Extreme 40 class to hold their first World Championship

Cat guru Mitch Booth tells of a new more conventional race to be held out of Portoroz this summer

Based in Spain and sailing for the Netherlands, Australian Mitch Booth, aka Mr Catamaran, is set to have a busy 2010 in Europe. After ducking out of the Extreme 40 Sailing Series, which he originally created with Herbert Dercksen, he returned last year, taking over the helm of BT when Darren Bundock was injured and then moved back to his old position as helmsman on the Holmatro Extreme 40.

This year Booth returns to the Extreme Sailing Series with a new team this time from Slovenia, which like Oman Sail may feature two boats – the second, if it happens, featuring an all-women’s crew. More about this project is to be announced in the near future, however another interesting development that he can expand on and that also heralds from Slovenia and the Ocean Racing Club - from where his campaign originates - is the prospect of the first ever Extreme 40 World Championship.

At the ISAF Annual meeting in November the Extreme 40 received official blessing and is now an ISAF-sanctioned ‘international class’ with all the trimmings, including the prospect of holding said Championship.

“I think it is about time,” says the Tornado Olympic veteran. “The class has 20 boats now and there are people that can afford the boats that don’t want to come to the Extreme Sailing Series, but they just like the boat because it is a fast day racer. So I think it is the right time to start to have a World Championship.”

This getting the final green light is just around the corner says Booth, but significantly the format for this event - which is to take place over 13-18 July in Portoroz in Slovenia (where we visited the RC44s last year) - will be along the lines of a more typical regatta, rather than the ultra-short course, see the whites of the crews eyes from land-style of the Extreme Sailing Series, which Booth originally created with Herbert Dercksen prior to the 2005-6 Volvo Ocean Race.

“It will be back to the conventional pure sailing event,” says Booth of the new event. “So a little more open water with much longer courses and opportunities for speed as well as tactics. I think the sailors will enjoy that because it is such a contrast to what we are doing at the moment. That will be a good balance. You will have the World Championship for the sailors and the Extreme Sailing Series for the in-port battles.”

While OC stage the Extreme Sailing Series, according to Booth they are not involved in putting on the World Championship although they support it. “I think they will come along with some teams, but not as part of the event management. That will be done by the Ocean Race Club in conjunction with TornadoSport, who are the class producers. However OC were very happy to present the Worlds concept at the teams’ meeting.”

According to Booth the World Championship is ready to roll, compete with a Notice of Race and everything is in place but they are just waiting for a title sponsor to sign on the dotted line - a formality by all accounts.

“We are going to include in the race schedule a coastal race - a run up to Italy and back down the coast again,” says Booth. “The rest will be conventional windward-leewards but quite long courses, so there is a bit of room to stretch your legs.”

Booth believes they will get 12 boats on the start line. “They are not signed up yet, because we haven’t published the Notice of Race, but we have presented what we want to do and it should be pretty well attended. I think it will compliment the Extreme Sailing Series, because there is a bit of a gap with the first event at the end of May in Sete and the second event in August in Cowes. So it fits in perfectly into the big break in the middle and around other sailing events.”

AOB

Aside from the Extreme 40, Booth is continuing to race the F18 circuit as a hired gun for Hobie, including all the regular events – Round Texel, Eurocat, the F18 Nationals in northern France, etc. He also continues to campaign for the return of the Tornado to the Olympic roster, although he says by 2016, if it is allowed back for Rio, he will be too old.

As to yesterday’s announcement over the Tornado class opting to go with a one design sail, he reckons it is good for the Ullman Sails loft in Italy, with which he is associated, but otherwise is purely a sop to ISAF.

“The perception that making it one design, one manufacturer will dramatically reduce the cost is splitting hairs. You will still buy the same number of sails. What limits the budget is how much a Federation puts in, and they will put in whatever it takes to win a medal. The cost of equipment is a small part of the budget. When I was racing Tornados years ago I made the proposal that the quickest, most effective way to save money is that the Tornado class should take the initiative to ban coaching. I have nothing against coaches and their value but if you really want to cut costs... We were spending 10% on equipment, 45% on coaching and the rest on logistics and moving around. So the one design sail is great in theory but I think it is political ploy for ISAF.

“Where do you stop? You could say let’s race Hobie 16s in the Olympics, but the reality is that is not going to save you money either. You are going to burn through them and you are still going to have all your logistics and you are still going to have all the coaching.”

We tentatively suggest the F18. “The F18 would be a disaster. It is a box rule so you might as well start a NASA program. And there is not one F18 that fits the bill, not even the Tiger in my view, although it has the potential to fit the bill. The first thing you have to address is quality control to make sure boats are as even as possible, because they are only built to a manufacturer’s standard, not to a rule. Whereas the Tornado was built to a rule, it is defined what the weights are of all the components, the hull shape is defined, the rule book is I don’t know how many pages... The Tiger is ‘as supplied by the manufacturer’ – tell me what that is? It is like the Laser argument - they are all the same because they come from the same builder, but actually they are not all the same.

“Hobie Cat overcome that because when they are running their 16 World Championship, they supply the boats - as Laser do in the Olympics - but the difference is that you swap boats every race and that is the only fair way to get a supplied bit of equipment as an even playing field. I went to the Hobie 16 Worlds and one is a pig and one is a rocket, just because maybe the mast is different or the sails are slightly different or somethings.

“You might say that the Tiger is £25,000 while the Tornado is £30,000, but I sold my five year old Tornado for 5,000 less than what I paid for it. If I sold my five year old Tiger – and I’d go through five of them, one a year...

“Roland Hagara went to the last Olympics with his Tornado from Sydney Olympics and it performed fine. I have still got a boat that is eight years old and it is fine - no problem at all. Any of the polyester boats they are biodegradable. But the Tornado I think is one of the best value, highest retaining value of any of the Olympic boats. So if the multihull comes back in, there aren’t many choices, and the Tornado is pretty high on the list. But for me you’d have to put some tracks and a wheel chair on it!”