Andy Rice There’s something about the spirit of dinghy sailors that never fails to inspire, whether it’s Olympians clashing at Corinthian events or being thrown to the lions at the ‘Concrete Colosseum’
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don’t know about you, but I think learning the Racing Rules of Sailing is quite boring. Despite the best (and mostly very good efforts) to simplify the rule book over the past couple of decades, for entertainment it’s just not quite up there with Netflix. However, I wish I’d been up on my rules a bit more for the Oxford and Cambridge Generation Game at Farmoor Reservoir near Oxford, a trip back in time to team race in Fireflies. There’s nothing quite like team or match racing to make you actually want to swot up on the Racing Rules. I have scarcely done any team racing since the mid to late Eighties when I went to Cambridge University to read Classics. Truth be told I studied about as much Greek and Latin as Ian Walker who was there a couple of years later to read Geography. That said, I think Ian’s multiple circumnavigations in the Volvo Ocean Race have since improved his knowledge of the planet! Any enhancement to my knowledge of Ancient Rome, on the other hand, has been limited to viewings of Ridley Scott’s sword and sandals big-screen epic, Gladiator. One of my favourite Russell Crowe quotes is from when his character, Maximus Decimus Meridius, is dropped into the Colosseum along with a bunch of fellow slaves to be put up against the might of some well-armed gladiators in chariots. “Whatever comes out of these gates, we’ve got a better chance of survival if we work together. Do you understand? If we stay together, we survive.” That’s what it felt like being thrown to the young lions at university who eat, drink and sleep team racing in the way that I did more than 30 years ago. So it was in a spirit of trepidation but with a sense of ‘we’re in this together’ that me and my fellow ageing team mates entered the concrete arena at Oxford Sailing Club. Nick Rees, Amanda Hampson, Helena Ellis, Pete Allsop, Claire Gribben and myself - in at the deep end. We knew what we had to do - some of it. The rest we would have to make up. Helena had our T-shirts printed up with: “We were faster in the 80s...”, and so it proved. We did our best to stay together, but somehow the spirit of Maximus didn’t quite see us through. This, even with a handicap leg-up of a point per decade since leaving university. Here’s an example: if we were up against the current Oxford or Cambridge team, they would be on scratch points while we would get a 4-point advantage. We could finish across the line in what would normally be a losing combination
but still beat them provided we stayed within our 4-point age advantage. Strangely this was the only one of our five matches that we won, a straight 1-2-3 victory against the Oxford incumbents. Then two draws which we lost on tiebreak, and two losses. We thought we’d actually sailed quite well, but it certainly didn’t show in the results. Age proved not to be an excuse either, as the slightly-older-than-us team, Cambridge Early Eighties, won outright, winning on the water without needing to bring their handicap advantage into play. Considering one helm, Rob Plummer, had scarcely stepped into a sailing boat for 30 years, it was an impressive achievement. Truly they were masters of the Concrete Colosseum. It’s the Concrete Colosseum that will see the final event of this year’s Selden Sailjuice Winter Series play out, with the Oxford Blue on 19 February. The Series kicks off with the Fernhurst Books Draycote Dash, 20-21 November, and there’s a total of nine events, the most we’ve run since starting up the Series in 2009. With only the Datchet Flyer running last winter due to Covid restrictions, we’ve brought in more events to hedge our bets. As I write, it seems we are emerging out of the woods, and there are many reasons to be optimistic about getting in a full series. If not, hopefully there will still be enough events to make a decent series. I’m hoping we’ll see a few of our Olympians make an appearance. It’s great to see the likes of Luke Patience showing up for the Endeavour Trophy, even if the margin of victory along with super-crew Mary Henderson was a little bit rude. Three boats were OCS in race one, two of them being Luke along with his former silver medallist 470 team mate Stu Bithell crewed by Jessica Hammett. However, the difference opened up between the Olympians after that with Luke and Mary winning four of the five next races while Stu and Jessica added more letters to their score with a BFD and some results outside the top 10. I love Luke and Stu’s infectious enthusiasm to come back from the stresses of the Games and hurl themselves straight back into grassroots sailing again. As Stu jested with me when I saw him at the Southampton Boat Show, winning the Olympic gold medal with Dylan Fletcher in the 49er was merely the warm-up for the Merlin Rocket Nationals. Less than two weeks after flying back in BA First Class from Tokyo, Stu was at East Lothian Yacht Club, lifting the trophy with crew Tom Pygall. What a legend.
PHOTO SUE PELLING
‘I LOVE LUKE AND STU’S ENTHUSIASM TO COME BACK FROM THE OLYMPICS AND HURL THEMSELVES INTO GRASSROOTS SAILING’
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DECEMBER 2021 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
ABOVE Stu Bithell and Jessica Hammett take a break between races at the Endeavour Trophy
ANDY RICE As a sailing journalist and TV commentator Andy has unparalleled knowledge of the dinghy sailing scene, from grassroots to Olympic level
