Offshore racing for next generation

by Stuart Greenfield, offshore sailing coach
I began racing offshore properly in 1974 and, more than half a century and fourteen Fastnets later, one thing has barely changed: almost every offshore sailor starts on somebody else’s boat, at somebody else’s expense, usually without ever being told what it really cost to put them there.

That matters because offshore racing has always renewed itself through a rather informal compact between generations.

Owners supplied the boats and paid most of the bills. Experienced sailors supplied the knowledge. Younger sailors supplied enthusiasm, energy and occasionally useful weight on the rail. If you stayed around long enough, listened rather more than you talked and proved reasonably useful at three in the morning, you moved aft, took more responsibility and eventually became the person giving somebody else the chance you had once been given.

It was never a formal pathway. It was barely even a system. But for decades it worked. The problem is that this path has become harder to sustain. – Full report