Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
The British press have always been great supporters of yacht racing, giving the sport some wonderful coverage as can be seen from The Observer newspaper front page editorial I share today.
The OSTAR race is turning into a great battle on the high seas, with no-one, including the race organisers not really knowing where everyone is as radio communications have been very “iffy” Move forward 57 years and today we are able to track fleets in real time. Their reporters ask this simple question:
“Who is really leading”?
The big rumour in Newport is that the little twin-hulled ‘Cheers’, with Tom Follett aboard, is just around the headland. Dick Newick, Cheers designer, and Jim Morris her owner, are both in town and have separately voiced the opinion (they make it sound almost like a creed) that Tom Follett will sail in this weekend – thus taking about 22 days for the crossing and shattering Tabarly’s 1964 record of 27½ days.
There is little on Dalling and ‘Voortrekker’ in this editorial as he has not reported for eight days.
So, as in all yacht racing prior to satellite tracking, we simply have to wait and see who appears over the horizon first!
Do read today’s report as it is lengthy, detailed and interesting with mentions of the bulk of the fleet.
READ IT HERE: 1968 06 23 – The Observer – Bruce Dalling Archives – S&A – 002500 – OCR
