Scuttleball: Balling for a Cause

by Brandon Flack
Back in school, following college basketball was about rounding out the conversational repertoire when taking with normal people (aka, meet girls). Basketball also created this great reprieve from the never ending sailing kung fu under the regatta tent (where there were no girls).

When Scuttleball came out of Annapolis in the early nineties, it seemed like easy pickings for true ball fans to hoist some cash off that sailing crowd during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Could there be a better group to be part of then a huge tournament pool with a bunch of ACC homer sailors?

While the winning never seemed to come that easy, the pool Jonathan Bartlett created was just a blast to follow and play in. This year, when JB gave us the chance to take it over, it was an easy layup to say yes.

But how could we take an insider industry pseudo-legal pool and turn it into a sailing community-wide game of bragging rights? What better way to focus this spotlight than onto a cause… and picking one this year was easy.

Jim Hahn is such a great person that everyone who has ever met him instantly now wants to find a way to help. Getting Scot West (Managing Director of Ronstan who is saying URI is a lock over Duke in round 2 – really Scot?) to step up with a top prize of a $1500 gift certificate took just one call.

To really understand what a guy like Jim means to the marine industry … know this… it took even less effort for Ronstan’s competitors to offer up twice that much for 2nd through 4th place prizes! Cheers to Harken (CEO Bill Goggins one upped Scot by picking Marquette to win it all – they are not even in the tournament Bill!), Lewmar and Spinlock!

So thanks for taking the time to join, play, and support Jim this year. We promise it will make watching the tournament even more fun and Scuttleball will still give you a new topic of conversation at the next tent party (and there are more girls there today)!

It’s Game Time! Here is how to play
First, you need to submit your picks on the CBS Sports site no later than 10:00 am EDT, Thursday March 15th. The CBS Scuttleball pool link is… click here. You do not need to know ANYTHING about basketball to play (and some say it’s even better to just guess anyhow).

Second, your entry fee ($20 per set of picks – limit 10 per person) must be submitted separately, but no later than Thursday, March 22. If you miss the deadline you will be removed from the pool. NO EXCEPTIONS.

It’s easiest for all if you pay with Paypal via this link… click here. There is an extra $2 tacked on for using PayPal to cover their fee’s. If you prefer to pay by check please mail it to:

Social Navigator
Atlantic Marketing
PO Box 293
Stonington, CT 06378

Please share this pool with your friends to see who is the best baller in sailing.

Remember 100% of the proceeds this year will go to helping out our friend Jim Hahn!

Brandon Flack is the co-founder of Social Navigator (the new steward of Scutttleball) and an avid URI sailing and basketball fan!