| The latest sailing news from Asia and the world. |
08 Aug 2017 |
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  Keeping an eye on the fleet
 | | Concise 10, first round the rock, first to finish. Rolex Fastnet Race 2017 © Kurt Arrigo |
Over on the other side of the globe, and Line Honours in the world's biggest ocean race (368 boats, 2,700 sailors), the Rolex Fastnet Race, has gone to the MOD70 Concise in just 42h 55m. The next boat is so far away that, as the man said to Queen Victoria, “There is no second.” Looking for information on the Rolex Fastnet Race is an interesting exercise in ‘media watching', let alone ‘race following.' The vast majority of information that comes up in searches concerns the seven VO65s racing in ‘Leg 0' of the Volvo Ocean Race, and at time of writing the only place that Concise's finish appears is not on any official website, but on the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Facebook page.
What that tells us is that dear old FB is where the breaking news is, and that VOR have a better media machine at their behest than the RORC and/or Rolex. Control the media, control the news; write your own media, and you can make your event look like whatever you want. Whatever happened to independent reporting? Indeed (but we try...).
 | | Raja Muda 2017 - you can run, but you can't hide - not with a Yellowbrick tracker on board. Windsikher, RMSIR 2016. Guy Nowell / RMSIR |
If you want to take a look at the Fastnet Race, you can dial up the Yellowbrick tracker (http://www.rolexfastnetrace.com/2017-fleet-tracking-race-player). It even shows the TSS exclusion zones, positioned like bunkers on a golf course, and very clearly marked. Just what you need when you don't have time to read the SIs.
In November you'll be able to do exactly the same – check out Yellowbrick tracking - during the coastal legs of the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta as Asia's most peripatetic event races from Port Klang to Pangkor, and on to Penang and then Langkawi. Of course there's a safety element in knowing where the boats are, and of course the RO wants to know how far the leaders are from the finish line; however, the real benefit of tracking the fleet is that ther ever-attentive media hounds will know whether to order another round at the Seaview Resort before going to bed, and when to wake up in the morning to get the hot interviews.
Standing by on 72.
Guy Nowell, Asia Editor
Zhik 29er Worlds - Wind and expectations mount - Day 5
Betsy Crowfoot, 
Bolstered by better breeze, with steady winds of 12 to 16 knots, the team of Benji Daniel, 16, and Alex Burger, 21, RSA, widened their lead to place a firm grip on first place in the 29er World Championship regatta. One-hundred-twenty-nine teams from around the globe are competing in the six-day event, hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, which concludes tomorrow, August 5.... [more]
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