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SCUTTLEBUTT 3435 - Tuesday, September 27, 2011Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: JK3 Nautical Enterprises, North Sails, and Melges Performance Sailboats. A MYSTERIOUS EXPERIENCE By Andrew Campbell At the end of every E-Scow season since 1966 the Pewaukee Yacht Club has hosted the Blue Chip. To better understand the event, one has to know the E-Scow class. The National Class E-Scow Association (NCESA) has almost 90 years of history with fleets spanning the Midwest, the Finger Lakes of New York, the Jersey Shore, down to South Carolina, and west to Grand Lake, Colorado. To judge the quality of E-Scow sailors is to index the very best that American sailing has to offer: National, International, World and Olympic Champions and legends are scattered across the historic records. The E Blue Chip is an invitational event for the top finishers from all the major events on the E-Scow calendar each year. Pewaukee’s strong scow tradition and ideal location (smack in the middle of Wisconsin and ILYA) makes it a perfect stage for an ultimate showdown between the top sailors in the class from across the country each season. Taking it one step further, the Blue Chip committee goes outside of the class to find a sailor of note to join in the fun and test their mettle against the seasoned class veterans. The guest list is a laundry list of great sailing talent including Dennis Conner, Lowell North, Hans Fogh, Jonathan McKee, Steve Benjamin, Gary Knapp, Tom Ehman, Gary Jobson, Paul Cayard, Mark Reynolds, Ken Read, Russell Coutts, Courtney Becker-Dey, Dave Perry, Betsy Allison, Carl Buchan, Vince Brun, Morgan Reeser, John Lovell, Peter Holmberg, Dave Ullman, Liz Baylis and last year, Bora Gulari. Ironically, those are the Non-E-Scow sailors, competing against legends in their own right who had earned invitations to the event such as Buddy Melges, Bill Allen, Gordy Bowers, Brian Porter, Harry Melges, Tom Burton, and Dick Wight among others. The “Mystery Guest” gets the advantage of a good boat, new sails, and a great local crew, but has little time to prepare in what are some odd boats to sail. The E is very fast, sensitive on the helm, but ultimately difficult to get a handle on because of the need to sail with constant heel. The 2011 E Blue Chip was an experience unlike any other for me. Some of the legendary sailors on the list above that I spoke to about it demanded that I make every effort to attend. I especially wanted to be there to follow in the footsteps of not only my parents, Bill and Sherri, who attended the event in the 80s and 90s (finishing 2nd in 1990), but also of my grandparents on both Dad’s and Mom’s sides, since they have significant histories in the class. The Toms River Campbells are strong advocates for the class in New Jersey after having retired from actively sailing. Likewise are the Wilders on Keuka Lake in New York. Needless to say the entire family was happy to hear that part of the new generation of Campbells would get the opportunity to sail in an E boat at the Blue Chip. Bringing my wife Jacqueline to the event was a big priority for me ahead of time. What I didn’t realize was what a statement it would become for her to race the entire regatta with us, more on that later.-- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/AC-092611 NOTE: Andrew is currently campaigning to earn the right to represent the U.S. in the men's keelboat event at the 2012 Olympic Games. His resume highlights include being selected at the College Sailor of the Year in 2006 and winning the Youth World Championship in 2002. STORM OVER SAILING CLUB Water Mill, N.Y.- A group of Wall Street executives and high-powered attorneys in this mansion-lined Hamptons hamlet is trying to block plans to revive an old neighborhood sailing club shuttered in the early 1990s. Opponents filed a lawsuit this month against the Town of Southampton and a local nonprofit, the Mecox Sailing Association, arguing that the club would bring noise, traffic and pollution to the secluded, leafy streets leading to picturesque Mecox Bay here, about 100 miles east of Manhattan. The detractors include leaders of sundry New York businesses, including Ameriprise Financial CFO Walter Berman and Kenneth Bialkin, a partner at Skadden Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. "Absolutely none of this is necessary," the Mecox Bay Civic Association wrote in an August letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, urging him to intercede. The letter was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. A spokesman for Mr. Cuomo's office did not respond to messages seeking comment on the letter. The sailing association's supporters say it would open the world of sailing to the area's children and host only small boat races with little impact on the community. "This is 'Not in My Backyard' mentality at its worst," said Jeff Mansfield, a former member of the old sailing club who is leading efforts to revive it. The saga began two years ago when Mr. Mansfield and other former club members and area residents decided to form a non-profit association to revive the old Mecox Bay Yacht Club, which shut down in 1990. The new site would be on the abandoned, overgrown site of the old club. -- Wall Street Journal, read on: http://tinyurl.com/WSJ-092611 J/FEST 2011 Last weekend J/Boats from all over Southern California convened at the San Diego Yacht Club for J/Fest 2011. In light but steady conditions, the RC was able to get 5 races in over the weekend. J/Fest is known as a regatta marked by protest-free racing, camaraderie and awesome giveaways, and this weekend was no exception. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, the J/Fest party consisted of finding creative ways to give away thousands of dollars’ worth of SWAG. Congratulations to regatta winners: J/80, Avet; J/105, Perseverance; J/109, Electra; and J/120, CC Rider. Thank you to all the sailors, sponsors and SDYC staff for making J/Fest a success! For photos visit http://www.facebook.com/jk3yachts LET THE SAILORS BE SAILORS By David Fuller, YachtRacing.biz Funny thing happened in Plymouth on the final day of the America’s Cup World Series. Oracle Racing skipper and CEO, Russell Coutts, beaming after a race that he obviously enjoyed, stepped onto a RIB that I just happened to be on and described what had just happened. He asked for forgiveness for the language he was about to use and then proceeded to enthuse about the race that saw him come 3rd, having had to use all his skill to stay upright. It was a very different persona to the one that sometimes turns up for press conferences, that seems guarded, and almost glum. Not always - Coutts joked in Plymouth that a collision with Dean Barker was not a ‘love tap’ - that he was trying to sink the Kiwis to have a chance of winning, providing one of the very few moments of levity in an otherwise forgettable set of press conferences. Off the record and on the QT, the man who has just converted his Facebook profile into a ‘page’ with circa 5000 friends, is someone that one could become a fan of. Elsewhere in the America’s Cup fleet, there are other sailors who are engaging as individuals, but as soon as they put on the gear and have a camera stuck in their face, shut down and revert to the scripts they have had drummed into them by media training, with a few exceptions - like ORACLE Racing’s Simon Tienpont. People expect footballers to resort to cliché when interviewed by the press. Phrases like ‘one game at a time’ and other stock phrases should not be what sailing is selling to sponsors, especially when most sailors are articulate, engaging and if they were standing at a bar telling a story; entertaining. Perhaps it comes with experience, or perhaps it comes with a certain kind of experience. Energy Team’s Loick Peyron manages to make the simplest answer to a question seem like poetic insight. Maybe it’s just the French accent, or maybe it is the experience of being an offshore solo sailor in France, a position that puts sailors under intense media scrutiny and pressure. The America’s Cup World Series has made a rod for its own back by vowing to engage a new audience using the Internet and social media. Wowing an audience with capsizes and chaos is not the same thing as creating fans. Despite a large social media team, ACEA is still in a ‘broadcast’ mindset rather than engagement mode. -- Read on: http://www.yachtracing.biz/blog/2011/09/amercas-cup-fan/ NOSTALGIA: Can you imagine seeing the unscripted nature of Ted Turner, Tom Blackaller, Dennis Conner, etc. combined with these catamarans and broadcast muscle? Now THAT would be worth watching! THREE TIPS FOR LIGHTNING STRIKES There isn’t much you can do to prevent being struck (though lowering antennas, fishing rods, outriggers and the like may help). But if your boat does get zapped, you’ll fare much better if you’ve done some prep work. First off, if you have a house or back-up battery which you don’t need at the moment, disconnect it from the system. That way, if everything gets fried you’ll still have an untouched power source. Secondly, record your GPS coordinates on paper, so you have a last-known position to relay if your GPS gets cooked but your radio or hand-held back-up radio is still functional. And finally, after they’ve donned life jackets, send your passengers into the cabin. The safest place to be on a boat that gets hit by lightning is in the cabin, and there’s no reason to expose them to any additional danger. More storm tips at Boats.com: http://tinyurl.com/Boats-com-092611 MINI MADNESS (September 26, 2011) - Racing across the Atlantic in grossly overcanvassed 21-footers, the sailors the Classe Mini are sailing's cockleshell heroes. The Mini Transat, which goes under the cumbersome title La Charente-Maritime/Bahia Transat 6.50, started yesterday (Sunday) in light winds to race from La Rochelle to Madeira and Brazil. There are 79 entries this year. It is a fleet full of the young, keen and impecunious. I think of it as being like a university of ocean racing, a place to see the talents of today and tomorrow in action. The race was established by Bob Salmon in 1977 as the poor man's alternative to the progressively more expensive OSTAR. To restrict costs it is governed by a box rule stipulating overall length, mast height, draught and maximum beam, the idea being that it would remain affordable for amateurs or