foil rudders, placing a sharp and unforgiving carbon blade slicing through the water at 25kt a few feet behind the crew. T-foils stick out to weather – in fact, one of the key optimisations in the class is pushing tolerances to maximise the foiling footprint. Every right-thinking person must realise what is at stake here.
Cammas nearly had his foot sliced off when sailing with an America’s Cup crew with RIBs following closely – one reason for his eventual full recovery. Fall off a Nacra close to a mark, to find yourself floating as foils scream past you at 25kt, is a terrifying prospect. One suggestion is that when in the water you do not just ‘blow
your whistle’ to warn other crews (yeah, right) but that a flare is fired and racing immediately ceases. Dramatic? With eight serious incidents in 15 months since the Nacras started foiling, it is almost inevitable that at some point it won’t be an arm or leg that is dam- aged but a neck or a head – with potentially dreadful consequences. Just stopping racing sounds dramatic, but even that is not enough
ban T-foils in favour of inward-facing L-foil rudders. Or be ready to accept that something dreadful may one day happen. On the back of every spectator ticket at a motor racing event
there is the same warning ‘Motor Racing is Dangerous’. Even so, motor racing has worked tirelessly to improve – not reduce – safety over the past 40 years. The sport is still extremely dangerous but all efforts are made to reduce the risk to drivers and spectators. Almost unconsciously, sailing is going in the opposite direction.
For the best of reasons – and the Nacras are good boats – by endorsing foils that stick out beyond the hulls and make a bad problem worse we are saying that it is OK to expose some of our most talented athletes to mortal risk for the sake of their sport. Failing to properly address this will bite us.
True genius William Shockley, one of the inventors of the transistor, also knew how to share that knowledge, as he once explained transistor-ampli- fiers to a struggling student: if you take a bale of hay and tie it to the tail of a mule and then strike a match and set the bale on fire, and if you then compare the energy expended shortly thereafter by the mule with the energy expended by yourself in the striking of the match, you will understand the concept of amplification.
given other aspects to the problem. If on reflection we decide that we no longer wish to put our best young sailors’ lives at unnecessary risk then cut to the chase and
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You won’t wait long at a Nacra regatta to see a crew separated from their boat, even if like here for now they stay attached. But once separated from your own boat and congratulating yourself for missing the rudder foil you then have everyone else racing past to worry about. It would be funny if it was not so dangerous
Democracy is over-rated? Having trailed the fleet for much of the 1989/90 race the Russian Whitbread Race entry Fasizi jumps to fifth place after a smart traverse of the Doldrums. ‘We were so excited we called our race HQ in Moscow. “We are no longer in last place,” we told them. “We are in fifth place.” The response was dry and succinct. “That’s good news but it doesn’t make any difference. Russian press have been reporting you in first place since the start of the race.”’ – Brian Hancock
q
let’s get on with it! – Johannes Harken, father of Olaf and Peter, returns to his family who have lost every- thing after spending nearly five years in a Japanese prisoner of war camp
SNOWFLAKE CORNER Life’s not always fair,
COOL AS ICE Hold the foil rake button too long or not long enough and the result
could be unwelcome... – Eric Hall
gold rush – Yusuke Otsuka, an executive at cryptocurrency giant Coincheck
OOPS It’s a modern-day
have troubled – Otsuka, hours later after $503million in cryptocurrency is discovered to have been stolen from his clients’ accounts by hackers
I deeply apologise to the customers we
HOW THICK? We have been getting 999 emergency calls
supply problems – London Metropolitan Police statement
from people who found their usual Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet is closed because of
TRAINING IN PRIVATE? No matter how enmeshed a commander becomes in the elaboration of his own thoughts, it is some- times necessary to take
the enemy into account – Winston Churchill
you meet – General James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis
CONDITIONAL I would eventually like
to die on Mars – Elon Musk
Seahorse magazine and our associate raceboatsonly brokerage site are both at:
seahorsemagazine.com The editor is contactable by email at:
andrew@seahorse.co.uk
SEAHORSE 11
Just not on impact – Musk
HOPE FOR THE BEST (AND PREPARE FOR THE WORST) Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody
‘
DIDIER HILLAIRE
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