What is it about green?
by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS 11 Feb 2018 17:06 PST
Volvo Ocean Race Leg 6 to Auckland, day 5 on board Turn the Tide on Plastic. Francesca Clapcich at the helm. 10 February © James Blake / Volvo Ocean Race
It’s not normally a colour with a deep nautical connection. Some old sea tales even talk about it as being like bananas. i.e. Never to go near a boat. Yet is kind of weird too, for it is the first thing you use to describe the big ones that come clean over the bow and even wet the helmer. Yes. Water in Fantasy Land. Who would have thought?!
Yet there is another kind of nautical green, and it invariably is the same as its landlubber equivalent, albeit that it might be a deeper shade, and quite possibly all the more stronger. Yes. It is envy. I got to experience it just last Friday when talking with someone who closed the call by saying, ‘Got to go. Off racing now.’
So had the call finished just before those final words, the memories would have been the thanks, well done and so on that he had been the crux of the matter at hand. As it was, I was like, nice day, so who would not want to go out or yacht. In the next breath I got to think, well he is officiating all Sunday, so he kind of deserved it, but with the reality of a non-sailing weekend for me setting in like the proverbial bag of harden up from Bunnings, I got to feel that green for at least 24 hours, and more like 36.
Gybe ho! No green or Bunnings involved in the second round of the SuperFoilers from Geelong. Mornington Peninsula resident, Glenn Ashby, got back from Adelaide on the Monday, and was out on his foiling A-Cat the next day, before heading across Port Phillip to Corio Bay later in the week. There the ‘Dream Team’ completed yet another clean sweep. Well done to Outteridge, Jensen and Ashby. Sterling effort. Also deserving of a special mention is the entire SuperFoiler outfit, for there on the start line was tech2, less than a week after disintegrating herself from being airborne in Adelaide.
We’re one and in for the bottom mark, so get set to douse the kite with a Mexican. We’ve had a bit to say about Olympic equipment over the years, and that’s even extended to the tacker level. Now it might seem a long way off to June 2020 when the International Olympic Committee will give its verdict on World Sailing’s prognostications, but when you consider all that has to occur before then, well it does not seem to far fetched at all.
About now, World Sailing’s Events Committee members are voting digitally (that’s the cyber space version BTW), as to which of the current crop of craft should be reviewed. Now the ones to be investigated, and that is all it really means at this point, are the windsurfer, the 470 and the Finn, for five of existing medal categories.
Yet the real tale could well be the review of RS:X, and also the Laser that also come under the microscope of World Sailing’s new Antitrust Policy. Now whilst that is a commercial issue first and foremost, it does then allow the WS Council to fire both barrels on the windsurfer, should they so choose. The argument is that they have not moved with the times, and Windward/Leeward board racing cannot compete with close inshore racing in nearly all breezes, as is the case with the kites.
Now there is an old rule to follow the money in any investigation, and it is here that the antiquated production methodology of the mighty Laser will have a battle with the new policy. After the initial mid-February vote, there is an additional round of discussions at the WS Mid-Year meeting in May, 2018, and from there it all moves to November, 2018. Still along way from June 2020, but the issue remains that sailing has to become sexier in the eyes of the IOC, and once again you’re back at following the money trail.
Time will tell about the ‘Offshore Event’, the demise of the Laser and RS:X, and more co-ed classes, but you can be sure of one thing, and one thing only. Despite many an issue at WS, they will be very keen to meet the challenge laid down by the IOC for more modern, entertaining and understandable events. In short this could mean staged finishes for the offshore event, stadium races for the kites given their near zero draft, adherence to equality regimes, and quite possibly above all, stuff that looks cool in the new media age. Think snowboarding and you could well be on the money. Whether it all comes in one hit for Marseille, or spread over the run into Los Angeles, will be seen by the end of the year.
Right then. News time. Here are some gems for you to review. We have information from the Volvo, the Clipper, Vipers, Heaven Can Wait, the 18s, Youth Match Racing, Stars in Miami, Laser Masters in Mooloolaba, Bruny Island Race, RS100s, EFG tris, Hardy Cup, the Finns, North Sails, Nacras, GC32s, Superyachts from Antigua, SB20s, AST does well across the ditch, and certainly there is much, much more.
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