New man at the top

The Daily Sail talks to Chris Little, Commodore of the Royal Ocean Race Club

The Daily Sail hooks up with Chris Little a stone's throw from London's Trafalgar Square at the offices of Century Group plc of which he is Chairman.

Little was ushered in as the Royal Ocean Racing Club's new Commodore at their AGM last October following a stint on the RORC Committee as Rear Admiral. "I did take some time to consider, because I think it is a large commitment," Little says. "It is a three year term and if you are going to do it you have to commit yourself to the job."

Little has raced dinghies and yachts all his life and is a familiar face in racing circles both in the Solent and the Mediterranean where he has campaigned a series of race boats, all of them named Bounder. One of his most successful was his Beneteau 45F5. He then raced a Melges 24 at the time when there was uncertainty over the racing rule and is currently owner of an IC45 which until recently was kept in the Mediterranean. His yachts have won RORC Yacht of the Year twice and a Silk Cut award jointly with Sunstone.

Now the IC45 Bounder is back in the UK - adhering to the unwritten rule that the Commodore must take part in his club's races - and on Friday competed in the de Guingand Bowl across to St Vaast, finishing fourth across the line, third in IRM1 and fifth in IRC Zero. Little says that Bounder will be taking part in the RORC program this year, including the Fastnet and some of the offshore races.

Little is keenly aware that although RORC have a number of very historic events, some may not be catering for what the racing fraternity and in particular RORC members want. In a previous role at as chair of RORC's Program and Race committee he set up a questionaire to establish what type of racing RORC members want. Those questionnaires are currently being analysed and Little says they will adapt forthcoming RORC programs to suit.

"I think the pressures on time today are very different from that which they were a few years ago and people really have to return to the office," he says. "The offshore racing remains extremely popular but there is also a continued move towards windward-leeward weekend racing. Then perhaps it is appropriate that we try and arrange to go back to longer offshore races but fewer of them and that is the program we are working on at the moment - to see what people want and whether we can meet those needs."

108 boats taking part in this weekend's de Guingand Bowl would indicate that the 'classic' RORC events are still hitting the mark. "The entries are still up and very good for the traditional racing," agrees Little. "I think there’s been some comments that what we are organising is ‘along the shore’ racing rather than offshore. And the disappearance of some of the buoys hasn’t helped."

The Daily Sail feels that there is a slight misnoma with the O in RORC's title. This is no fault of the club's but indicative of the change in ocean racing as it stands today compared to the halcyon days of the Fastnet, Sydney-Hobart and Bermuda Race. Today when round the world races and record attempts are almost commonplace coming in every flavour - singlehanded or fully crewed, westabout or eastabout, paying or professional - using the word 'Ocean' in reference to the RORC calendar seems to be stretching the truth. Perhaps Royal Offshore Racing Club would be more accurate.

Little points out that the Volvo Ocean Race is still run under RORC's auspices (as is the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) but admits, "the races have tended to become shorter. When perhaps you and I started racing in our youth, if we didn’t get back on Monday it didn’t really matter. There were no telephones. No way of communicating. You just turned up."
Generally around the world the classic 'ocean' races such as the Sydney-Hobart have seen entries dropping off. One theory told to us in Sydney was that this was because it was now "too difficult to enter", following the introduction of new safety rules such as half the crew having to have attended a safety course. RORC's Rolex Fastnet Race in contrast seems to be bucking this trend still attracting a large entry with 220 boats competing in 2001.

For this year's Fastnet, RORC are also taking on board lessons learned from the CYCA's experience with the Hobart race and they too will be requiring that more than half the crew attend an RYA safety course. "I think we are in a litigious age and so we have to be more cautious," says Little. "But I also think we should be more aware."

In July last year RORC introduced an amendment to the General Conditions of its Racing Rules and Regulations stipulating that harnesses and lifejackets must be worn at night, when alone on deck, when reefed, when the true wind speed is above 25 knots or when the visibility is less than one nautical mile. Little says the value of this rule proved itself during the Red Funnel Easter regatta when six crew fell overboard.

Admiral's Cup

With the Admiral's Cup being cancelled in 2001, then being reinvented as a new event to be held in Ireland and then being rushed back to Cowes, clearly the outcome of this July's event will be crucial.

