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Ouch...now it gets personal...

Posted 9 months, 3 days ago

Ouch...now it gets personal...
Light the blue touch paper and stand well clear! The canting keel debate at Cowes rages on (who actually cares?) and some interesting battle-lines are being drawn. In the red corner we have Ger O'Rourke fighting out of Ireland (and losing a lot of friends in the process) and in the blue we have Peter Morton (one of the best pound for pound sailors in Britain).... O'Rourke: " Your CV reads ok but untill you sail a canting keel + am sorry to say u have not passed the test + are unqualified to make the call" Morty: "Ger, this boat I am racing in the picture above has: 1. Canting keel 2. Canting mast 3. Rotating mast 4. Water ballast 5. Bow rudder 6. Trim tab . It is 119 ft long and makes your boat look conservative. It might be better if you did a bit of homework before making the above statement and there is no need to get personal. If you want support to race canters at Cowes you need to convince the owners not old timers like me. If you can get more owners to buy the boats then I can assure you that we will listen." . Now the silence is deafening other than everyone trying desperately to distance themselves from O'Rourke: . Why take it out on Cork Week because of the row raging about Ger O'Rourke's canting keeler?  It does seem a bit unfair to say the least of it.  What has the organisation of Cork Week got to do with him or he with it?  Just look at your blog in the archives of Feb 2.08 re "What a Corker"!!!  That's what Cork Week is all about and not stupid rows.  We really do have a super event run by the Cork Week Committee at the Royal Cork Yacht Club and why should it be penalised by anyone withdrawing coverage over something that is not of its making.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your un-named “contributor” (not sure what he’s actually contributing here) says they are “a definite safety feature:”  Would the crewmembers injured when “WILD OATS” lost her rig in Sardinia agree? I think, moreover, that if a canting keel yacht cannot be sailed with her rig locked in the middle, as Mr O’Rourke seems to suggest, then they are the ones with a problem. Cowes Week forever! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And from one of the race organisers: Thanks for putting in an article about Cork Week, but don’t punish us because of what Ger o’Rourke has written ! We had nothing to do with it.     Full Story »

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