Some sailing stuff...

Sideways on the solent

From Sailing Anarchy

For those of us old enough to remember jockey poles and bloopers, the Admiral’s Cup has special meaning. It was the most significant international team competition in offshore racing. First staged in 1957 it finally ran out of puff in 2003 and hasn’t been held since. The shellbacks who raced on the Solent all those decades ago still tell stories of having to anchor against the rushing tides or risk going sideways – or backwards.

To their great credit, the Royal Ocean Racing Club in the UK is determined to resurrect the event next year. They have now issued an amended “pre-NoR” and appointed an advisory committee drawn from distinguished sailors and officials around the world.

Not surprisingly, everyone seems to have an opinion about how the re-born Cup – often tagged as “the unofficial world championship of offshore racing” – should be run. 

There is no doubt the sport has changed enormously since its origins. Ratings regimes have changed, yacht design and construction have changed, sailing at the elite level is now dominated by professionals. We can’t turn back the clock but any major championship should be mindful of its own history and reflect the spirit of those traditions. At best this becomes a happy blend of the old and the new.

The overall shape and format of the original Admiral’s Cup has been retained: international teams competing in a series of offshore races culminating in the Fastnet. The differences are now in the details which are, presumably, open for discussion and debate until the final NoR is published. 

To my mind, these are the key points of difference to consider:

Originally the competition was between three-boat teams representing their home nations. The proposal for Admiral’s Cup 2025 is for two-boat teams sailing for their club or country.

Originally there was an opening overnighter from Cowes to France and back, followed by two solid day races in the Solent, then the Fastnet as the finale. Now, the first three days of the program are to include five windward/leeward races, plus two “around the cans”.

The nominated IRC rating bands are for one boat in the 1.280-1.464 range and the other within 1.100-1.276. Those bands seem rather narrow and are probably aimed at class types currently popular on the Northern Hemisphere regatta circuit. 

The early Admiral’s Cups established a general principle that each team should have a large, medium, and small boat. That broadened the opportunities for participation and limited the risk of conditions unfairly favoring one type of yacht. There have already been suggestions that the Cup should extend the proposed rating range and return to three-boat teams. Perhaps the “small” rating band could be reserved for the increasingly popular two-handers.

Although they are to be low-scoring races, the five windward/leewards are a significant departure. The Admiral’s Cup was conceived as a test of ocean sailing. A boat designed to excel in windward/leeward sprints on flat water is unlikely to also be an appropriate yacht to tackle a long, hard Fastnet race. Conversely, a genuinely well-found offshore boat won’t be truly competitive in short windward/leeward races. 

Nationality was the distinguishing feature of the Cup from its earliest years – the honor of sailing for your country. To now allow teams representing clubs seems an unnecessary dilution of the event’s special stature. 

The Cup has been won nine times by England (local knowledge helps), and three times by Germany, the US, and Australia. Those tend to be the victories that are best remembered. If more than three boats seek to compete in 2025 then there is no reason not to form multiple national teams – ‘Italy Red’, ‘Italy Blue’, and so on. The home club (or clubs) of individual yachts is surely irrelevant.

There is still plenty of time to negotiate these issues. The first race isn’t until July 19 next year – 17 months away. Let’s hope the international yachting community gets behind this new version of what was once a splendid event – and can be again. 

 – anarchist David