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The
Best Worlds…Ever?
It’s
no secret to most of us that many regattas are run like crap. Substandard
RC work, silly course locations, poorly planned logistics and facilities
for visiting boats, weak social events and post-race parties, overpriced
drinks, bad music, nasty porta-potties – the list could go on and
on. We understand that most of the people who do the work for such
events are volunteers, but I’ve never bought that excuse for a lousy
job, and I never will. Part of the problem is cash and, in the US
at least, the difficulty that Organizers have in getting corporate sponsors
to part with it – but I believe that if sailors and YCs understand
how it can be done better, they’ll try as hard as they can to do
so, regardless of financial constraints. With all that in mind,
here’s my overall evaluation of the J/24
World Championship held last week in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico.
As I mentioned
on Monday, the Mexican J/24 Class and Organizer Vallarta Yacht Club adopted
an interesting slogan for last week’s J/24 World Championship. Their
banners, handbooks and website proclaimed it “The Best Worlds Ever!”
and they were pretty damned serious about it – I think this was
the first ever keelboat World Championship in Mexico, and these guys wanted
to make sure that everyone knew what they could do. While I wouldn’t
dream of claiming that I’ve been to enough World Championships to
definitively judge whether they succeeded, I’ve never let a lack
of knowledge stop me before, and I spoke to a big chunk of competitors
before formulating this critique, so…
Let me first
point out the obvious – what makes an event special for one sailor
might piss another off. Of course, an attention whore like me doesn’t
give a rat’s ass about that – the only opinion that matters
is mine, and here it is:
 Venue
Grade: A-
Explanation: Bahia de Banderas is one of my favorite parts of Pacific
Mexico. The bay is enormous and beautiful, ringed by thousand-meter
mountains and lush jungle, and the wind during the winter is purely thermal
and very consistent. The sea breeze builds by around noon, which
allows for a very civilized 1:00 PM start time. The first race each
day was usually sailed in around 8 knots, and the second race was always
a few knots stronger, up to about 18 knots on Wednesday. There are
few places in the world where you are virtuallly guaranteed either
dolphin, whale, or sea turtle sightings during your race, and this is
one of them. Race HQ was in Nuevo Vallarta, nice and close to the
20 year-old girls on spring break in downtown PV but separate enough to
allow a big sponsor village and a feeling of privacy that some people
enjoyed. Besides being close to the big city, Nuevo Vallarta is
even closer to the quaint coastal towns of Punta Mita and La Cruz de Guanacastle,
both good cruising anchorages with a mellow, Jimmy Buffet feel, and great
places to buy a three-foot long mahi-mahi from a Pangero on the beach
for 7 bucks. For me, the only downside to the choice of Venue was
Paradise Village itself, where the VYC and Marina are located. It
was nice enough,  and
the various villas and condos where everyone stayed were great, but I
don’t go to Mexico to be around thousands of obese, pasty time-sharers
from Ohio and Calgary, and I didn’t like the fact that the only
shopping within walking distance was a horrendously overpriced yet crappy
little mall replete with Domino’s Macdonalds, and Subway.
It would have been harder to hold the event at downtown Marina Vallarta,
but it might have been a better choice for J/24 sailors, who tend to be
drinkers with a sailing problem, and there are two strip joints within
walking distance. Next time…
Logistics/Measurement
Grade: A
Explanation: When a person is far more invested than the average
volunteer, it shows. Mike Danielson, from North Sails Puerto Vallarta,
was one of those overinvested people, and whatever the problem that dozens
of crews encountered, Mike was there to put out the fire – all while
racing on Race Chairman Peter Wiegandt’s boat. Mike designed
the extremely slick measurement set-up, which looked something like an
efficient border checkpoint, tents and all, and it allowed the measurers
to move boats through at a blinding pace, despite the strictness with
which they were wielding measuring tape and hull template. If you
want some evidence of how  good
a job that Mike and the measurers did, how about this: As of Saturday
morning, something like 35 boats were still out of measurement (some by
a lot) and two or three crews hadn’t yet arrrived – yet on
Monday morning, all 70 boats were on the water by the 1 PM warning.
