Of the many – many – different kinds of sailing, solo distance racing appeals to me the most, by far.  In fact, if I were a younger man I would seriously consider trotting off to western France or southern England (but France is indisputably the kingdom of this kind of sailing – course au large, as they call it – and the French are the kings) to make a go of it, and not even as a skipper but as shore team or some other related job.  I don’t care – I would just love to be a part of it.

For a couple of years, I’ve been following ocean racing in its various forms – there can be single, double, or fully crewed boats in classes ranging from 6.5 metre monohulls (called Mini’s) to 30 metre trimarans (called Maxi’s – there are maxi monohulls too, but no organizing body exists for them, and they tend to be privately campaigned).  I follow five classes pretty closely – Mini 6.5’s, Figaro’s, Open 60’s, Volvo 70’s, and Class 40’s like the one in this video:

[brightcove vid=1554446437&exp=1494874935&w=486&h=412]

The Artemis Transat (single-handed Trans-Atlantic race from Portsmouth to Boston, Class 40’s and Open 60’s) is happening right now – the boats started on Sunday the 11th and are currently a third of the way across.  One of my favorites, Michel Desjoyeaux, just retired from race due to damage suffered by hitting a whale, which happens more often than you think. (As a matter of trivia, one racer years ago in this same race had to be rescued when, after being surrounded by a pod of whales for days, they finally attacked his boat and sank it.)  Apparently the whale was unharmed, and Michel is okay too.  The boat didn’t suffer serious damage, but Michel decided it prudent to head back to his base in Brittany, 1000 miles away.  By the way, Alex on FujiFilm is currently in 8th place among the Class 40’s, in a field of 11.  My favorite in Class 40’s is Yvan Noblet on Appart City, currently in 3rd.

Class 40’s are a pretty new design rule – only a few years – and it has really exploded, not just in the typical places (France, England) but in North America too.  The class rules are intended to keep costs down (but campaigning a Class 40 in the series would still run you over $1 million annually – peanuts compared to many millions for Open 60’s, of tens of millions for Volvo 70’s), so that has encouraged participation from a wide array of talent.  What’s more is that these boats are FAST – keeping pace with Open 60’s in some conditions, and certainly considered many times the bang for the buck.  It’s very exciting to see from a design perspective as well as a broader sport perspective.  It’s always encouraging to see growth in something good.

These boats would simply rock on the Great Lakes. That’s the dream part, as it lives today.  It would be possible to buy a used Class 40 (at the moment, about CDN$375,000, so not really an option for me any time soon!) and campaign it on the Great Lakes, likely scooping up the Mac races (Chicago-Mac, Port Huron-Mac) and the Trans-Superior without too much fuss, and relatively little cost – it most certainly would be a tiny fraction of the $1 million I said above.  Now… where can I make a lot of money in a very short amount of time…