Bolt from the Blue
It seems like sailing Downunder can be a risky activity. A Brisbane Laser sailor was literally blown out of the water as a bolt of lightning struck the mast of his Laser. Such was the severity of the strike, it blew a hole in the deck, which then delaminated from the hull. Chris Meech, a Laser Masters sailor, landed on his back in the water a good 30 feet from his boat, and was picked up by rescue boat and taken straight off to hospital. Chris said he felt completely numb when he landed, but was lucky to be wearing a buoyancy aid to break some of the force of the landing.
The race committee at Gosford Sailing Club had already abandoned racing for the day because of the ferocity of the storms in the surrounding area. Chris and the rest of the fleet were running for cover when disaster struck. Club commodore Brad English commented: ""The Laser sailors were sailing back to the club through the moored yachts, on the assumption that lightning would hit the taller mast of one of these boats rather than a small dinghy mast. We were getting severe thunderstorms at the time, and the clubhouse literally shuddered when this one hit Chris just a few hundred metres from the shore."
It does seem particularly cruel that the god of thunder should pick on the smallest boat around. But I suppose we're all asking for trouble sailing around with big lightning rods above the deck. Apparently there's no refuge in carbon either, as it's an even better conductor than aluminium. When I was out in Australia a few years ago I remember a 49er being struck by lightning in the middle of Sydney Harbour. I think it was Sean Langman, who now spends his time and money racing his Maxi Yacht Grundig in big boat regattas around Australia. He was on trapeze at the time, and as the lightning shot down his trapeze wire, he too was blown an impressive distance away from the boat. Fortunately, like Chris Meech, Sean suffered no real damage to his body, just a few million volts of shock treatment. It didn't keep him off the water, though, because just a week later he was competing in the 49er Worlds in Perth.
Fish v Foil
It seems in Australia that if Mother Nature doesn't strike you from on high, she'll get you from the deep instead. The recent International 14 Australian Nationals was settled by just four boatlengths in the final race, when 1999 World Champion Grant Geddes and Dan Wilsdon beat Lindsay Irwin and Andrew Perry by a few crucial seconds.
It might have been a different story for Irwin and Perry if they hadn't been unfortunate enough to suffer a high speed collision with a small shark while leading Race 2. The impact brought the pair to a dead stop, their daggerboard wedged back into the hull at 45 degrees. Later inspection of the leading edge of the board revealed no impact damage, but they were not so sure about the shark, believed to be nursing a severe headache somewhere in Port Phillip Bay.
The 14s were competing in part of the multiclass extravaganza that makes up Sail Melbourne. The Olympic classes were competing there, and for some Aussies it was the final part of their trials for selection. It was good to see our own Paul Goodison regaining the medal-winning form that seemed to have deserted him in the latter half of 2003. He won the event while Hugh Styles finished in 9th place, not at all bad considering Hugh was suffering from flu in the early stages of the regatta. A good battle is in prospect for the Laser trials in Weymouth this April, the only remaining class still to be selected for Team GBR.
Very encouraging results also for our 470 sailors, with Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield finishing second to Australia's Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page, who had just taken time out of their Olympic campaign to win the 420 World Championships. It was second place for the Brits in the women's 470, with Christina Bassadone and Katherine Hopson doing more than enough to justify the RYA selectors' recent vote of confidence, in giving this young team the green light to represent GBR in Athens this August.
Across the Tasman Sea, the Kiwis have just held their Olympic trials, with Hamish Pepper winning the Laser trials with a race to spare. Going to the Games will make amends for the humiliation of this time last year, when he was tactician on board the self-destructing Team New Zealand boat in the America's Cup. Question marks were also raised about Hamish's tactical ability at that level, and perhaps he is not yet of the calibre of Brad Butterworth, but he restored some pride in becoming the winning tactician at the Mumm 30 Worlds in Elba last autumn. Now he has a chance to bring home a medal for a nation that has won surprisingly few over the years, considering the Kiwis' fearsome reputation in virtually every other arena of high-level racing.
Woof Woof
Meanwhile, our conquering heroes in the 18ft Skiff have returned from their Aussie-bashing tour of Sydney Harbour. I caught up with Rob Greenhalgh and the boatbuilder behind his success, Richard Woof, to find out what the secrets were to their barnstorming success at the JJ Giltinan Trophy. Woofy was beside himself with pride, and a little sad not to have been Downunder to witness this long awaited victory for himself. "It hasn't yet sunk in," he said. "We've worked so hard for this. The one thing that we're so proud about is that the team is completely British, whereas when Tim [Robinson] won it, it was two-thirds British.
