New
AcquisitionsThe Royal Ocean Racing Club; the First 75 Years; Ian Dear; Adlard Coles, 2000; ISBN 0-7136-5242-X; £30; CA 15699
Mary Blewitt, Errol Bruce, John Illingworth, Owen Aisher - many of the personalities who populate this new history will be familiar to anyone who cruises under sail. Ian Dear reminds us that organised ocean racing hardly existed in 1925 when a few enthusiasts agreed to race their yachts from Cowes around the Fastnet and back to Plymouth. Severe weather spoiled several of those early races (but none so bad as in 1979, when 15 participants died), and designers responded with safer boats.
You do not need to be an RORC member to enjoy this book; all yachtsmen will recognise, woven into the narrative, a mocrocosm of the social history of cruising. A few energetic amateurs agree over a drink to start an association, premises are found, membership struggles to grow, funds are scarce, then disagreements in Committee and massive disruption during WWII (when RORC volunteer ferry crews helped to deliver some 200 naval auxiliaries and minesweepers to the war theatre). When ocean racing recommenced in 1946, steel yachts had to be excluded because of unswept magnetic mines. Yachtsmen's manners had changed, and the Club felt obliged to be more selective than hitherto in admitting new members. Sponsorship began difidently in 1969; today the Admiral's Cup series would perish without it.
RORC racing rules have hugely affected yacht design. The Mumm 30 design introduced in 1993 quickly engendered more than 100 new builds all intended for serious ocean racing; a far cry from 1925, when all Fastnet entrants bar one were working boats or copies of such. Several appendices, a bibliography and comprehensive index enhance the book's reference value; it's also a good read. - JCR
Page prepared 30 October 2000
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