Bloody (Light Air) Mary
The conditions for the Bloody Mary were a little light for most people's tastes, and a good deal lighter than the apocalyptic forecast, which had forecast gusts up to 70 knots in the southern part of the country that weekend. It was shaping up to be a 420 benefit regatta, and a hiking boat's nightmare.
But the wind never materialised and it was even threatening to turn into a bit of a drifter. Fortunately, that didn't happen either, and the Force 2/3 proved an almost perfect balance between the two ends of the handicap spectrum. The results revealed a good battle between the hiking boats, led by Phil King's Merlin Rocket in third place, and the trapeze boats, represented by the winning of International 14 sailed by James (Flossie) Fawcett and Dave Dubrovnik (not the correct spelling, but I believe even Dave has resigned himself to being called this).
Flossie and Dostoyevsky actually won by a comfortable margin from second-placed 49er, reigning world champions Chris Draper and Simon Hiscocks. Chris rightly predicted before the race that the 14s looked like the toughest challenge to overcome. With no 18-foot skiffs present this year, the 49er fleet was the scratch class, starting at 1303 hours, a full 63 minutes after the slowest boats started. But Chris's concern was overcoming the 13-minute head start given to the 14s, and while he managed to overcome another top 14 sailed by Andy Partington and Ben Vernieres who finished in fourth, the Olympic boys never really threatened Flossie and Dave.
Although the race proved about as fair a fight as you could expect between hikers and trapezers, the development classes dominated the top 10, with two 14s, three Merlins and two National 12s. On the one-design front, there was Draper in 2nd and another 49er in 10th, sailed by DJ Edwards and Ben Redwood. Nick Craig was 7th in an RS400.
The results lend some weight to the theories I outlined in a recent Y&Y article on handicap racing, that the PY figures struggle to keep up with speed-enhancing changes to development classes (eg carbon rigs in Merlins), or that boats that are challenging to sail will always do well provided they are sailed well (eg Draper/Hiscocks finished 2nd in a 49er, but there were other 49ers that finished well outside the top 100). Even better, though, if you combine both advantages, and race a boat that is development and also hard to sail (eg the International 14).
So, well done to the 14 boys. They are a new pairing but have both won major 14 regattas over the past couple of years and will present one of the biggest threats to Rob Greenhalgh and Dan Johnson's defence of their world crown this time next year in Auckland. I felt I contributed in no small way to their Bloody Mary victory, when Flossie told me afterwards that he had been sitting on the loo that very morning, reading my top tips on pursuit racing. No greater compliment can a writer receive.
I should have done the same myself. I'm sure my article mentioned something about not getting caught in traffic, of which we seemed to encounter an awful lot on the way round. When we won last year, we got an early jump on the other 49ers which meant we could get our heads down and focus on overtaking. This year, crewed by former 29er National Champion Olivier Vidal, we spent most of our attention on a ding-dong battle with new recruits to the 49er, reigning 29er World Champions Dave Evans and Rick Peacock. A last ditch break away from our rivals up the last beat saw us pick up a gust that took us in front by a hair's breadth to finish 13th, with the young 29er lads 14th. I don't suppose it will stay that way for long, however. The new generation of sailors are getting to grips with 49ers at a terrifying rate.
One of the things that really separated Draper and Hiscocks was their ability to keep the boat moving through the worst of the congestion. Some of the heaviest traffic was at one of the leeward marks, slap bang in front of the clubhouse, and providing Mad Jack Nicholson with plenty of fodder to pad out two and a half hours of live commentary for the spectators. That's one of the downsides of competing, that you don't get to hear Mad Jack's interminable but what I'm sure is very entertaining waffle. Whether you're racing or spectating, this is a great event for catching up with old mates from other classes, and I was particularly impressed that Ian Walker turned up to crew for up-and-coming star Richard Mason in a 420. It's not often you get America's Cup helmsmen stepping back ‘down' to the dinghy scene, so good on Ian for taking the time to do so and putting his neck on the line.
Show off
Talking of catching up with old mates, the traditional meet-up after the Bloody Mary is the Guinness Stand the following Sunday at the Boat Show. Now that the Show has moved to ExCel in the east end, it will be interesting to see how this tradition holds up. I didn't go on the weekend, but I did attend the press day on the previous Thursday. It was a packed day, with lots of big names there and plenty of people to chat to. In fact, I did too much yabbering to get much of a chance to look around the show properly, so perhaps I shouldn't judge it too harshly.
