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Scuttlebutt Updates
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Archived NewslettersSCUTTLEBUTT 2965 - Wednesday, November 4, 2009Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Scuttlebutt on Facebook: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/facebook Today's sponsors are Myboatsgear.com and Morris Yachts. BOR 90 DISMASTED (November 3, 2009) - The 33rd America's Cup challenger, BMW Oracle Racing, took one on the chin today when the 200-foot rig on their 90-foot trimaran dropped while they were going upwind in approximately 9 knots. This all took place about 9 miles south of the Coronado Islands at about 12:30pm while training from their San Diego base. No injuries occurred during the incident, and while the cause is still under investigation, early indicators are that it was a forward stay or sprit failure. The trimaran finally got back to the base by 17:00, with the support RIBs that have retrieved the mast expected to arrive a couple of hours behind. Early indications are that the boat platform hasn't suffered much damage, but it will take time to do a full assessment. -- Photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/11/bor-90-dismasted.html THE BOSS SPEAKS BMW Oracle Racing team owner Larry Ellison was in San Diego last Friday to see the latest modifications on BOR 90, and he took time to sit with Shirley Robertson for an interview on the CNN Mainsail show. While he would not commit to the America’s Cup Match being held in the United States if his team won, and he was evasive about being on the boat during the 33rd Match, he did offer up the following: “There will be a 33rd America’s Cup, and it will be settled on the water. This is something that Ernesto Bertarelli does not want. He keeps saying that he wants to settle it on the water. No he doesn’t. Why did he try to disqualify our boat, saying that our rudders were in the wrong place? Why does he say that the jury should work for him, that the umpires should work for him, if he wants to settle this on the water? He doesn’t want to race. He is the one that proposed these absurd rules, he is the one that doesn’t want a level playing field. He is the one that chose RAK when the Deed of Gift is crystal clear that you cannot race in the Northern Hemisphere in the winter.” “(Ernesto) doesn’t want a fair race, and when you are competing with someone who doesn’t want to compete fairly, that’s a problem. But it is not our problem, it is his problem.” “(Team CEO Russell Coutts) has been on the water 14 times, and he is 14-0 (in the America’s Cup). Does Ernesto Bertarelli really mean to say that Russell Coutts is afraid to sail against him, that we don’t want to go out on the water and race him? We do want to go out on the water and race him, and we think we have a pretty good chance. Russell has never lost.” “If we win the 33rd America’s Cup, we are going to race these America’s Cup boats not once every four years, we are going to race these America’s Cup boats a half a dozen times a year. We will have a race in Newport, we will have a race in Italy, we will have a race in France. The America’s Cup class of racing will go on year round, and some of those races will certainly be in the United States, I think both Newport, Rhode Island and also maybe San Francisco.” “After this Match, Ernesto said that if he wins, he is going to keep these giant multihulls (for the next America’s Cup). We are not going to do that. If we win, and I think we are going to win, we are going to go back to traditional monohulls and traditional match racing, where all of the teams can participate in a traditional multi-challenger event. Probably in boats that are a little more modern and faster than the Class 5 America’s Cup boats that we raced in the 32nd Match (in 2007). This (multihull event) is going to be a one-time only extreme sailing event for the America’s Cup.” * Here is a video interview with Ernesto Bertarelli on Showtime Dubai : http://bit.ly/1x1lpm THROWABLE FLOTATION DEVICES In an emergency, when a person falls overboard, there are two important acts to take. First, you must locate the victim and have a lookout keep the person in sight. Secondly, you should attempt to get them some flotation. The latest article from Myboatsgear.com takes a look at throwable flotation devices that you can use to help the victim survive, while you attempt to reverse back to pick them up. RSS feeds are available at http://www.Myboatsgear.com Article link: http://myboatsgear.com/mbg/product.asp?prodID=1697 THE FRENCH ARE BACK (November 3, 2009) - The Groupama Insurance Group confirmed today that it will enter the next two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race with its long term French skipper, Franck Cammas, a commitment that will last until 