The Uncertain Future of Balls-to-the-Wall
Around-the-World Crewed Racing
December 10 - Planet Earth
These are crucial times for what the foreseeable
future of crewed around-the-world sailboat racing will look like.
The Volvo Ocean Race, formerly the Whitbread, had always been
the premiere around-the-world crewed event, and made international
superstars out of the last two winning skippers, Paul Cayard
and John Kostecki, both of Northern California. But despite protestations
to the opposite by Volvo, the last Volvo was seen as something
of a disappointment, both in the number of entries and in garnering
attention. As Volvo makes plans for the next race in the winter
of 2005/2006, it's uncertain whether they will go to bigger boats
or a slightly different course to try to gain more publicity.
The Volvo 60 illbruck
Photo Courtesy Volvo Ocean Race
Meanwhile, Bruno Peyron of France, who
put together The Race, the around-the-world event for maxi multihulls
two years ago, used the Paris Boat Show to announce two around-the-world
multihull events that would be in direct conflict with the Volvo.
The events include a second running of The Race, to be held in
2004, and a Race Tour, an around-the-world race with stops, to
be held every four years starting in 2005/06.
Club Med in The Race
Photo Courtesy Club Med
What makes the future unclear is that Volvo
has all the money, clout, and skills to put together a great
event, but Peyron's proposed Race Tour has much more appeal to
the prime competitors from recent Whitbreads and the last VOR.
Specifically, superstars such as John Kostecki, Paul Cayard,
Grant Dalton, Neal MacDonald, Ross Field, and Roger Nilson are
reported to be more interested in doing the Race Tour rather
than another Volvo. Why? The big multihulls are faster than the
Volvo monohulls, they are more fun to sail, and they seem to
inherently attract more attention. This the opinion of sailors
such as Nilson, who have raced around the world on both the Volvos
and the maxi cats. It's noteworthy that Ellen MacArthur, the
most bankable sailor - male or female - in the world today, has
done her last race with her Open 60 monohull Kingfisher,
and has taken delivery of the 110-ft maxi cat Kingfisher2,
formerly Orange, and will soon be going after the Jules
Verne around-the-world record.
Kingfisher2 emerges from the shed.
Photo Courtesy www.kingfisher-challenges.com/uk
Nilson thinks it would be great if Volvo's
money and Peyron's superior vision could be combined in one great
event. The fact that this is a no-brainer of a great idea doesn't
mean it's going to happen. Even though Volvo officials have reportedly
acknowledged that at some time in the future they will probably
have to go to multihulls, they don't want to do it now, and rebuffed
an appeal by Peyron, with Nilson's help, to join forces. One
problem is that Volvo is very conservative, and just last month
15 of 18 multihulls were destroyed, damaged, or flipped in the
Route du Rhum.
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