Dart 15 Forums

Look, good job that there was not the Gurnard fleets of Sprint 15s and Shadows in the way...........

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=153148

Bob

I don't regard 20 knots of wind as extreme. What are these cowboys doing, racing so near to the shore? Surely, they should be far out to sea.

I recall the 1970s at Southend, when Sydney Harbour 18' skiffs were around. They proved to be a menace to everyone, not least themselves. When people stopped looking, they quickly moved to somewhere else.

It is the same breed of people who sail these mega cats. The film shows they cannot manage boats of this size. A classic example of "a little man behind a big desk".

A little harsh on the professional sailers,20 knots is fine if your flying a hankey on a barge but these are at the other end of the spectrum. The racing is deliberately set as close to shore as possible to attract the thousands of spectators every day. On Friday they shared a mark with the slow handicap from gurnard which did prove amusing.
Martin.

There's an ex Sprint 15 sailor crewing on one of the boats, and it's not Tom Gall who I think has sailed on one of these cats (besides, he's not a "totally ex" Sprint 15 sailor). Martin has it right that the Extreme 40s are at the other end of the cat sailing spectrum - Tom said they reach downwind at an unbelievable angle - so it's not a normal kind of gennaker that they carry....

Am I the only geek who decided to look up crews on the web to see if there was anyone connected with Sprint 15 sailing? Albeit in this case finding just one who sailed a Sprint 15 quite some years ago, but has since been known to crew an Olympic Tornado. If that's not enough of a clue, then it'll all come out in the wash........

At least his team avoided 2 of the French teams having that encounter on the water.

Did you ever see a clip of a 60 foot tri pitch-poling..... That was French too.

Yes, Will Howden (Philip Howden's son) is crewing on Ecover with Mike Golding. Leigh McMillan now helms it. Leigh & Will were our Tornado Team at the 2008 Olympics.
Cheers
Bob

Hi Martin, I thought this was so. An audience for these people is as important as anything.

What has happened to Philip Howden? I've forgotten all about him. Is he still in the land of the living? Or has he gone aloft?