"Tim had David Witt on board, and it's an enormous help to have some local knowledge helping you find your way around the Harbour. Rob, Dan and Peter didn't have that advantage, and that's a huge hurdle to overcome." The RMW team won in style, counting four bullets and two seconds. It could have been even better but for a freak accident in one race that they were also leading. "The bobble floated off down the tack line of the gennaker," explained Woofy. "It tied itself in a knot so that you couldn't douse it and couldn't hoist it. It was just off Shark Island, and Peter had to go into the water to sort it out." By the time Peter had sorted it, the team had relinquished their lead but managed to salvage a fifth, which would become their discard. The incident goes to show that Sod's Law will always find a way of making its mark, no matter how well prepared you are. "Now we tape the bobble to the spinnaker," added Woofy.
Rob Greenhalgh is now the reigning 14 and 18ft Skiff champion and is looking to capitalise on his CV to pull in a major sponsor. He wants to continue with the two skiff classes, do a Mumm 30 campaign with the aim of winning the Tour Voile, and also to compete on the Figaro singlehanded circuit in France. He reckons there are a few records ripe for the picking, notably the round Isle of Wight record and the cross Channel record between Cowes and St Malo. "We're thinking of putting a 20-foot wingspan on to the skiff," Rob explained. This would add considerable horsepower to the boat, which in its racing set-up is allowed wings of only 14 foot width.
Woofy says the boat has been clocked at 35 knots in its standard set-up, so it is terrifying to imagine what speeds might be possible with the wider racks. But crossing the Channel will not be without its risks, not least the danger of a mid-Channel pitchpole. But if Rob can keep a cool head and keep in check his desire to ‘send it', then breaking the existing record of 10 hours for the 120-mile trip - set by Lawrie Smith's Whitbread 60 Silk Cut some years ago - should be well within the skiff's capabilities. Rob did say he was going to join the RNLI at the Boat Show, as he thought he might need to avail himself of their services.
Little Cherubs
The Cherub class is also looking to add some extra horsepower to its 12-foot hull with the addition of an extra trapeze. At the moment the class is merely trialling the concept, but I'd be surprised if it ends up ruling against it. Who knows, if the Cherub goes twin wires perhaps it may even one day link arms with the 12ft Skiff class in Australia, as did the International 14 with the 14ft Skiff a few years back. If you've not seen these 12ft machines, they are quite possibly the craziest inventions in the sailing world. They make the 18-footers like positively pedestrian by comparison.
Like the 18, the 12ft Skiffies have a quiver of rigs lying on the shore while they decide what the prevailing breeze is for the day. The No.1 rig on the 12 is actually the same size as the No.2 rig on the 18. And the bowsprit for the gennaker is 18 feet long, which if you hadn't worked it out, brings the total working length of the boat to 30 feet. Despite all this sail area, they can make very little practical use of it because unlike the 18s, the 12-footers don't have racks. So the boats dog along upwind at speeds that would barely shame a Fireball. But turn the corner and downwind they can give an 18 or a 49er a good run for their money.
Actually, on second thoughts perhaps it would be better for the Cherub class to stay well away from the 12-foot Skiffs. Probably better for them to stay somewhere closer within the bounds of sanity for the time being. The stated aim of the Cherub wanting to add the extra trapeze is to boost the woefully poor upwind pace of the boat. It currently has a very similar performance profile to the one I just attributed to the Aussie skiff - ie blisteringly quick downhill, but barely able to push water uphill. Whether the extra trapeze will achieve a more balanced performance around the course we will have to wait and see.
If nothing else, the twin trapeze trial will bring some much needed attention back to one of the few remaining fleets that can truly justify its claim as being a ‘development' class. Like the International Moth, the Cherub has tended to be the domain of the mad professor, with sailors quietly tinkering away in their garden sheds and coming up with innovations that eventually trickle out to the wider commercial dinghy market. What the Cherub has lacked is any sort of publicity drive, but it's greatly encouraging to see the arrival of Daryl Wilkinson, who is putting 20 years of experience in the advertising industry into his new role as the Cherubs' publicity officer. Now perhaps the Cherub can find a way of appealing to the next generation of young sailors who want something that's fast and furious without the expense of some of the more high-profile performance skiffs.
The Association's most recent initiative is the launch of a new CD-ROM pack for anyone interested in finding out more about the class. Daryl's latest press release says: "Always wanted to know what its like to sail one the UK's maddest boats? Well now's your chance. The NEW Cherub CD-ROM information pack is jammed packed with information for the uninitiated as well as picture galleries, web links and some amazing mpeg movies. So if you've been tempted by your heart but your head has always got in the way, send a stamped return addressed C5 envelope to: Cherub Information pack, 3
Chestnut Place, Watlington, South Oxfordshire, OX49 5RJ. And get your heart racing!" While you wait for your pack to arrive in the post, you can check out the class website at: www.sailingsource.com/cherub. Best of luck to the rejuvenated Cherub fleet.
