markm 30 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Surely someone's come up with drugs to help with that problem by now Hewy. No offence, but isn't the S2H just about the most brainless stupid ill thought out race on the planet. From a Sydney YC bar 60 years back : "Hey guys, I've just had a great idea. Let's leave this nice summer weather and flock off somewhere where it's freezing cold, rains a lot. Better, we'll race, maybe go through two or three frontal systems upwind so we can have the crap kicked out of us, we can sail past Green Cape so we can test out our radios, run over a few sunfish then, eventually, we can get to the ocean end of a river that's 13 miles long with no wind in it so we can sit around going nowhere and the result can be a lottery. Isn't this a great idea? Who's in?" I believe the phrase is "only in Australia". Link to post Share on other sites
Clipper 346 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Classic. nice one Mark Compare that to a race to the islands: "lets leave auckland as winter approaches and head north. We will get some good rides, we can strip off layers every day, and when we get there, its a warm, sunny tropical paradise (unless we go to Suva, but you get the point...)" Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Rocket Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Always race towards the equator - any race in the other direction is just wrong for the reasons noted above... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Surely someone's come up with drugs to help with that problem by now Hewy. No offence, but isn't the S2H just about the most brainless stupid ill thought out race on the planet. From a Sydney YC bar 60 years back : "Hey guys, I've just had a great idea. Let's leave this nice summer weather and flock off somewhere where it's freezing cold, rains a lot. Better, we'll race, maybe go through two or three frontal systems upwind so we can have the crap kicked out of us, we can sail past Green Cape so we can test out our radios, run over a few sunfish then, eventually, we can get to the ocean end of a river that's 13 miles long with no wind in it so we can sit around going nowhere and the result can be a lottery. Isn't this a great idea? Who's in?" I believe the phrase is "only in Australia". I did the Coffs race this year and it was a hell of a lot more comfortable. I don't know why we keep going back. It's a good goal that unifies the crew for the year. The camaraderie is great and the party at the other end is worth it alone. It's a very competitive fleet and every year there will be 30 or so serious contenders who can win it. From ashore, it was painful watching the 'Wild Oats Reality Show' coverage this year. You'd swear no other boat was in the race. I think a lot of yachties would love to see Wild Oats get smoked by TVS or something similar. Maybe if you got Jessica Watson, Oprah Winfrey and Shane Warne on TVS the cameras could be drawn away from the Wild-Oats-On-Air-Love-In. Another aside - when we got to Coffs Harbour the news was full of Wild Oats X 'winning' the race - do you know where they came on IRC - Dead F**king Last. About Time - a very well campaigned Cookson 12 (good kiwi boat) won the race convincingly and hardly got a mention. Link to post Share on other sites
markm 30 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 The bit that would get me in the S2H is the Derwent (excuse spelling), everything else I could chalk up to challenge, HTFU, 'real blokes' do this type stuff, maybe real blokes with no brains but real blokes nonetheless, the Derwent would drive me spare. It just isn't possible to rationalise that bit. How's the 'Loyal" boat viewed in Aus sailing Hewy, I confess I struggle to take the celebrity crew thing seriously which may be doing them a disservice. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 The bit that would get me in the S2H is the Derwent (excuse spelling), everything else I could chalk up to challenge, HTFU, 'real blokes' do this type stuff, maybe real blokes with no brains but real blokes nonetheless, the Derwent would drive me spare. It just isn't possible to rationalise that bit. How's the 'Loyal" boat viewed in Aus sailing Hewy, I confess I struggle to take the celebrity crew thing seriously which may be doing them a disservice. You need to be reconciled with the fact that if you arrive at night your race win aspirations will probably be smashed by the wind shutting down. We've never parked up badly going up there but boats that went around Tasman island an hour ahead ended up finishing 3 hours in front of us. Loyal is going quite well. You have to appreciate that most of the big boats only race 3 or 4 times a year. They did a lot of work on that boat this year. I know a couple of the 'celebrities' from outside of sailing and they're pretty enthusiastic and awed by racing on that thing. They raised a shitload of cash for charity and were pretty competitive among the big boats - so you have to say good on them. Sean Langman is regarded highly as a yachtsman and he's done good stuff for the sport. If you haven't seen it you should track down the documentary about his restoration and race to Hobart on Maluka, which was a 75 year old gaff-rigged yacht. Link to post Share on other sites
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