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SCUTTLEBUTT 1840 - May 17, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. THE PREZ SAYS 'Sailing is currently enjoying one of the most exciting phases experienced by the sport. There is an increasing momentum to the sport, new events and classes being launched and outstanding achievements. ISAF must ensure it is developing not just in line with the sport, but ahead of the sport, anticipating the sport's development, providing the services needed for the sport and remaining relevant to the sport.' - Göran Petersson, ISAF President speaking at the Mid-Year meeting in Stockholm, Sweden. The common thread across all discussion at this meeting was the priority for ISAF and its Member National Authorities to ensure participation in the sport and focus on the strategy to achieve this. A co-ordination group of the ISAF Executive Committee will now prepare a draft strategy document which will be circulated for input, prior to a further debate at the ISAF Annual Conference in November 2005 in Singapore. The inclusion of a team racing event for the first time at the 2006 World Sailing Games was approved last year by the ISAF. Originally, to keep athlete numbers within an overall quota, the athletes in the team racing event were to be drawn from those already competing in the other events on the program. It was confirmed that entries may be independent, and that the format would be two-boat team racing. A second multihull event for women has been approved for inclusion in the Championship, using the Hobie 16 with spinnaker. - www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j6~Fhy?v2 BIG WIN FOR GILLY Langenargen, Germany - Australian Peter Gilmour, skipper of the Pizza-La Sailing Team, won his second consecutive Match Race Germany and joined two other skippers in the career victories lead on the Swedish Match Tour. Gilmour and his multi-national crew of Rod Dawson (NZL), Mike Mottl (AUS), Kazuhiko Sofuku (JPN) and Yasuhiro Yaji (JPN) won the championship with a 2-1 defeat of Denmark's Jesper Bank, skipper of United Internet Team Germany. The victory was Gilmour's first on the Tour since winning the championship here last year. It also was his sixth win on the Swedish Match Tour, and tied him with Russell Coutts of New Zealand and Magnus Holmberg of Sweden for the most career victories in the six years of Tour competition. Ed Baird of the U.S., a helmsman for Team Alinghi, placed third and retained the overall lead of the Swedish Match Tour. Baird now leads Gilmour by just three points. Gilmour has closed 20 points on Baird in the past two events to heighten the suspense going into the final two stages of the Tour. Baird beat Frenchman Bertrand Pacé, of BMW Oracle Racing 2-0 in the Petit Final. The final day began with no wind on Lake Constance. Amendments to the sailing instructions added flexibility to the schedule. The hope was to complete the semifinal, but if it didn't get underway by 11:00 a.m. it was to be canceled. That hour came and went without any wind or any attempts at starting. With the semifinals canceled, Gilmour and Bank advanced to the final because they were the top two in the quarterfinal round robin. Two and a half hours passed before the sailors returned to the water to attempt the final and petit final. In the end, the winds from the northwest at 8 knots were the best of the day and provided fair racing. - Sean McNeill, www.SwedishMatchTour.com Match Race Germany Final Standings 1. Peter Gilmour (AUS) 11-4, 6,000 € (approx. $7,500) 2. Jesper Bank (DEN) 11-4, 3,500 € (approx. $4,400) 3. Ed Baird (USA) 10-4, 3,000 € (approx. $3,700) 4. Bertrand Pacé (FRA) 7-7, 2,500 € (approx. $3,100) 5. Ben Ainslie (GBR) 5-7, 2,500 € (approx. $3,100) 6. Sten Mohr (DEN), 6-6, 2,000 € (approx. $2,500) 7. Ian Williams (GBR), 4-7, 1,750 € (approx. $2,200) 8. Staffan Lindberg (FIN), 5-7, 1500 €, (approx. $1,800) Swedish Match Tour Standings 1. Ed Baird (USA) 90 points 2. Peter Gilmour (AUS) 87 points 3. Russell Coutts (NZL) 70 points 4. Jes Gram-Hansen (DEN) 45 points 5. James Spithill (AUS) 35 points 6. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 30 points 7. Philippe Presti (FRA) 24 points 8. Mathieu Richard (FRA) 21 points INDUSTRY FIRST The Camet Molokai vest is the first to offer the ability to add foam pad inserts right into the front of the vest to help protect crew against lifelines when hiking out. Made of a waterproof, breathable fabric with a Coolmax mesh liner. Features include a chin flap, spandex-bound armholes for a smooth fit, and a wind flap behind the front zipper, draw cord hem, and a longer back for protection from the elements. It is designed with two large inside pockets and two outside pockets with zippers. Call now! 619-224-6737 or http://www.camet.com THE RULES Last week in Valencia the Jury and ACM conducted a seminar to brief all Competitors (Challengers and the Defender) on the new edition of the RRS, and