Andy Rice

The new Cape 31 has taken the Solent race scene by storm and is underpinned by a super friendly ethos. Has the perfect formula for performance racing finally been found?

The great thing about one-design racing is you know exactly where you stand. The bad thing about perhaps easier than sustaining that enthusiasm a few years down the line. Back to the nowhere-to-hide bruising of the ego when you find yourself one-design racing is you know struggling at the back of the exactly where you stand. Unlike fleet. For Adams, the appeal the vagaries of handicap racing of one-design is being able to where there is always somewhere measure your progress, not to hide, if you fare badly in a one- necessarily the result itself. design race there is nowhere for “I like taking younger people the ego to seek refuge. It’s on you. out on the boat, building the

Of course, if you were fortunate team, developing people’s enough to find a boat that has a opportunity to go sailing on strong one-design fleet but also boats like this. That’s what performs very well on handicap, appeals to me really. It’s not that would be a wonderful but about winning. It’s about very rare combination. Well, one boat that seems to be having its cake and eating it is the Cape 31. “The front of the fleet will always look after itself, it’s the back of doing the best you can with people you’ve got and then working on how you improve

Originally conceived by keen Maxi yacht racer Sir Irvine Laidlaw as a no-hold-barred highthe fleet that needs the lion’s share of the care and attention” the performance of the team.” With upwind speed of around 7.5 knots, the Cape performance 31-footer, Irish naval 31 holds its own with a lot architect Mark Mills drew the racy lines of the Cape 31 back in ABOVE of 40-footers, and downwind it hits speeds over 20 knots in the 2017. It was an immediate hit in South Africa, and in the past The Cape 31 offers right conditions. Adams says you can really feel the boat through 18 months the Cape 31 has taken the Solent by storm. Expertly exciting one-design racing under an your body. “When you get the boat going well and you get it in marketed by South African Dave Bartholomew and New owner-driver rule that sweet spot, the whole crew can feel it. It’s just completely

Zealander Dave Swete out of Port Hamble, sales in England and different from other boats, there is a kind of connectedness that

Ireland have reached 25 boats in not much more than a year. you feel with the boat that I haven’t really experienced before.”

Owner of a Corby-designed cruiser-racer, Lance Adams Aside from the fact that the Cape 31 is a really nice boat to sail, was so intrigued by the idea of the Cape 31 he bought one perhaps the class ethos is even more important. The two Daves, without ever having gone for a trial sail. “I had always wanted Bartholomew and Swete, have been careful to listen to what their to give one-design racing a go, but I didn’t want to race owners want, and also to protect the boat from customisation dinghies and wanted something a bit more exciting than a and bending of the rules. Swete has recognised the fact that

J/70. Dave Swete told me about the Cape 31 and it sounded the front of the fleet will always look after itself, it’s the back of like the boat that the Solent has been needing for a while the fleet that needs the lion’s share of the care and attention. now. I wanted a boat that would get up on the plane and It’s a strict owner-driver class and while it’s possible to race go hell for leather. Sort of like a one-design version of what with three pro sailors on board, Swete tries to discourage teams they were doing with the Fast40s but without the ludicrous from racing with more than one paid professional. Adams agrees. sort of budget that you need to do well in that fleet.” “I don’t really want to see America’s Cup and Olympic sailors

The cut and thrust of one-design competition has showing up and taking it all too seriously,” he says. “Right now been everything Adams hoped it would be. “Last year we there’s a good camaraderie in the fleet, and it’s not like anyone’s experienced some incredibly close races. It was just non- playing their cards close to their chest. There’s a sense of sharing stop on the racetrack, which makes it far more exciting. It knowledge, and Dave Bart and Dave Swete are very committed gives you the opportunity to use some tactics and use some to helping everyone in the fleet do as well as they can.” ideas to change the position. For the first five or six days of Another feather in the cap of the Cape 31 is that, even

Cowes Week I think we had different winners every day.” ANDY RICE though Mills didn’t design it for handicap racing, the boat

Adam’s boat, Katabatic, was second boat to arrive in the UK. As a sailing journalist turns out to be a great performer under IRC. But the real key

“I’m not normally a risk taker but as soon as Dave told me and TV commentator Andy has unparalleled to whether or not the class will survive in the longer term is what the boat and class was all about, I could see immediately knowledge of the how well it looks after the back of the fleet. If you can find a how it would appeal to other people, and it has done.” performance racing scene, from grassroots way of making sure your owners are still grinning even when

I suggested to Adams that launching an exciting new class is to elite level they’re not winning, you’ve cracked the code of class longevity.