Friday 18 November 2011

AC or WWE?

I was always slightly resentful of the new Amercia's Cup format, the claim of "Formula One" of sailing was a long held but only latterly truly earned tag line of the Moth class. They may have the helicopters and broadcasting rights but I still have a 2004 boom sticker. Scissors Paper Rock.

When I watched it in Plymouth I was amazed at the speeds of the AC45's, until it dawned that they were reporting in kilometres per hour and not knots. Thats when I knew we were probably faster, and last night as a green light turned to a err flashing blue, and I switched from white wine to red, I knew I was watching a spectacle. It certainly wasn't Formula One though, no not by a long chalk, it was more like WWE or World Wrestling Entertainment for those who don't spend lots of time in gyms.

The start appeared to be everything and for fuck sake how many times do you need to go round a track to know that left is paying? Dont get me wrong, it cant be easy but if you are going to have match racing, a sport thats traditionally been more boring to do than it was to watch then at least let's go upwind first. Confusing for the spectator? Confusing for us all I think. Aleph had the only passing move of the day when they brilliantly hauled themselves past Artemis, and then the race committee canned it, largely I understand because they had technical issues. Who cares if the race committee has technical issues? I still dont know what those were and I'm supposed to have an idea about sailing. I suspect the software was hacked.

Anyway pan to the mystified spectators and they didn't have a clue either. Most of them were looking at USS Midway, which proves one thing, to impress Jo Public in sailing, just make the boats very very big!

However all that being said, I did enjoy my evenings entertainment very much.

Still if they are going to enter our world then its perfectly acceptable in my mind to enter theirs. I've long since fancied a channel crossing and the whole thing has moved on of late. Unfortunately the Abominable No Men have said "Non" to a Dover Calais dash. I pointed out that people do swim it, and that we'd only be about an hour, but it seems that if we get within 300 metres of the shore then its off to jail. Clad in tight rubber... I think not.

So me and and my little Mach2, my wonderful sponsors Abarth, and Thierry Martinez have something else planned for next year, and I wont tell you anything more now as we've got some logistics to do, but it will start from Hayling Island. And its a bloody long way.

S

4 comments:

Fred said...

Nice to hear you watched it too and have some thoughtful thinking about. Had to rethink twice about your "left pays" as they are going downwind after the first short haul.

Wasn´t it ALEPH (with Arnaud, that is why I cheered them and also for being the underdog in the last race) who made the big gain to lead the abonnded race going for the right side early? But you are right. It wasn´t always the case. Could have gone wrong badly.

I do not want to mess with you, I agree totally on the spectacle thing! But what else to do, other than watching sailing on a Friday night, when you have family...

Simon Payne said...

Yes I was cheering Arnaud too! Such a shame they canned that race. How can it be? There are only two boats on the course, event he worst race officer doing his annual HISC club race officer duty couldn't mess that up.

Limbic Candy said...

My Moth UK National's tee-shirt, 1991 vintage, states "Formula One on Water" so I think we can take them to court for that one...

As to top speeds, I'd quite like to see you clad in black rubber gate-crashing the timed speed runs - particularly in medium winds. It'd be worth a whip-round for your bail money! But, hey, I'm sure your sponsors would be delighted for the media coverage!

foiltown said...

For what reason can it not be done? These seven year olds did it in a tera!

http://www.ccsc.org.uk/stoppress/teras.pdf

Cheers
Alex