how the umpires intend to apply them for AC racing, especially the subset of the RRS which govern match racing and umpiring. Each team was invited to send up to five representatives, and most did. A meeting of the top sailors in the world, to say nothing of the top match racing and AC sailors, is usually a lively affair. The skippers, tacticians, rules advisors, umpires and other officials discuss and debate the nuances of the right-of-way rules, how and when the umpires should make their "calls", and, indeed, whether any of the rules or interpretations ("Call Book for Match Racing") should be modified for Cup racing. The presentations made at Monday's night seminar by AC umpires Brad Dellenbaugh (USA) and John Standley (AUS) are available on the website of the Challenger's Commission: www.challengercommission.com/ A FOUR YEAR PLAN No sooner had he set foot on terra firma after his first Vendée Globe participation than he stated loud and clear : "I'll be back !" No sooner said than done. After his previous 'vendeeglobesque' maritime adventure, no-one is in the least surprised to see Jean-Pierre Dick setting about preparing another participation. Virbac and Paprec are standing him in good stead once again - JP will be setting out on another circumnavigation on the 60-foot Open circuit. On the programme for the next four years : the Transat Jacques Vabre 2005 together with Loïck Peyron, the Route du Rhum 2006 and first and foremost, the construction of new boat for the Vendée Globe 2008-09. JP an ocean-racing yachtsman ? No question about it ! Back to business for another Vendée Globe then? Jean-Pierre Dick : "Yes and no. Yes because I am entering again. No because this time I shall not be going about it in the same way this time as I did the last time I raced non-stop round the world single-handed. This year, I managed to realize a great dream in simply making it across the finishing line in what is a unique event. I was frustrated to finish 6th and to have had the number of incidents I did. That really did change the tone of the event for me. Today I am ready to take part in this fabulous adventure once again, but in a different way. This time I am setting my objectives in terms of performance and result much higher!" General outline of the programme : ambition and opportunity? JPD : 'This gives us a four-year program with key dates. It is more ambitious than the one which lead me to enter my first Vendée Globe. My existing team is already in the starting gate, chomping at the bit. We will be more open to the exterior and will be favoring shared effort with others who have the same approach. Loïck Peyron has joined the team which will be a great help in my continued apprenticeship in ocean racing. He will also be contributing to the design of the new boat, no doubt the best illustration of our collaboration." A new boat? JPD: "I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to go about building a new boat. I've more experience now and feel up to making more informed decisions. In the Vendée Globe, the key point is to strike the right balance between the sailor and the machine. The aim is that they are one and the same, and that both focus on what is specific about this race. We are in the fine-tuning stages of the project and I think we are now able to produce a design with one or two exciting innovative features. She should be a real development of the current machine. Launching a new boat is an exciting thing to do. This is precisely the sort of project which suits me as the Vendée Globe is also a technological adventure." - www.windward.fr WEAR THE FIGAWI Each May, hardy sailors brave the choppy Nantucket sound in a mad-dash race known as the Figawi. To salute the event and its participants, Sperry Top-Sider developed the Figawi Collection. These high-performance shoes and sandals provide sailors with the ultimate in stability and comfort. They also feature Sperry Top-Sider's signature non-marking, Super-Tack rubber outsoles, Quadro-Grip Wave-Siping™, and anti-microbial, fast-drying materials. With suggested retail prices starting at $59.95, the Figawi Collection is sure to keep you on course during the heat of the race or teeth of a squall. http://www.sperrytopsider.com NEWS BRIEFS * UK - More than 60 people were helped by coastguards after a fierce gale disrupted a sailing competition off the Dorset coast. They included a yachtsman who fell into the sea in the middle of a force seven gale. Other sailors were injured on board their vessels and had to be taken ashore to get medical help. The yachts were taking part in the Royal Ocean Racing Club De Guingand Bowl race from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg when they hit rough seas in the dead of night. - Full story: http://tinyurl.com/bqw4v * The first four Global Challenge teams crossed the equator Monday morning, and are now back in the Northern Hemisphere after seven months in the southern part of the globe. BP Explorer