We asked Roy Seaman why he likes long distance races. We were expecting an answer about the challenge of doing battle against the elements and the sea, man against nature, one on one.
Instead, he said, "It's a good way to get a lot of sailing in. Think about it -- in the Worrell you went a thousand miles in 10 days."
We thought about it, and it did not really seem to answer the question. So we asked, "But WHY would you want to get that much sailing in?"
Then came the real answer: the search for speed. He said, "Even in a thousand miles, you're lucky to get one good day or even one good hour when you really get a great speed run. It's a very rare thing, and it is very difficult to get when you go out daysailing on a weekend.
"What makes it possible to achieve this kind of ultimate speed on a long-distance race is when you start downwind in the morning (in light air) with a big chute up, and then it starts blowing harder and harder and harder until you really fly. You get to sail with your chute in winds you would never normally be able to do, because if you started out in winds like that, you would never be able to even get the spinnaker out of the bag. But when it's already up, you just keep going faster and faster and fly it all day."