From the Feedback - 10th October 2000

The article you've all been waiting for, the one you get to write ...

Those of you who have been hitting those question links at the bottom of each page and telling us what you think about life, the madforsailing universe and everything, have probably been wondering what happened to it all. Well, we've been storing it up for a rainy day, and they don't get much rainier than yesterday on the south coast.
This is the first of our From the Feedback compilations, which we hope - quantity and quality of your effort's willing - will be a regular feature of this website. Anyone can join in, all you have to do is click on the blue question link at the bottom of each article, or hit the My Feedback button at the top of every page.

So tell us what you think, and don't feel you have to wait for us or someone else to get around to a topic. If something is steaming you up in your class, club or pub - let us know. We'll be publishing the choicest moments from the stuff you send us - but each contribution may or may not be subjected to a rigorous process of editing for language, taste and imparted wisdom.

And of course, as they so famously say at the start of anything like this, the opinions expressed in From the Feedback do not necessarily reflect those of the management, staff or investors of madforsport.com. Instead and much more importantly, they reflect your views. And perhaps unsurprisingly, what's really concerning people at the moment is Team Philips. Our poll has been creeping towards the conclusion that she may not, after all, be a record breaker nearly as inexorably as you concluded that this was indeed the best British Olympic team ever. Go to it ...

(Sorry if we got some names wrong, but on some of them we were guessing from the email addresses you gave us. Oh, and if you didn't leave any kind of name, you didn't make the cut - no one gets to hide behind anonymity, though I guess you could hide behind a false name, if you were that kind of low, scheming ...)

From B Nicholls

What is all the excitement about with Team Philips? This is an absolute disaster for all the serious yachting campaigns that ever want to obtain sponsorship in the UK. I sincerely hope I am proven wrong, however I doubt this will be the case. All along this seems to be a challenge destined for failure. To start with I understand the designer has never designed a boat before .... (editor - he has, but not one like this, there again, who has designed a boat like this before?) if this is the case, why has nobody helped steer the effort in the right direction? I witnessed the Queen launching the boat at Tower Bridge and could not help struggling to see how the stresses and strains both the hull and rig will be under could ever be upheld by the structure before my eyes. It may look sexy, but can it handle the pace? The current track record would strongly suggest not ... a broken hull and a broken mast foot after sea trials in the shelter of the English Channel! Yacht designers around the globe must be quietly enjoying this procession of mishaps. If I were a crew member I would not be relishing the prospect of sailing around the world in Team Philips at this moment in time. I would be concentrating my efforts on ensuring the life rafts are in suitable places for a quick bail out! I genuinely hope I am proven wrong, but these guys have seriously got their work cut out and I wish them the best of luck.....

From Paul Butler

From day one I have been a little sceptical of the wave piercing hull form. We have tried spinnakers on Nacra 6.0's in the past, which have fine and deep hulls, and it is a problem to bear away in a gust i.e. sail to apparent wind, as the hulls want to track in a straight line. The only answer is for the crew to work like mad trimming the kite to suit the wind. Now we sail the Morrelli/Melvin designed Inter 20, they also did PlayStation, and the hulls skim over the waves, so altering course to suit the apparent wind is a doddle! Hence, the Inter 20 can be crewed by a Girlie and the Nacra 6.0 needs a gorilla! This will be the difference between Philips and PlayStation/Club Med on The Race. The Philips boys will be working twice as hard on sail trim as the others - if they don't rip the rudders off by then. But they are British so let's hope that I am just a Jonah.

From Jim Hopton

At this moment The Race should be put back three months. If it starts on time, I think it will be very unlikely that any of these cats are going to make the full distance. These are beautiful boats, we all want to see them in a head-to-head race where they can all go flat out in the confident knowledge that they can stand up to the conditions. At the moment the tortoise is most likely to win as it will be the only one still running. The worst thing that could happen is another Southern Ocean disaster.

From Mark R Barnes

Thoughts on Team Philips. The only aspect that I wonder about is the amount of weight added to the fore-part, generating pitching moment in relation to reserve buoyancy available before the cat will drive in hard - possibly lifting the rudders and canards clear of the water or even worse. It definitely will be an exciting ride no matter how successful it is. I wish them the best of luck.

From Jennie King

Yachtsman of the Year? I'd vote for the girls in the 420 who recently won at La Rochelle beating all the other teams. A real shot in the arm for the women, after all the bad press about women and double-handers being off the pace. Keep it up, girls!

From Jo Grindley

Katie Archer - Young Sailor of the Year. Best female showing in the Laser Radials ever at the Nationals and Open Youth Worlds, first at each event. Shows great promise for the future.

From Nigel Hufton

Well done, UK sailors! I did think it was the best team we've ever had, but you've surpassed my expectations! Fantastic! I just hope you can come back for Athens. I also hope there is the funding for you to continue to sail dinghy/dayboat classes, which has clearly made all the difference. I can understand the pressure to go and earn a living sailing, which presumably means sailing big boats full-time. However, I think there is a danger that will reduce our chances next time. Also, while I would love to see more Brits in big boat events such as the Volvo Ocean Race, Admiral's Cup, Tour de Voile etc., personally I think it would be a shame if dinghy sailors are forced to go America's Cup racing to make a living. While I'm not against big boat sailors wanting to support an America's Cup campaign, I don't think the RYA should divert funds and Olympic talent to it - this would be detrimental to our Olympic hopes, which are so much more relevant and important to sailing than the 'Auld Mug' is.

From Chris Forrest

More of the same in terms of preparation for medals. As your interview shows, John Derbyshire's approach was as near perfect as makes no odds. The best prepared team at the Olympics. The next challenge is to harness the momentum and take it out into a PR and recruitment exercise for the sport. We obviously need to persuade the BBC that sailing can be a great television sport. They avoided it as much as possible assuming it would be box office poison. They need to understand that, as Ben Ainslie showed, it is 'chess in a wetsuit'! We also need to bring more people into sailing both as participators and as spectators at things like the 18ft skiffs. Hopefully the RYA will put in place a programme of 'meet the medal winners' and send out our heroes on a 'meet and inspire' exercise that reaches beyond just dinners at sailing clubs.