From the Feedback - 19/03/01

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.

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From George Conk.
BT Global Challenge,The toughest race in the world? One of the worst ideas in the world of sailing. Wrong way. Wrong way to raise a crew. The right way is hard enough. Fortunately the boats seem to be worthy of the challenge. The hyperbole that sells it is its fatal flaw. Sail it the right way next time. It will still be exciting, and will turn amateurs into veterans at less risk to life and limb.

From Peter Morton.
Admiral's Cup. Just to correct a few statements. There are three IC 45s in the USA. One in Newport ( Heatwave) one in California (ex Rush) and one on the Great Lakes. If the gentleman from Canada would like one please contact Farr International as there are boats for sale. As for the IC 45 only being in south Europe, there are five owned by Brits, and one Swedish boat and a German boat owned by Mr Kandler raced for Germany last year in the OTC. The owners decided to race there over the winter and had three fantastic well-supported regattas in Palma. Five boats are currently on their way back to the Solent. The IC 45 owners decided to control their own class and that is the reason Farr International does not run that class as it does with the Farr 40 and Mumm 30. My comments on this site regarding the US not attending was in no way critical of anyone in the States but was simply refuting Ken Morrison's suggestion that if the IMS had been left in there would have been a US team, despite the fact there has not been a US IMS 50 built since Idler in 1998, a period of unprecedented wealth growth in the world's richest country.

From Herb.
Admiral's Cup. Regarding the latest Admiral's Cup debacle: It's interesting that the same decisions by the RORC that Mr. Gorman calls "brave" were described by some at the time (including Bruce Farr) as "ill-advised". Is the erstwhile American team really the villain here or is this just the end result of a long series of decisions based on short-sighted politics? If nobody comes to your party, whose fault is that? You can't blame teams for not wanting to put in a huge investment in time, travel and money to race a charter boat they have no experience in. There is plenty of competition for sailing dollars right now. IC 45's? Sydney 40's? Who even races these boats, and who will next year? Although the ORC is primarily to blame for IMS exclusion from the Admiral's Cup (remember Krazy K-yote), it wasn't so badly broken that the situation couldn't have been fixed with active involvement from the RORC. Ironically, the RORC's overwhelming psychological need to finally put the stake in the heart of IMS in favour of IRM has doomed their own event; at least for this year. Face it, the RORC blew it.

From Talbot Wilson.
Admiral's Cup. Are four nations really enough? To keep the prestige of the event, the minimum should be five "first string" national challenges. Country group challenges should only be allowed after the quality of the event has been established. What countries have challenged according to the rules set forth in the NOR? From the Admiral's Cup NOR... 4 CHALLENGES. A National Team challenge shall be made by an ISAF National Authority which shall not challenge more than once. A Country Group challenge shall be made as directed by the Management Committee. Every challenge shall be lodged in writing on or before 2nd April 2001 ....Late challenges may be accepted at the discretion of the RORC.

From EW Cook.
Admiral's Cup. When I was racing in the 70s in the U.S., we had the SORC, Block Island, Newport-Bermuda, and the Mack races on Lake Michigan. However, nothing could compare with the Admiral's Cup or for that matter Cowes Week or the Fastnet. My mates and I cast-off the lines for the owner/founder of Sparcraft, as he began his personal delivery of the radically-designed sloop,Terrorist, to the U.K. from Ft. Lauderdale in the spring of 1974. The only extraordinary thing about this effort was that he was involved in the delivery. The idea that if one really was serious about racing then you got your boat to England for the spring and summer RORC regattas, made perfect sense. Alas our sailing world seems to have moved on and it saddens and frustrates a great many of us on both sides of the Pond.

From Wafer Danos.
Parlier - a true mariner? Forget your Michel Desjoyeauxs and Ellen MacArthurs, this guy is the real winner.We often hear that it's the taking part that counts and Parlier has just proved that. An inspiration to all - not just sailors or sportsmen but his determination and ingenuity should inspire us all to greater things.

