News Around the World
Productive asset… a large slice of the world’s top talent has passed through the ‘hallowed halls’ of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s 10-boat fleet of Elliott 7s. They found another good use recently when taken over by Emirates Team New Zealand and the country’s Olympic squad for Tokyo. Or in the case of Blair Tuke (bow, above) and helm Pete Burling those who fall into both camps. Many of the world’s bigger clubs now have a fleet of one-design keelboats; but does anyone else extract so much competitive value?
protocols that struck a balance between meeting the expectations of the fleet and remaining safe. We applaud all those who have stepped up to try to make racing happen amid ever-changing guide- lines – the ‘second wave’ here in the US has been particularly frustrating with its boomerang effects on restrictions. On the industry side, the effect on business may be delayed into
next year: for example, sails ordered last autumn may have been delivered this year, but since then they have probably been left on the shelf and thus many will not be replaced in the near future. On the other hand, brokers have been reporting boat sales have
been quite robust this season as people have been hungry to get out from within their Covid caves and on the water. Cruiser-racers have been particularly popular, and riggers have enjoyed brisk busi- ness retro-fitting furling systems to accommodate smaller crews. Doublehanded sailing has taken off beyond the initial novelty of
an Olympic lure, and in the US nearly 25 per cent of the ORC cer- tificates issued now have a companion ORC DH certificate as well. This trend – reflective of the similar trend that was already well estab- lished in IRC in Europe – plus the shift towards more casual sailing have interestingly also increased the volume of interest in non-racing sails. According to many sailmakers, sales of furling headsails, main- sails and Code 0s have never been higher as their customers enjoy sailing with more limited circles of friends and family. Given these changes in activity and priorities, there have been
some interesting trends at the top of the game as well, where many pro sailors have had to shift gears into other enterprises to help feed the family. Rather than running for the airport and the next Superyacht gig on another continent some, like multiple America’s Cup and round-the-world race winner Tony Rey in Newport, have taken on running a (Doyle Sails) sail loft and servicing local as well as international customers with their needs. ‘I’ve never worked so hard for so little!’ he says… only partly joking! But you can tell he’s enjoying being home at night and making a tangible impact within a fast-growing and successful business. Another US-based Kiwi pro sailor, Gavin Brady, usually has an
endless summer schedule of being in NZL in their warm months and in the USA in our summer while still managing a few race projects for clients like Karl Kwok, whose various boats named Beau Geste
30 SEAHORSE
have been at the top of leaderboards all over the world. This season Brady’s had a break from this programme of ‘dual-living’ while still managing to get to sail with another client, Jim Swartz, on his newest Vesper, the former Maxi72 world champion Momo. Aside from having a fun jaunt around Nantucket Island in Swartz’s
Swan 601 Moneypenny with his family and friends, Brady said Swartz and Vesper have focused on assembling the new-to-them boat for day outings out of Newport to look at sails and learn the boat. One invited guest was former US senator, presidential can- didate and Secretary of State John Kerry, who came fresh off a victory earned in the Round Nantucket Race on his classic Alden cutter Lark. Brady reports favourably on the former senator from Massachusetts… adding ‘Kerry had a nice feel for the boat and was able to keep it on the step easily.’ So there you go. Which got him to thinking: is the grand prix game being played
in a sensible and sustainable way? This query is more than a little ironic given that Gavin has pushed hard on nearly every corner of the sport, from the AC to match racing to offshore. ‘I’m worried,’ he says, ‘that limits have been pushed too far and
that we’ve lost sight of the goals, which should be not just to win but to ensure that our owners are enjoying themselves and want to keep playing the game – which means in a sensible way.’ He cites as one example the neverending trend towards ever
higher rig loads for better upwind performance allied with ever lighter rigging systems… ‘We are reaching a critical point on some of these boats where a small failure can quickly cascade – particularly if the crew are even a little bit distracted when it happens. We put 16 tons of rig load on the spar of Vesper: is this approach safe? This is a bad trend. Then when rulemakers move against something like this it’s the owners who foot the bill. We need better thinking on this but up to now guys like me have been too busy pushing things flat-out ourselves!!! We’ve definitely been the worst offenders. ‘During this time we have the opportunity to refresh and
re-evaluate our priorities in the sport at this level,’ he says. ‘We should do this in all sectors – rules, ratings, safety rules etc – so we emerge with a better value proposition for everyone.’ Amen to that.
Dobbs Davis q
IVOR WILKINS
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