Editorial- Different Worlds

by nzeditor@sail-world.com on 19 Jun 2006 Our feature photo is a piece of sailing culture – Ticonderoga, which epitomises the past generation of supermaxis.

Ticonderoga is one of the classic entries in the centennial Newport-Bermuda Race. The Francis Herreshoff-designed ketch is now owned by L. Scott Frantz. Originally launched as Tioga, the 100-foot ketch, she finished first in class in 24 of her initial 37 races and set more than 30 course records around the world.

She is up against one of the latest supermaxi’s in the world, Charles St Clair Brown’s Maximus, which surprisingly, is not leading the fleet in the 100th edition of the US classic ocean race.

Over the weekend the Volvo Ocean Race finally came to an end in Gothenburg, Sweden. ABN Amro One, skippered by New Zealand’s Mike Sanderson, and with five other Kiwis on board, finished last on the leg, but had the race secure with two of the nine legs left to sail.

Mike describes the win as 'it’s my Everest, my Olympic rings, my childhood dream' which puts the win in context. However the same accolades should also be given for her whole crew – as this was a race where big powerful and fast boats were sailed short-handed, and seamanship was at a premium. While boat design is given a lot of credit in the ABN Amro One win, the selection of the design parameters is that of the sailing team, as is the ability to sail the boat to its potential for the bulk of the demanding 31,000 mile course.

We salute the crew of ABN Amro One: Mike Sanderson (NZ) – Skipper
Stan Honey (USA) – Navigator, Brad Jackson (NZ), Mark Christensen (NZ),
Tony Mutter (NZ), Sidney Gavignet (FRA), David Endean (NZ),Jan Dekker (RSA),Robert Greenhalgh (GBR), Justin Slattery (IRL). Great effort guys!

The future of the Volvo Ocean Race was outlined in a media conference over the weekend. On the table is a new course through Asia, and just a three year gap before the start of the next event.

It is just a shadow boxing exercise to comment on these proposals at this stage, however with six finishers the fleet is the smallest yet and only two of those sailed the whole course. Several 'sailed' parts of the course on a truck or ship. The modern Volvo Round the World Race is now separated well away from the sailing adventure around the world that began in 1973 as the Whitbread.

However there can be no denying the commercial and media coverage of the event – a galactic distance from the first Whitbread event.

Maybe the future of trans-oceanic sailing is in the guise of the Solo-Oceans single handed event announced in France. The event features just one stopover in a New Zealand port, and will be sailed in one-design boats that are on the bleeding edge of singlehanded sailing technology. The one design does reduce the cost of competition, as does the single stopover, which should make the game more viable commercially. Maybe our City Fathers in Auckland should be playing hard to secure the stop-over and reclaim a part of the City of Sail's Round the World sailing heritage??

Good Sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor