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Scuttlebutt Updates
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Archived NewslettersSCUTTLEBUTT 3044 - Tuesday, March 9, 2010Scuttlebutt 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: North Sails, Morris Yachts, and Henri Lloyd. UNIQUE COCKTAIL OF FUN AND SERIOUS RACING Simpson Bay, St. Maarten (March 7, 2010) - There can be few events in the world that match St. Maarten Heineken Regatta's unique cocktail of fun and serious racing. Under the leadership of Robbie Ferron - Sint Maarten Yacht Club commodore - who set up the regatta 30 years ago, this Caribbean classic continues to go from strength to strength and, if the positive buzz on the street is anything to go by, next year's event is going to reach record levels. With some of the world's most talented sailors including the likes of America's Cup legends Peter Isler, Peter Holmberg, Gavin Brady, round the world sailors Kenny Read, Wouter Verbraak, Olympic/America's Cup skipper Andy Beadsworth, and Dutch double Europe Olympic silver medallist Margriet Matthijsse, among the many high profile sailors competing here this week, it's not surprising this event is fast becoming a Mecca for seriously fun winter racing. As well as the big names racing on the latest, powerful ultra-light racing machines such as Irvine Laidlaw's Wally 82 Highland Fling, Tom and Dotty Hill's brand-new stunning-looking custom Reichel/Pugh 75, Titan 15, George David's Reichel/Pugh 90 Rambler, and a healthy mix of big Swans, Farrs and custom builds, yachts in the 30ft-40ft range make up the majority of the 20 separate racing classes which included a bumper 99-strong Bareboat charter fleet. While fun and partying contribute hugely to Caribbean regatta success, it's what happens behind the scenes and on the water that really counts. St. Maarten Heineken Regatta race team run a good balance of coastal and round-the buoys races, and offer a highly efficient results system, which are the other key factors that make a good event, great. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/y93bufu Complete results: http://result.vg/heineken/xprintall?series_id=7 => Curmudgeon's Comment: This is the only regatta where the number of racing reports I receive is matched or exceeded by the information about which bands will be playing each night. FOR FRIENDLY COMPETITION BETWEEN FOREIGN COUNTRIES Auckland, NZL (March 8, 2010) - Louis Vuitton Trophy teams drew for race pairings at a press conference and cocktail evening at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron Monday night, where Dean Barker, skipper of host team Emirates Team New Zealand, and the winner of last year's Louis Vuitton Pacific Series, said his team had its work cut out for it when racing begins Tuesday. "The fantastic thing about this event this year is that the standard has got better," Barker said. "Many of the teams have been training in the Version 5 boats in preparation, so I think the bar has been lifted." Ben Ainslie, skipper and helmsman for Britain's TEAMORIGIN, said it was great to be back aboard the Kiwi boats despite the day's challenging conditions. "The boats are lovely to sail, with excellent helm response and all the mechanicals beautifully thought out." Like Ainslie, Kiwi skipper Gavin Brady who is steering Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, has had months of experience in Cup boats in Auckland. "The race course for this event is fantastic," Brady said. "Most Cup sailors know it as the area they tow through behind the tender on the way to racing in the Hauraki Gulf. But it's great. It provides passing lanes and you have to engage with your competition. It's either that or hit the rocks at the harbour's edge." The forecast for the first day of racing is for light southeasterlies, increasing during the day. Winds are expected to increase later in the week. Live streaming web coverage of the Louis Vuitton Trophy in Auckland is available on the event website. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/yaxa3gr Team lists: http://www.louisvuittontrophy.com/teams/EN/ BACKGROUND: The Louis Vuitton Trophy series is designed to be a cost-effective format for match racing competition in Version 5 America's Cup Class boats. Teams will take turns on the two Emirates Team New Zealand yachts NZL 84 and NZL 92 that have been fitted out, optimized and rigged after a year in storage. They will race four matches a day to complete a round robin seeding series before a ladder elimination culminating in the finals on March 21st. The 2010 series continues on to Sardinia (May 22-June 6) and Dubai (Nov. 13-28). NORTH SAILS-POWERED BOATS SWEEP 2010 MIAMI GRAND PRIX Congratulations to James Bishop and crew on 'Gold Digger II' for winning the IRC class and to Helmut Jahn and crew on 'Flash Gordon' for winning the Farr 40 class at 2010 Miami Grand Prix. Both boats, along with the 2nd and 3rd place boats in these classes were powered by North sails. Jean Francois Cruette and crew onboard 'Teasing Machine,' who races with