All I can say is thank goodness sailing is as exciting as watching paint dry--or is it grass grow? Looking aft at the past year's sailing wakes, I'd be exhausted if sailing was anything more than the alleged sailing-is-a-sleepy sport, grass-growing paradigm. In the past year, sailing has jumped off front-page headlines--including below-the-fold of the New York Times--, maxed out servers on Web sites and been the subject of infotainment specials on prime-time TV. Yes, I'm talking about sailing.
The year of 1998 began as ‘97 ended, on a surge of adrenaline of the ongoing Whitbread Round the World Race. We tasted great gobs of that fantastic race through the daily journal entries of the Whitbread sailors and then instantly uplinked and posted on the Web site. We followed these steely sailors through the ravages of the Southern Ocean as they gave broad berth to Cape Horn and even as two entrants wrestled with fallen rigs. And we came to respect a new sailing hero, San Francisco sailor Paul Cayard. As skipper of the 16-to-1 odds entry EF Language, Cayard managed to win through sheer alacrity. He also managed to impassion armchair sailor across the country through his vivid, well-told, on-board descriptions from the race.
Unexpectedly, we discovered that America's Cup fever lives. Even though the ante to play in the rarefied world of the America's Cup now starts at around $20 million, some 15 hopeful challengers from 10 countries (5 from the United States) are expected to try to wrest the Cup from the Kiwis in eliminations starting next October off Auckland.
But other surprises shook us this past year. One of sailing's greatest sailors, a sailing legend, Eric Tabarly died while sailing off Wales in late summer. He fell overboard without a life vest. And the vestiges of the horror of the 1979 Fastnet Race resurfaced when six sailors lost their lives in a Force 10 blow on the Bass Strait during the recent Sydney-Hobart Race.
The year 1998 was the surprising year of sailors, like Sir Peter Blake, the head of the New Zealand defense of the America's Cup and the world's most successful blue-water racing sailor. Blake announced in July that after the America's Cup, he will take over from where marine environmentalist Jacques Cousteau left off. Blake will represent the Cousteau Society as the captain of the new Calypso II in the year 2000.
Indefatigable adventurer Steve Fossett of Chicago continued to enrich the sailing scene, even in ways unplanned. Fossett's hot-air balloon circumnavigation came to a grinding halt when he and his balloon took a nose dive into the Indian Ocean where, luckily, a cruising sailor happened to be sailing and rescued him from his raft. Sailing a catamaran, Fossett set an unofficial record of under 20 hours in the 100th anniversary of the Chicago to Mackinac Race. We can expect more records to fall at the hands of Fossett who recently took delivery of a super-tech 100-foot catamaran.
This was a year of two milestones for women. Dawn Riley became the first female America's Cup CEO as she leads the America True challenge for the America's Cup. And Karen Thorndike became the first American woman to solo circumnavigate via the 5 great capes.
The year of 1998 was a surprise year of the other around-the-world race, the ongoing Around Alone, which started September 26 out of Charleston, South Carolina. Russian adventure sailor Viktor Yazykov, racing Wind of Change saved himself through on-board surgery with the help of a land-based doctor. The access by satellite allowed Yazykov to handle the medical emergency. But when the bleeding wouldn't stop, Yazykov, near death, received help from the far-off doctor on call by uplink. The middle-of-the-ocean emergency became Web-site drama and a TV prime-time special.
Going down with little objection, US Sailing's landmark "prescription" to a wear life vest at the start and end of category 1 through 4 races, and at the skipper's judgment, during the race, was successfully instituted in 1998.
On a weather note, the century's third worst storm Hurricane Mitch, with the second lowest pressure of all time, will long be remembered as the October killer storm that wouldn't go away. It was also the category 5 storm that mowed down the 282-foot 4-master Fantome in the western Caribbean, taking all 30 crew and her skipper down with her.
Not so surprising, 1998 was another year of record breaking. A new transatlantic record was set by Mari-Cha III, the elegant and high-tech Philippe Briand-designed sloop. French skipper Lionel Pean skippered the 148-footer from New York to the Lizard in the new record time of 8 days, 23 hours 59 minutes, breaking by several days the Ludde Ingvall record in a Grand Mistral 80 set the year before.
At about the same time, Giovanni Soldini, racing in the Around Alone, broke the singlehanded monohull 24-hour record, sailing 386.9 miles in 24 hours.
On the Pacific, the 86-foot catamaran Explorer, skippered by Bruno Peyron, sailed from Yokohama to San Francisco in 14 days and 17 hours, a new Transpacific record. And other records were smashed, including the New York to San Francisco record, set by Yves Parlier in the Gold Race earlier in the year.
The year of 1998 saw these small but significant marks of the course: the $35-handicap Americap was introduced as the IMS handicapping system suffered another blow with the Offshore Rating Council's disbandment; the venerable International Star keelboat was reinstated as a Olympic class at the Olympics of the year 2000; the sailing industry organizations National Sailing Industry Association and Sail America entertained merger talks; a computerized, no-crew boat was developed and launched off European shores; the famed boatbuilders Nautor and Hinckley were sold to private investors, and the venerable scow builder of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Skip Johnson, hung up the craft his great grandfather had begun more than 100 years ago.
And numerous great sailors slipped on to Fiddler's Green in 1998. Among them were: Skip Etchells, Vic Romagna, Philip Rhodes, Bobby Symonette, Marty Rieck and Ardith Burr
Lastly, the country's concern for water pollution was heard louder than ever before when Rhode Island became the first coastal state to outlaw discharge up to three miles along the shore, and California, in a precedent-setting move, ruled to force personal watercraft to meet stricter pollution controls by the year 2001.
As we leave the year 1998, we can remember great sailing, great sailors and great events, and not forget those who have contributed to making our sailing not only exciting, but also great. It was the year, by the way, that the boat of lost ‘97 Vendee Globe racer Gerry Roufs turned up, mysteriously, last September, found drifting off the Straits of Magellan.
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