Sayer Kicking Ass

Despite the whiners who were self-righteously thumping their chests that it was somehow a good thing to keep Chris Sayer out of Mini Transat Race, it looks like he's kicking a little ass, albeit unofficially. He started an hour behind, and has put himself right in the front. This of course is both impressive and shameful. You all know what category you belong to.

By the way, even though it is a bit of a dead horse, here are the facts regarding Sayer's situation as we know them. The 2003 class rules came into force on Jan 1st 2003, as late as January 23rd the Classe Mini confirmed his entry and the proposed qualification voyage for both Chris and Liz. On Feb 12th Chris was notified, along with everybody else, that the wildcards had been replaced with a DCQ entry and that the entries had been limited by authorities to a maximum of 70 boats. It also set out the new qualifying requirements.

In retrospect this is when Chris should have thrown his toys big time and maybe the class could have made an exception for him – Chris was still building his replacement boat at this stage and working big hours. However, Chris believed that he had written confirmation of his entry and qualification and so he assumed that the new rule would not be applied to him (he entered the race in 2001). Chris wrote to the class to confirm his status and they responded in the affirmative, but did say they would have to discuss how they would sort it, but not to worry! – this was in mid March. On April 6th they sent a message saying that everybody would have to qualify in the same manner and that it was clear that Chris would not be able to make the start and so they were sorry but hoped to see him in 2005! They also removed him from the entry list and the list of people applying for DCQ entries! Chris still believed that the class was made up of good guys and so he would be OK – he still thinks that they are good guys. There was no way to ship the boat to France in time so Chris decided to continue his qualification as originally agreed, and believed that when he got to Europe he would be able to talk the French into allowing him to race. While he was sailing his 3500nm qualifier the Royal New Zealand Air Force offered to fly the boat to England in a C130, but it was too late. Chris was at sea and we had no way to get hold of him. He completed his voyage, packed up the boat and shipped it to France, and you have heard everything since then.

The French are right to enforce the safety and to limit their entries if they wish, but we still believe that they had an obligation to Chris in this case. There is nothing wrong with having to qualify in France if that is the same for everyone and it has been a notified requirement in the Notice of Race, but not if it is introduced only six months before the event. In this case if the class had been decisive in February then we are sure that Chris would have gotten to France to qualify.

You can follow Chris' progress here- Ed