a complete North Sails Class Sail Development (CSD) inventory, went from placing 13th at Key West RW to winning the highly competitive 23-boat Melges 32 fleet in Miami. When performance counts, the choice is clear: http://www.na.northsails.com QUOTE / UNQUOTE * "We have to announce a timeline for some of the key decisions like the venue, format, type of boats and so forth at the end of March," explained BMW Oracle CEO Russell Coutts. "We've been meeting some of the teams to get their ideas on some of the big issues to be sorted out." Coutts confirmed that his boss Larry Ellison's first choice of venue is San Francisco - home to their representative club the Golden Gate Yacht Club - with 2013 the most likely timing. -- NZ Herald, full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10630811 * With regard to whether BMW Oracle CEO Russell Coutts will be on the boat during his team's America's Cup defense: "I'm still deciding what to do in the future. I don't want to rush things on that. I've got a young family now and that's definitely a consideration. Honestly, I'm really not sure. Right now I'm just doing the best job I can for Oracle and trying to speak to some of the other teams to create some good processes [for the next America's Cup], but I haven't made a decision on my future yet." -- NZ Herald, full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10630818 => Curmudgeon's Comment: If you click through to the NZ Herald links above, you will learn how Coutts is both considering retirement and planning to raid the Alinghi team for their top personnel. However, after I questioned a spokesperson with the BMW Oracle team who witnessed the interview, Russell's quotes were incorrectly attributed in the articles, and he made neither of these two claims. SCUTTLEBUTT POLL Even though the 33rd America's Cup is behind us, it is not safe to assume the litigation is too. Match winner Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) still holds the option to pursue their breach of fiduciary duty (BFD) action against Société Nautique De Genève's (SNG), which in short means that SNG were bad trustees of the America's Cup, and should possibly not have a right in the future to become a trustee again. This would mean SNG could no longer compete for the Cup. SNG is asking GGYC to end all litigation concerning the 33rd America's Cup and all prior Cups. SNG has little leverage other than their own challenge of GGYC's boat, which as Legal Analyst Cory E. Friedman describes is their "ultra bogus constructed in country/sloop/wings are not sails cross motion." SNG says they will drop their challenge if GGYC drops theirs. The NY Supreme Court is set to welcome the parties on March 10, 2010, which is when we may find out how they plan to proceed. Seems like GGYC is in control of this next phase...so should they seek to pursue charges against SNG, or should they let it go and move forward? Vote here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/10/0308/ => Curmudgeon's Comment: The last time Scuttlebutt ran a poll that involved SNG, somebody from the club initiated an email campaign to affect the results. Let me put this as simply as I can... don't do it again. FOR THE RECORD (Day 37 - March 8, 2010; 16:58 UTC) - Still in the high pressure which is stagnating off Argentina, Groupama 3 is combating headwinds that have led to seven tacks since Sunday afternoon to help their northerly progress. Very attentive to the slightest wind shift, skipper Franck Cammas and navigator Stan Honey are finding themselves in a virtual race against Orange 2 with five years separation. "In high pressure conditions such as these, there is always a discrepancy between the grib files and the actual situation on the water: at the moment, we've fallen into a zone of light winds, probably due to a big squall to our right," indicated Cammas. "The breeze should pick up radically at sunset to pump out 30-40 knots of E'ly on our beam. For now we're back on a route taking us almost due North until Tuesday morning, at which point we'll have to put in some more tacks to reach the tradewinds, which are still some 700 miles ahead of our bows." Cammas estimated that he couldn't have a deficit of more than a day on crossing the equator. Indeed Orange 2 only began to slow as she approached the latitude of Rio de Janeiro, but then her climb up to Recife proved to be fairly laboured. In fact it's becoming an increasingly established fact that bagging the Jules Verne Trophy record is still uncertain and everything will depend on their progress off Brazil. