Your feedback

Slow or unlucky? I must say that I find Peter Bentley´s reasoning about the eventual slowness of the Davidson design being a typical journalistic attempt at finding a story where there is none. I must say that it is refreshing to see two teams sailing boats from non-Farr design houses. The difference today in sailed distance between the leader illbruck and the last boat djuice is 6.5 per cent. Everybody who has any experience racing offshore or inshore knows that such a difference between first and last is astonishingly small, even if we were talking about a high level one-design class. It would be nice if Peter the next time wrote about this aspect. Keep up the good work, djuice, I am sure that the luck will turn in your favour. The fact that both the Frers and the Davidson designs are in this race is promising for the future. The sport of sailing needs development work regarding the instrument used, the boat. If all teams were to use Farr designs, for the sake of the sport the teams could just as well sail Westerly Consorts.

Peter Bentley Replies
It's great that our readers are taking such a keen interest in the Volvo Ocean Race and I agree with Thomas that it's good to see boats from other designers than Farr. I must however take issue with his comments on the time difference. 6.5 per cent is a big gap in ocean racing terms, and all the more so in a highly competitive one-design or box-rule fleet. To put this into perspective it is interesting to note that the winning yacht in the main (IMS handicap) division of the Sydney - Hobart Race has had a margin of between 0.2 and 3.0 percent over the past five years. This year's Fastnet race winner in IRC had a winning margin of 0.5 percent. I fully expect the winning margin on every leg of the Volvo Ocean Race to be less than 1.0 percent. A 6.5 percent difference in distance covered therefore represents a huge margin. For the sake of djuice and the race, let's hope the boys in pink can get going on the next leg.

From P Murrey
Will the new block arrangements change Laser sailing? I bought a new Laser 4.7 last year with all Ainslie cordage for my daughter. The new gear will certainly be a big improvement because current set-up has often too much friction for young sailors. However, expense - particularly in the light of current pricing practices of single supplier, is worrying. But more important changes to make the boat better and more affordable are beefed-up top-mast and decent sail-cloth. I appreciate single supplier has a nice line in short-lived sails and masts, but given unique status of Laser the threat of referral to EU competition authorities might work wonders.

From Ken Lewis
Holiday??? I really got a charge out of Nick Pearson's article, not just what he was saying but the spirit in which he wrote it. I hope the whole crew feels like this. I know it takes more than spirit to win on ACC boats but it certainly goes a long way. I just hope that spirit stays with them when they get into the Dennis Conner-type sniping and backstabbing that the unfortunate few bring with them. It undid the NZ crew in San Diego when racing Cayard. As for holiday, like the man said, what would we all give to have a job like that.

From Ian Flint
Fingers crossed? PlayStatio, due to history, needs a fair amount of luck combined with seamanship and favourable weather conditions to achieve her goal. Undoubtedly she has the ability to smash the record and also the 24 hour record.Steve is arguably the worlds most elite and determined adventurer, considering the state of 'play'. Good Luck.

From Jamie Mawson
How were the Inlands for the 300s? Brilliant! I had only ever done one RS event previously, and have only had the boat two months. I cannot understand why more people do not sail this awesome boat - great organisation, good racing, friendly competitors and exciting to sail. Seriously, it is nowhere near as hard as it looks, if you are a half-decent Laser sailor you will master it quickly. And for the price of a new Laser (without trolley, cover etc) you can have a 1-2 year old RS300 with trailer ready to go incredibly fast.

From Robert Biegler
What chance of Britain regaining the outright speed record? That seems to depend mostly on Jon Howes. The main problem in extending speed beyond the current record is cavitation, especially when only the forward or aft foils cavitate and the boat spins out of control. Howes says he can deal with that problem by first having only one foil and second ventilating the foil. This is well described on the Guardian web pages Two other teams have more conventional designs that look like they will be fast, but if they have a solution to the cavitation problem, they are not saying. And without such a solution they will have a hard time going faster than Yellow Pages. It seems Bootiful has been in the water for a while, but I haven't heard of her making a record attempt. Jon Howes and the Sailrocket team are at the end of the model testing stage, with boat building imminent or having started. Things may get very interesting in a year or two.

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