A pernicious protocol, VO65s toe-to-toe, Oats XI's nose job, more...

by Guy Nowell, Asia Editor on 18 Jul 2014 The Protocol for the next America’s Cup is causing some angst. Bob Fisher has called it 'a most pernicious protocol'. You might be excused for thinking that Messrs Ellison and Coutts were doing everything possible to make sure there are no Challengers at all – but that might be little cynical. There’s money to be put on the table, and nobody knows where the event is going to take place. This is a killer for teams that (unlike Oracle Team USA) are dependent on commercial funding. Imagine the conversation with a potential sponsor: ‘We’d like you to chip in a million, but we can’t tell you where the event is taking place. It might be San Diego because they are quite keen on the idea and have done it before, or it might be Bermuda because the organisers like the tax breaks there. But it’s definitely not going to be the best place of all, San Francisco, because there’s not enough money in it'. If you thought this was a sailing competition, think again. It’s really all about making money, with some sailing in the background. But it’s like a bad habit… I just can’t give it up.

There are three VOR 65s out in the Atlantic right now, kicking up their skirts in a round-the-Canaries not-a-race . Sail-World spoke to Ian Walker, skipper of Abu Dhabi, who had some interesting comments to make on the difference between sailing the present One Design 65 and the previous generation Volvo fleet. 'There are some things we’d like to change, but we can’t…' is the main gist.

And talking of changing things, Wild Oats XI had had a nose job. Bob Oatley and Mark Richards - and anyone else who takes an interest in the boat that has so many appendages it’s nicknamed the Swiss Army Knife – decided that the amount of drag caused by the lower end of the bobstay being in the water was significant in racing terms. They may be right, but who designed it like that in the first place? I am constantly amazed at the enormous amount of water that modern designs push in front of them – the Farr 400OD is the worst offender. ‘Fine entry’? Not fashionable, presumably.

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Down in Australia it’s winter, because that’s how they do things down there. Presumably the birds fly north for the winter instead of south? Certainly the sailors head north: next week is Airlie Beach Race Week, then there’s Hamilton Island Race Week (known to all and sundry except the organisers as ‘Hamo’). If you are in the mood for a couple of big regattas and some Barrier Reef cruising in between, the Whitsundays is the place to be right now. In Hong Kong we are merely hoping that Super Typhoon Rammasun is far enough away by Sunday to allow the next race in the local Typhoon Series to take place. Fingers crossed.

Guy Nowell, Editor