Rolltacks 27 June 2005

It seems you can't read the report of a singlehander national championship without finding Steve Cockerill's name somewhere close to the top of the list. It's hard to think of someone more passionate about singlehanded sailing than Steve, which is probably why his Rooster Sailing business is going from strength to strength.

Steve first came to prominence 15 or 20 years ago as a top Europe sailor, before he got the Olympic bug and moved into the Laser. Now at the age of 43, his Olympic ambitions may be behind him, but he remains one of the world's top Radial sailors, having won the World Championships twice, as well as finishing runner-up twice in the Apprentice Masters Worlds.

More recently, however, I noted that Steve has just won the Blaze Nationals where 53 boats competed, and came third in the 55-boat Streaker Nationals where he finished 3rd. The Blaze's induction into the 50+ Club is quite remarkable. In its first incarnation it was said to be an awful boat to sail, but Steve says the class was very lucky to have Mike Lyons in its midst.

"Mike Lyons was the saviour of the Blaze class," says Steve. "It was his driving force that modified the rig and turned it into the new Blaze." It is Mike's passion and his ability to enthuse others, apparently, that has driven the Blaze to its new heights of popularity. It goes to show that enthusiasm by a few driven sailors can achieve for a class's popularity.

Steve says the Blaze probably appeals to sailors who have outgrown the Laser or want a little bit more performance. The wings allow you to get a lot of power out of the rig, and probably make it a more comfortable boat to hike than the Laser. Steve thinks the rig and the sail shape are excellent, although he admits the hull is quite heavy, making the Blaze a bit sticky in the light but offering fantastic performance in a breeze.

In fact, says Steve, the Blaze is so fast in a big breeze - say when it's blowing more than 30 knots - that it is quite capable of going down the mine on a reach. It's OK if you get on to a run and take the apparent wind off the rig, but it develops so much power on a power reach that nosediving is a very real possibility. In a big sea Steve reckons the original Laser is still pretty hard to beat, a really seaworthy boat that you can still sail in over 40 knots (provided you have Steve Cockerill levels of skill, presumably).

I was surprised to see Steve marketing the Blaze as well as the Streaker, but he reckons they couldn't be more different. Whereas he compares the Blaze to a dragster, an all-out but not particularly refined speed machine, he likens the Streaker to a Mini Cooper - light, responsive and sporty. "The Streaker feels great and sails great," he says. "It's shorter and smaller than the Laser so it's not as fast but it feels like it is." The other big difference between the boats is that the Blaze is suitable for sailors too heavy for the Laser, while the Streaker is more appropriate for lighter sailors around the 11-stone mark.

There are some other obvious differences. The Blaze is a manufacturer's plastic one-design from Topper; the Streaker is a wooden boat, either professionally built or home built from kit form. However, Steve is soon to offer the plastic version of the Streaker, which he admits will be slightly more expensive but should be virtually maintenance free. Geographically the classes are different too. The Blaze's stronghold is in the south, notably at Mike Lyons' club Burghfield, near Reading. The Streaker is a predominantly northern class.

It's great to see both of these classes gaining in popularity, and I'm sure both will benefit from the attentions of Rooster Sailing. One of the mainstays of Steve's business, however, remains the Laser in its various forms - the Standard, Radial and 4.7. He sells training sails for the Laser, ideal for those who don't want to shell out for the high price of an official sail, although of course the official product is the only one that can be used at open meetings and championships.

Steve would like to see the Laser rig upgraded with carbon spars and a more durable sail, although there is no likelihood of this in the near future. The carbon top mast that was mooted for the Radial may still be on the cards, though, and Steve would certainly welcome that. "The number of girls I've spoken to who tell me they can't make their Laser Radial go through the waves," he says. "If they're 5'4 and average build the fact is they just don't have the power to drive the Radial through waves. I tell them to give up the idea of Olympic campaigning and get a 4.7 rig, and start enjoying themselves again."

Steve draws a great analogy when explaining why smaller women just can't power a Radial through waves. "It's like they've got a 1.4 engine with rear-wheel drive, and they're trying to drive through a ploughed field. It might be OK sailing on a lake in flat water, because that's like driving on a tarmac road. But for sailing in waves you need a 3.0 litre four-wheel drive."

For the women's sake, Steve hopes the carbon topmast might become reality, although no one yet knows what a difference that will make to the required sailing weight for a Radial. The other change that he would like to see is a dedicated racing division in the 4.7 for women. "I keep lobbying Jeff Martin [secretary of the International Laser Class Association] for this," he says, "that we should separate the 4.7 out for youths and women at major Laser events. That way we could encourage more women to sail the 4.7."

