Tunnel, light Club page
RORC
It was encouraging to see the headline on the RORC Caribbean 600 website
www.caribbean600.rorc.org – ‘2021 Entries Now Open’ and ‘Notice of Race Now Available’. It made me believe there is light at the end of this long dark tunnel everyone has had to suffer. Every week the picture is changing as we get small changes to the
lockdown restrictions giving increasing confidence that offshore racing could happen this season. Interest in the Rolex Middle Sea Race, which this year becomes the first race in the 2021 RORC Season Points Championships, increases with every relaxation that is intro- duced, with those expressing interest following on to do the RORC Transatlantic Race in January and the Caribbean 600 in February.
L’Ile d’Ouessant Race Always in a non-Fastnet year we have a challenging race in August. Every four years it is the Round Britain and Ireland Race which for the last four editions has been sponsored by Sevenstar Yacht
size has been restricted to an IRC rating of 0.900 and above to ensure that the fleet can complete the race within the day. A race around the Isle of Wight is the popular choice incorporating
the inshore and offshore element, with navigation and tactics equally important, and offering a number of opportunities to shorten the course and for competitors to take their own times to reduce the number of volunteers involved in running the race. We hope it will be a popular change.
Yacht racing the future It is very hard to predict what will happen to our sport in the long term but it will be a while before a reliable and proven vaccine is in place, the end of 2020 being the earliest predicted in the race to find a ‘cure’. The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca alliance began UK trials in April but, with phase 2 and 3 trials starting in June when the virus is in decline, the process of judging the effec- tiveness of the vaccine could slow significantly. Brazil, hit particularly hard by Covid 19, has also now joined the test- ing process which should help speed up the trials. Many of my medical
friends believe the virus will eventually ‘burn itself out’ and disappear but I am sceptical and because of my age am wary of needlessly exposing myself to it. I am sure there are many others in the same boat!! If social distancing stays,
but reduced to 1m as we are given to believe and is in place in other countries, then racing with reduced crew becomes a possibility. If so RORC’s move to allow self- steering equipment for all boats not just two-handed was prescient. Could the need for
Never pass up an opportunity to experience the mind-bending currents and frequently violent sea states of Île d’Ouessant in northern Brittany. For any serious offshore sailor it is something to savour, rather perhaps than full ‘bucket list’ – though we say that if you are ‘lucky’ enough to experience full Chenal du Four conditions you will argue the distinction. RORC honorary life member Ellen MacArthur is seen here passing Ouessant in winter 2004 at the start of her successful 71-day solo round-the-world record attempt
Transport. Four years ago we introduced the L’Ile d’Ouessant (Ushant) Race, a 400nm course from Cowes along the south coast to the Wolf Rock off Lands End, then south to round the island of Ushant off the Brittany coast to finish in St Malo. Given the current restrictions running the race is still in doubt
and unlikely to enter French waters or certainly finish in St Malo. However, the club is keen to run a challenging race of similar length, most likely finishing in Cowes.
Race the Wight To give teams the opportunity for a shakedown before tackling the Ushant Race a plan was hatched to change the Channel Race, which could not be run as normal due to Government restrictions, into a race around the Isle of Wight to give the two-handed and reduced crew family/household teams the opportunity to get some sea time before taking on a longer course. Race the Wight will replace the Channel Race but only for this
year and will start at the same time on 1 August at 0900. All entry fees will go to the Scaramouche Sailing Trust and the NHS. Boat
60 SEAHORSE
reduced crew create an increase in the number of canting-keel and water-bal- lasted boats being designed and built? IRC undertook a wholesale reappraisal of the
benefits of water ballast only last year and updated the rating calculation for 2020 accordingly. The International Maxi Association had also approached IRC in
2019 looking for a reduced crew rating option – on the basis of the cost and logistics of manning such large boats – and a suggested reduction to two-thirds of the rated crew number to allow a rating benefit, which for a 75-footer roughly equates to five points of rating. Not to be sneezed at. However, the pandemic and enforced isolation, in whatever form
it took for all of us, is sure to have refocused our minds on how we live our lives and the way we perform our work. Sailing is one of the few activities with the natural elements of wind and water as the fundamentals but how much time we give our passion and the sport will have changed for all of us after this unique experience. For me participation will increase – all those opportunities I turned
down in the past I will make sure I now make time for. That’s why I was so happy to see the RORC Caribbean 600 website announcing ‘2021 Entries now Open’. Eddie Warden-Owen, CEO
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JACQUES VAPILLON/DPPI
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