You’d see Mike scooting around the prep yard on his red ATV, towing
trailers, finding someone epoxy or padeyes or for a keel, and smiling
all the time. As for the measurement itself – I was somewhat
astonished to find that so many boats had problems, although this could
partially be explained by the fact that the guys working on some of the
Mexican fleet were using the wrong templates when they worked on the boats.
I also learned that J/24 Worlds are always like this – even two-time
World Champ Bruschetta’s brand-new boat failed to measure in last
year – and the Italian who had just built it was racing with them!
Lesson learned? Everyone knows a good fiberglass guy who never seems
to have a good job or any money – bring that guy to your next J/24
Worlds.
 Race
Committee/PRO
Grade: C+
Explanation: I know they were doing their best – really, I
do. But it wasn’t good enough. The RC took forever to
set lines, which were badly skewed for the first three days. The
mark re-sets were way off, and there was one day where we never sailed
on port gybe. PRO Mike Wathen is an experienced dude, and maybe
he did as well as anyone could have under the circumstances, but a lot
of Z-Flag and Black Flags were attributable to big problems with the starting
line bias. The RC was inconsistent: with hailing (they tried a few
different styles), countdown procedures, and when and why the I, Z and
Black flags came out. The award for “Dumbest RC Worker”
goes to the dude on the Panga holding up the course change board –
written in light pink, on a white board, and scribbled out once and rewritten.
I wouldn’t have been able to tell the new course if it had been
a foot from me. Of course, I could be somewhat bitter at our BFD
on the final day…
Racing/Fleet
Quality
Grade: B+
Explanation: The gap between the top 20 boats and the rest was an
obvious one, even from the cheap seats. For such slow boats, the
amount of separation among the fleet at the top mark was surprising.
Perhaps the qualification procedures were to blame, but it seemed like
there were a bunch of missing players from this Worlds – maybe they’ve
gotten tired of bruises? The racing was actually very tight, but
there tended to be big clumps of racers stuck together in the same patterns,
race after race. The two most impressive accomplishments at the
event were on Tuesday when Deke Klatt port-tacked the fleet, and on Wednesday
when the Canadian boat Fragata (Frigate Bird) took a very unexpected bullet
and had shit-eating grins on their faces until the end of the regatta.
Mike Ingham has also got to be excited, as Brain Cramp rescued 2nd place
from the jaws of 4th or 5th with a solid final day and an insufferably
optimism.
 Protest
Committee
Grade: B+
Explanation: Unfortunately, I had all too much time to observe the
Jury, which was made up of judges from 5 different countries with some
stellar qualifications. These poor bastards had an average of 15
protests per day, and I don’t think I saw them at a social event
until the awards ceremony – they were hearing cases until after
11 PM on some nights. They did a good job upholding the rules, and
I’ve heard nothing about favoritism or anything shady. Hell,
I had the Race Chairman’s brother tossed, so there couldn’t
have been too much nepotism. They were also extremely accessible,
especially the Mexican judges, although those Mexicanos seemed to be doing
as much secretary work as they did case work…I wonder why that
is? I had two beefs with the PC/Jury, and neither of them is the
fault of the judges. First, there were some real issues with notice
– the SI’s were not complied with at times, one of those leading
to our team’s DSQ from race 2. Apparently, some fuckwit pulled
protest notices off the official board, and in one instance modified those
notices to fit their own agenda. My second problem is more philosophical:
In a class that treats sailing like a full-contact sport, why not have
judge boats out on the water with the authority to penalize boats?
The ’05 Melges 24 Worlds had ‘em, and it kept the sailors
very honest – even yahoos like me. Every race in Vallarta
had multiple protests, and the casualty tally for the week included a
broken leg, a broken tiller, a broken rudder, a shredded pulpit, a half-dozen
nice fiberglass holes, and plenty more that I didn’t hear about.
