Top dog

I think one of the most irritating things found in sports is the idle use of peoples nicknames, the assumption that "everybody" knows is almost universally incorrect, and leads to the impression of elitism, we don't want you because you don't happen to know somebody.

It portrays a very poor image of a sport where being in the elite group of "I know but you don’t" puts people off wanting anything to do with sailing.

I read a report on a championships recently and gave up after a few lines, it constantly used nicknames, and the casual reader would have no idea who was doing what. The total lack of empathy is quite unbelievable.

Uffa Fox is better known for many reasons, not least because we use his "real name", and before you try the impossible, stupid and quite useless task of comparing number of championships won by one over the other, please remember there were probably no more that a handful of classes at best when Uffa Fox was sailing.

PS: For the record I do know who "Taxi" is, but I've been sailing for many decades and only ever heard the name used a couple of years ago, kinda depends on if your paths cross I guess, but if I had a commercial business in the sport I was participating in, I would definatly use my full and real name and want other to do the same as inevitably less people who know this.