VOR at Genoa Boat Show- SCA, Pretty in Pink

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World.com on 1 Oct 2015 A change is as good as a rest, they say, and I don’t usually drive a VO65, so I guess it’s restful! It’s certainly pretty easy when there’s 12 knots of breeze, flat water, blue blue sky and some fabulous Italian sunshine. SCA and Team Vestas Wind are here at the Genoa Boat Show on a VOR Promo Tour, inviting on board corporate guests and (if you get your hand up in the air fast enough) a few refugees from the Media Room.

Enough breeze to be useful, but not so much as to scare the non-sailors. No spinnakers allowed. Two races, two sausages each around a 1nm reaching leg.

The prize for best radio call of the day was this very short exchange, just after the P flag came down.

“Race Committee, Vestas. Please confirm we are inside 10 minutes.”
“Vestas, Race Committee. Confirmed. You have 14 seconds until the start.” Oops

Meanwhile, SCA started with speed at the pin end and comfortably held the lead all the way.

Race 2, change crews. This time the start was a little more even, with SCA winning the line by just a couple of metres but ‘handing over’ to Vestas who picked up a good puff on the first leg and eased into a lead and that they defended until the finish. There was only 12 seconds in it according to my watch, and both crews were mix-and-matching tyro helms all the way.

Surely this sort of thing is where boats shows everywhere should be going? These days 99% of a prospective boat buyer’s research is done on line before going anywhere near a dealer or boat show.

New offerings from the manufacturers are always good to see, but boat shows are no longer the province of well-heeled train spotters. Which means that – without losing sight of core business - boat shows probably ought to be paying attention to ancillary activities and ‘promoting boating’ as much as ‘promoting sales’.

The VOR shore-side displays here are first class, and having a name like Volvo Ocean Race parked at the dock is undoubtedly a draw. There’s nothing like a boat ride to engage novice or non-boaters, and getting your feet onto the deck of a VO65 is pretty darn special even for seasoned sailors.

Thank you, SCA and Team Vestas Wind, for being here; and thank you to Sally Barkow,Sophie Csizek, Abby Ehler, Sara Hastreiter, Libby Greenhalgh, Annie Lush and al the rest of the SCA crew for giving this old journo a morning’s sailing that was second to none.

After the Genoa show, the Team SCA boat is heading back across the Med to Alicante.