| ng is perhaps the most romantic of all sports, with its | | | | winner. Courses are often triangular, with buoys |
| aura of long days on deck, of old sea salts' talk, of | | | | marking the "lanes" of the course. Short-haul dinghy |
| rope-related knowhow and words like "keelhaul" and | | | | boat races can even be seen at the Summer |
| "stern," its echoes of Melville and Popeye and of | | | | Olympics. |
| Robert Shaw's character in the movie Jaws. ("I'll get | | | | But the most prestigious events tend to be long-haul, |
| the shark fer yeh, Chiefie!") | | | | open-sea voyages: point-to-point distance contests |
| But competitive yachting is a pastime involving leisure | | | | threatened at every turn by bad weather, unexpected |
| and privilege (you have to have a boat, after all, and | | | | delay, and all the dangers of life at sea. These races |
| the time to race it) as well as hard work, danger, and, | | | | pose more danger than do many endurance |
| yes, a dash of that old-time historical romance. The | | | | contests—for a runner, for example, to expose |
| Dutch are said to have invented the sailboat race | | | | him- or herself to equal hazards, she or he would have |
| during the sixteen-hundreds. As with competitive riflery, | | | | to participate in ultra marathon races over hazardous |
| which took off in the period after the Civil War in | | | | terrain. Open sea voyages thus demand particularly |
| America as a direct result of Americans' need for | | | | committed sailors who are willing to risk death for their |
| better marksmanship skills, or hunting, which developed | | | | sport. |
| as a sport alongside the young country's need to | | | | Some events even make the ultimate imaginable |
| better feed and clothe itself as it expanded westward, | | | | demand: that the racers, like Ferdinand Magellan |
| sailboat racing probably owed something of its | | | | himself, circumnavigate the earth (these are called |
| emergence to the sudden need for good seamen in a | | | | "round-the-world" races, fittingly enough). Some famous |
| Europe that was expanding through colonialism and | | | | offshore races include the Sydney to Hobart race |
| trade. | | | | (Australian), the West Marine Pacific Cup, the Bermuda |
| The Dutch, active participants in the colonial and | | | | Race, and the around-the-world Global Challenge and |
| mercantile economies of the seventeenth century | | | | Volvo Ocean Race. Upping the ante a bit, |
| (they were among the many societies then attempting | | | | single-handed offshore yacht races are growing in |
| to wrest the United States away from Indians), would | | | | popularity (the VELUX 5 Oceans Race is a |
| have needed well-trained sailors. Why not make an art, | | | | descendant of the 1968-69 Sunday Times-sponsored |
| a sport, out of the teaching of skills that necessity itself | | | | singlehand race that inaugurated round-the-world |
| required? What better way to ensure that those skills | | | | racing), despite some questions about legality: |
| are widely diffused? | | | | international navigation rules require that every sailing |
| But if the Netherlands provided the seed, it was | | | | ship have a person keeping a lookout at all times, |
| England—that country's colonial-era | | | | which is hard to do when you're the only one |
| rival—that acted as soil. Custom-built | | | | navigating, cooking, sleeping, etc. |
| sailboats—designed for leisurely racing and called | | | | To race yachts, you need (a) a boat, (b) a crew, (c) a |
| "yachts"—were first crafted here. The sport's | | | | somewhat unrestricted waterway, and (d) at least one |
| popularity in England made a similar catching-on | | | | other competitor with items (a) and (b). In other words, |
| inevitable in the United States, where yacht clubs | | | | yachting is the sort of pastime associated with |
| proliferated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth | | | | privilege, class, and the ability to enjoy the finer things in |
| centuries. The America's Cup, yacht racing's premier | | | | life; fittingly, some of the best writing on American |
| event, arose in New York City in 1851, in response to a | | | | leisure sailing has come from the typewriter of that |
| challenge to just such a club (the New York Yacht | | | | conservative doyen, William F. Buckley. (Think also of |
| Club, which dominated the yearly event until 1983). | | | | Buckley's old antagonist, the impeccably refined Gore |
| Yacht races today take place at many distances; | | | | Vidal, titling his own memoir Point-to-Point Navigation.) |
| boats of unlike design are handicapped to factor in the | | | | Suffice to say that the ability to truly enjoy a yacht is |
| "natural" cruising speed of each sort. In a racing | | | | like the ability to enjoy a fine liqueur, a good cigar, a |
| competition—known as a "regatta"—many | | | | well-tuned sports car: it takes a certain amount of |
| smaller races are aggregated together; the boat that | | | | leisure and, despite the speeds involved, contemplation. |
| performs best in them all is designated the overall | | | | |