The MCYCA? – Discrimination on Australia Day

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 22 Jan 2014 Coming up to Australia Day, when we celebrate the free spirit of our country, we will have tall ships, ferries and lots of yachts on Sydney Harbour.

But wait a minute the yachts are all monohulls, why? Sean Langman, the owner of the fastest yacht in the Southern hemisphere is not invited to the party. You see his yacht Team Australia is a multihull... The fastest yachts in the world, over 500 metres, a nautical mile, 24 hours, Sydney to Hobart, Sydney to Auckland and around the world are multihulls.

No multihulls on Australia Day... because the Australia Day Yacht Race organisers, the CYCA is actually the Monohull CYCA, time for a rethink guys?

After the freezing blast of Copenhagen, Miami seems like a dream. Ahead of Rolex Miami OCR, we interviewed US Sailing Olympic CEO Josh Adam today and he is justifiably proud of the seriously good fleet that has entered the Sailing World Cup Miami.

500+ sailors across the Olympic and Paralympic classes. In the case of the N. 17 and the 49er FX the largest fleets ever.

Our own Matt Belcher and Will Ryan will sail in a 33 boat fleet in an effort to set a new record; 19 regattas in a row.

Tomorrow we will be will be talking to Race Organiser Gary Bodie, ahead of the start of Miami OCR 2014. We were in Melbourne for the Sailing World Cup and we will be following the Australian fleets with a great deal of interest, as we will from the boat park and on the water in Palma, Spain and on the Med in Hyeres.

And while the 35th America’s Cup is still a long ways off, with no date or class of yacht yet to be firmly established, teams are betting that AC35 will be contested in state-of-the-art catamarans and are therefore using 2014 accordingly.

Both the Hamilton Island Team, skippered by Seve Jarvin and now Emirates Team New Zealand (ETNZ) will race in the Extreme Sailing Series, with skipper Dean Barker taking the helm for five of the season’s eight regattas, leaving helming duties to 49er great Peter Burling for the remaining three events.

'We can’t wait around until Oracle releases the Protocol for the 35th America’s Cup,' said Barker. 'We need to keep developing and take every available opportunity to compete in cats.' Besides the obvious reason of acquiring more high-end multi-hull experience, ETNZ’s afterguard sees this circuit as an important way to keep the sailors sharp during these interim Cup years.

'Extreme 40 racing is unlike any other; the teams are very competitive, races are short, the action non-stop and split-second decisions are needed,' said Barker, who plans to rotate crewmembers through the various On-board jobs. 'Between the two of us [skippers] we will be able to field competitive crews through the year.'

Also Cup-related, Gary Jobson recently sat down with five-time Olympic medallist Sir Ben Ainslie, the winning tactician aboard Oracle Team USA in the 34th America’s Cup, to get his pulse on Oracle’s stunning comeback during AC34.

'We were obviously in a pretty difficult situation as a team,' said Ainslie about Oracle’s overall situation when the call was made for him to replace John Kostecki as the team’s tactician. 'My goal was to be Mr. Positive even though things were looking just about as bad as they could be, to try and get some enthusiasm going. Of course this America's Cup, I think, was always going to be a development race with the new class of boat with the AC72 multihulls and foiling and everything that goes with that. There was always a chance that we could develop faster than any other team and build some confidence from that. Ultimately that is what happened.'

Get the full interview, inside, and stay tuned to the website for the rest of Jobson’s interview with Sir Ben, later this week.