cowes extreme sailing series

some food for thought in this interview.

boards.mpora.com/videos/featured-videos/whitey-talks-rossco-skye-cribby-cowes.html

www.sailing.org/33615.php

^ Yep, Great memories, spent 5 summers in Cowes myself. Love the place!!

That's awesome in 5-15 knots gotta be more fun than a 7- 8 m with a Wally board. If anyone in Melbourne buys one I would be more than happy to crew. I recon you wouldn't get much change out of $150- $200k

Ah. How wrong was I. Sugar.
www.scanboat.com/ErrorPages/errorpage.html?aspxerrorpath=/en/BoatSaleAdvert.asp

Almost $700k. ?400k. Wow.

The VX 40s are causing a stir, but to what end?

It seems significant that this is the third time around for 40 foot multis. In around 1986, the Formula 40 class started up. The F40 were a response to the problems in Europe's "Formula 1" multihull scene, which had 85 footers that were just too expensive for the biggest sponsors.

The boats generally looked very similar to the VX40s, save for alloy masts, but the class also allowed tris in and they ended up dominating.

The Formula 40 class had much the same impact as the VX 40s. People started saying that this sort of spectator-friendly racing close inshore in fast boats was the way of the future.

So what happened? It all died. Costs went up, the model became unsustainable, and it all crashed in about 1990.

Then the Yanks took some of the Formula 40 cats and made it into a one-design series (Prosail 40s). Costs were reduced because boats no longer became obsolete - and still the series crashed after a year or so.

Some of the Formula 40s ended up on Swiss lakes, where they beat the Formula Libera monos, which were like giant 44 foot 18 Foot Skiffs, complete with a dozen guys trapezing off wings. The Libera class, which in the mid '80s was seen like the VX 40s are now, is pretty much dormant, with just a tiny handful of boats. And the Swiss lake scene is still dominated, numbers-wise, by comparatively conventional monos.

Much of the energy in the F40 scene went into the 60 foot multis, which were amazing performers that would probably make a VX40 look stodgy. The 60 foot ORMA class died about three years ago. I had the luck to talk to one of the top designers, who said that the class got too much into performance and ignored practicality.

It's significant to see a pro windsurfer talking, because windsurfing crashed like few sports ever have about the same time it became all about high wind high speed sailing.

The VX40s look cool, but the Formula Libera boats looked cool, the Formula 40s looked cool, the Formula 1s looked cool, the ORMA 60s looked cool, the Prosail 40s looked cool.

Maybe the VX40s will work, but on the other hand after something like 12 high-performance pro-sailing inshore circuits have either been stillborn or died, maybe the idea is just unworkable. Significantly, the biggest-selling and fastest-growing classes in sailing are comparatively cheap, simple and practical boats. Those who are actually selling lots of boats are ignoring the hype.

While I'm not pointing fingers at anyone here, it does get a bit depressing to read in other areas that people are saying "high performance pro sailing is the way of the future and open-minded people accept that". Maybe those who keep on trying to push a formula that has died a dozen times are those who are too stuck in a rut to realise when something isn't working, and maybe those who accepted that these classes don't work are the open-minded ones.

i lived in cowes and used to drink at the isle of wight, but i don't ever remember seeing a yacht race like that?

might start calling you the shadow mark.

it wasn't the starts i was referring to, i meant the inside gybe mark or marks should be placed close to the beach. like as close as possible without injuring swimmers.

Sorry, it was more of a general rant of mine, based on the way the sailing media and some sailors keep on hyping up the pro sailing stuff as a new idea that's the future of the sport, when in fact it's been tried and failed many times.

Yeah, I think you're right about having stuff close to shore. Apparently even in a "normal" Cowes Week, where most people are racing "old style" day racing keelboats and standard cruiser-racers, there are many spectators along the shore because boats dodge in very close to cheat the tide.

There are hyper-detailed books to guide on how close you can get into the shore - literally there are diagrams showing how you can take a bearing off the third bedroom window in one house and line it up with a lamp-post, so you can get right in away from the tide.

i'll leave to others.

racing is not what drives me anymore. i'd be strapping on a gps before a watch.