Reader Rant

Power Down
The third and final VOR Reader Rant. Good Times.

The simple fact is that the VOR organizers screwed the pooch when setting up the current rules. Building a larger boat, powering it up, and then DROPPING the crew numbers was just plain STUPID. It did not (or does not) matter a bit on the "adventure" part of the VOR...having less crew simply makes it harder to sail. Harder does not mean that it has risen up the adventure scale, it just means it is harder.

The organizers tried to cut costs, and figured that say $80k per year per person (so lets say dropping 3 crew equals a total savings of approx $480,000 in total) is justified. Especially when that new carbon ram costs $200k, or perhaps the sail development runs in the millions. Hmm...having an extra 1-3 people is really a drop in the bucket overall. But the pull of short handed racing wins out, even though they are still fully crewed!

The casuality of the VOR (aside from there being no female crew left) is that there is little room for "newbys" to the group. Sure, the ABN boats have dedicated one boat to this, but even then crew dropped to be replaced with experienced folks. Pirates average age is like 35 with 4-5 VOR's on average per member (ok, so I don't know the numbers...but it is high and a lot!). The downfall to this is that there are less and less positions, and more and more people wanting to get in. This means more $$$...and in the end that offsets the costs of those 1-3 extra crewmembers!

Personally I think the VOR should have required that EVERY boat has 2-3 people who have not gone around the world. And even better...should have not be pros (up until the time they signed with their VOR team). Many of the top skippers have mentioned the inability to find experience at the earlier ages (or starts of their careers...even if they are in their 30's)...so they resorted to pulling folks out of retirement, paying them hige wages for another go, and creating the same issue that put them there in the first place.