SCUTTLEBUTT No. 707 - December 11, 2000

PERSONAL APPEARANCE

Join Olympians Charlie Ogletree and (silver medallist) Pease Glaser from the US sailing team at the Newport Beach Ullman Sails loft this Tuesday evening, December 12 at 7 PM. 410 29th Street. You'll hear the inside scoop about the 2002 Sydney Olympics as seen from the athlete's perspective. Please RSVP (949)675-6970 or

http://www.ullmansails.com/

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net)
(Letters selected to be printed may be edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a bulletin board or a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. We don't publish anonymous letters, but will withhold your e-mail address on request.)

* From J. Joseph Bainton bainton@baintonlaw.com Should "Boat of the Year" become "Boat of the Decade"? Sailing World and Cruising World (and their predecessors) have made fair and honest attempts for more years than I can remember awarding the "Boat of the Year" moniker to various types of sailboats. A predictable consequence of the practice they reward is that our race courses are littered with two of this and five of that, or, worse yet, none of anything because people find racing against a dozen or so boats hardly worth the effort and are either incapable or unwilling of disposing of last year's BOTY in favor of this year's BOTY.

Anyone who has ever sailed an IOR design and an IMS design off the wind in a big breeze can readily understand that technological improvement can be a

good thing and certainly should not be abandoned. It seems to me, however, that we need to find a way to strike a more even balance between developing the better boat and preserving the ability to compete in a boat several years old. We also need to question whether at any given point in time we need another one design class of a particular type. I believe our sport would be much better off if the energies of its participants were channeled into a significantly fewer number of classes (or types) of boats.

* From Dallas Johnson texana@iagmn.net While it's fun and important to recognize all the new designs, I'd like to suggest Sailing World add a "Best Boat to Own and Race" category to their BOTY awards. I think many racers consider a well managed class organization, plenty of local OD fleets, if not OD then a boat common to handicap class racing, and a reliable used market for their boats as important factors when it comes to actually making a purchase decision. Only focusing on new designs stratifies and weakens the racing market. It's unfortunate their advertisers do not also realize this. A wise friend of mine once said the best boat to buy is the one most common at your yacht club.

* From Bill Carey carey@friestad.com The Boat of the Year award seems to me to be the Kiss of Death in the boating industry. Just look at the Aerodyne 38, the Synergy, and the 405 - all recent winners. Farr 40 didn't get it, Mumm 30 didn't get it, and the Vanguard 15 didn't get it - and look at their popularity. The only exception I can think of is the Melges 24, which I think won in '93. It's too bad that Sailing World bestowed its Kiss of Death (aka Boat of the year Award) to the Schock 40 - it's really a pretty neat boat.

* From Paul Miller phmiller@gwmail.usna.edu I think the idea of an Open 30 concept for shorthanded sailing is great! While John Fox mentions two popular East Coast groups, the 150-member Singlehanded Sailing Society of San Francisco holds a series of popular inshore and offshore races culminating with the Singlehanded TransPac. Many of the boats are 30 feet or less. The Pacific Singlehanded Sailing Association in LA also has an active program.

While I like the basic concept, as a naval architect and owner of a "near 30 foot" boat designed for shorthanded sailing, I wonder about the extreme beam (11.5 ft) and draft (8.2') limits. While these will certainly make for powerful, fast, exciting boats, and were probably derived to allow for some existing designs, they have two problems. One is the upside down stability (partially compensated by other parts of the Open 30 rule) and the practicality of inshore racing in many locations. A fair part of SF Bay, not to mention my current home of the Chesapeake is shallower than 8 feet! Wouldn't it be better to dial back a bit to improve ultimate safety and make the boats more popular? Perhaps limits of 10 feet beam and 6.5 feet draft?

* From Jonathan Udell Custoff@aol.com Although Open 30 may never be a big issue here in the states I applaud the idea as a forum where would be designers can bring their ideas to reality at more reasonable cost than might otherwise happen and know there is a venue in which to see how it stacks up against the rest of the world.

