Guest Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 from briefings: Entries close on robust Fiji fleet 3 May 2013 by Zoe Hawkins Nine boats will take part in the Auckland to Musket Cove, Fiji Ocean Race that starts from Westhaven Marina on Saturday 1 June. They are: Outgrageous Fortune - Quintin Fowler Wild Card - Andrew Lodge Equilibrium - Graham Matthews V5 - David Nathan Newcastle Venture - Stephen Chapman / Rodney Keenan Atom Ant - Cory McLennan Squealer - Syndicate TeamVodafoneSailing - Simon Hull Vision - Kerry and Steve Mair (cruising division) The 1,150 mile marathon starts off Westhaven Marina in Auckland and finishes at the resort of Musket Cove in Fiji. The race is supported by Manson Anchors, PredictWind.com, Events Clothing, and TNL GAC Pindar, and more information, including entrant stories, will be in the next issue of Briefings. www.rnzys.org. Good on them, but really - 9 boats???????? What needs to be done to get the fleet numbers back to something respectable? Link to post Share on other sites
Deep Purple 514 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Zoe says it's robust, not respectable says Dave What should it be? Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Good point - I'm remembering fleets of 60 - 80 boats. Even in our current financial climate I would like to see 25-30 boats in this race. Maybe I'm wrong and everyone thinks 9 boats is terrific. Let me know and I'll shut up and go away. Link to post Share on other sites
Zoe 8 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 It's not terrific we'd like to make it more too. To get to this point we made a list of all the boats that we thought might potentially race, and wrote to them, and on behalf of the RNZYS I called them on the phone, and kept in touch with them through the process, which gave me a pretty good insight into what they were thinking. It was very obvious that most owners of offshore capable boats are really keen to race offshore. Only a couple declared themselves 'not interested'. The vibe I got from the calls was really positive, and after the first round of calls I thought we could potentially have a pretty big fleet, even a few weeks ago I was quietly confident of 20 or so, but it was whittled away as time got closer. I kept a list of the reasons people weren't racing where they gave me reasons, and while I know what you are probably waiting to say I don't think it's all due to rules and regulations, although of course some of it is: time off work, and insurance on big high tech boats, are biggies, but other things are too from knee surgeries to do we go to Europe instead, to the boat not quite being ready this year - there were all sorts of reasons. I think RAYC are doing a great job with marketing their event (and did with Sail Noumea too) and the two main offshore racing clubs are giving it the best possible shot. I understand that 40 boats left on the cruising rally earlier this month to Tonga, which is great. Maybe those boats replace some of the old school racers of 30 years ago? I have spoken this week with nearly all of the entered boat owners to write stories about them and they are really keen and they'll be racing the clock and while I'm sure they'd like to have more boats in their band to race with, they are still really excited. In short, I don't think there is really anything that can be 'done'. Depending on how RAYC goes with Sail Fiji possibly the clubs need to band together and stop competing against each other to dilute the fleet. That or printing a money machine would be the best fixes in my mind. Getting more people into syndicates might be an option, it's working really well on the Tauranga entrant, Squealer (more on that soon) Link to post Share on other sites
Zoe 8 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 PS If we'd had 25 boats I'd have called it a 'spectacular' fleet! Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 The date clash with the Volcom Pro has been mentioned by a few of the skippers. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 What's a Volcom Pro? Never heard of it. Link to post Share on other sites
Zoe 8 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 It is a surf event and with the cyclone damage it created an accommodation shortage. The Squadron got onto it pretty quickly once the clash was identified and accommodation was freed up for anyone that needed it. But I don't think it helped. Link to post Share on other sites
raz88 96 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Did anyone say anything about it maybe being a bit late to attract the numbers? For most of the 9 mentioned it wouldn't matter anyway as they'll be coming straight back, but surely if the ICA can get 40 boats together at the start of May isn't that telling a bit of a story about when the more attractive time to head to the islands is for a lot of boats? Link to post Share on other sites
Zoe 8 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 They didn't but it may well be a valid point. Queens Birthday is the traditional date because it is one less day for people To take off work. Sorry I am typing on my phone now and it is hopeless... Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Ummm, Traditional since they moved it there from early in May. I always thought Queen's Bday was too late, remember the Queen's Birthday Storm? FWIW - I do think money is a big one, who saw the item on SA saying some guy spends 60k p.a. to race a M20, not including the price of the boat? And a percentage of the costs holding people back will be getting Cat 1, and all the other bits and bobs before you are allowed to race, like memberships, ratings, entry fees. No one thing alone may stop an entry, but add it all up and maybe that owner may decide go to Europe instead. Plus it is not just this race and it is not just NZ - the whole sport has an issue and should be looking for a solution. Link to post Share on other sites
