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Some heated debate on the Commodore's Cup, sailor classifications and Graham Dalton's qualification

Following our publication of Peter Morton's views on the Commodore's Cup we have received correspondence from a number of you... Former RORC Main Committee member and weather advisor to the English Commodore's Cup team, Mike Broughton kicks off:

Having watched the Commodore's Cup closely from the sidelines and conducted an analysis of the results, I would like to wholeheartedly endorse Peter Morton's view on the event. Unfortunately, a poorly selected course for the offshore race (sending the boats towards the area of no wind) distorted the results and, with the absence of rating bands, had a dramatic effect on the overall outcome of the regatta.

Congratulations to the French team who sailed well to win, but RORC Commodore Peter Rutter comments that the British crews have a "way to go to get up to a true international level. They have now seen the international teams and can choose whether to go on and take it further or decide if they are happy racing around the Solent at that level" demonstrate a rather large detachment from the achievements of British sailors both at home and abroad in offshore and inshore events in recent years.

On Mandrake alone, there were several current and ex world champions in highly competitive classes such as the Farr 40 and successful Volvo Ocean Race sailors in the likes of Gerry Mitchell, Tim Powell, Steve Hayles and Stuart Childerley.

Peter Rutter quotes Gerry Trentesaux team as "the pinnacle which we should be attaining and I hope the British crews will pick up the challenge". Less than a year ago, Mr Trentesaux's team sailed in the Farr 40 World Championships and managed 16th behind seven British teams - was that due to bad luck or the fact that it was a one design regatta and that ratings were not such a key issue?!

If anyone in Britain has their finger on the pulse of racing in big keelboats then it is 'Morty' and RORC need to read Morty's comments closely and take heed and not discard them, merely because he 'tells it straight' and does not dress it up in the right flowery diplomatic language.

Fellow navigator Steve Hayles had this to say:

My own experience of this year's Commodores' Cup was limited to the offshore race (which to be totally open I sailed with Peter on Mandrake). I have not discussed the event with him to any great extent but I do independantly, wholeheartedly back almost all of what Morty has said.

The offshore course was a great surprise to me when it came over the radio an hour before the start, especially given the forecast and tidal situation. I know that I am not alone in thinking this from comments prior to the race from others on the dock. In reality any race in which the results so closely follow the rating list must be 'unfair' whether it favours big or small boats. We all understand that the weather does and should play a large part in deciding the outcome of any race especially an offshore and this can lead to difficulties in setting the course.

One thing that can defintely be taken into account is the tidal situation. You will never convince me that finishing at either end of the Solent in a very large tide is a sensible thing to do and as the IRC is a time on time rating system everything must be done to ensure that the finishing leg be sailed in as little tide as possible as the results are very much controlled by the speed at which the fleet finish after the first boats on the water.

I have not seen any 'mark rounding' corrected times but I wouldn't mind betting that the results are massively different at each mark which points towards a course that in some way or another will always favour one end of the fleet. I was amazed as we rounded the penultimate 'leeward' mark outside the Solent to find an RORC committee boat in the vicinity and yet they did not finish the race. It was blatantly obvious that we were going to get to the next mark less than 2 miles away and have to kedge for an extended period. We all accept that we will need to do this from time to time but when it can be avoided and such a massive tidal gate prevented, without greatly changing the length of the course then it must be for the good of the event especially when the offshore carries such a high factor.

A finish in Christchurch Bay by a committee boat would have been far more sensible all round and the weather forecast always pointed towards more wind to the west of the island. Even if a few sailors had come ashore thinking that the race was on the short side it is preferable to a large majority thinking that it was a complete lottery!

Peter Rutter's viewpoint that British sailors have some work to do to compete offshore is both untrue and indicative of how little I think these guys really follow what happens in the rest of the events worldwide. On Mandrake for an example we had people onboard like Tim Powell and Gerry Mitchell who have completed six Volvo races between them and along with the likes of Stuart Childerly and Peter Morton took on a very large French and International contingent to win the Tour de Voile a couple of years back. There was a great breadth of British talent throughout the fleet and many of the boats were very well sailed by hugely experienced UK offshore sailors and a number of up and coming stars.

I would be very happy to compete against the winning French team in any other reggatta with almost any of the UK sailors present and very confident that they most defintely would not enjoy the runaway success that they did here. If the offshore race had finished one mark earlier the whole thing would have been an awful lot closer and that really is the point. Should one leg of less than ten miles in an offshore race have such a huge bearing on the overall team result of a week long regatta?

I do think that a battle of words is of use to anybody here but I very genuinely would turn his comments around and suggest that the race organisers within RORC have much to learn from overseas event organisers about how to run these important championships. I have never heard a bad word said about the Tour de Voile amongst sailors that have competed in it and this is largely due to the very adaptive and understanding committee that very much take into account conditions and are happy to change course lengths, schedules and the course itself to keep the racing fair.

I thouroughly enjoy racing in the English Channel and the Solent and have competed in some fantastic RORC run events in the area over the years but I can't help thinking that for the rest of this year and into next, we as sailors, will be looking forward to getting to a number of overseas championships? It would be interesting to hear more viewpoints here as I do believe that both sailors and organisers have a joint responsibilty to 'steer' these events in the right direction and the good news is that we are not talking about difficult to solve issues here. There are lots of other issues such as which measurement and rating system to use which to be fair I do not really understand but after those choices have been made I would like to compete on well thought out courses that give everybody the best chance possible to get the result they deserve.

You heard the man - let's have your views

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