From RW Haye
Parlier - a true mariner? Yep. For me, Parlier is the real hero of this round the world sailing bonanza of the last couple of months. A winner of sorts as he defeated the odds by not giving up, sorting out his damaged boat within the rules of the Vendee and continuing till the end. Unlike Grant Dalton's 3-man army on Club Med, this man had to sort it all out himself.

From Mike Ahrenberg
Parlier - a true mariner? It is unbelievable how some people just have the strength to go on. I can understand Yves' way of thinking, but he must be pretty certain that there's nothing he can't fix. In this case building singlehanded a new rig. (...and I'm not convinced he had all the necessary tools at hand...!) That's called intuition and inventiveness. Good thing he's back from the sea, a very strong performance. I wish him all the best.

From Walter Bostwick
Parlier - true mariner? Yves Parlier is a classic sailor, "true mariner" is an almost perfect term to describe him. His exploits have improved the image of the entire Vendee Globe, and in fact, professional sailing. In an age where the flown-in "rock star" may scarcely know how to navigate, much less repair the boat, Yves has shown what a "real racing sailor" can do in a pinch.

From Clive
The best jury rig ever? Yes, Great technical skill and drive. No crying over spilt milk here. No babies here. Maybe Dalton should go down(up) and talk to him about being French. By the way, remind Dalton that Jan Dekker is not Anglo-Saxon but Dutch, hence the name. Anyway great spirit Yves and great pictures from NZ by Thiery Martinez.

From Sarah Allan.
What weight limit, if any, should they impose? If they do not introduce a weight limit it will exclude the majority of girls from even considering an Olympic campaign in the Yngling. If they do introduce a weight limit they destroy an already established excellent mixed sailing fleet. With such a golden opportunity to have introduced a new Olympic class for girls, which is a boat designed for girls, it seems such a shame that politics prevented this from ever being the case. Given that we are faced with a fait accompli situation for the women's Olympic regatta, a weight limit must be set; again you only have to consider Jo's comments about countries where the women are much smaller than in some western countries. I believe that 195/200 kg is a fairer weight as it is an average of 65 kilos per girl, allowing both smaller and larger girls the opportunity to team up together with realistic prospects of doing well. However, I believe the mixed fleet should not have a weight limit imposed. Another issue which has not been mentioned, but I have heard is true, is that the boat is also more suited for taller girls, in particular for the bow person. As a five foot two bow girl, I would find myself struggling in a boat designed for taller men; or more to the point I would have to get on the foredeck to gybe the pole rather than doing it standing in the boat. I would be interested to hear if this is true?

From Simon Smith.
What weight limit, if any, should they impose? In the guys' classes, the Laser is for smaller people and the Finn for the larger. Are the girls wanting the Yngling for the same sized people as sail Europes? What chance then for the bigger girl? The Olympic committee picked the class, let them have it the way the class association has designed it. If they wanted a weight limit, they should have picked a more international boat like the J-22 that has a class weight limit.

From Duncan.
What do you think about The Race? It's a great shame that Pete Goss never got to the start line and we have Tony Bullimore representing us. What an embarrassment. Ellen MacAarther sailed faster and she was in a monohull and on her own. This type of poor sailing doesn't do British sailors any favours in the future when trying to secure sponsorship. Thank god for Ellen and the Olympic sailors.

From Mark Homer. (Editor's note: these are the last we are going to publish on the K-6 for now).
Will the K-6 clean up? I for one awaited the K-6 with baited breath, and I was disapointed. I had hoped for a larger boat - one that you could actually move about in without knee pads; there's more room in a 505. I had hoped that the large gap at the small end of performance keelboat racing would have been filled, ie I would want something with the peformance of a Melges coupled with a three-up crew in a boat generously sized for this size of crew max weight 250 kgs-ish. Why? I would like to take part in keelboat regattas which are normally plentiful and lots of sponsorship/hospitality. After all we do sail for fun on and off the water.