Faster than blink

[krimar]

As an occasional contributor and a regular reader I ask if other Forumites have the same view that: single handed and very expensive faster than blink racing multihulls have no place in our sailing scene.

Out of land sight sailing around the world may not endanger we Solent recreational sailors, but these protagonists do roost from time to time.

And the cash expended could be put to far better use. Any suggestions?

How about offsetting some of the Crown Estate charges on behalf of we normal, mortal yotties?


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[Talbot]

I did take a rather dim view of being lapped in this years Round the Island, /forums/images/icons/smile.gif but take the view that these racing multihulls are a positive part of our sport. A lot of the design ideas are trialled on these very expensive one-offs, and eventually trickle down to the more sedate cruising multihulls. I also believe they have gone a long way to dispelling that old illusion about the propensity to capsize. I wont argue that some multis have been known to pitchpole, but that is a function of too much speed in marginal conditions (and several racing monohulls have lost their keels!)

Now if you wanted to argue about the merits of PWCs ......

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[stevebrassett]

Erm, how do you get lapped in the Round-the-Island race? I thought you
only went round once? Or did the comment go woosh over my head?


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[BrendanS]

One of the multihulls, Orange II I think, missed the race record by just a few minutes, so they went around again for a second go !

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[krimar]

My thought on this had less to do with Round the Island, more on the forthcoming Round the World caper, sponsored to the tune of some £2,000,000 (give or take the odd coppers).



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[Talbot]

Work out roughly how much air time B & Q have had from the Yacht so far, and then try to work out how much that would cost on all the different media that has covered it, and you will soon realise that this is good value for the corporate sponsors, and better they should pay for yacht designers to experiment with new materials, than yet another yuck TV advert.

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[BrendanS]

I was answering a specific question

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[AlexL]

No don't agree I'm afraid. Every sport, every persuit, every profession needs a section which pushes the boundries, develops new technology etc etc. As for spending the money "Better" - who is to say what better is? Some people would rather every penny in the country was spent on schools and hospitals - but then nobody would have any fun and what would that country be like to live in?

Personally I like aspirational things in my sports - I sail at weekends on the coast, but I like reading about southern ocean races and maybe I aspire to that one day. I scuba dive to 20 /30m on reefs but enjoy reading, and have benefitted in equipment technology from people who dive 150+m. I fly a little cessna - an opportunity which wouldn't exist except for decades of people 'wasting money' on developing planes and pushing the boundries. Give me the dreamers, the adventurers any day of the week.

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[Sybarite]

.... which is peanuts compared to the £30-£50m budgets of some America's Cup team. That would buy a lot of Optimists - and if each one had publicity on its sail.....

John

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