International Canoe Worlds

It was way back in the 1980s when the International Canoes contested their World Championships in this country, so the forthcoming Worlds in Weymouth this August are building up to be quite a special occasion. I spoke to UK class secretary Andy Biden about British hopes for the event.

Andy says they are expecting around 60 canoes from Germany, Sweden, Australia, USA and of course the home fleet. Defending champion is Steve Clark from the USA. Clark is the man behind Vanguard, the boatbuilder which mass produces various one-design classes. But Clark also won the International C-Class Championship earlier this year, arguably the technologically most advanced cat class in the world. So he knows a thing or two about rig development, a useful skill in a progressive class like the Canoe.

You don't necessarily need to buy new to be fast, however. Clark used a 17-year-old hull to win the last Canoe Worlds three years ago, although he is believed to be bringing a new hull over to Weymouth this summer. Andy Biden says individual hulls in the Canoe fleet become well known for their behaviour and the way they respond. Well-known boats tend to get sold by word of mouth, and so good second-hand boats are hard to come by because they are hardly ever advertised.

It would seem that little development has taken place in hull shape over the past 20 years, although plenty has been going on above the surface, not least with the introduction of the asymmetric gennaker. For this event the class is running two World Championships in parallel, one for the standard two-sail set-up, and one for boats with gennakers. As is so often the case with international classes, it is the Brits that would like to move the class into full adoption of the gennaker while other countries remain more conservative.

Although 10 sq metres provides plenty of horsepower upwind, Andy says the boat can feel underpowered downwind. But bring in the 23 sq metre gennaker and it is a different story. And despite, or perhaps because of, the greater speed the boat is in many ways easier to sail. With the high apparent wind generated, the boom floats across in a good gybe, making you less likely to broach on the exit. Without the gennaker to help you along, gybing the conventional-rigged Canoe can be much more difficult. Then again, none of these manoeuvres can be said to be particularly easy in a boat with such a narrow waterline, balanced by moving your body in and out on a narrow sliding seat.

The Canoe seems to accommodate a wide range of competitive weights. Reigning champion Steve Clark is thought to weight over 15 stone, while previous champion Robin Wood from Britain is more around 10 to 11 stone. Wood tends to make up for his lack of weight with great technique and also hiking hard off the end of the seat. The heavier sailors tend not to hike so much, as this puts enormous strain not just on the body but on the seat and the hull. Occasionally seats do give way under the strain, so it's important to know the limits of your boat's construction!

Andy believes the Brits will do well at this year's event. Robin Wood has won the standard Worlds three times in the past, so he is focussing his efforts on the asymmetric class. He won the asymmetric division of the British Nationals recently, as did Mark Goodchild in the conventional division. So Goodchild represents our best chance of taking the trophy off the USA. Paul Patrick is another UK name to watch.

As you might expect in such a unique class, Canoe sailing at the top level does not come cheap. A fully-kitted new boat will cost around £11,000, and an asymmetric version another £3,000 on top of that. Secondhand gear is much cheaper, but as mentioned earlier, the problem is getting hold of the stuff with a proven racing pedigree.

Canoeists are immensely proud of their class's history. The International Canoe was actually born out of canoe origins and even today is affiliated to the International Canoe Federation. John MacGregor is the pioneer credited for introducing sail power to the simple canoe, way back in the 1860s. His ‘Rob Roy Canoe' had a simple lug sail to help push him along when the wind was blowing in the right direction. MacGregor also founded the Canoe Club in 1866, which became known as the Royal Canoe Club eight years later.

While the first sails were added as an afterthought to good old paddle power, Warrington Baden-Powell developed the canoe as a specialised sailing boat, and by the 1870s sailing canoes were taking part in organised racing. This offered ordinary people an opportunity to sail in the days when yachting was an exclusive activity for the wealthy.

In the early days, canoeists - or perhaps now we should call them sailors - would sit in the hull as though for paddling, and shift heavy bags of lead shot to windward after each tack for added ballast. Baden-Powell led developments in the class, and established the first international contest in 1884, when competitors raced for the New York Canoe Club International Cup, believed to be the oldest international trophy for small sailing craft. Like the America's Cup, the winner would host the next event in home waters, and the American contingent wasted no time in relieving the Brits of the silverware. This they achieved by dispensing with those bags of shot and sitting on the windward gunwale instead. Sounds obvious now, doesn't it?

It was not long afterwards, as early as the late 1880s, when a light American canoeist Paul Butler attached a sliding seat to his hull, giving him a massive power-to-weight advantage. The class immediately banned it, then allowed it in 1894 and then banned it again in 1904 for a few years before it was eventually allowed back in. The sliding seat has defined the International Canoe ever since. I'm sure it won't be too long before the asymmetric gennaker is accepted as standard. For a progressive class like the Canoe it is the only sensible step. Paul Butler must be turning in his grave that it didn't happen long ago.