Solo and duo offshore professional racing have become not only mainstream but the more popular type of sailing, the one that has created more interest, has a bigger audience. That means more sponsors, more professional sailors, more top racers and a more rapid design evolution towards faster boats.
 |
| Dehler 30 OD |
Some would point out that VOR, now Ocean Race (new name), has a big audience, but that audience is considerably smaller than the one of the Vendée Globe. And not only the boats used in the last VOR edition were outdated, as the crews, having some top sailors, were constituted mostly by middle-level professional sailors and many that were top sailors on those crews had come from solo or duo racing. That was the case with the skipper, navigator and several other crew members of Dongfeng, the yacht that won the last edition.
 |
JPK 1030 |
On the last Vendee Globe there were thirty-five yachts racing, while on the last VOR (now Ocean Race) there were only seven. And while on the Vendee there were eight new boats racing, with many from the previous generations modified to be more competitive, all the boats that raced the last VOR were refitted yachts that had raced the previous edition, that had also only seven yachts racing.
The Vendée Globe is the more popular event regarding professional offshore solo/duo racing, but there are several other races with big popularity, like the Route du Rhum, Transat Jacques Vabre or the Barcelona Race, all raced in IMOCA.
It does not happen the same with top-crewed offshore races for professionals, where the VOR is the only big race. There are no more races sailed exclusively with the VOR 65, and they compete in IRC races, many times chartered to amateur or semi-amateur crews. Unlike the Vendee Globe, the Ocean Race was postponed due to Covid. Instead of starting this year, it will only start in 2022, and this edition will be not only raced in the old VOR65 but also in IMOCA.
This allowed a much bigger interest from professional solo/duo racers and the number of entries is already much bigger than in previous editions, 14 in IMOCA and 8 on the older VOR65.
The much bigger interest on the Ocean Race is not only due to the introduction of a more modern racing boat, one that has already a large fleet, but also due to the spectacular footage provided in the last edition by professional cameramen. Those great videos were responsible for a bigger audience and that means more potential advertising revenues, and all that allowed for a much bigger number of teams to be able to find sponsors for doing the next edition, 3 times more than on the two previous ones.
 |
Sun Fast 3300 |
Unfortunately, the organization did not keep up with the increased sportive interest of this race, that would have the potential to be a sort of top World Offshore Championship for crewed racing, if the organization hadn't imposed ridiculous and numerous limitations on the crew composition, especially on the VOR65 crews, with limitations in what regards age and sex, allowing also frequent changes in the crew composition. On the IMOCA crews, the only crew limitation is that one of the five crew members has to be a woman, God knows why.
Obviously, if this were to be a more serious competition, crews could be formed freely, with the best sailors available, old or young, men or women. If they want to give opportunities to all types of sailors no matter their age or sex, creating quotas, they obviously forgot one for sailors older than 60. LOL
But even so, on the Ocean Race, we see the same tendency in what regards downsizing crews and if the VOR65 still has a crew of 10, the IMOCA has 5, which is still unnecessarily big due to the type of boat and rigging (that will be different than the one used in solo/duo races).
Assuming they are top professional sailors that crew could be easily reduced to 4, without having a significant loss in performance.
 |
J99 |
Long introduction, to point out what is now top professional offshore racing, and also to point out the disproportionate percentage of solo/duo racing sailors among the top sailors on top crewed racing professionals teams. On the last three editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, two were won by crews that had a skipper and several top team crew members that were top solo sailors.
The amateur offshore racing panorama has mostly to do with handicap racing and one-design series, but contrary to professional offshore top races the percentage of "full" crewed racing is much bigger than solo or duo racing, maybe because it is much easier to sail with a crew than solo or duo. But that percentage has been rising sharply in the last years and not only the number of races for solo or duo has increased dramatically, as well as a duo-handed class was created on the main IRC races.
Probably the turning point was in 2013, when the Loison family ( a father and son duo) won overall, for the first time, a major IRC race, the Fastnet, obviously winning also the duo crewed class. A feat that was not repeated even if it was close to happening again in 2019: the son (Alexis Loison), sailing in duo with the boat builder, Jean Pierre Kleber, finished 5th overall, winning the two-handed class and their "full" crewed class, IRC 3. If the weather conditions had not favored big yachts (the overall winner was a VOR70) they would have probably won overall too.
In France, offshore solo and duo racing have been popular among amateurs already for many years, but what is really new is the last years' increasing popularity in the UK, North of Europe and Italy. On the next Fastnet (August 2021) edition, we will have 89 duo crews, almost doubling the number that raced the 2013 edition! And more would be racing if the number of yachts allowed to participate was not limited.
On the most popular amateur Nordic offshore solo race, the Silverruder, this year's entries beat all previous records, and like on the Fastnet, they are not more because they are limited to 451 yachts, while the waiting list is much bigger than that. For the 2021 Mini Transat they have 126 pre-enrolled for 86 possible entries and for this year's Transquadra (amateur solo and duo racing Transat) there are 96 entries.