* From Craig Fletcher Sailfletch@aol.com The PGA gives millions of dollars to charity, has huge prize money, rules based on honor, works closly with the amatuer run USGA and has pushed golf into one of the number one sports in the world. Lets hope the ISAF turns into the PGA.

* From Skip Doyle ChiefEdie@aol.com Re their shots at Paul Henderson - Lighten up, fellows! Paul is just yanking our chain one more time. He has a history of doing that to his American cousins. It's part of his charm!

* From George Hock GHock@empireval.com Living in Upstate New York, I've had the privilege to hear Paul Henderson speak and the honor to compete against him on a couple of occasions. To call him outspoken would be like saying King Kong was of above average size. However, in response to Mark Green's comments in 'Butt 705, if you really believe what you wrote, then you do not know Paul Henderson either as a man or a leader.

* From: Mark Herrmann MarkHSeattle@aol.com Although, I did not like the way he said it, Paul Henderson made a very important point in his last submission to Scuttlebutt. The USA is one of 130 countries that vote on issues that effect Olympic Class sailing World-Wide. The truth is that the sailing world does not revolve around the USA and the agenda put forward by US Sailing; most of us just forget to consider that 129 other countries may not see things the same way that we do.

* From William Cook wfcook@wfcook.com Please kill the Paul Henderson thread ASAP. If the best he can do in the face of criticism is to flame everyone in the United States on an unrelated subject, his letters should not be published, regardless of his position in ISAF. I really don't want to hear week's worth of complaining about him, and I don't suspect that any of it will bother him in the least.

CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT -On this note I declare this thread officially dead!

* From Mike Ingham mingham@rochester.rr.com In response to T.L. Lewis comments on the Tornado Sport (referred to in his letter as a "Bastard boat"). - The Tornado is an incredibly well built boat that can handle the new loads of the Tornado Sport as well or better than almost any cat that was designed for the double trap and asymmetrical spinnaker. The truth is that many have played around with the Tornado Sport (including myself) and it excels!

The reason that it was selected instead of the Tornado is because it makes a lot of sense, the Tornado Sport is a great choice supported by most of the World level Tornado sailors. The only reason that it is not the only form of Tornado is that a votes by the grass roots of the class (mostly in Europe) do not want to make the change for the level of weekend racing they are doing. The conversion is actually quite easy and can be done on virtually any existing Tornado.

AMERICA'S CUP TIDBITS
* The Auckland City Council is looking to spend another $5 million of ratepayers' money on land and infrastructure at the Viaduct Basin. The council has set aside $2 million for new handrails, entrance gateways and a closed circuit television security system, and is considering buying more land for $3 million. The planned spend-up comes only weeks after the council handed over exclusive and lucrative naming rights at the basin for three years to AC2003, the management arm of Team New Zealand.

The council has already spent $40 million at the basin on stormwater and dredging work as well as buying and developing land for public spaces. On top of this, America's Cup Village Ltd spent $85.7 million of ratepayers' and taxpayers' money to build the yachting facilities and manage the village during last summer's regatta.

* Meanwhile, the Herald understands that the America's Cup syndicate Oracle Racing, bankrolled by software billionaire Larry Ellison, is negotiating to buy the derelict barge in the Viaduct Basin which was set up by ACVL as a yacht club and lost $4.1 million of public money. ACVL, which has withdrawn an application to run the barge as a restaurant and function centre, will divvy up the sale proceeds with Corporate Host. The company had the catering contract and contributed about $800,000 of the $3 million spent turning the barge into a club for American Express cardholders. Sources said Oracle would pay little more than the salvage value of about $500,000 for the barge and turn it into a sail loft. ACVL chairman Peter Kiely has said the future of the barge would probably be known this month. No one from Oracle could be reached for comment. - Bernard Orsman, NZ Herald, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ac2000/

* America's Cup yachting legend Dennis Conner flew from the United States to Auckland for the weekend just to defend his Auckland Etchells-class championship title, but got pipped at the post by an old arch-rival. Conner looked to have sewn up the regatta at Pine Harbour yesterday, but rival cup skipper Chris Dickson toppled him in the final race, denying Conner a third straight title. The regatta of three-man boats took on the face of a mini-America's Cup, with a handful of cup sailors among the fleet. NZ Herald, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ac2000/

PORT TACK START
(Crossing the fleet on port tack at the gun ranks high on the racing thrill-meter. Zack Leonard discusses the port tack start on the SailNet website. Here is a brief excerpt from that piece.)

