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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 664 - October 10, 2000
OLYMPIC RETROSPECTIVE
(Peter Isler had his belief in the Olympics reaffirmed as the greatest
two-week period that the sport of sailing can offer. Here are two brief
excepts from his story posted on the Quokka Sailing website.)
* The Olympics is indeed a reaffirmation that sailing is a major
worldwide sport. And sailing's international diversity was highlighted when
Austria's only two gold medals came from our sport (Tornado & Men's
Mistral). Sailing's ability to capture the imagination of a nation (and its
media) was underscored when Australian Channel 7's live coverage of the
Olympics (7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily) shifted (for the only time during the
Olympiad) for several hours to Sydney Harbour. The men's and women's 470
classes were sailing their 11th and final race, and Aussies watched their
sailors win the gold medal in both classes - Australia's first sailing gold
since 1972. The media hyped it as the biggest day in Australian sailing
since they won the Cup in 1983.
There is something special about being around some 400 men and women who
had all worked so hard to achieve the first step of their goal by making
their country's Olympic team. Adorned shoreside in their national team
uniforms, and racing boats without any advertising in sight, only huge
national flags painted on the sails it's an image and a lifestyle that
seems a lot healthier and more well rounded - indeed loftier than some of
the other big games in our sport.
* The Olympics lived up to everything that I thought it was and then
some. It was a big deal seeing my friends and peers focused on the final
step of their personal dream. Yes, the luck factor can still be a killer;
yes, the bureaucracy can be stifling; yes, the public could have had better
access to the venue; yes, our sport's protest and umpiring system is
imperfect; and yes, the politics and commercialism driving the Olympics has
a deleterious effect on the sport. But despite all this - sailing thrives
at the Olympics. It is indeed a sport worthy of the ideal of the Games and
a medal earned on Sydney Harbor is every bit an equal to one earned at the
Olympic Stadium - or in the Olympic pool.
Sure, each of the 11 Olympic classes have world championships ever year.
Some even may feature a deeper, more competitive field. But give it up -
nothing compares with this.
The Olympics is more than another big regatta, it lives on its own plane
driven by the feats of past Olympians like Paul Elvstrom, Valentin Mankin,
Barbara Kendall and Mark Reynolds. It is further fueled by the hopes and
dreams of countless sailors from around the world who believe that someday,
they might be there - marching into the Olympic Stadium and seeing the
flame ignited. - Peter Isler for Quokka Sports
Do yourself a favor and read all of Isler's comments:
http://www.quokkasailing.com/expert/10/SLQ_1009_isler_WFC.html
AMERICA'S CUP
The main caterer at (Auckland's) America's Cup Village has settled debts
totaling $1 million arising from the exclusive floating yacht club and
hospitality tents. Fifty-nine creditors owed between $1000 and $440,000
each by Corporate Host have accepted 50 cents in the dollar as final
settlement for unpaid bills. Michael Laird, of Oceanic Foods, said he lost
half of the $57,000 he was owed for supplying seafood and dried goods
during the regatta. One of the biggest creditors was Adecco Personnel,
which provided staff for the hospitality facilities. Other creditors
included Allied Liquor, Coca-Cola, Heinz Wattie's, Kapiti Cheeses and Lion
Breweries.
Corporate Host director Steve Hollander will not discuss the settlements or
troubles at the Cup village. It is understood Corporate Host paid about
$800,000 for fitting out the $2.8 million yacht club, which was marketed by
America's Cup Village as "an exclusive floating facility anchored at the
centre of the American Express New Zealand Cup Village, surrounded by the
glamour and activity of the super yachts and racing syndicates." - Bernard
Orsman, NZ Herald
Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ac2000/
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THE RACE
Tuesday 10 October 2000 - Grant Dalton, back at sea with Club Med and ready
for another assault on the 24-hour distance record, has reason to be
envious of Steve Fossett, his American rival. Fossett's PlayStation has
done four transatlantic trips to Club Med's one, and reliablity might well
determine the outcome of The Race around the world next year rather than
outright speed. Reliability comes from time on the water.
Club Med has already proved wickedly fast, racking up 625.7 miles for the
24-hour distance record last June. But less publicly than Peter Goss's Team
Philips - and no less seriously - she has had structural problems.
Dalton, who heads a 15-man multi-national crew, said: "This trip is all
about proving we're finally getting the boat reliable after all the work we
have done on her." The 112ft Club Med suffered her own bow failure soon
after starting transatlantic record attempt in July and has recently
emerged from a six-week stint in intensive care at her builders in Vannes,
France. Such are the pitfalls awaiting the biggest multihulls ever built.
Like Team Philips, Club Med's bow problem was her own second structural
failure. The fairing round the main beam had gone before. So huge and
powerful are these new beasts of boats, that repairing the bows was
equivalent to building a couple of 40ft yachts from scratch, especially as
the bows were not just made stronger but reshaped to make Club Med easier
to steer.