"When the Admiral’s Cup didn’t take place on the last occasion, two years ago, there was a group from RORC set up to review it," says Little. "Some of the criteria we came up with were to make it a transportable event to improve the attractiveness of it and also make it Clubs rather than MMAs. Those are two things which will make it survive."

There is a theory among some quarters that team events have become outmoded, hence the reason so many of the classic events of this type such as the Southern Cross series have disappeared.

"They have fallen by the wayside because they haven’t adapted to modern needs and pressures," maintains Little. "There is a lot of talk about what owners want. One of the things we want to do at the Admiral’s Cup is to try and find out first hand what it is that they want to have." He harks back to early Admiral's Cup and wonders if they haven't lost something since. "If you go back to the origins of the original Admiral’s Cup they were held within in Cowes. For me part of the attraction as a youngster was being on the same start line as the Admiral’s Cup boats and sailing around the Solent with them."

It is interesting to note that the Offshore Racing Council are now attempting to revitalise the Sardinia Cup, stepping into the Admiral's Cup's old shoes as the primary international event for national teams (see our interview with ORC President Bruno Finzi here).

At present the 2003 Admiral's Cup has four teams from the UK, two from Spain, one from Australia, France and New Zealand. Teams from Holland and Greece are also anticipated as is a second from Australia.

So if Spain win it - does this mean that the event will be held in Spain in 2005? "I don’t think it would necessarily go where the winner is," says Little. "But it would be a transportable event so that could be a possibility. Certainly it would be good to hold it in the Mediterranean. There are certain advantages to sailing there."

RORC are still looking for a title sponsor for the event. Possibly this will be made easier since the announcement that King Juan-Carlos of Spain will be racing in the second Spanish team. "Obviously with the economic cycle we are in it has been difficult gaining sponsorship. RORC has been fortunate with Corum and Rolex and Red Funnel and the likes of those remaining with us. But to get new sponsorship has been proving very hard. It is still seen as an elite sport in the UK," says Little. "I am hopeful that the America’s Cup will stimulate that. I also hope that we’ll get an upturn in the economic cycle, but I think that might be a little optimistic at the moment!"


New grand prix rule

One factor which will have a profound affect on the future of the Admiral's Cup in years to come is the possible new grand prix rule currently being researched by the Rules Working Party.

The Daily Sail looked at this extensively at the prospects for this new rule last month (see our interviews with the working party's Stuart Quarrie, pro-IRM designer Jason Ker, IRM Class President Stephanie Merry and ORC President Bruno Finzi here).

The first meeting was held in Annapolis and a second is scheduled to take place this month in Hamburg now that the official working party's questionaire has been disseminated ( click here to download a .pdf of it).

From a personal point of view - and as someone who has raced his boats both under IRM/IRC and IMS - Little says he has never been a great supporter of IMS. "An IRM-type system has worked well and it has produced boats that are fun to sail. And an IC45 is that type of boat. I’ve had a lot of fun racing it. So I like easily driven boats that are fast. And that is what we are trying to promote. And interestingly I think that is the sort of boat that is being developed around the world now - the new type of Farr boats which are coming out."

While IRC and IMS both work well as general purpose handicap systems, neither are well suited to creating a grand prix rule, but Little stresses that a grand prix rule will only be for the top echelon of boats. "So we don’t want to get carried away. IRC is a great system, and it works well, but it won’t take the pressure of racing boats."

The limitations of IRC has been highlighted recently by the rating of the Australian Admiral's Cup big boat, Wild Oats, a Reichel/Pugh design fitted with a swing keel. "It was given an IRC rating last year for racing in Australia and that rating will be adjusted this year because it was too generous and the designers have found that the boats have outsailed their polars."

Quite when RORC will be able to benefit from the new rule for the Admiral's Cup is up in the air. Little thinks that although the rule will be ready before the 2005 Admiral's Cup there won't be boats built in time for it. Then the schedule for the 2007 event may be shifted to avoid clashing with the America's Cup.

Little has become Commodore of RORC at a time when it needs both a strong hand on the tiller to ensure that the waivering Admiral's Cup gets back onto a stable footing and as well as someone with knowledge of the international racing scene with a potential new international grand prix rule in the offing. He would seem to be both these things.

Will the Admiral's Cup be a success this year? What are your views about the potential new Grand Prix rule? Is one needed and if so what should it achieve? Click here to send us an email or here (and scroll down) to open a message box.