currently enjoys a fragile single digit lead over BG Spirit, VAIO and SAIC La Jolla in that order. - www.globalchallenge2004.com/en * The Fifth Annual Summer Sailstice international holiday celebrating sailing will take place the weekend of June 18th and 19th. Sailors around the world can sign up at the event's website to win a host of industry prizes as well as use the site to invite others to join their sailing parties or find another event near them. Summer Sailstice grand prizes for 2005 include a one-week charter with The Moorings, a Hunter Xcite sailing dinghy, five $200 gift certificates from West Marine and a one-week 'Fast Track to Cruising' course form Offshore Sailing. - www.summersailstice.com * A freshening breeze on San Francisco bay is an unforgiving setting for teams looking to clear out the early season crew work cobwebs. Enjoy this display of the How-Not-To's for handling the asymmetrical kite on a J/105: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/early * In response to requests by yacht design schools, Edson has begun producing Bronze Spline Weights for use by design students, yacht designers, and boat builders. These classic design tools are used in conjunction with long, flexible battens or 'splines' to draw fair curves while drawing a boat's lines and during the lofting process. Although they are often thought of as a design tool of a bygone era because of the advent of Computer Aided Design programs, they are still an invaluable teaching tool for design students and are often used by professional designers when precise, fair lines are required. www.edsonmarine.com/media/05392_Splineweights.html NEW LOOK FOR TEAMVANGUARD.COM Have you seen Vanguards new website? They recently launched a better organized, more content heavy site that is easier to use. Check out the "My Vanguard" section where you can sign up to keep updated with product news, updates, and information on your favorite Vanguard products. Visit http://www.teamvanguard.com today. LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Olaf Harken: Did you forget there is a lot of water between the two oceans and some pretty serious sailing/ We have those great big lakes and lots of small ones where we have been sailing our Inland Scows for a long time. I did not see any of the Inland Scows mentioned in your review of the biggest one design classes in the country. The strength and growth of these classes has remained strong for most of the 106 years of the Inland Lake Yachting Organization. The current growth of the MC class has been around 100 boats per year for the last several years and continues on. The venerable C Scow and E Scow classes continue to draw fleets of over 60 boats at the major regattas. The Cub (X Class) for the post Opti kids had a 140 boats at it's championship regatta. There are 50 Yacht Clubs that are members of the ILYA all sailing one or more classes of scows and we have as many as 1000 sailors at the championship regatta. Even the magnificent 38 foot A scow is growing with 30 boats at the champs. Some of these numbers certainly should be in contention for the top ten or higher. I know they don't have pointy bows and their free board is measured in inches but they sure do go and are as strong as ever. Please let us know if they fit in your calculation? Curmudgeon's Comment: Olaf - I've forwarded your note to John Burnham at Sailing World magazine who authored the survey report SW did in collaboration with US Sailing. Stay tuned. * From Al Johnson: About six months ago there were a series of e-mails within the Soverel 33 e-mail forwarding list regarding IRC. I don't remember all the details on ratings, but the topic was that it looked like the typical Soverel 33 (153 headsail / penalty pole) rated almost as fast as a J35 in IRC, versus the J35 owing 15 or 20 seconds per mile to the Soverel under PHRF. One of the e-mails was from a sailmaker from Europe who said he had extensive experience with the IRC. His advised us that the Soverel was too light for its sail area to rate well under IRC, and as such the solution was to go to a 130 or 140 headsail, reduce the foot and hoist on the main, and cut down the penalty pole and chutes to the J dimension. In addition, he felt we needed add internal ballast. He said that the improvement in rating would be much greater than the loss of performance, and that we could be competitive in IRC with those changes - otherwise, forget it. So the bottom line was that to race IRC I need to spend at least $10,000 to make my boat go slower. So far I'm not very interested. * From Douglas Johnstone: I find it extraordinary to hear the complaints about the costs of having a boat measured for IRC. These owners have spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars for their boats, spend in excess of several thousands of dollars for every new sail they have to buy, and spend thousands of dollars for each haul out to prep the hull bottom maybe every