This year's Volvo Ocean race is just a little bit boring. Team Telefonica has won all three legs and looks a shoe-in for overall winners by the time they reach the final destination of Galway in July. Leg three finished last week in Sanya on the Chinese island of Hainan, having started in Mahe on the Maldive Islands. Leg 2 from Cape Town was distinguished by its finish at a mysterious undisclosed port whence the boats were shipped to Abu Dhabi. This was repeated to get them to the start at Mahe. All this because of worries about the wretched pirates in the north-west Indian Ocean. I think the Volvo race is a thrilling concept and we saw the start in Cape Town of the previous race in 2008. It was stunning to watch these boats powering through Table Bay, waters I know well from sailing in various yachts. But this year it seems that the designs are too finely tuned and there have been a number of failures. This is not on when you only have a field of six. They should reduce the specs to allow for less equipment error and more sailor skill. This might also attract more entrants. I feel the Americas Cup is making a similar mistake: the advanced design parameters are putting the race out of the reach of many potential competitors leaving it in the hands of all but the very rich. The QSL is from the Maldive Islands Broadcasting Service, heard on short-wave on the strange frequency of 4740 kHz from Cape Town way back in 1968. It's one of those weird cards where they indicate that your report was correct or incorrect. Imagine the disappointment if you got one that was marked 'inaccurate!'
This year's Volvo Ocean race is just a little bit boring. Team Telefonica has won all three legs and looks a shoe-in for overall winners by the time they reach the final destination of Galway in July. Leg three finished last week in Sanya on the Chinese island of Hainan, having started in Mahe on the Maldive Islands. Leg 2 from Cape Town was distinguished by its finish at a mysterious undisclosed port whence the boats were shipped to Abu Dhabi. This was repeated to get them to the start at Mahe. All this because of worries about the wretched pirates in the north-west Indian Ocean. I think the Volvo race is a thrilling concept and we saw the start in Cape Town of the previous race in 2008. It was stunning to watch these boats powering through Table Bay, waters I know well from sailing in various yachts. But this year it seems that the designs are too finely tuned and there have been a number of failures. This is not on when you only have a field of six. They should reduce the specs to allow for less equipment error and more sailor skill. This might also attract more entrants. I feel the Americas Cup is making a similar mistake: the advanced design parameters are putting the race out of the reach of many potential competitors leaving it in the hands of all but the very rich. The QSL is from the Maldive Islands Broadcasting Service, heard on short-wave on the strange frequency of 4740 kHz from Cape Town way back in 1968. It's one of those weird cards where they indicate that your report was correct or incorrect. Imagine the disappointment if you got one that was marked 'inaccurate!'
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