There’s just got to be a better way.
 PR/Website/Sponsor
Stuff
Grade: F
Explanation: I won’t pull any punches here – This was Mexico’s
first big keelboat Worlds in a long time (ever?) and both the State of
Nayarit and Paradise Village supported the regatta in a big way, ostensibly
to show the world what a great venue it was for a top-tier regatta.
The Organizers had a real chance to show the world what they were doing,
and they completely and totally blew it. You wouldn’t believe
how difficult it was for me to get daily pictures of the event from the
official photographers, even though they knew that I was reporting for
the biggest sailing audience in the world. The website was glitchy
and almost never updated, and when it was, the information was often wrong
– not provisional – just wrong. I find it incredibly
hard to understand how the Organizer can spend hundreds of thousands of
sponsor dollars on food, booze, clubs and fireworks, and somehow put together
a totally incompetent PR team. Maybe they just focused on the local
and national market – but I can’t see how that would help
bring foreigners to Nayarit, or how title sponsor UBS, or sponsors Microsoft,
American Express, Lincoln and the others would be happy with that.
Here at SA, we’ve accidentally been on the cutting edge of regatta
reporting, so we’ve got pretty high standards, and these are spilling
over to the generally sailing and non-sailing public. Gone are the
days when a YC can post results for a major event at their leisure –
hosting a big regatta means doing it right. Bitch all you want about
Premiere Racing, but at least Peter Craig gets pictures, results, news
and human interest stories out for weeks before KW and each night during
the event. Sure, it means that at least one person has to work their
ass off each day while everyone else is getting drunk, stoned, and laid,
but I know for a fact that it’s do-able, and that it just means
cash – and not a whole hell of a lot of it if you can find the right
people (hint…hint…). PM me if you want to know more.
GlobalStar
was a major sponsor as well, and this regatta was to be their first test
with web-fed, live GPS tracking on each boat. I talked with the
GS people for weeks, assured that they had great success with it during
a recent road rally and that it was going to be great in Vallarta.
After measurement, their staffers carefully mounted each small unit on
the transom of each J/24 – and I think everyone was psyched to tell
their friends back home to watch – I was looking forward to watching
the playback each night to see what we did wrong. GlobalStar dropped
the ball as well – the viewer/player was terrible, the tracking
was unreliable at best, and indecipherable or nonexistent at worst.
Considering the total awesomeness of the Kattack tracking and playback
system, it’s no stretch to say that GlobalStar has a long, long
way to go – and if Kattack can figure out how to get their system
working in real time, they’ll own the market forever. If the
market is big enough, someone will get it working, and we’ll keep
an eye on the players. At the moment, GlobalStar isn’t one.
 Social/Parties
Grade: A+
Explanation: I am still flabbergasted by what the VYC and sponsors
did for the racers and their families - when it came to parties, happy
hours, dinners, and opening and closing ceremonies, we were treated like
royalty. We all kept saying to each other, “Can you imagine
the reaction if this happened in the States?” Because it just
doesn’t – I don’t know whether it’s because the
sponsorship game in the US is so backwards or if there’s some other
reason – but it was eye-opening. Sunday night, before the first
day’s racing, something like 500 sailors and their families gathered
in a beachfront amphitheatre to be welcomed by the Governor of Nayarit,
and then dozens of dancers acting out the history and legends of the indigenous
tribes that live nearby. The Mexican Navy sent a squad to show their
colors, and shortly thereafter we all moved down to the beach. More
surprise as a full dance club had been constructed out of the sand along
with a massive buffet of comida tipica, and we ate to a soundtrack of
‘80s dance remixes while watching fireworks just over our heads.
