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