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