Zoe 8 Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 You're right David - but the people I spoke with already had boats that we thought were ready or close to being ready to race offshore, so the additional cost to do this race was not as massive as for someone starting out from scratch. If you cast the net wider to the general sailing population then of course money is the big obstacle - and time is money too I guess if you think about time off work to race and get the boat back. For the high tech composite boats, insurance is a massive cost, and probably the biggest hurdle. But for people who really want to do it, they can make it happen. Syndicates divide the cost by as many people as are in the syndicate, or just being prepared to do it in a 30 footer as opposed to a 45 footer. The Vision entrant is basically a delivery service and a chance to have a fun sail north with a social crew - so the boat owner gets his boat delivered, and the crew get a fun week sailing a comfortable boat (it has central heating). In the days when there were fleets of 60 or more, people didn't have so many options, they didn't travel as much, or go to resorts, and maybe didn't work so hard and have so much pressure coming at them (don't quote me on that, it was before my time) But we did get 9 boats and they are a great cross section of sailing, and I'm going to enjoy writing about them and following them enroute to Fiji. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 Another big change has been the move ashore on arrival - once upon a time everyone lived on the boat. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 8, 2013 Share Posted May 8, 2013 You're right David - but the people I spoke with already had boats that we thought were ready or close to being ready to race offshore, so the additional cost to do this race was not as massive as for someone starting out from scratch. If you cast the net wider to the general sailing population then of course money is the big obstacle - and time is money too I guess if you think about time off work to race and get the boat back. For the high tech composite boats, insurance is a massive cost, and probably the biggest hurdle. But for people who really want to do it, they can make it happen. Syndicates divide the cost by as many people as are in the syndicate, or just being prepared to do it in a 30 footer as opposed to a 45 footer. The Vision entrant is basically a delivery service and a chance to have a fun sail north with a social crew - so the boat owner gets his boat delivered, and the crew get a fun week sailing a comfortable boat (it has central heating). In the days when there were fleets of 60 or more, people didn't have so many options, they didn't travel as much, or go to resorts, and maybe didn't work so hard and have so much pressure coming at them (don't quote me on that, it was before my time) But we did get 9 boats and they are a great cross section of sailing, and I'm going to enjoy writing about them and following them enroute to Fiji. For the high tech composite boats, insurance is a massive cost, and probably the biggest hurdle. How much is a biggie. Why just high tech, the value re boat or is that they are so competitive and hell bent at winning at all costs are componding the problem by self destructing their boats and lodging massive insurance claims. All Insurance is particularly Motor Vehicle and marine insurance acturay calculated and marine insurance have high loss ratios. They should take higher excesses. They are lucking that they can get insurance whilst racing. A lot of insurance companies will not insure you whilst racing, thats why the few that do have to charge high premiums because the risk is not being spread and there is a considersble loading for offshore marine cover. The racers are penalising the offshore cruising faternity particularly sponsored boats. Where are the claims comming from - sponsored high tech racers like Camper ect pushing their boats past the design limits. I've got a few minutes before my next showing so here it is again (ed): For the high tech composite boats, insurance is a massive cost, and probably the biggest hurdle. How much is a biggie? Why just high tech? Is it the value of the boat or is that they are so competitive and hell bent on winning at all costs that they are compounding the problem by destroying their boats and lodging massive insurance claims? All Insurance,including Motor Vehicle and marine insurance is actuary calculated and marine insurance has high loss ratios. They should take higher excesses. They are lucky that they can get insurance whilst racing. A lot of insurance companies will not insure you whilst racing, thats why the few that do have to charge high premiums: because the risk is not being spread. Plus there is a considerable loading for offshore marine cover. The racers are penalising the offshore cruising faternity, particularly sponsored boats. Where are the claims coming from? - sponsored high tech racers like Camper etc pushing their boats past the design limits. Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Zoe, I would have been really keen to do this with the Marshall, but she is just not ready to go offshore yet. I am just amazed how much it is taking to get her up to spec, with still some more to go. Getting to the line for the RNI will be a mission by itself!! Add to that, trying to look after an Opti kid and get him to regattas, and you can see that time and money just disappear. Big ups to the guys on Atom Ant getting the boat to Cat 1 and getting going so quickly. I am jealous and in awe! Link to post Share on other sites
Zoe 8 Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 I know, they've done well. Maybe Sail Fiji will be your one, or a race in 2015. Link to post Share on other sites
smithy09 50 Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 I hope so!! Link to post Share on other sites
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