The Bosun
There is one thing I can tell you about Rule 69: We are on it!
Remember all that crazy kerfuffle about a two-handed offshore event for the Paris 2024 Olympics? Initially, it was to be World Sailing’s creative response to the persistently dismal public and media attention for sailing at the Games. An exciting new format! Television coverage will be spectacular! Fans can follow the racing ‘live’ on YouTube! The crews would become superstars!
Then came the practicalities, and the politics. What boats should be used? Who would qualify? What courses would be fair? Could safety and security be assured over a 400 square mile area of the Mediterranean? How would this event not exclude athletes from poor, landlocked countries with no sailing opportunities? Gradually – inevitably – Olympic politics extinguished the proposal. It was replaced by the kite event.
Kites.
The missed opportunity was that an offshore two-handed competition would have represented a segment of the sport that has been ignored by the IOC for more than a century. Thousands of excellent sailors race at sea every week. The problem, from the Games standpoint, is that their ‘equipment’ – the boats – are very rarely the same across the fleet. Hence handicapping, which is contrary to the fundamental Olympic ideal of strictly equal conditions.
Sailing had, of course solved this problem long ago with one-design racing. That worked well in the dinghy classes (and still does), but an effective offshore yacht needs to be a minimum of 30 feet LOA. Variations in hull form, displacement, rig and sails were always thought too difficult to overcome. Now, factory mass-production in GRP or carbon, and computer-cut sails, have reduced those issues. One-design offshore racing is a reality.
Case in point: the double-handed World Championship to be sailed from Marseille in September. It will again be contested in a provided fleet of Sun Fast 30 OD sloops, a decision which all but confirmed that class as the standard boat for this type of event. (That’s a coup for Jeanneau, but must leave the other manufacturers selling yachts in this range livid.)
In keeping with the current obsession with ‘inclusiveness’, the Championships are only open to crews comprising “one man and one woman”. There is no mention of Trans sailors. As the Notice of Race puts it, “the event is a key event to promote diversity and gender equity through the celebration of mixed crews.” Quite what this “celebration” entails is left unsaid.
The regatta format is interesting. The early rounds of short overnight races produce a process of elimination including “repechage” sail-offs. The finalists then race a 48-hour course. Crews swap boats between rounds to even out any perceived advantages or deficiencies in the equipment. Each yacht has H5000 autopilot and USB/Wi-Fi computer connectivity. Sails provided are Main, J2, J3, Gennaker, A2, A4, Storm Jib and Trysail. That should be enough to keep everyone busy.
Thinking of having a crack? It ain’t cheap. Base entry fee is 5,000 Euros, plus you pay extra for training time, berthing, meals, accommodation, etc. Then again, it might be worth it for a bit of that mixed-gender “celebration” in the South of France…
The Bosun