other season. Yet to spend possibly a thousand dollars, one time only for a measurement certificate, (only required for endorsed mind you, and not necessary if there is a previous IMS cert), this they find excessive! I really do not understand this attitude. IRC appears to offer a a substantial handicapping system that has enjoyed great popularity in Europe and has the chance of offering owners of higher end racer/cruisers a better system than PHRF under which to race. As my father would say, Buck up. It really does not cost that much in the whole scheme of boat ownership, and who knows, you might actually enjoy it, God Forbid. * From John Hammel (edited to our 250-word limit): In reply to Alan Blunt's and Corey Friendman's comments about a doublehanded trainer, the JSA of Long Island Sound has been considering this problem for the past two years. Despite the gradual decline in the Blue Jay, it has served an important function on the sound. Our organization serves the 43 clubs and 1400 families of western Long Island Sound. Across the country, there are young sailors who don't want to sail a singlehanded boat, and without a doublehanded trainer, lose interest in sailing. I can't tell you how many times I've had parents come up to me to say that if it wasn't for the Blue Jay, their kids would have dropped out of sailing. We are currently evaluating several designs, including a re-vamped Blue Jay, to find a safe, stable doublehanded replacement. Our requirement was a self-rescuing, self-bailing boat with main, jib, and standard spinnaker rig, reasonably priced and reasonably portable, that two or three 10-14 year olds could sail and right after capsize. Right now, we are evaluating the Feva, a British import from Vanguard, the reduced-sail 420, the Blue Jay with a promised new deck and tank system, possibly the club FJ, and a new design by Bruce Kirby called the Pixel, which was designed with our needs in mind. We will have kids in the target age group sail all the boats in field trials this spring and summer, and will make a selection this fall. Regular updates will be posted at: www.jsalis.org. * From Anton Huggler: I strongly support Cory Friedman's suggestion to (re-) introduce a double-handed boat for the young sailors. The Kaneohe Yacht Club has a very good and successful Junior Program and all novice youngsters first are sent out on "Toppers", double-handed, when it's windy triple-handed. Most young kids prefer to play with a companion rather than alone, it's no different on boats. It also helps the more timid characters overcome their initial fear. El-Toro, Optimist or Sabot - it doesn't really matter, I consider it more important that the boat is suitable for the prevailing conditions at their respective locations. Local fleets are fine for gaining experience in racing. I doubt all the 10 year old fledgling sailors are ready or would benefit to sail in 100+ boat fleets in venues half way around the world. I also agree with Geoff Becker, re crossover. Giving the youngsters the opportunity and encouraging them to sail in various classes keeps it interesting, enables and helps them to decide what they like best. After gaining skills and confidence in Topper and El-Toro, my son put his butt on any boat he could: Laser Radial, 420, FJ, Fireball and even an I-14 when he was barely 15 years old. (took his swimming to the next level). Ever since he got on a 29er, he never looked back, loves the boat. * From Chris Ericksen: Congratulations are due to Paul Henderson upon his receipt of the ISAF Beppe Croce Trophy ('Butt 1839). While plenty of people (myself included) did not always agree with or endorse his positions, we never doubted where he stood and never had to wonder what was going on at ISAF, for he told us flat out. It must not be forgotten that, when he came to the conclusion that some positions and directions were just plain wrong, Mister Henderson had the courage to admit it, make changes and move on. Yet even as we disagreed, we never doubted his unwavering dedication to our sport. One can only hope that the present and future leaders of ISAF will follow in his example of talking straight to the sailors, making the hard choices, sometimes stepping back from poor decisions and always working for the betterment of our sport. * From Sir Robin Knox-Johnston: Minouru Saito, who you mentioned in today's Scuttlebutt as coming up to the equator on his return from a solo non-stop circumnavigation, will be the oldest person to complete such a feat, and this will be his 4th solo circumnavigation - The BOC and two Around Alones, the same race but now called 5-Oceans. Almost 40 years ago Francis Chichester set off and completed his one stop solo circumnavigation and was hailed for his age, 65. Minouru is now 71. The next challenge must be to become the youngest to make a solo circumnavigation and then hang around long enough to be the oldest. CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches? |
