“A yacht may elect to race using celestial navigation”

The Marion Bermuda Race is currently underway. It may not be very high on the awareness scale of Australian Sailors, but it’s got a long and beautiful history.

The first Cruising Yacht Race in 1977 was a great success. There were 104 yachts at the starting line attesting to the need for an event comprised of offshore vessels manned by cruising crews. The going was slow in light southwesterly winds and most of the expectant officials at the finish line thought CHEE CHEE would cross first. But her position was not accurate and Herb Marcus’s SILKIE took line honors, first on corrected time and first short-handed.

The next race in 1979 saw 128 starters plunging into 25-knot southwesterly winds. The struggle with nature caused two dismastings and 14 ”Did Not Finishes“. SILKIE again took the short-handed trophy while GABRIELLA took first to finish and first on corrected time. A new Family Trophy was created and awarded to ASTEROID.

It seems to me that this obviously corinthian methodology for running and promoting an event is what we need more of, as success in our great ocean races becomes more and more unachievable without bucket loads of cash and a FiFo professional crew.

And then I read of a class of racing that skippers can opt for and it made my heart sing!

A direct transcript from the sailing instructions reads…

A yacht may elect to race using celestial navigation. If a yacht elects to be celestially navigated, she shall have her elapsed time reduced by 3%. See Attachment A for the details of the conditions that a yacht must meet to be considered a celestially navigated yacht.

If this interests you as much as it did me, you can read Attachment A here.

If our role at SWS is to promote the CULTURE of wooden boat sailing, then what could be more appropriate than a race where you gain an advantage by using traditional navigation. Its not just the exquisite skills and techniques that are required to find the finish line, that excite me, but knowing that each navigator has an understanding of their boat’s place in the cosmos, their own insignificance and the incontavertability of science done well!

Imagine if we had a celestial navigation handicap bonus in the Sydney Hobart! 3% on a TP52…That’s a lot! Now there’s a race worth contemplating!