12/01/2020
Remembering Gerry; such a nice guy, great sailor and seaman. The last time I saw him was early 1996, just before the BT Global Challenge. Mike Golding and I were researching designers and builders for Mike’’s first Open 60. We met to look around his boat in La Trinite. Groupe LG was among the latest and greatest from the Finot Conq office and Gerry, who’d been part of Mike Birch’s team on ‘TAG, now had his own project. Busy as he was, he found a whole morning for us and to have lunch in the ‘Cafe de Presse’. Mike and I didn’t make it to the Vendee start that year, because in early November we were racing ourselves in the southern ocean skippering Group 4 and Global Teamwork, respectively. I didn’t see Gerry again and nowadays it must be hard for anyone to imagine but back then it was fairly normal to loose people and boats in big races.....I lost many friends and acquaintances at sea between 1980 and 2000. There is no doubt that through experience, design/technology and legislation/rules trans-oceanic boats are for the most part safer now than they have ever been, but we can’t drop our guard. They’re still the same oceans and whenever they serve up the scale of winds and associated seas that we saw down there in the southern summer of 96/97 lives will be on the line. If you were in the storms that changed our sport: Fastnet 79, Vendee Globe 96 and Hobart 98 you will remember the days when it was ‘normal’ to loose people and safety was not the consideration it is now. We need to be on our guard as sailors, scrutinisers/organisers, designers and builders so that safety is always at the forefront of our thoughts IN PARALLEL with performance. It’s been arguably twenty years since we’ve had a series of multiple disasters in an offshore yacht race, but familiarity can breed contempt. Let’s keep that in mind moving forward, beware of complacency and don’t let our standards slip. Lets trust that our sport never again requires a disaster, the loss of multiple boats and lives to set us back on the right path. Loss of life and the risk to an individual at sea can never be avoided, but it can be mitigated. If you want to end risk then you need to ‘swallow the anchor’, but even as individuals we know we can help look after each other before we go and when we’re at sea, so long as we stay aware. Have a great 2020 season and spare a thought for those who’ve gone before, real sailors like Gerry Roufs, who’s lives were cut way too short.
