When a cruise is a race, and a rally has timed stages…

by John Curnow on 12 Dec 2016 Many a regatta has hijacked the term cruising and applied it to a division that is all about speed, and much less about sightseeing, or interaction with friends. Many even put the adjective, performance, in front of the word cruiser, and you are left wondering if it is not just a total oxymoron.

Now I love my rallies. The short wheelbase Audi Quattro with the first of what we now call direct sequential gearboxes and its all-conquering AWD was simply brutal. Same, same for the Peugeot 205 T16 that obliterated the short-lived, and totally insane Group B era. Then there are also the classics like Lancia Stratos, BA Escort and even Issigonis’ humble Mini…

And inside all of that lies the very thing. A rally is about speed, timed stages and a winner! Does not sound very cruisy to me. Then if you take the term to mean a group of individuals gathering for a cause and political upheaval, you come unstuck too. Here there is a fight, a protagonist and a mission. Also not very cruisy, and kind of the last thing anyone really wants to think about when you have finally managed to escape the big grind.

Surely if it is a cruise it is about actually getting there (and safely at that), but even more about the times you’ll have along the way and the joy you’ll share with others you meet at the very places you have been inspired about traipsing around the globe to go and see.

It is both intriguing and inspiring that it has taken a former dedicated ocean racer to highlight where we have come to in the great cruising debate. He, and his family, just ‘won’, and yes there is that word again, the Multihull Division of the great ARC. Best of all, they did it without reverting to the use of the iron topsails for propulsion at any time. Knut talks about the event: -



We are so busy and hectic, stressed and full of angst, but our boats are now so much faster, so you’re going to get to your end point PDQ anyway. Have we indeed forgotten how to just chill? Is the whole giving prizes for anything other than great seamanship or camaraderie a bit like now letting all children get the blue ribbon in a foot race?

So it is very interesting that the amount of time you use the smelly is now THE biggest question in the cruising world. It is a little incredulous, for I would have thought that turning the damn thing off is the real reason for getting the hell out there in the first place.

Don’t agree? Fine, but before resorting to writing in, ask yourself if you are one of the ones who goes absolutely ape when someone arrives at a gorgeous anchorage only to turn the genset on to power nothing. It is akin to those that arrive at a beach house to turn the AC on, rather than opening a window…

If the winds are light you do just about anything and head in almost any direction to keep the boat going. You can worry about VMG later. Also, with all the intel now available on the weather, you have to ask yourself if you plotted the best course? No one likes to hear the slap of death under the stern, but given the amount of things you need to do when aboard, could you not occupy yourself with all those chores, let alone read a book or take a nap.

Elaine Bunting, for yachtingworld.com, raised a good point about the cost of motoring, versus trans-Atlantic business class flights. More disturbing were those that did not log their hours under Diesel, which when correlated with their tracker and the wind charts makes for very interesting reading. Riddle me that Batman…

Ultimately, if you want a time for a stage, turn to motorsport. If you want to go racing at sea then lose the bunks, chest freezer, genset, furniture, oven, cushions, shower, TV, wine, and a whole heap of other things. If you want to sail get out there and do it. It may take this long, or even twice as much, but the vagaries of the sea will give you plenty of ammunition for material to talk about at cocktail hour aboard. At any rate, last time I checked, a short period of not a lot to do is always going to be better than a lengthy spell of 70 knots over the deck.

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