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/y8acjc5 Current position as of March 8, 2010 (22:00:00 UTC): Ahead/behind record: -332.0 nm Speed (avg) over past 24 hours: 16.2 knots Distance over past 24 hours: 388.2 nm Distance to go: 5,464 nm Data: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne/positions.asp?lg=en Map: http://cammas-groupama.geovoile.com/julesverne/index.asp?lg=en * After their start on January 31, 2010, Franck Cammas and his nine crew on Groupama 3 must cross finish line off Ushant, France before March 23rd (06:14:57 UTC) to establish a new time for the Jules Verne Trophy (21,760 nm) for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions. Current record holder is Bruno Peyron and crew, who in 2005 sailed Orange 2 to a time of 50 days, 16 hours, and 20 minutes at an average of 17.89 knots. MORRIS YACHTS AND USCGA TO PRESENT AT MBBS MARCH 20 After 45 years of service, the Coast Guard Academy is replacing its fleet of Luders 44. Morris Yachts was chosen to be the builder of the new Leadership 44. Come learn about this exciting project and the Coast Guard's mission to train and develop future officers. The talk will be held Saturday, March 20 at 11am during the annual Maine Boatbuilders Show in Portland, Maine. While there don't forget to stop by and see our guys from Morris Service and Brokerage! This show is a sure sign of Spring! For more information call 1-207-244-5509 or email mailto:sales1@morrisyachts.com - http://wwww.morrisyachts.com BACARDI MIAMI SAILING WEEK Miami, FL (March 8, 2010) - Accomplished Floridian Skipper Augie Diaz teamed up with Brazilian Crewmate and 2007 Star World Champion Bruno Prada to open the first day of the BACARDI Cup Star Class competition with a win, taking the pair one step closer to the coveted Trofeo BACARDI. The day's victory by Diaz-Prada, which took place among a field of eighty-four vessels in a light easterly wind up to 5 knots, was the first in five days of Star Class sailing. The Star Class started the weeklong BACARDI Cup competition, which also doubled as the opening event to the first ever BACARDI Miami Sailing Week, a new addition to the celebrated eighty-three year old sailing tradition. The Star Class competition will continue Tuesday and go through Friday, March 12th. The Viper Class begins Wednesday, March 10th with Melges 20, Melges 24 and J24 starting their run on Thursday, March 11th. -- Full story: http://www.miamisailingweek.com/news.html Preliminary results (top 5 of 84) 1. Augie Diaz/ Bruno Prada, USA 2. Jud Smith/ Brian Fatih, USA 3. Gustavo Lima/ Rubrio Basilio, POR 4. Rick Merriman/ Phil Trinter, USA 5. Peter McChesney/ Shane Zwingelberg, USA Complete results: http://www.miamisailingweek.com/results.html SAILING SHORTS * The Techno 293 North American Championships held Mar 5-7 in Merritt Island, Florida was the North American country qualifier for the first IOC Youth Olympic Games to be held in Singapore, August 14-26. Mexico dominated the youth men's with Ignacio Berenguer Lleonart leading the way. The junior womens was dominated by the new Techno 293 North American Champion, Marion Lepert (USA), but due to IOC eligibility requirements, Marion was not eligible to qualify USA for the Youth Olympics. Therefore the top two qualifiers in junior women's are Audrey Caron from Canada and Margot Samson from USA. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9360 * The first rankings of the spring 2010 Inter-Collegiate season are now compiled, which finds Boston College holding the top spot in both the Coed and Womens divisions. Yale is also in the top three in both rankings. -- Full rankings: http://tinyurl.com/yalk3tf * The Volvo Ocean Race will continue to introduce the new route for 2011-12 on Wednesday 10 March. A press release will be issued at 13:30 GMT, 14:30 CET on that day. Early reports indicate that the announcement will detail how the final leg of the race will be from Lorient, France to the finish in Galway, Ireland. The race generated almost 60 million Euros in revenue when it stopped in Ireland for the first time last year, attracting some 650,000 people to Galway. -- http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0308/1224265795524.html * New Orleans, LA - Eight teams competed this weekend at Southern Yacht Club for the Southern Nichols Masters Team Race. After Hurricane Katrina's devastation of SYC's clubhouse and trophy collection, several yacht clubs donated trophies of their own to SYC to help restock the trophy case. New York Yacht Club donated the Nichols Cup to SYC in 2005 in honor of their former Commodore Nichols to be used to foster the growth of Team Racing. A three-way tie between Buccaneer YC, Bay-Waveland YC, and Southern YC saw the home team win out on the second tie-breaker. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9359 * Dubai, UAE (March 8, 2010) - When sailing the International Moth, there are two primary modes of speed: foiling and not foiling. The speed difference is significant, and with the 6-8 knot winds on the first day of the PUMA 2010 International Moth Class World Championship, this was the key to success. Andrew "Amac" McDougall (AUS) lead the first beat and finished the only race with a bullet. Michael Lennon (GBR), Brad Funk (USA), Chris Graham (UAE), and Simon Payne (GBR) rounded out the 44-boat fleet. -- Results: http://www.dosc.ae/moths-entry-list/results/puma-moth-worlds-2010.html * (March 8, 2010; Day 7) - With the first 1,000 miles of the 5,680-mile leg from Qingdao to San Francisco.race almost completed, the