So there I was, sipping my unusually strong G&T and chatting with the rest of the Rat family on a balmy summers day on the bay, when some SCOUNDREL appears over my right shoulder shouting 'STARBOARD' as if I was racing him, or something. Honestly, some people take their white sail excursions WAY too seriously. It's not about competition....is it?
Okay, I'm sure that not everyone in the white sail division has Gordon's in their bike bottle, but I can't hold this question in any more: Is white sail racing ACTUALLY racing, or is it just a highly-directed cruise in company, pootling for prizes?
Is there room for white sails within competitions, or should they sit alongside? It seems the Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta folks got the format right with their white sails coastal races, sending the white sailers off on a daily Easter Egg hunt to be back in time for tea. In a big, family regatta, perhaps it's exactly what's needed to make things inclusive. But we Rats have to wonder, does it make sense in something like the ICRA Nationals, which is meant to be the premier racing event of the cruiser/racer calendar?
For the purposes of this article, I'll assume the persona of a lithe, baby-faced evergreen who won't step in a boat unless it's planing upwind at twice true windspeed. Racing, to me, means every sinew of my toned body is committed to the task at hand - eking every fraction of a knot of boatspeed from my boat to humiliate the competition. The concepts of good conversation on board and the whiskey-toasting of each successfully completed tack (five per race, maximum) are the antithesis of what I believe.
Even for moderates, though, surely White Sails has to be recognised for what it is? Not racing, if we're being honest, but a friendly, enjoyable way of making up the numbers, and nothing more.
Racing is racing, it's being in it for the competition, and sacrificing some comfort (not all, mind, we are talking largely about cruiser-racers) in the pursuit of relative speed.
Within cruiser racing there are other degrees of intensity.
Cruisers Zero sits at the pointy end of the spectrum, and generally involves plenty of financial pain, a pain in the arse for the railmeat, plenty of hours poring over designs and boat spec, and some concerted effort in cultivating a consistent and talented crew (or yet more financial pain to hire them in).
Everything else comes in somewhere down the scale, but at the top of every fleet, there's a determined element of die-hards (We're looking at you, Flor O'Driscoll) who go the extra mile in pursuit of the win.
Racing means putting in effort.
Which is why when you predicate a class on 'not bothering with spinnakers' you slide off the scale of effort completely.
The elderly folk in Afloat HQ are looking at me suspiciously, I'd best wrap this up.
My final point: It may not be nice, but sometimes for the sake of credibility, you have to draw a line between competitive sport and hobbyism. Don't agree with me? Why, then, can you can compete as a walker in the Olympics, but not as a dog-walker?
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