2015. The announcement was made as Cammas was in the French port Le Château in Brest, preparing to set off on a bid to conquer the Jules Verne Trophy aboard the 32-metre maxi trimaran Groupama III. The chosen designer for Groupama’s new VO 70 is Argentinean Juan Kouyoumdjian, the designer of the winning boats in the last two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race. “Groupama is developing strong links overseas, where we carry out nearly 30 per cent of our business, and the Volvo Ocean Race is clearly the most suitable sports event to reflect our group’s new expansion,” said Frédérique Granado, director of external communications at Groupama. Said Cammas, “Groupama is once again showing its trust in me at the very important moment where we’re committing to a new challenge, while a lot of sponsors wait for a sports events to draw to a close before announcing that they’re renewing a partnership.” Cammas and Groupama have collaborated on offshore sailing projects since 1997. It will be the first French entry in the Whitbread/Volvo since Eric Tabarly skippered La Poste to third place in the 1993-94 race. The next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race will start from Alicante, Spain in 2011 with the final route to be announced in March next year. -- Full report: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2009/NOVEMBER/GROUPAMA1/index.aspx * The official book of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 - Spanish Castle to White Night - was launched this week and already it carries 'award-winning' status. The gripping account of the 2008-09 race, penned by Mark Chisnell, was voted Best Sports Illustrated Book at SPORTEL Monaco, the international sports convention for television and new media, in early October. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/yffg33v VINEYARD VINES PRO AM REGATTA The annual fantasy camp for sailors has commenced this week - the Vineyard Vines Pro Am Regatta at the Bitter End YC. The BEYC is a premiere luxury water sports resort in Virgin Gorda, BVI, and the Pro Am event schedule combines the skills of professional skipper with the desire of hotel guests in a series of racing events. Here is the update: (November 3, 2009) - The Vineyard Vines Pro Am Regatta got underway in dead earnest today with 14 flights of Triple Racing completed in IC 24s and Hunter 216 sloops in (to the surprise of no one) perfect conditions. Triple Racing - invented by Paul Elvstrom - is a three-boat match race where only the winning boat collects points. The six invited pro skippers had guests of the Bitter End Yacht Club as their crews for this annual Caribbean championship. It became apparent early on that Pro Am veterans Paul Cayard and Ken Read had the hot hands in these small keelboats. Going into the final race of the day they each had accumulated five wins and it was obvious from the warning signal that they were both ignoring Anna Tunnicliffe - the third boat in this match. Wrong. Although Cayard was in control over Read at the start, Tunnicliffe was launched. She won that race and collected the only point awarded in that match. As the teams enter a lay day on Wednesday, Cayard and Read remain in a tie at the top of the leaderboard with five points each, and Olympic Silver Medalist Zack Railey is in third place with two points. Event website: http://www.beyc.com/index.php/proam.html WORLD SAILOR OF THE YEAR The 2009 International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Annual Conference will be held in Busan, Korea on November 5-15, where the male and female winners of the 2009 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards will be announced November 10th. This year four female and six male nominees have been shortlisted for the Award, based on their achievements during the qualifying period of 1 September 2008 to 31 August 2009. The 2009 nominees are: Female Sam Davies (GBR) Hilary Lister (GBR) Blanca Manchón (ESP) Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) Male Pascal Bidégorry (FRA) Michel Desjoyeaux (FRA) Paul Goodison (GBR) Torben Grael (BRA) Nathan Outteridge (AUS) The ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Award is the highest award a sailor can receive in recognition of his/her outstanding achievements. The Awards are presented annually based on a worldwide selection process that incorporates an open invitation to nominations, followed by a vote amongst the 130 member nations of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). In 2008 the Awards were presented to four-time Olympic medal winners Ben Ainslie (GBR) and Alessandra Sensini (ITA). -- http://www.sailing.org/worldsailor => Curmudgeon’s Comment: While I don’t know how all the 130 member nations voted, I do know the U.S. voted for Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) and Torben Grael (BRA). FINISHING HEALTHY Morris Yachts is pleased the efforts of the previous months are starting to pay dividends. The company has welcomed a flurry of M36 sales. New M36s will be heading to Chicago and Sydney, Australia among other places. Management was also deeply involved in securing the contract to build up to eight training vessels for the US Coast Guard as reported by Scuttlebutt last week. The company has delivered 2 Ocean Series yachts - a Morris 38 and Morris 42 and 10 M-Series yachts for the year. -- http://www.morrisyachts.com/news/ CANADIAN CONNECTION The Sheehy Lexus of Annapolis 2009 Melges 24 World Championships wrapped up this past weekend in a challenging 11 race series held in Annapolis, MD. Among the 51 entries was Chris Larson of the USA at the helm of West Marine Rigging/New England Ropes, winning the event with an extremely consistent score card that allowed the team to sit out the final race. While the event was held in Larson’s home waters, his team was hardly locals. Larson was teamed with an all-Canadian crew that included Olympic Medalist Mike Wolfs (Star, Silver in 2004), Olympian Richard Clarke (Finn 96, 2000, 2004), and amateur bowman Curtis Florence. For Florence, this World Championships win in the Melges 24 is added to his 2009 Farr 40 World Championship victory on Barking Mad and his 2008 Mumm 30 World Championship on Optimum, (no class worlds in 2009). Further, this hat-trick of worlds’ wins was almost a quartet as he finished 2nd at the 2009 J/24 World Championships, narrowly missing the overall title after leading going into the final race of that event. -- http://www.sailing.ca/features/2009_melges_24_world_championships/ 2.4MR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS Fort Myers, FL (November 3, 2009) - Racing continued the 2.4mR World Championships today, with three races scheduled. The first race got off with no recalls, which was a first for this event. Wind was 7-9 knots and was shifty only in the double digits (as opposed to the triple digit shifts from yesterday and last week's National Championship racing). After the first race, competitors were treated to an on-the-water hot lunch of bratwurst and beer. The hosting club, Edison Sailing Center, had floating docks installed for the event; they broke loose a couple of sections of dock and towed the grilling station out into the Caloosahatchee River to serve as a "Brat Barge." Today's second race featured a waning breeze and a roaring, full-moon tide that swept competitors toward the course side of the starting line. After two general recalls, the Black Flag came out to ensure a good start on the third try. The breeze, however, continued to lessen and Race Committee opted to shorten the race to four legs. Although there were some teaser puffs while waiting for the breeze to fill back in, Race Committee chose to abandon today's planned third race. Three races are scheduled for Wednesday. At the end of four races, Canadian Paul Tingley is in first place, USA's John Ruf is in second, and USA's Carl Horrocks is in third. Event site: http://24mrworlds09.edisonsailingcenter.org/ Photos: http://tinyurl.com/yz8evtf GUTENKUNST PREPARING FOR THE RIDE OF HIS LIFE Taking a bullet in the first race on a brand new boat sailing in its first regatta is no small deal for any serious sailor at anytime. It's exceptionally exciting if you're 23 and have been invited by one of the world's top skippers -- Paul Cayard -- to join an international racing team as bow person in one of the world's most prestigious racing series. In fact, it's a dream come true for Morgan Gutenkunst. Gutenkunst, from Mill Valley, CA is preparing for the sixth and final event of the RC 44 2009 series, to be held in Dubai later this month, where he'll race with the Russian RC 44 Team Katusha. He has plenty to be psyched about as he's just returned from Slovenia where Team Katusha debuted in the fifth regatta of the 2009 series, the Bank Sarasin Malcesine Cup 2009. The Team finished in second place overall, winning the match race and taking fourth in the fleet race, to tie at five points with the overall event winner - outstanding results for a team with barely a few months of training together to speak of. "We did better than expected given that the boat has just been launched and is new to the circuit," said an enthused Gutenkunst. "Our crew work was great, which is crucial in this fleet as all the boats get to the windward mark at the same time because no one boat has a huge advantage over another." The RC 44, a one design high-performance racer, has enjoyed a high profile in its short existence in large part due to the fact that the class was conceived of by famed skipper Russell Coutts, three times America's Cup winner and designed together with Slovenian designer Andrej Justin. "Racing on the RC 44 is indescribable, it's awesome," he explained. "It's like a racing car, it's totally stripped down and there's nothing on the boat that doesn't have a purpose." A construction management major in his senior year at Chico State, Gutenkunst enjoys the travel that comes with international sailing, and looks forward to checking out Dubai next month: "Related to what I'm studying at school, Dubai is one of the most busiest construction areas in the world right now, so not only sailing but seeing a new part of the world will be very cool." -- Michelle Slade, Marin Independent Journal, read on: http://www.marinij.com/sports/ci_13654305 SAILING SHORTS * The ISSA High School Singlehanded Championship for the Cressy Trophy was hosted by Corpus Christi Yacht Club October 30-November 01, 2009, where 36 sailors from across the seven national districts had qualified to compete in the Laser and Laser Radial divisions. The southern districts dominated the Laser, with winner Max Nickbarg (Antilles School, USVI) and Trey Hartman (Bellaire High School, Bellaire, TX) leading the fleet. In the Laser Radial, west coaster Nevin Snow (Cathedral Catholic, San Diego, CA) broke the southern sweep for the win, with Christopher Stocke (Sarasota HS, Sarasota, FL) in second. -- Complete results: http://www.highschoolsailingusa.org/NationalsResults/10CressyResults.htm * On November 16th LaserPerformance will launch a new Optimist branded the Vapor. The Optimist has long been a part of LaserPerformance’s (previously Vanguard) line up. However, with the Vapor, LaserPerformance will be bringing production back to the US. The Vapor will be produced alongside the Laser, Sunfish, and 420 in LaserPerformance’s Portsmouth RI production facility. -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8533 * The 2010 IRC Rules are now published on the IRC website. Provided are the English and French rule texts, rule changes summary, and information about rule number changes (important for those writing Notices of Race and Sailing Instructions for races using IRC 2010). -- http://tinyurl.com/yfzc8p5 THREE WISE MEN TO MEET FRIDAY A fast track appeal to reverse the veto of Ras al Khaimah as the venue for the next America's Cup has been lodged by the Swiss holder of what is supposed to be one of sailing's pinnacle prizes. The Swiss holder, Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi team, has asked the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court to uphold an earlier ruling that it had freedom of choice for the staging of the event next February against the American challenger BMW Oracle, backed by San Francisco software billionaire Larry Ellison. The move, which should be resolved by mid-December, does not affect a hearing of the New York Supreme Court before Justice Shirley Kornreich now delayed until Friday (originally scheduled for Nov. 4th). A panel of three wise men, including Alinghi's nominee, Kiwi Graham McKenzie, and Oracle's Bryan Willis of Britain plus a third agreed by the two who is the Australian David Tillett, will be asked to resolve five points which Justice Kornreich has identified. -- Stuart Alexander, The Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk These are the five points that the court is seeking the panelist to provide their expert guidance: 1. How “load water-line” is measured in an America’s Cup race, including but not limited to whether SNG can exclude movable ballast from the measurement and whether the same procedures are used when dealing with a catamaran and/or trimaran; 2. The safety of holding the race off the coast of Valencia in February 2010; 3. When the Notice of Race and other rules of the race are customarily issued in an America’s Cup challenge, including whether they are changed after the Notice of Challenge; 4. When the panel of jurors is customarily appointed in an America’s Cup challenge; and 5. Whether the contract between ISAF and SNG provide for an independent and objective panel of jurors, and by which rules such a panel of jurors in bound in an America’s Cup challenge. * Meteorologist Chris Bedford provided a weather report on Valencia in February, where he states that “An America’s Cup held off Valencia during the month of February will take place in conditions much more variable generally lighter than those experienced during the Challenger Series (which began Apr. 16) and the America’s Cup match (held June 24-July 3) in 2007.” -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0518b/ CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Strength is the capacity to break a chocolate bar into four pieces with your bare hands and then eat just one of the pieces. Special thanks to Myboatsgear.com and Morris Yachts. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
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