Peter Bentley is still getting in the neck...

From Andrew McLelland
What do you think the women are up to? Warm cabin, broken cooker, perhaps the bodies are on deck and the cooker has been converted to a heater! I don't believe that there is anyway that an all women crew can compete in these particular boats against an all male crew. Unless someone custom builds the boat for people weighing 60-80 KG and not 75-100 KG then there is no hope. Having said the above, if the boat is custom built then it is going to be inherently slower in any case unless the rule allows extra water ballast for the lighter crew. This just shows how well Ellen MacArthur did! Nothing will sufficiently compensate lard on the rail!

From Sarah Allen
What's your view on Amer Sports Too's performance? Due to time I have only just had a chance to write my opinion on Peter Bentley's article on Amer Sports Too. I have also had a chance to briefly look at Susie Westmacott's article but I have chosen not to read it in full - but I agree with her that Peter Bentley's article is scathing. I believe that the fundamental problem which the women have is the Volvo 60 itself, and until that changes an all women crew are always going to be at a disadvantage.

The boats require brute strength and force to get the best out of them and until they are modified or the class becomes open again that is not going to happen. As a result of the type of boat and the fact that it is very hard for women to do well it creates a problem in attracting sponsors because sponsors do not want to support a campaign which is going to be a wet fish (not to mention when they can support women sailors with more realistic goals). So immediately, and in spite of Lisa Charles' efforts to get sponsorship a long time ago the money never came forward and again they had to make do with taking up on a last minute opportunity to realise their ambitions.

Now this does lead to a question - Dawn Riley's America 3 put together a very competitive America's cup campaign - so why can the women not do it in the Volvo race? The answer to that is one can recruit very strong rowers/rugby players from other sports to become grinders but you cannot, in a very short period of time with limited resources, just recruit the women with that level of strength to sail in the Southern Ocean. To acquire that sort of skill takes years.

The other factor that makes it difficult to put together the best crew is a lot of the best women sailors would rather do well in the events which are more suiting to their abilities - such as the Mini Transat, Transat Jacques Vabre or the Vendee Globe; where physical capability is not the be all and end all. And this leads me to consider Peter Bentley's point about the likes of Shirley Robertson's success - which was in an all-women class in a boat which suits her height/weight etc and therefore one in which she can win. On a personal level with the summer off to go sailing I decided to crew at the 400 Nationals for a bit of a laugh knowing we were underweight.

As well as we sailed and as much effort as I put in an RS 400 is a boat heavier boys with brute strength and we were accordingly uncompetitive in spite of all efforts. However, back to racing yachts. A development which I think should have occurred but has not among Volvo boats is mixed teams. From an outsider's perspective it seems that this is for some reason a taboo (the only exception I know being Tracy Edwards a very long time ago and she fought for it?).

In short if the boats are not going to be changed then this can really be the only way for women to compete in this race on an equal footing - is with them. Personally, I have only ever raced on big boats as part of a mixed team; indeed on Exabyte 2 we were four girls out of a 12 man crew and we had a good race. Indeed it is often acknowledged women are better spinnaker trimmers because they have better concentration but we need the strength of a man on the grinder to get the most out of the boat.

So finally in response to Peter Bentley's article I do not think the girls have been lounging around at all and their achievements in the time span have been commendable. Although I would say that making the mistake of sailing in the shipping channel off Cape Town is unexcusable. However at this point I would like to comment on PB's words about navigator's spending all of their time cooking instead of navigating. Nutrition and good food is

1. essential fuel to keep going in the Southern Ocean
2. good for moral when things are not going so well. Furthermore, I cannot possibly imagine that they ever assumed that their comments would be interpretated in such a fashion and taken so seriously. Perhaps next time while in the Southern Ocean they will concentrate more on their PR than their nutrition!

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