forecasted low pressure system has finally arrived with strong 40 knot headwinds challenging the Clipper 68 fleet. Meanwhile, back in Qingdao, Team Finland awaits the arrival of their replacement mast. The 90-foot spar has left Luxemburg and whilst the Clipper Race team is doing everything to ensure a timely delivery in Qingdao the journey is at the mercy of shipping agents, airlines and customs. -- Full report: http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/race_news/?item=1624 * (March 8, 2010) - Brazil today released a list of US products that it will include on a retaliatory tariff. According to the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), US-built powerboats to be imported into Brazil are on the list, while US-built sailboats and engines are not. The proposed hike is scheduled for April 8th, and would double the tariff on US imported boats from 20 to 40 per cent. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20100208160400ibinews.html NEW GEAR FROM HENRI LLOYD Venture out sailing with the newest fully waterproof, windproof, breathable foul weather gear from Henri Lloyd. New TP2 Ventura Jacket and TP2 Trouser offer uncompromising protection at an unbelievable value. Check out all the features at your local Henri Lloyd dealer, then check out for the weekend with Henri Lloyd gear. Learn more here: http://www.henrilloydonline.com/web/product.php?prodID=667 LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, 'The Curmudgeon'). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Charles J. Doane: (re, letter in Scuttlebutt 3043) I have to disagree with Ted Jones's characterization of the losses of Pamir, Albatross, Pride of Baltimore, and Marques as being due to a lack of "built-in weak points." All these incidents are discussed and dissected in great detail in Dan Parrott's authoritative book Tall Ships Down, and none of Mr. Parrott's scholarship supports Mr. Jones's opinion. Pamir's rig in fact carried away before she sank; the others were largely stability casualties. For more on Albatross in particular vis a vis the recent loss of Concordia, you can check out http://www.wavetrain.net/lit-bits/65-song-of-the-sirens * From Keith Kenitzer: Regarding Nicholas Hayes comments about pros in sailing (Issue 3038), I would tend to agree. My other recreational passion is ice hockey. Over the years I have had the opportunity to take the ice in various pick-up games with a variety of very talented players with NHL, Olympic and NCAA experience. While it's fun to say I skated with so and so, especially when they were on my team, the reality is they are so much better than the average recreational player, like myself, that even when they "take it easy", they can still make me look ridiculous. I am sure the same can be said on the race course. While it's fun to say we raced against the best, the reality is, in most cases, they are just so much better than most recreational sailors. I think in most sporting endeavors, athletes want a relatively level playing field with the same chance of success as everyone else playing the game. Guys that go to a fantasy baseball camp have a great time for the week they are competing with the pros, but if A-Rod, Derek Jeter and several other pros were regulars in their weekly league, they'd probably look for another league to play in. I am not sure why sailing would be any different. Of course, when the pro is calling tactics or guiding your boat across the finish line first, things might be a little different. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. -- Forum thread: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9331 UNH BOATHOUSE FIRE - DONATE HERE Last week, the University of New Hampshire sailing team suffered an arson fire that resulted in the total loss of their equipment and boats. The blaze destroyed 55 boats, five motors, three launches, trailers and additional equipment - totaling a complete loss for both the sailing team, the UNH Community Sailing Program, a summer program for youths between 6 years old and 18 years old, and a combined junior and senior high school sailing team. The damage is estimated to exceed $500,000. To help expedite donations, Scuttlebutt has established an account that will be accepting funds this week. Use this link to submit your donation by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, or PayPal: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/store/ Also, Z Blok sunblock will donate $1 to the UNH Sailing Team for each tube of Z Blok sold on-line in the month of March. This donation includes all sales retroactively since March 1. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9347 CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION "Stop saying that high school boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged. I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards." - Bill Maher Special thanks to North Sails, Morris Yachts, and Henri Lloyd. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
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