This increase of interest in amateur solo/duo offshore racing is very relevant to boat design, especially because we know that for each one doing these races, there are two or three others dreaming of doing them. And it is important because while on top professionals the size of the yacht that can be mastered solo, while racing, can go to 60ft, the same does not happen in amateur racing, not to mention that smaller yachts are much less expensive.
 |
| Aeolos P30 |
Medium-level professionals are not able to master solo 60ft boats (IMOCAS), and to master, I do not mean not being able to race them but to be truly competitive in them. Entry-level offshore solo professionals start with much less powerful sailboats, with 6.50 mini-racers (21.3ft) before passing to the Figaro class (32ft) and 40Class (40ft). Normally only good Figaro racers or 40class racers will be able to do a successful transition to the 60ft class, and even so most will need some years sailing them before being competitive.
 |
| Farr X2 |
A full amateur crew of good level can be competitive racing a 40 to 50 ft cruiser-racer (or racer) but the same does not happen if the boat is sailed solo or duo. Besides, because cruiser-racers and race yachts are designed to race with a big crew seating on the side acting as ballast, they are underpowered, without the human moving ballast, while racing solo or duo.
The market for an offshore racing yacht, including cruiser racers, was for many years dominated by yachts between 37ft and 50ft, but now, with the increase of duo and solo amateur offshore racing interest, we can observe an unparalleled increase in the offer of small cruiser-racers and racing boats, yachts between 21.3ft and 35ft, with running rigging adapted to solo or duo racing, many with water ballast, to take the place of the crew seated on the rail, or with a big B/D, that provides the upwind extra power to sail upwind or beam reaching, the extra power that was generated by the crew weight, acting as ballast.
 |
| Dehler 30 OD |
That is why in what regards racing boats and cruiser-racers this market niche is probably the one with more interesting and innovative racing sailboats (including cruiser-racers) and with more new production boats. Sensing this "revolution" I started this article more than a year ago, but I decided to wait till the tendency was more clear to all, and it was a good move because since then several new boats have appeared.
Great new times are coming not only in what regards sail racing but also in what regards sportive spartan cruising associated with a boat's dual-use. Of course, all this started many years ago with the 6.50 mini-racer (44 years ago) and many years later with two pioneering cruiser-racers, the Figaro I (31 years ago) and the Pogo 8.50 (22 years ago).
 |
| JPK 1030 |
But then it was exclusively a French thing. Now you have just to look at the many nationalities that will race this year's Mini Transat to understand that solo/duo racing has become an international affair. The majority of racers are still French but now there are racers of other 13 nationalities, many of them with several sailors competing.
There are actually 3 Mini-Racers that are production yachts (Wevo 6.5, Maxi 650, Pogo 3) and like those many other small sailboats are designed having as focus solo offshore sailing and solo/duo racing among them the Django 6.70, 7.70, 9.80 (one 7.70 is circumnavigating), Seascape 27 /First 27 (10 years ago), JPK 10.10 (10 years ago), A27, A31 (11 years ago), A35, Figaro 2 (18 years ago) and the Sunfast 3200 (13 years ago).
 |
| Sun Fast 3300 |
Recently a new generation of racers and cruiser-racers, pointed to solo or duo racing, come to the market, and are already dominating not only the solo/duo amateur racing but crewed IRC offshore racing (on their division and also winning overall): The JPK 10.80, JPK 10.30, J99, Sunfast 3300, Sunfast 3600, that were joined recently by even more recent designs, some still on the building phase, the Dehler 30 OD, Aeolos P30 and the Farr X2.
This new generation of small cruiser racers and racing boats, their variety and market vitality, are a response to the explosive rise of interest for amateur solo/duo offshore sail racing, not only in France, but everywhere. This type of racing allows having great fun with small costs, and allows to have great sportive results, not only in dedicated races, but in IRC major offshore races, where a good duo crew can win, not only the two-handed division but also the crewed division, and even the race overall.
 |
| J99 |
Recently this interest in solo/duo amateur racing was recognized by the World Sailing federation that proposed a duo-handed World Championship and the creation of an Olympic offshore duo category for the 2024 Olympic Games. Unfortunately with a new Chinese President on the World Sailing federation, all these projects went backward, as well as the official recognition of the international growing interest in this type of sailing.
But I would say that it is only a question of time because it is not the President of WS that decides the routes of sailing as a competitive sport, but the sailors that race and that choose in what type of sail racing they are more interested in, and they do that by racing the way they like more.
To the growing interest will correspond a bigger number of racers, more boats designed for those races, more public interest, more sponsors and that's the way things work, and not the other way around, with someone on top deciding what should be, and what should not be, the future of sail racing.
History correction :
ReplyDeleteThe start was not the mini 6.5 race.
The start was "Course de l'Aurore", in 1970 (some 51 years ago), 6 years before the Mini. it was an offshore solo race on half tonners (RORC at that time, not even yet IOR). Aurore was a newspaper. Then that newspaper was bought by another newspaper "Le Figaro" in 1981. The race was then renamed to "Course du Figaro" un 1981. Still on half tonners. Then following IOR fading in 1990, the halftonners were replaced by a monotype purposely designed for that race : the "Figaro", built by Beneteau.
The Transquadra (solo duo Atlantic crossing for crew older than 40) may be seen as an "amateur" evolution of these races. Transquadra boats : jpx 1010 , 1030, 1080, sunfast 3200,3600,3300, A31, A35, J/97 J/99 ...
Note : Transquadra boats should be CE category A, and should have a IRC rating between 1.00 and 1.05. That make them somewhat heavy ( weight mainly above 3000 kg, up to 5000kg )
The transquadra started in 1993, only 2 years after the "course du Figaro" switched to monotype. I guess it was driven by "amateurs" who could not switch, or were not interesting by at that time, brand new monotypes.
ReplyDelete