Ellen – Hero or Stunt Act ?

Re: I\'ve just checked with my F1 guru.

I'm happy to stand corrected!! F1 is so boring these days I don't even watch it anymore!! I still think comparing Schuey or Ellen against their forerunners is very difficult when the gulf between todays equipment and that of yesteryear is so vast.
 
Robin,

You seem to feel that I am not a great admirer of Ellen as a sailor. This is completely untrue.

And if I may say so, you are confusing the achievement part with my suggestion that outside direction and technology may be spoiling the sport and interest. As professional sailors go she is surely up near the top. Perhaps, if anything, it lessens the achievement. But if you happen to be into hero worship that's fine. Some of us just are never into that type of stuff. Please allow me to be different.

To me, Technology says you are going to have a little less sense of achievement and feel of the senses, but you are going to have much more power. That’s Technology’s credo.

This also often seems to lead to a tendency for many of us to become powerdriven in a possibly unhealthy way. The screaming obscenities that we occasionally hear on the water from a racing skipper to his crew are often a sad reminder of this. But as play sailors, we can have as much or as little 'ology' as we want. That’s fine.

If you take say football and rugby, they have remained in their basic form untouched for over 100 years. Spars about the same, pitch size etc (lets forget about money and professionalism which has changed.)

If Garmin came up with a gismo that a rugby kicker could use to gauge wind strength , tee height predict launch direction etc. would it take something away from the game ? Surely this is what has happened to Ocean Racing .

Unfortunately some can never see a way back, even for the fun things in life.They will just say go back to dugouts then. But the vast majority of sports seemed to have coped fairly well.

I would be very interested to hear from posters on what they feel would be a fair test in terms of rules that would utilize all of a sailor’s skills and knowledge without compromising safety.
 
Hi alec: questioning EA's sailing cv is a hiding to nothing, surely? The time of "all round sailors" is passing or passed , same as "all round car drivers" probably extinct befor ww2 - World champion car drivers coiuldn't spanner their cars as they had to in the old days, and we shouldn't expect modern rtw sailors to be at home on a trapeze, or beaching a bilge keeler on the east coast. Nontheless, Ellen was very at home and stll "skiper" as that boat came into falmouth, directing the ribs pushing her onto the pontoon.

However, modern athletes aren't often "allrounders" - they do what they do and tat's why they (just) beat records - the same goes for lots of sports and lots of other things - jobs as well.

Yep, i feel olde worlde rtw rkj etc went through more etc , but that was then: best thing is that it's a clean race - do what you want. I like sports like that, and another example is running and (some) swimming too - up and down the pool/track however you like.

The test of time will show the quality of ellen's record - she beat the current record first attempt - so now it's time for another, and another perhaps. There's a boat currentl;y halfway aroiund the world on courswe to sail around in 50 days or less - and joyon set his record in a non-single-handed boat so there may be a long way to go yet in bringing down the time and driving up the speeds. I spose we have to either wait and see....or try it oursleves, as ellen did...

Incidentaly it ain't the case that some sports have stayed as they were: special training methods, medicines, diet, altitude training, clothing, equipment, video playback all mean that even a trad sport is different now, no?
 
Alec

I see where you are coming from but I don't see it as relevant. This is now, then was then, and now you use the technology that is there, tomorrow you can use a different bit. This is sailing's Formula One, not go karts for kids, big boats big speeds, big challenges, big seas and big big risks!

When I dinghy raced it was often handicap stuff and the cry was only one designs show true ability. Well I had three different Enterprise dinghies back then and I can tell you they might have been one design but they sure as hell were different! The 'fast' one was a different beast, accelerated faster, planed earlier and then stayed planing longer. It was built exactly to the rules, and used every tiny bit of the rules to advantage - but now 30 years on I bet it wouldn't get close to a modern Enterprise.

The Back up team goes with the territory and the option to use such is both within the rules and open to all entrants. I don't see the problem at all.

As for other sports, they have all changed. I used to be a big squash player, just look at modern raquets compared to the wood ones I played with, same in tennis. Golf has already been mentioned and nobody plays with hickory or persimmon anymore, it is graphite and titanium. Rugby and football has changed, the balls are no longer heavy wet leather and boots don't look remotely like I used to wear! Not to mention personal trainers, sports psychiatrists, energy drinks and so on.

Ah well....

Robin
 
Why do we need a human at all in 5 or 10 years time we could have an aerofoil trmaran controlled by satalite. Instead of buying football clubs, millionairs start racing them round the world, thus you can drive them 100% without worry, if it sinks you build a new one. The question then is do we give them a knighthood or whatever if they break the record?
What I would like to see is a Hall of Fame, at say the NMM at Falmouth, with the story of each British person to race single handed round the globe, be it none stop, or legs like the BOC. Then you can make your decision as to who is the better sailor, based on your own criteria. How do you rate say the seamanship of Hellan sailing a boat designed for her as high-tech as you can make it, compare to say Robin Davie sailing an old Hurley mono hull 2000 mile without a rudder ??
At least this way every sailor would be on an equal footing, preserved for prosperity, and by adding each new skipper to the end, a display of boat developement. Otherwise in thirty years time it will be who was that Ellen somebody !!.

Brian
 
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