Ocean Records World Championship

...courtesy of Scuttlebutt

The epic pursuit of major records, which has now come of age, is taking on
more and more importance on the international sailing scene. Bringing
together human and technological challenges, the endeavour to achieve
maximum performance over the longest ocean routes is something that
appeals to yachtsmen and has led to new programmes being established with
a few more still in the planning stage. Such potential deserved its own
specific framework.

In order to unite these efforts and to give birth to a genuine ocean
record circuit, the magazine Course Au Large, in conjunction with the
leading skippers and G-class (maxi-multihulls) owners, has drawn up a
framework in which the various record attempts can be included from now
on.

Both to make results clear and to establish a legitimate hierarchy
throughout the year that will make it easier for the general public to
understand, the Ocean Records World Championship aims at rewarding
sporting performance, encouraging innovation, technological research and
entrepreneurship in the area of ocean racing.

An annual league table, based on a selection of twenty routes, which are
all certified by the WSSRC, will award points, calculated using a precise
coefficient (from 1 to 10 according to the difficulty of the course).

These 20 routes, including of course the major historic records, have been
carefully chosen and were scrutinised by the major participants in the
racing circuit (Ellen MacArthur, Bruno Peyron, Franck Cammas, Francis
Joyon, Thomas Coville) during an informal meeting held during the most
recent edition of the Paris Boat Show last December. This meeting
approved the principles of the championship and confirmed the interest of
the skippers and G-class owners in this idea of bringing everything
together, and rewarding records set by single-handed yachtsmen and those
with a crew.

Designed to reward the crew and single-handed sailor, who have achieved
the highest number of points from the major records during the year,
various trophies will be presented at the end of each season to reward
skippers, crewmen, designers and sponsors.

Completing this annual arrangement, the ongoing table will take into
account the top ten performances achieved on each route, without
consideration of the time frame. The immediate interest of these
arrangements is to give value to each attempt, to the extent that each
time will be considered and will determine the number of points awarded,
whether the record is smashed or not. 10 points will be awarded for each
new record set, 9 points for the second best time, 8 for the third and so
on.

The ocean records world championship will begin on the first of January
2006, but thanks to the simplicity of its principles, we can already
establish a picture of what the past two years would have produced in
terms of the annual trophies.

For 2004, Francis Joyon (Idec) would have been on to the top step of the
podium in the single-handed category, thanks to his 72-day round the world
voyage, whilst Steve Fossett (Cheyenne) would of course have been rewarded
in the crew records category, thanks especially to his 58-day
circumnavigation.

For 2005 : The year that has just finished would have then crowned Ellen
MacArthur (Castorama) for her single-handed record around the world in 71
days and Bruno Peyron (Orange II) for his record over the same route, but
with a crew in 50 days. Both records were indeed improvements on the
single-handed and crew performances achieved by the 2004 champions!

The main goal of the Ocean Records World Championship is to encourage team
spirit, innovation and entrepreneurship. It also aims to make record
achievements clearer to the general public and to reward sporting
performance by awarding prize money to the skippers and winning crews.

The twenty ocean routes to be considered and the current holders of the
outright records are posted at
http://www.records-oceaniques.com
Jocelyn Blériot

 

Are they going to allow motor sailors like VO70's and the stupor maxis, or only real sailboats?

 

VOR 70's

VOR 70's= "motorsailers"??!!! That is so pathetically ridiculous words escape me.....

 

Doug, did you miss the smiley?

You take this W A Y to seriously!

Please read the records that are included, all held by sailboats. No stupor maxi's with engines running, sailing records, held by sailing vessels.

What is "pathetically ridiculous" is a VO70 with it's engine running not being able to set a 24 hour record.

 

24 hr records

Don't know about the engine running but the VOR 70's have broken he 24hr monohull record several times-two times recently and once earlier:
ABN Amro Two tops 24-hour record
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/sailing/4601692.stm

 

Man Power vs Engine Assistance

Schoonerman, I have to agree with you here. I thought it was rather cute you're calling them 'motorsailers'. After all, they are 'engine assisted'

I wonder how large the big multihulls could go if they relaxed the requirement that all sail handling and winches must be ONLY man powered??

 

They wouldn't be sailboats ... who cares?

 

You are quite right ... I was wrong.

I should have said: "What is "pathetically ridiculous" is a VO70 with it's engine running not being able to set the 24 hour record."

I too hold a record.

Using the Harken coffee grinder at the Vancouver boat show, I set a record time ... for over 50 year old men that have smoked for 40 years, grinding with one hand while standing on one leg.

It is not the record, but it is a record ...

In the same way, a VO70 holds a record ... 563M if memory serves.

The 24 hr record is 706.2 nautical miles, set by a sailboat (no power assist).

I didn't mean to hi-jack the thread, I made one comment (with a smiley) and got a pathetically ridiculous response. If fish where always this easy to hook, there would be no hunger in the world.

 

Pathetically Ridiculous™

Randy, please don't co-opt my intellectual property:"Pathetically Ridiculous™ ". It accurately describes your serious(!) description of one of the fastest monohull sailboats in the world as a "motorsailer". Despite the "smiley"- based on your previous thread long comments on "power assist" you were 100% dead serious,as pathetically ridiculous as that is.....

 

Some people might take offense when their opinion is labeled "pathetically ridiculous" ...

You can claim that power assist is sailing, Frank can claim that MAC 26's are ocean racers, it doesn't make either one of you right.

Don't let the fact that less than 20% of the voters agree with power assisted boats being included with real sailboats temper your response. I guess that means that the majority of us are pathetically ridiculous ... (no one agrees with Frank either) ... I'm happy with that.

 

Facts!

Geez-the "Frank" card?!! amazing...
The question in your Power Assist poll was:" Should Power Assisted Systems be allowed?" According to the stats the NO's are 27% ,the YES's are 64.87% .

 

yes, because the question was "should they be allowed?", not- "Is power assisted sailing really sailing?" I think the answer there is NO.

 

Words fail me (again)

============
2, I felt like using my trademarked intellectual property to describe your comment but this does a better job-so this is not really sailing??!!:
moviestar%202-14.jpg
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/fringe/2006/images/moviestar 2-14.jpg
.....and the boat in the picture is a "motorsailer"
....and the 24hr monohull world record doesn't count
yeah, right.......

 

thats right, because there is a fossil fueled engine involved.

 

Of course monohull records count, so do records set at the Special Olympics. They are not "the" record, but they are "a" record.

You could run a Ski-Doo down the course at Torino and set "a" record ... just don't claim it's a bobsled and expect a gold medal.

Who knows, the Ocean Records World Championship may even allow engine assisted mono-hulls, they aren't fast enough to be be a threat to real sailboats.