MAINSAIL_issue 10

Sailing Narrative
16 A RETURN TO WINNING WAYS
Ineos Team UK takes to the race course
MBR Features
20 HIGH VISIBILITY
We find out about the best underwater drones to
visit the depths
One-on-One
26 WHAT ELSE CAN ONE POSSIBLY WANT?
The Editor’s latest transponder
GT54UHD-TM TRANSDUCE
Sailing Regattas
42 TOP MEDITERRANEAN REGATTAS
The best places to race a sailing yacht, from
Sardinia to St Tropez
Ocean Risk Initiative
44 PARTNERING FOR PROGRESS ON
OCEAN RISK
When people are invited to stop what they are doing
and think about the ocean, what it means to us,
and what we can do to help protect it
Quote of the Month
What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able
to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?
This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and
without it, all the rest are not only useless, but disastrous.
– Thomas Merton
Editor’sNote
Another stifling, hot summer is upon us. I am
planning on a holiday break in London and
Paris, as well as a sailing adventure around
the Aeolian Islands, while I am writing this
editorial.
Rising out of the cobalt-blue seas off Sicily’s
northeastern coast, the Unesco-protected
Aeolian Islands (Vulcano, Lipari, Salina, Panarea,
Stromboli, Filicudi and Alicudi) are a little piece
of paradise, a seven-island archipelago offering
a wealth of opportunities for relaxation and
outdoor fun. Stunning waters provide sport
for swimmers, sailors, kayakers and divers,
while trekkers can climb hissing volcanoes and
gourmets can sip honey-sweet Malvasia wine. My favourite hot spot is Panarea,
the smallest and most fashionable of the Aeolians, attracting international jetsetters
and Milanese fashionistas for a taste of dolce far niente
I shake my head when I am at one of the few local yacht clubs on the Island,
watching the kids get ready for their junior sailing program, and there are a
bunch of parents rigging the boats. As a kid, we would have been incredibly
humiliated if our parents had rigged our boats for us. It was something we did
together, helping each other when necessary but taking responsibility for getting
the job done by ourselves. My mother’s total involvement was to hand me my
favorite floppy hat and some pocket money and tell me to have fun.
I had no one to protect me from doing something stupid, like getting fingers in
the way when attaching a boom or lowering a centerboard. And because no one
shielded me from difficulties or disappointments, I learned to stand on my own.
Trust me, I only held a fully loaded spinnaker halyard once as I released it when
dousing the chute. Smoked my hand, learned a lesson, as I was growing fast.
If I forgot to pack a sandwich or, more likely, forgot to stow it someplace dry, I was
the one with a soggy sandwich at lunch. There was no mommy-boat to fix things,
and I learned to carefully waterproof anything I wanted to eat later, and it wasn’t
a plastic bag back then, it was multiple layers of wax paper with a rubber band.
One of the special qualities of sailing is that it really does train kids to become
functioning adults. Sure, soccer and football and other sports help instill teamwork,
but that’s about it. Not much use in your adult life for bunt or place kick.
Sailing teaches you stuff you will use forever. I used knots I learned on the water
to tie some lumber securely to the roof rack of my car recently, and I have a
lifetime of familiarity with tools, paints, adhesives and the other stuff that kept
my boats together and afloat. Sailing prepares kids for life.
Sailing is a training ground that turns kids into adults, as long as adults leave them
alone. Let them win or lose on their own merits, not with someone snowplowing
their life. As a kid, I was expected by my parents to exercise good judgment and
good judgment often comes by making mistakes.
Mistakes are a part of the growing process and I have to admit, I am still a little
skittish around spinnaker halyards..
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