I suppose sixty, seventy years from now sailors will be moaning for the good old days of the early 2000s when America's Cup boats were classic trimarans like Oracle/BWM.
For me, I think technology has changed the race from being one that was dependent on a crew's experience, skill, and cunning to one that is dependent on technologly and people's abilitly to use it. The next logical step will be eliminate the crew altogether and operate the boat remotely. The race will be no less challenging and exciting, but it will challenging and exciting to a totally different kind of person.
I believe that as the active human element is morphed out of things like the America's Cup and*auto racing and is replaced by technolgy and people who are masters of the technology, the activity gradually loses it's appeal to the average person.
I was an avid fan of Formula One and sports car racing (Le Mans, Sebring, etc) in the 1960s and early 70s. As well as the America's Cup. While I knew damn well I was never going to drive with Jimmy Clark and Graham Hill or crew on a 12-meter, I could relate to both activities. I could see myself doing it--- I felt they were* both within my capabilities if I ever got the chance. So I watched races and read about them because I could relate to them because I could relate to the people who did them.
Today, I cannot relate in any way to what both of these sports have become. The technology is not only far beyond my grasp or capability (or interest), the money required to even have a hope of getting involved in either sport is staggering, far beyond anything I could conceive of spending even if I had it.
So I've lost interest in both sports.
To me, the human story trumps the technology story every time. I mentioned some time ago that we were given the opportunity to go out on the Bluenose II for my wife's first-ever experience on a sailboat under sail. The International Fishermen's Races, which the original Bluenose won seventeen times straight, or the America's Cup with the J-boats and then the 12-meters, are what I think of when I think of sailboat racing.
Sure, the boat designs were a big factor in the outcome of the races and the technology of the day played a major role.* But, like Jimmy Clark in his Lotus, the races were more about the people and their individual and collective contributions. The crews were people like us. They perservered--- in spite of the technology sometimes--- to triumph in the races.
In the last Fishermen's Race, the Bluenose, which like all the others was a working fishing boat, was so worn out and waterlogged and her hull had spread so much over the years of fishing on the stormy Grand and Georges Banks*that her waterline measurements disqualified her until they removed enough ballast to make her ride high enough to reduce her waterline to the required measurement. Her mainsail was stretched and her rigging was beat to hell. And there was no billionaire handy to fix all this.
But, despite being technically outclassed by a much newer rival, the skipper and crew drew on every ounce of experience and smarts they had and they won.* To this day, we were told, nobody knows why the Bluenose was so fast.* The Bluenose II was built to the same plans, using the same materials, in the same yard, and by a lot of the same shipwrights who built the original.* And even discounting the drag from her twin props and shafts, the Bluenose II is nowhere near as fast as the original.* The people in Lunenburg, where both boats were built, say it's because the original Bluenose had the fastest and smartest skipper and*crew ever. It's about the people, they say, not the boats.
That, to me, is sailboat racing.
This painting is of the famous fishing schooner Gertrude L. Thebaud, the only boat to come within shouting distance of defeating the Bluenose in the Fishermen's Races. To me, this is what sailing--- and racing--- is all about.
-- Edited by Marin on Tuesday 16th of February 2010 07:55:10 PM