The biggest mistake sailors make when attempting a port-tack start is not knowing when to bail out if it becomes evident that the starboard tackers are going to close up the lane. Remember, if there's a pack of boats on starboard tack that seems intent on starting near the pin, chances are a port-tack start won't be possible and you'd better move on to Plan B.

The second biggest mistake I often see is sailors who position their boats too close to the line. The advantage a port-tack starter has is that usually he or she is not being held up by having to jockey for position within a pack of boats. And usually, a port-tack starter won't have to pinch to make the line. Ideally, you want to come reaching in at full speed toward the pin on port. This means that you need to be three to four boat lengths from the line with 15 or 20 seconds to go. Being in this position will let you get the boat wound up for the big moment.

If I am trying to win the pin end of the line on starboard and I see someone trying to port tack the fleet, I make it a matter of pride to 'take one for the team' and close out the port-tack start. That means that I will reach down to the pin to make the port tacker duck me, even if that means creating a nice hole between me and the pack above. This also makes it hard for me to clear the boats on my hip and tack later on because I'll no longer be in a position to pinch off the boats who started to weather of me. But, if you let the port-tacker cross you, you're just resigning yourself to finishing behind that boat because you probably won't see them again.

So, if you are the port tacker, you need to watch out for the leeward-most boat in the fleet and keep that crew from realizing what you are trying to do until it is too late for them to react. There are several good techniques for this. Sometimes I'll set up on starboard as the leeward-most boat in the fleet and pretend that I'm starting on starboard. Then at about 40 seconds, I look around frantically like I think I might not make the pin, and I sheet in and sail upwind for 15 seconds, then bear off into a jibe and start reaching toward the line on port. Another trick is to stay on starboard to the leeward of the pin with your sails luffing. Your fellow sailors will think you have broken down and will probably disregard you, and there's your opening. - Zack Leonard, SailNet website, full Story: http://www.sailnet.com/collections/articles/index.cfm?articleid=leonar0024

2001-2004 RACING RULES OF SAILING
The new right-of-way-rules will be made available on the ISAF Website by the week ending 22 December 2000. The ISAF plans to make the full rules available to US Sailing and other Member National Authorities at the end of January. - http://www.sailing.org

INNOVATION
The Storm Trysail Club's Block Island Race Week XIX (June 25-29, 2001) will be trying some new wrinkles. They will be offer a Navigator Class or Classes where the boats will sail longer legs around both Government buoys and set marks and probably get in only one race per day. Most likely, this will be handicapped by PHRF. It's being offered for sailors who are tired of windward/ leewards or have boats or crews that don't like lots of tacks and turns.

STC will use the crew weight limits for PHRF entires set by the YRA of Long Island Sound. However, they will allow skippers to sail with up to two additional weight increments of 180# (the crew weight limit assumes 180# per crew member) provided that they accept a penalty of 3 seconds per mile for each such increment or part thereof. Skippers will be required to declare this intention when they enter. But PHRF entries will be allowed to carry one child, 13 years of age or under, without penalty. This idea is intended to get more young sailors on the water. - Butch Ulmer

The Notice of Race for BIRW XIX will be available shortly:
http://www.stormtrysail.org

CRYSTAL CUP
PARADISE ISLAND, The Bahamas - (December 10, 2000) - Doug Baker's Andrews 68 Magnitude from Long Beach, CA, is the winner of the inaugural Crystal Cup at Atlantis. Class winners: CLASS A: Magnitude, Doug Baker, Long Beach, CLASS B: Harrier, Jeff Salzman, Riverside, CT, CLASS C: Full Bore, Donald Fritz, Toledo, OH - http://www.crystalcupatatlantis.com

THE CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM
What do you call a male ladybug?