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While the panjandrums of World Sailing and the IOC still wrestle with the fate of their troubled two-handed mixed offshore race for the Paris 2024 Olympics, authorities elsewhere have to deal with more immediate concerns. SA readers will be aware of the awkward kerfuffle late last year during the run-up to the (COVID-cancelled) Sydney-Hobart race. At first, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia welcomed two-handed entrants without restrictions. Then, after pressure from some influential skippers of conventionally crewed yachts, the two-handers were excluded from eligibility for the overall and existing divisional prizes and confined to separately created divisions of their own.
Severe disgruntlement followed, including multiple protests and murmurs of legal action. This disquiet is apparently unabated. Owners who shelled out $250,000 or more for the latest 30-footer or adapted an existing rocket-ship for short-handed offshore racing have not given up their fight to have the CYCA policy overturned…
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