End of the fully-crewed offshore race?

Double-handed racing is booming but as technology replaces people, who will train the next generation of offshore sailors? Offshore coach Stuart Greenfield asks the question:

As Crew Boss on Giant Panda in the Admiral’s Cup in the 1980s, my job before the start was never just tactics. It was people. Ten of them, I had to work out who was genuinely up for it and dependable, who was playing at being a ‘rock star’ (as we called them then), who’d be seasick, and who was still hungover, living on cigs and coffee, and needed watching at 0300 when the breeze built and it was time to peel the kite. The boat was the easy part. The crew was always the challenge.

Thirty years later, I raced the Fastnet two-handed on Silver Shamrock, my Ron Holland classic half tonner. Different century, felt like a different sport. For long stretches I was effectively alone: co-skipper asleep below, autopilot steering (well, sometimes working), me trimming, navigating, eating, and keeping the watch. No one to brief. No one to develop. No one to manage but myself. Bliss? – Full report