Rob Weiland
In praise of flexibility
In October 2008 I wrote on the TP52 Class website (
transpac52.org) a news item about the long coastal race of the 2008 TP52 World Cham- pionship, at the time perfectly hosted by the Calero family and sailed from their marina Puerto Calero in Lanzarote. The title of the report was: FUN, FUN, FUN, 53nm in 4 hours 35 minutes!
The crews and boats had a blast, I quote: ‘After yesterday’s short
coastal race, the 14-strong TP52 fleet sailed the long one, approx- imately 53nm, in well under 5 hours under conditions that offered accidents, failures, disqualifications and lots of emotion. The north- ern breeze blew with an intensity of 20 to 25 knots throughout the race and gusts reached 35 knots on the western coast of the island.’ We were all pretty tired after the race, whether sailor or organiser,
but not that exhausted not to have a beer or two at the event’s social area. It was a fleet full of big names – many are still racing in the class today, like Vasco Vascotto and Terry Hutchinson. Others moved on or pay us occasional visits, like Russell Coutts, Dean Barker, Paul Cayard and Jochen Schümann. Wonderful memories drift by when I see owner’s names like King Harald, Pedro Mendonça, John Cook, Torbjörn Törnqvist, José Cusi… Ten years later much has changed and for sure the boats are
a lot faster now but I cannot imagine I will write a race commentary again under the same header. Simply announcing a 53-mile race would cost me my job and setting off towards 3m waves in a breeze peaking at 35kt would label me close to insane. Yet 10 years ago I was just describing the mood after the race: Fun, Fun, Fun. By any standards this year at the 2017 Rolex TP52 Worlds in
Scarlino we had one coastal race and it was a good one in the sense that conditions were perfect (10-16kt, flattish water) and the course set had plenty of opportunities, keeping the fleet close together while making the boats fight all the way. Not that much reaching and most of the race up or down, which suits the Super Series TP52s as specialist reaching sails are not catered for in the class rules in an attempt to contain costs. All in all it took this year’s fleet about three and a half hours to
24 SEAHORSE
finish a course a little under 30nm in a straight line, but to describe the post-race reflections as fun, fun, fun would not reflect the feelings of most of the sailors taking part… The mindset is still on inshore windward-leeward racing and
anything else is a distraction. But it is foremost a mindset, as a week later you will find a substantial number of the same pro sailors onboard a Maxi72 on a 600nm offshore race or coastal racing in great style on a superyacht at a safe distance from the rocks at one of the yachting paradises like Porto Cervo or St Barths. You will say horses for courses but that assumes owners are
interested in one type of sailing only, or owners have two or three specialist boats – which is not realistic and for sure would limit our sport to a tiny group. With the rise of one-design racing the interest in W/L racing has
grown. No fun to get engaged in this speciality with boats of dissimilar performance potential. And if you do you better make sure you have the highest-rating boat in your start. By contrast I do not see this as a valid argument against using
boats of similar performance offshore; I do not subscribe to claims that you need a unique boat to do well in offshore events. But for sure it is in these offshore races where we do mainly find some rather ‘unique’ boats, boats not restricted by any limits other than what is permitted by the rating rules. Somehow, racing offshore, every dog has its day. Buying a lottery ticket has its attractions. If anything boats like the TP52s and the Fast40s are potential
Jacks of all trades as well as masters of most. Honed to perfection in close combat they are also grand prix weapons in coastal and offshore competition, often showing the more traditional racer- cruisers and cruiser-racers a fast shrinking pair of heels and giving one-off racers a good run for their money… (thus heaping pressure onto the rating systems). How to balance rating, performance, market share and politics?
In the maxi scene really only Maxi72 owners clearly vote for covering all disciplines but for sure not all owners share the same prefer- ences. Most owners of secondhand TP52s like their coastals and offshores and optimise their boats for the handicap system the
JONATHAN EASTLAND
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