| The latest sailing news from Asia and the world. |
06 Sep 2017 |
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  Sign up for Bart's Bash
 | | Bart's Bash 2016. (Sailability HK). Guy Nowell © |
One way or another, the fourth Bart's Bash Regatta is likely to be the biggest event in the sailing world the weekend after next (16-17 September). In case you have forgotten, this is the global event inaugurated in the memory of Andrew ‘Bart' Simpson who died when the AC72 Artemis ‘crashed and burned' in San Francisco during the run-up to AC33. Bart's Bash aims to get as many people out and sailing the same sort of race, all over the globe, in the same 24hr period, making it the world's biggest regatta, and raising funds for the Andrew Simpson Foundation at the same time.
In Hong Kong, the first race of the RHKYC's Autumn Regatta (Saturday 16 September) is designated as a Bart's Bash event. Sign up here to participate and donate: www.bartsbash.com. There is also lots more information on the RHKYC website http://www.rhkyc.org.hk/bartsbash.aspx. If you are sailing in the RHKYC Autumn Regatta, please join in – you are going to be there anyway! Check here http://www.bartsbash.com/venuesO to see if your club is involved in Bart's Bash – the list includes six clubs in China, plus HHYC, LBC and Discovery Bay in Hong Kong. The more the merrier!
 | | Women in the VOR. Spanish Olympic gold medallist Tamara Echegoyen and Team SCA favourite Sophie Ciszek. © María Muiña / MAPFRE |
An interesting story in The Times (UK) concerning women sailors and equal pay has stirred up some controversy – I have been seeing it on my Facebook page. The next iteration of the Volvo Ocean Race (2017-18) allows for male, female, and mixed crews, with different numbers allowed for each. One (male) crew that we know of has rejected any notion of a mixed team, calling it a “social experiment,” and attracted a good deal of opprobrium in the process. The subject is not simple, and definitely involves questions about experience; if we were able to see the pay slips of all the men in the VOR we would probably find variable rates of pay; whether such discrepancies are also governed by gender is another matter. I can think of any number of women sailors who are worth a good deal more salt than some their male counterparts, but if – as is suggested – women are being hired at lower salaries as a cost cutting measure, there's definitely something wrong. You'll have to make up your own mind: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/f07bd544-901e-11e7-a5a5-06bf2f3d8649
 | | Match Racing Super League - Match Race Germany 2017 Match Race Germany |
There's an interesting development on the world match racing scene: the Match Race Super League (http://www.mrsuperleague.org/). Last year the World Match Racing Tour came under the ownership of Aston Harald, manufacturers of the M32 catamaran, and (almost) all WMRT events were sailed in their ultralight and ultrazippy cats. There was a declared intention to set up regional M32 ‘Academies' around the world, with regional championships that would lead to the world series; the price of entry was the purchase of a few boats and paying for training courses that gave match racing hopefuls a driver's licence that would allow them to compete. The one-world-one-design did not sit well with some of the long-established regattas that really preferred to use their own boats for their events – the Gold Cup in Bermuda, sailed in IOD's, and the Congressional Cup contested in the Catalina 37S being examples. It was argued that with the America's Cup being sailed in multihulls, and the WMRT advertising itself as “the pathway to the AC”, catamarans were now a more appropriate boat in which to race for the top prize in match racing.
Now, however, the future of multihulls in the AC is up in the air (although not yet announced). Additionally, some people consider that sailing a number of different boats during the series constitutes an additional test of sailors' skills. Enter the Match Racing Super League. Different boats sailed at different venues, all monohulls. Does this sound familiar? World Sailing presently recognises four ‘Special Events' in sailing – the America's Cup; the Volvo Ocean Race; the Extreme Sailing Series; and the World Match Racing Tour. With MR Super League sanctioned by the Match Racing Association, and ‘supported' by World Sailing, is the supremacy of the super-specialised WMRT under threat?
 | | Sir Peter Ogden's JV72 Jethou - today's big winner. - Day 2 - Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup 2017 © Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi |
And lastly, because we all like something good to look at, some boat porn in the shape of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Sardinia, sailed out of the august environs of the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda. No comment required: just enjoy the pictures.
Standing by on 72.
Guy Nowell, Asia Editor
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