State of play ...

In spite of its recent loss of the Little America's Cup the C Class is fighting on - Steve Clark

At its most abstract sailing consists of harvesting the wind energy created by the uneven heating of the earth's atmosphere and using it to move vehicles across the surface of the planet. Sailboat racing, or yachting, is the use of this energy to move those vehicles along predetermined routes to test which crew or design is most adept and efficient at manipulating these forces.

It is the usual practice in this sport to isolate a number of the variables and/or limit the range of experimentation such that different aspects of the challenge can be tested individually. One can observe that a wide variety of sailing classes offering different combinations of design freedom and racing formats will all require different solutions to be successful.

It is a matter of significant debate within the sport which of these tests is the most significant. Is it the Laser World Championship, the America's Cup, the Jules Verne, the Prince of Wales, the Finn Gold Cup or the fastest time along a 500m trench dug into a sandbank that defines the apex of our sport?

To read the remainder of this article please go to the July 2003 edition of Seahorse, available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: info@seahorse.co.uk

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