Dalton took the opportunity to bring in New Zealand engineers to give the
entire carbon fibre machine a structural audit. The reinforcement was
extensive; the bill was a cool L150,000.
Dalton told me about this as Club Med shredded across the Bay of Biscay,
making 26 knots, trying to outrun a fast developing and very menacing
depression screaming into the Western Approaches. "I'm not unhappy that the
boat's stronger," he said, as the Bay turned particularly nasty hours after
we had left it.
"A lot was a question of bringing round the world practicality to it," said
the five-times Whitbread veteran. "If it didn't look strong enough, we made
it stronger." Much of what was learnt has been incorporated into Club Med's
two sisterships, one to be skippered by the Franco-American duo of Loick
Peyron and Skip Novak, the other by Cam Lewis, from the United States. -
Tim Jeffrey, Daily Telegraph, UK
Full story:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001648423620749&rtmo=kNxbCAZp&atmo=99999999&pg=/et/00/10/10/sotyot10.html
BUSTED
6 October 2000 - Grant Dalton, skipper of the maxi catamaran Club Med
appeared at Southampton Magistrates Court charged with contravening Rule 10
of the ColReg and for travelling the wrong way through the Dover Strait on
Wednesday night. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) who brought the
charges against the Kiwi former Whitbread winner, state 'a Watch Officer at
Dover Coastguard noticed a fast craft had crossed over from the north east
lane and was heading the wrong way at speeds of up to 20 knots up the south
west lane, in effect crossing the central reservation.
During the incident the Club Med passed 17 ships and several had to take
evasive action. Two crossing ferries with over 800 people on board had
close quarters situations with the yacht and one ship carrying dangerous
goods and pollutants came within just a few hundred yards. The Club Med was
eventually recorded to have traveled over 20 miles the wrong way up of what
is the nautical dual carriageway against the traffic flow.'
At the time Club Med was on a delivery trip to London from Southampton, and
her ostensibly careering across the shipping lanes was in fact her short
tacking up the Channel - gybing downwind in a 15-20 knot south westerly.
Although the catamaran did not cross the shipping lanes on a perpendicular
course, her course was not directly along them (everyone on board was keen
to get out of the shipping lanes as soon as possible) and far from taking a
cavalier approach and waiting for vessels under power to give way, she too
took evasive action to avoid collisions.
The attention of Dover Coastguard may have been particularly alerted as
Club Med is fitted with an active radar reflector. In retrospect one can
imagine the alarm of other shipping in the area seeing a vessel appearing
on their radar screen, with the same speed and size of radar blip as a
large ship ostensibly careering through the shipping lanes the wrong way at
a speed that was in fact consistently 20-24 knots and peaked at 29 knots. -
Yachting World website
Full story: http://www.yachtingworld.co.uk/
VOLVO OCEAN RACE
ASSA ABLOY's Volvo Ocean Race yacht will be built by the world renowned
British shipwrights Green Marine. Top British sailor Jason Carrington will
be construction manager and go on to be part of ASSSA ABLOY's crew. Green
Marine built the Prada boat for the America's Cup 2000 as well as Intrum
Justitia's second placed entry to the 1993/1994 Whitbread.
Construction will begin in early October. Building expertise will consist
mainly of Green Marine's craftsmen, but will also include other hand-picked
individuals. Top British sailor Jason Carrington is construction manager.
Construction in the UK will also involve personnel from Swedish technical
Semcon, who ASSA ABLOY's official technical partner in their bid to win the
Volvo Ocean Race. Semcon bring technological expertise to the project and
will work with analytical, calculative and logistic issues during
construction. Semcon will also be responsible for IT-support and assist in
the development of the boats' IT systems and various tests.
ASSA ABLOY will build two boats in order to test for the fastest possible
start in Southampton on September 23rd 2001. "It's not yet decided whether
the boats will be identical. Further studies in the autumn will establish
this," explained Richard Brisius, project leader for ASSA ABLOY's entry in
the Volvo Ocean Race. World-famous boat designer Bruce Farr, known for
designing all the winning Whitbread entries since 1986 designs the two
boats. - Josefine Lemmel, Sai Online website
Full story:
http://www.sail-online.com/html.cfm?Activedoc=article.cfm&rep1=news&NumArticle=1493
HEAVY AIR LESSONS
(Dobbs Davis examined successful techniques for heavy air competition on
the SailNet website. Here are two excerpts from his story.)
* The most important factors for sailing well upwind in heavy air are the
rig setup, sail selection, crew weight, sail trim, and steering techniques.
If each of these areas is well executed, the boat will make good progress
upwind, but if even one is mishandled or ignored, boat speed can suffer
enormously.
