Lake Forest: why I have no interest in the round the world races; and a drowned cat

In Sailing Anarchy this morning I read a piece by Ronnie Simpson who has been offered a 50’ boat to sail in one of the now plethora of round the world races.  He writes:

Three days after … reaching terra firma, I’ve got an LLC being formed, a web developer hired, a sailing crew hired, a media guy and some plane tickets to Maine. I’ve cobbled together some used TP52 kites to supplement our downwind inventory and pulled the trigger on a couple of final preparation projects at the yard. 

We are already aligned with the Veteran’s sailing non-profit US Patriot Sailing and have a tax-deductible means of accepting campaign contributions. I started a GoFund Me account to raise some seed money and we have raised more than $13,000 in less than a day. Not bad for a few days of work. We have a boat, a fundraising and sailing team apparatus taking shape and a bit of cash to get off the dock.

I want to make it clear that I am not criticizing Ronnie, whom I know and like.  He has long wanted to be part of that scene and all the things he has done are I conclude standard in it.  I hope the experience fulfills his expectations.  But that is why I don’t follow the round the world races:  they are about money and business.  They most definitely, despite the hype by the hired PR people, not about one man against the sea.  I didn’t even know you need an LLC, a web developer, a sailing crew, a media guy, be aligned with a non-profit, and a GoFund Me to go to sea.  Obviously I’ve been doing it wrong all these decades.  I must be an anachronism.  I almost wrote ‘an old anachronism’, but that is probably redundant.

From an early edition of THE OXFORD BOOK OF ENGLISH VERSE a poem by Thomas Grey I like with a famous last line.