But I will anyway. I was unimpressed, although I suppose it comes down to what you want a show to do. Is it there for the marine industry to sell lots of stuff to punters, or is it there to inspire people to get out on the water? Well both, I think, but ExCel - and Earl's Court before it - really only seems to concern itself with the former. It looks like a trade exhibition. Great if you know what you want and you're going there to pick up a Boat Show discount of 10 per cent off a new dinghy or wetsuit, but highly uninspiring if you're new to the scene and trying to work out whether or not this is the sport for you.
In its defence, the organisers did aim to host the indoor windsurfing championships, which hadn't yet begun when I visited. Technical hitches, like a lack of water, delayed the championship until the beginning of the following week. Then, when the world's best pro windsurfers did eventually take to the water, the wind was so unmanageable that they found themselves barely able to gybe, let alone race. Mmmm... not the greatest advertisement for the sport, and I gather the sailors were none too chuffed either. But at least in this instance the organisers were trying to put on some entertainment, something that if it had worked would have provided some truly inspiring spectator sport. This is what I think the Show should be about, events and activities for people to watch and say: "Wow, I want to do that, where do I sign up?" Earl's Court was no better at this, but a change of venue was an opportunity to take a fresh approach to the Show, and on the evidence of the opening day, that didn't seem to have happened.
The individual exhibitors can't be blamed. Some of the stands are spectacular and very effective at promoting their wares within the confines of their allocated space. It should be the organisers putting an interactive exhibition together, the sort of stuff you might see at the Science Museum. A place where kids can press buttons and make things happen, whether it's playing sailing or powerboat simulators, or lifelike 3D simulators, or watching videos on big screens of skiff racing, America's Cup or Volvo Ocean Race footage. It's something that could be built, used, dismantled and rolled out year after year, with annual tweaks to keep it up to date. The initial outlay might be a little pricey, but it would recoup its value in subsequent years.
This stuff seems so obvious I wonder if I'm missing something here. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree entirely, but I think the Boat Show could be so much more than it is. I'm sure you'll let me know if you disagree.
Sailing TV for grown ups
One of the more interesting announcements was of a new sailing TV programme put together by Andrew Preece Productions. Older readers will remember that Andrew Preece was a former offshore columnist for this magazine, but now he has carved himself a niche as one of the best TV cameramen and producers in the sailing world. The first edition of the new show, called Seamaster Sailing, has already gone out on Sky Sports in the UK, but for those without cable or satellite TV it is possible to subscribe to the show via a neat DVD mail order arrangement.
There is no overt sponsorship of the show, but seeing as the watch manufacturer Omega has a product called Seamaster and two of Omega's ambassadors, Ellen MacArthur and Dean Barker, are going to be regular reporters for the show, I'd hazard a guess that Omega have some significant involvement. I hear that the new show won't be taking the usual patronising approach of most TV sailing coverage, when the audience are assumed not to know their bows from their sterns, or their RS classes from their elbows.
I certainly hope so. It's about time sailing was allowed to grow up on TV and just get on with telling the story rather than apologising for what a complicated unfathomable sport it is the whole time. You don't get John Motson breaking away from football commentary for a five-minute feature on how the offside rule works every time a player infringes it. Now we've got the web, that's the best place to send people off to, if they want to find out more about Cunningham tension, rather than clog up a 25-minute show with that sort of stuff. If you want to know more about this show, you can find out more at the official site, www.seamastersailing.com.
Downunder Wonder
One of the features on the first Seamaster show was of Ellen's first outing on her new 75-foot trimaran in Sydney. Sydney, indeed Australia, has been the site of many recent British successes - and not just in rugby. Andrew Smith and James Meldrum won the Fireball Worlds in Adelaide, to add to the European title they won last year. And Rob Greenhalgh, his brother Peter and middleman Dan Johnson have finally done what they should have done last year; they won the JJ Giltinan, the unofficial world championship for the 18ft skiff class, and they won it in fine style. Congratulations to them and to Richard Woof, the RS boatbuilder who has developed the RMW Marine skiff to the point where it is head and shoulders the fastest boat on the circuit. While winning the JJ is the end of one long chapter, Woofy, Rob and the team appear to have some exciting projects in the offing, but you'll have to wait until next time to find out about them. Like the Boat Show, I've run out of room.