Leah Danielsen
was the director of all of the social events, and she worked at least
as hard as her husband did. While Mike ran logistics for the boats
and teams, Leah ran everything that didn’t have to do with racing
– and the J/24 Worlds was incredibly lucky to have her. On
Sunday night, Leah told me, “it will get better every night,”
and it did. Monday night, a downtown nightclub was all ours, Tuesday
another beach party and Wednesday saw us at Nikki Beach (same as the Miami
club) watching barely-clothed girls give us a little fashion show at sunset,
with an amazing spread of drinks and food. These were some very
late nights, and Thursday I couldn’t even make it out – and
that’s saying a lot. Friday was the most beautiful awards
ceremony I’ve been to. Tables ringed the huge Paradise pool,
and a 5-piece band played from the stage next to tables covered with beautiful
trophies of copper and wood. A 10-foot screen showed video footage
from the week, shot from boats, helicopters, and from a diver in the water,
and I don’t think I noticed one person who was not enjoying it immensely.
Personally,
I felt taken care of – and it’s hard for racers to act like
spoiled brats when we’re getting treated like VIPs. It’s
so obvious when real sailors are at the helm of things like this, because
only sailors understand how much time, money, and effort is being spent
by the competitors, most of whom show up because it’s fun.
Leah and the VYC made sure that, above all, this event was the most fun
ever for us.
FINAL
EXAM
As I wrote
at the beginning of this piece, a regatta means different things
to different people, and it seems that J/24 people are my kind of folks.
The prestige of the class means that lots of talented young sailors are
part of it, and the uncomfortability and pigginess of the boats ensures
that most of them are looking to hang out and numb themselves a
bit after a long day on the water. The number of racers that earn
their livelihood at a J/24 Worlds is tiny – guys like Max Skelley,
Chris Snow, George Peet and Tony Kotoun have a financial stake in doing
well, and certainly the Brazilians and a few others are single-minded
in their desire to win, but almost everyone else in Vallarta was there
to smile, to sail, to drink, and to get away from mostly frigid places
like Rochester, Traverse City, San Francisco, the UK, Japan, and Newport.
Given the motivation of this majority of the fleet, the logistical and
social aspects of the event need to be weighted much more heavily than
the rest of the event – even than the racing. The racing was
great, but we all know that racing is only one of many reasons that so
many teams spend so much money and come so far.
Based on my
oh-so-scientific criteria, I have to say that the VYC and Mexican 2007
Worlds Committee DID succeed at throwing the best Worlds ever, at least
from the viewpoint of this racer. It’s obvious there is significant
room for improvement, but as long as Mike and Leah are involved, future
events in Vallarta should be just as good, if not much, much better.
The President of the Italian J/24 Class was here, and I’ve got to
believe that they are going to do some pretty special things at the ’08
Worlds in Italy after the Mexicans set the bar so high.
Mer and I would
like to thank Scot and Sailing Anarchy for being a part of our
team for this event, as well as Rudy
Project sunglasses (which are as good or better than my Kaenons),
Nudie Juices, and of course, the
Aussie
Millions Poker Tournament, the second such event in the world, and
apparently it’s something of a carnival down in Melbourne as well.
I also want to recommend some of DryArmour’s
sailing shirts. These weren’t freebies so don’t think that
I’m pimping them as part of some deal - they were actually pretty
pricey. We sailed with the ProWik shirts every day and the DryGuard
stuff for the bowgirls on the wet ones. Both products are the best
I’ve worn for what they do – the ProWik for warm weather and
UV protection and the DryGuard for spray. Also, another MASSIVE
thanks to North Sails PV and the Danielsens for being so freakin’
cool. Mer and I also want to thank Anarchists Mexican, Flyfishingoz, and
lurker Ron and his girl Rachel for being great teammates. And to
the dozens of Anarchists and lurkers at the Worlds (especially you psychotic
Japanese dudes) – we can’t wait to do this all over again.
I’m not sure where or when, but we’re always ready for another
one.
-By Mr. Clean,
with pictures from Mer
15 March, 2007If you’re ready to check out all the FUN pics from
the event, HAVE
AT IT.
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