My friend Boris Herrmann and his superb team on Malizia won the third and longest leg ever of The Ocean Race, formerly known as the Volvo Ocean Race, formerly known as the Whitbread Round the World Race. It was a great accomplishment given the mast damage that they suffered early in the stage and they bested the best team in the race, Holcim-PRB by over five hours. Goodonem as they say in Australia.
I have it on good authority that Malizia is the heaviest boat in the race and that may account for their win, perhaps even more so when I read that the last two remaining boats out there, 11th Hour Racing and Biotherm, have both suffered foil damage and Guyot had to retire from the leg due to hull damage. I’m happy to see that got their boat fixed in Cape Town and they are now in Brazil getting ready for the next leg to Newport, RI.
Please believe me when I say this because I don’t want to take anything away from Malizia’s victory or from the efforts of the rest of the fleet, four boats in total, but it’s kind of a (what word should I use here? I was going to use wank.) It’s kind of a wank when three out of four boats get to be on “The Podium.” What the heck happened to this race?
The greatest Offshore Ocean Race of all time (well except for the Vendee Globe). Money, it’s a simple as that. Not enough money for teams wanting to compete and a lot of money needed to make a thrilling race (on paper – err well that’s a tad old fashioned – on the Internet) so that to an outside observer one would think that this is nail-biting stuff. There are four boats; that’s it.
It’s true that you only need two boats to make it a race.
OK, having said what I came to say I have something else to say. What the heck happened to boat names? I can’t keep these boats straight. Biotherm, Guyot? What happened to names like Flyer and Windward Passage or Condor or Midnight Sun or for that matter two of the boats that I raced around the world; Alaska Eagle and Drum? Great names all.
Oh yes, I remember now. Money. Well here we are, bought and sold just like our politicians and you end up with the World’s Greatest Offshore Ocean Race now dwindled to a fleet of just four boats, with crappy names. – Brian Hancock.
