Hoisted on their own petard

by John Curnow on 9 May 2016 Now it was not that long ago that we wondered if there were some genuinely Shakespearean elements beginning to appear in World Sailing’s premier event, the Sailing World Cup. In that time, a flurry of material has espoused all manner of joyous points including travel grants and prize money. That’s terrific and the hope is that somehow this will overcome the tyranny of distance for Melbourne, which is possibly chief amongst the issues.

It also seems wonderful that the Victorian Major Events Company moved at what must have been light speed to stump up the coin to hold the final. Well done you! However, was it more like World Sailing actually gifted it to Melbourne? In AFL terms it was the classic handball. After all, there were not exactly many chairs left to sit on with Abu Dhabi being ‘retired’, now was there? So, who now would like a good game of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?

Yet another would be that so many of the leading sailors will be either retiring at Rio, being skedaddled off to Bermuda post-haste, or just plain sitting on a beach to chill for a moment and not pushing off for yet another training session. Yes V3 of the SWC has a lot to achieve, and still you are thinking that this is Howard Hughes’ mighty H4, which was the first Hercules military transport.




Today we have the C5 Galaxy and C17 Globemaster to do the heavy lifting, and they are infinitely more successful at doing so than the now museum piece ‘Spruce Goose’ ever was. As yet another aside, she earned that nickname because of the use of that species of timber (no alloy available in wartime), yet it was another that made up the bulk of her ribs and so on. More aptly, she should have been known as the ‘Birch Budgerigar’, and it is exactly at this point that you think the Sailing World Cup could well be known by it’s other more fitting name. Sailing World Flop…

In the end, you are left wondering if indeed it is truly Shakespearean and that we go back to Hamlet to understand the heading here. Namely, is this a case of falling into one’s own trap?

All right. All right. Let’s give World Sailing some space to breathe here. They are trying, after all. We are not the only ones waiting on an announcement regarding the 2017-2020 roster. It is supposed to stop all the clashes and near clashes, and the expectation is that Tokyo will be in, and Qingdao out. WS' President is even using it as a re-election platform. In the meantime, Melbourne ‘has’ a one-year deal to see what it can do with the final. Icpota used to say ‘fascinating reading’. Could well be…

So it would seem only fitting that we finish this little ditty on another element to arrive out of that earlier work. Namely, that is that penguins are one group of only a few that call Melbourne a hub. So as we rush off to get a meeting with DreamWorks’ Tom McGrath, we’ll just leave it to the Skipper of the Penguins of Madagascar. “Smile and wave, boys. Smile and wave.”

Toot. Toot. Moving on, and we detailed the AOC’s announcement on the Sailing Team for Rio in an earlier piece. As an addendum to all that, there is the possibility that it was rumoured there was no selection at all for the Women’s 49erFX. It is also possible that Oliver Tweddell has asked for Finn selection to be delayed until after the Finn Gold Cup this week in Italy.

On the former point, none of the AUS crews have soared, as it were. In some countries, such as the USA, the best sailor in each class goes to the Games, if the country qualifies. Yet for other nations the selection requirements are much more stringent. By way of example, the Netherlands requires top eight finishes in a major regatta, such as World Cup or World Championship. For some it is even a top four slot. Seems all will be revealed in the fullness of time…

Speaking of Olympic Classes, belated congratulations to Will and Sam Phillips for the third at Hyéres. Nice one! Anyway, elsewhere in the universe, please avail yourself of the terrific material on the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and its stance on plastic. Ian Thomson of Ocean Crusaders, who has brought us such great stories and images of late, would be so delighted!

So do keep a weather eye on Sail-World. We are here to bring you the whole story…