Sailgp Dubai

[Brian N.]

Just watched the Sailgp Dubai, in a rare major network coverage event. My big complaint was the duration of the races. Blink and the boats are over the finish line. A small mistake, and the boat is a kilometer or more behind the lead without any chance. They call it match racing, but it is mostly a drag race. I can't really get excited about the technology, although I appreciate that it is cutting edge. Very little connection to the boats we sail. I would honestly say my Subaru Outback has more in common with Formula Car racing than these boats have with ours and the way we race them. I remember watching the old 12 meter AC boats slug it out, that was great racing.

One more thought - I did not notice one woman among the crew. If you want to grow the sport and encourage young women and teens, you can't exclude half the population.

[Spot]

I watched the race too.
My current race boat is older than I am 

It seems like they are trying to get women onto the teams (my understanding of the format, teams and sponsors, etc. is quite limited):
https://sailgp.com/news/22/womens-pathway-one-year-on-female-athletes-careers/

[Brian N.]

Thanks for the link about the women involved.

[Norm L.]

Yes, thanks for the link. Professional level sailing is amazing and brutal.

I know a local who sailed in the Olympics in China. His training regimen was a long serious grind. A great deal of money was put into the design of the boat. While qualifying in the class there are some minor adjustments that can be made. They designed the boat for the historic wind patterns and that year the patterns were different.

When Bob French was here I told him of a member of the yacht club that was on STARS & STRIPES and won the AC in Australia. He is built like a football lineman and was on a grinder. After wards he quit sailing and said he never wanted to be on a sailboat again. His time on the water now is just for fishing.

Watching this my mind pictured Richard Henry Dana rounding the Horn on PILGRIM out on a main mast spar with his safety harness, gloves, helmet, and receiving orders from the Mate via the headset.   

[LakeShark]

Perhaps I am just the young guy here but I rather like Sail GP.  I have been following it for the past few years since they started and enjoy the speed of the races and how they are pushing the envelope of the modern building materials.  They still don't fully know what New Zealand's mast came down some months back but assume it was a failure in the carbon spar. 

Either way most teams have at least 1 woman on the crew which I believe is now a team requirement by sail GP with most of them serving as tacticians.  I will say my feelings are mixed on this.  Gender should not get you a job but rather the best sailing skills.  Wether that's an all female crew, male crew, etc...  Still I understand what there doing. 

As for the tie in to modern boats there is more than you might think.  While none of us race wing sails there is a growing popularity with foils.  You can now foil in a small catamaran, ILCA, and a couple of smaller classes like WASP.  I think that this quest for crazy speeds will continue to drive interest among the youth.  I race a Laser (ILCA) and my son is thinking about joining me at now 14 years old.  He likes the speed of the boat but put him on a Hobie and he loves it even more.  We also race keel boats and they have their own type of fun. 

When it comes to match racing I like the sail GP Format does not drag things out.  While I love the starting duals when I am racing it is a bit boring to watch on tv.  That being said Sail GP was always intended to be the X-Games of sailing as the creator wanted something like nascar that would attract interest to the sport.  When I want racing that has more in line with my own sailing then there are the distance races like the Golden Globe and things I also follow.  Unfortunately there is not much national interest in large sailboat racing in the US so most racing on a grand scale belong to European countries and Australia.

Finally there is America's cup which has unfortunately become more about money and politics than boats.  This year alone they tried to DQ the British team for towing their boat during testing so that it would foil without wind and they could test systems.  To me this type of racing is the outer edge of what is possible on the water and while the Vestas Sail rocket is currently the fastest; a boat like that is hard to control in any type of a race so it off to the foils of these catamarans and AC yachts. 

What will the future hold?  My hope is that kids will get hooked on speed and then when life slows them down they will come to enjoy more the pleasure cruising of making a trip somewhere and exploring a new shore.  But time will tell.   

[Norm L.]

Mr. L. Shark. I like your last paragraph. Happily, probably true of some kids.

I used to be a bigger fan of road racing of the SCCA type and even motorcycle racing. I understand the move to high tech and the skill and physical conditioning of the drivers. But I find factory level rally competition more interesting. Maybe it's the race against time and not fender to fender, and on country roads, and with a driver and navigator, that throws more interesting factors into each meet.
I know other people want the face-to-face competition but competing with yourself is to me more fascinating than competing directly with others. A bit like the single handed around the world sailing competition.