The Question

by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS on 11 Sep 2017 We asked the big question a while back in Red Circle Boutique. It was carried over to subsequent weeks, and your responses have been fantastic. Thank you. Please keep them coming, even if you don’t want them ‘published’ per se, because this ‘forum’ that we set up is about having a voice, irrespective of whether you want to deliver it yourself or not.

Now AC 36 might seem like nothing to do with the main question, or any of the points raised therein, but is this really so? Can that be hoisted up its own carbon stick, as it were? I think not. Like everyone, we will have to actually wait for the Protocol to be released at the end of the month before anything can be claimed as fact (Ed. Since originally preparing this material some leaks in the caulking of the good ship AC have occurred so more may come), and some other commentary around it all at the moment is the work of total fiction.

In this regard, the Kiwis have done a masterful job, but that too is no surprise given the mind games and subterfuge they have engaged in over the years. We of course should put the stones down immediately, for kaftan-esque blue skirts around graceful dinosaurs are not from the pre-historic era, just a long, long time ago. Back then, Aussie sailors with way too much hair on their heads in very questionable styles, and far too small a size in shorts around their mid sections, used to run through the opposition whilst out on their morning jog, and hearing this story first hand from the men involved still makes me smile…

So yes, we’ll all find out soon enough what it really means, and when it is going to be run in the Eastern Harbour City. Of course, a more stringent country of origin clause will help us, given how many are circulating in the mix, and have been racing for others for years. Tom Slingsby is the figurehead. He needs no introduction to sailors, and is reasonably well known by the general public too. Olympic Gold, World Championships in the Laser and also Etchells, along with an AC win, and loss, are all part of his extensive résumé.

Tom has been a pro sailor since he was a tacker, when his Sisters used to pay him 20c to come along, and a further 20c to stay and be crew for the whole race! One of them would go on to become an Australian Laser champ, too. What it all means is that he has a very level head on those shoulders, and can spot wind shifts like no other. It also means that whilst it is easy to talk about meetings with the usual suspects, as it were, it is not necessarily, or completely, all about them.

One could argue that we do not have brands in this country to utilise this platform effectively. Back in the day, the late Dick Pratt did use Challenge 12 as the thin edge of the wedge to get Visy into the USA, but that was then, and this is now. There will be no Kraft, I mean Phillip Morris, with a full re-branding once the boat crosses an ocean. Alas, we need to look farther afield, and the usual suspects can certainly lay claim to having plenty of those things called connections. After all, a Middle Eastern airline is a long way off a couple of islands drifting around the Pacific.

Tom himself says of it all, “Obviously we would love to have an Australian team competing and we are having meetings to make this happen. That's all that is going on at the moment, meetings as to have our best chance. Sorry not much to report at the moment, hopefully soon we will have more if all goes well.” Our job is to get behind him, and that notion, for we can all remember what can happen when we do!

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