The optimal rig setup for these conditions will obviously vary from boat to
boat, but some general principles apply to all designs. More mast rake, for
example, is a desirable feature in light air to promote weather helm, but
should be reduced in a breeze where the boat will have adequate helm from
the increased amount of heel. If the boat has running backstays, more load
on them translates to a tighter headstay, which in turn helps optimize the
shape of the jib for stronger breezes. More permanent backstay pressure
will also help by tightening the headstay in masthead rigs, and by bending
the mast to flatten, and thereby depower, the shape of the mainsail.
* Sail-trim techniques are a little more complex, but they're generally
based on the principal of flattening the sail shape to depower the sail
plan. Mast bend will promote flattening of the mainsail, and easing the
sheet and letting the sheet lead back on the jib will allow it to depower
by way of twisting off the leech. The mainsail should have the outhaul
pulled on with maximum tension and the traveler should be dropped just far
enough to leeward so that there's still sufficient pressure on the leech of
the sail to give feel to the helm, but not so much as to cause excessive
heel. If the traveler is to leeward and the mainsheet eased, using a little
vang tension can keep pressure on the leech and prevent the sail from
luffing. Then, as the boat sails up the leg, the mainsail trimmer
constantly plays the traveler in the puffs and lulls in an effort to
maintain a consistent pressure on the helm. - Dobbs Davis, SailNet website
Full story:
http://www.sailnet.com/collections/racing/index.cfm?articleid=davisd0012&tfr=fp
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MATCH RACING
HAMILTON, BERMUDA, October 9, 2000-Adam Barboza won the Black Seal Cup for
the Bermuda National Match Racing Championship on Sunday, and Paula Lewin
was second, earning the two Bermudian match racers the remaining two places
in this year's 2000 Colorcraft Gold Cup. Sponsored by Goslings, the two
skippers and their crews will compete as Team Black Seal during the Gold
Cup, to be sailed at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, October 22-29 2000.
Barboza earned his title as the Bermuda National Champion of Match Race
Sailing after just one day's sailing on Saturday. He advanced to the Sunday
semi-finals with a perfect 7-0 record but Sunday racing was abandoned for
lack of wind and the outcome was decided on the basis of the previous day's
racing. Barboza's seven bullets and Lewin's six victories and one loss
resulted in first and second places for the pair. This was the second year
running that Barboza was named National Match Race Sailing Champion.
Eight skippers contested this year's championship that started on Saturday
in International One Designs (IODs) in ideal sailing conditions - a 10 to
12-knot southerly breeze and bright sunshine. The passage of a cold front
overnight killed any chance of racing on Sunday, with rain and calm
conditions initially forcing a postponement, before sailing was cancelled
early in the afternoon. - Keith Taylor
Final results were: 1. Adam Barboza 7-0; 2. Paula Lewin 6-1; 3. Andreas
Lewin 4-3; 4. Glenn Astwood 4-3.
Website: http://www.bermudagoldcup.com
ALBACORE NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Rehoboth Bay Sailing Association hosted the 2000 Albacore North
American Championships Oct. 7-8, with 32 boats racing in winds ranging from
10-30 knots and temperatures ranging from the mid-40s to mid-60s over the
course of the three-day event.
Current U.S. and Canadian Champion Barney Harris (Arlington, VA) and
longtime crew David Byron (San Francisco, CA) scored six bullets in the
seven-race series, with their throwout race being a second place in race 5.
Two races were sailed on Oct. 7 in 15 to 20-knot winds, and four on Oct. 8
in winds that started out at 15-20 during race 3 but later subsided to 5-10
by race 6.
The seventh (and last) race of the regatta took place on Sunday, Oct. 8
with winds averaging 25 knots. While only 11 boats opted to sail the final
race, the race committee set the course near enough to the RBSA clubhouse
to provide a thrilling spectator experience for those sailors who opted to
stay ashore. "The winds were oscillating by plus or minus 20 degrees,"
Harris said. "It was very important to stay on the lifted tack and watch
for the shifts."
The Albacore was designed to handle the high winds and rough seas of the
English Channel, and the sailors reveled in the conditions that dominated
the event. Having "flat sails" was a key to keeping the boat upright on
Sunday, according to Neville Herbert and crew Ben Jones of Great Britain,
who chartered a boat for the event and placed fifth in both that race as
well as overall.
Probably the highlight of the regatta came after race 7 had concluded.
Using boathandling skills that drew applause from the sailors onshore,
second-place finisher (third overall) and former Naval Academy All-American
sailor Jasper Craig (Pasadena, MD) with crew Becky Craig and Doug Foord
approached the dock on a screaming plane, only to bring the boat to a dead
stop upwind right alongside the boat lifts. - John Liang
Final results: 1. Barney Harris and David Byron, Arlington, VA (6) 2. Marty
Hublitz and Pascal Buckley, Vienna, VA (20) 3. Jasper Craig and Becky Craig
and Doug Foord, Pasadena, MD (23) 4. Raines Koby and Abby MacInnes, Ottawa,
Canada (23) 5. Neville Herbert and Ben Jones, United Kingdom (31)
Event website: http://www.my-town.com/sailing/
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off
your goal.
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