Category: juan K

ASTUTE OBSERVATIONS

the following are a quote from an interview with Juan kouyoumadjian:

When asked for a snapshot of grand prix sailing at this moment, Juan’s answer is characteristically blunt. “There is a very evident discord at the top and people are very clearly at extremes, and people caught in the middle are, very clearly, not happy,” he said. “The Cup has become very marketing-driven as one of the absolute pinnacle events, and the other pinnacle event, the Olympics, is also under pressure – the decisions being taken are extraordinary.”

His view of the future is also less than sanguine. “I cannot foresee anything healthy at the top of the game. There is a very real danger of routes open for the very top professional sailors like Torben Grael, Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy, Robert Scheidt, a whole generation of top sailors, closing down as the professional world of sailing becomes more and more detached.

We have written about this disconnect in earlier posts. I believe that many in the sailing community sense it but don’t know what to do or where it goes from here. Does anyone have any thoughts?

SPEEDBOAT

Speedboat aka Virgin Money is an exciting boat,an engineering marvel, elegant, extreme, powerful, fragile. Not particularly useful as its purpose can only really be to set or break distance records. Yet she requires a great deal of attention.

Below she reminds me of Windward Passage the 72 foot 1968 design by Alan Gurney, a practical sensible layout. Both were ahead of their time. Once again, if only today’s materials had been available to Alan; who knows what he might have created. the thought process was similar; go fast.
There is a difference in that Passage was built on the beach, There were limits to what someone would spend for a yacht. From that comparison the owners of Passage got a lot of bang for their buck. She was durable, still sailing, looking better than ever. In today’s world she is heavy and under canvased. I expect she will still be sailing after Speedboat is only a memory.
That said, Speedboat will soon leave to make an attempt on the Trans-atlantic record for a monohull. I would love to be part of that. After all it will only be six days; hardly time to establish a rhythm.