would-be career sailors starting out. It is still a class where the ambitious amateur and professional sailor can come head to head. Being cheaper to obtain and also wet, lively and cramped, these little 21-footers attract lots of impervious twentysomethings and are brimming with technology and ideas. It was in the Mini class, for example, that canting keels were first introduced. The fleet is divided into series production boats, which have stricter rules such as fixed aluminium mast, fixed keel and no carbon fibre structure, and the prototypes, where the open nature of the rules still sees plenty of ideas being tried out. The protos have ultra-light carbon rigs; one has a rig recessed into the deck that can be canted fore and aft. Others have wingmasts with adjustable shrouds so they can be moved to windward. There are keels that cant, move fore and aft, daggerboards that cant, keels that are extendable so that, when canted, the bulb can be lowered to the 2m maximum draught. There is a premium on design ideas and it's here that young designers themselves are most apt to try their hand. -- Elaine Bunting, Yachting World, read on: http://www.yachtingworld.com/blogs/elaine-bunting/529795/mini-madness ‘GOOMBAY SMASH’ WINS MELGES 32 WORLDS WITH NORTH 3Di SAILS North-powered boats ‘Goombay Smash’ and ‘Samba Pa Ti’ battled for the 2011 Melges 32 World Championship trophy finishing just one point apart during the dramatic eight-race series in Palma de Mallorca. Racing with a full set of North 3Di upwind sails, ‘Goombay Smash’, owned by William Douglass, finished 2nd and stayed ahead of ‘Samba Pa Ti’ in the final race to seal their win. ‘Samba Pa Ti’, owned by John Kilroy and also powered by 100% North sails, raced hard until the end and finished just one point behind ‘Goombay Smash.’ When performance counts, the choice is clear: http://na.northsails.com THE AMAZING CLAIM The Amazing Race is an eight-time Emmy Award-winning reality series that pits 11 teams, each comprised of two members, against each other on a trek around the world for approximately 25 days. Teams who are the farthest behind will gradually be eliminated as the contest progresses, with the first team to arrive at the final destination winning $1 million. The show premiere for the 19th season was Sunday night, and this edition has Zac Sunderland and his father Laurence as one of the teams. At age 16, Zac set off on an Islander 36 to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. Sunderland departed from Marina del Rey (Los Angeles, CA) on June 14, 2008, completing the route on July 16, 2009. After many stops along his circumnavigation, he claimed that his thirteen months adventure set two world records: the youngest ever to sail around the world and the first under 18. His successful trip - and the attention it received - opened the flood gates for other teenage attempts. Soon the two record keeping authorities - Guinness Book of World Records and the World Sailing Speed Record Council - chose to no longer ratify age-related records. A key feature of record ratification is to insure that a common route is followed. There are shortcuts to take, and as Zac went through the Panama Canal rather than around Cape Horn, his route failed to meet the historic standard. While you will not find Zac's name in any record books, it does not belittle his accomplishment. It takes some big stones to sail solo around the world. However, perhaps he should stop saying, as he does on the show's website, that he was "the youngest person to sail around the world." Isn't it enough to just be able to say you sailed around the world at age 16? Cast details: http://www.cbs.com/shows/amazing_race/cast/63367/ Scuttleblog: http://tinyurl.com/Scuttleblog-092611 SAILING SHORTS * Returning last weekend to the scene of their 2002 Nationals success at Seawanhaka Corinthian YC in Oyster Bay, NY, John Burnham and Reed Baer narrowly won the 2011 Shields Nationals. In a light-air, rain-soaked, 4-race series, the Newport, RI, team finished second in the final race, tying two-time champ Bill Berry from Marion, MA, and winning the series on a tiebreaker. http://www.shieldsclass.com/2011/results.htm * A jury decision has been confirmed for the final race of the America's Cup World Series in Plymouth (September 18) for incidents involving Green Comm Racing, Aleph, and Artemis Racing. While on the water penalties were called at the time, the teams wanted a jury hearing to determine the exact responsibility for the significant damage. The jury found Green Comm to be 100% responsible for all damage which is estimated to be 150,000 euros. Complete jury decision: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/11/0923/ * The Coast Guard announced today that its 2011 National Recreational Boating Survey is under way. The Coast Guard encourages those contacted to provide the information. The survey is a key element in the Coast Guard’s strategic plan to reduce fatalities, injuries, and property damage from recreational boating accidents. Survey questions are designed to gather information on the extent of public participation in recreational boating and to identify trends, risks, and causal factors related to boating accidents; for example, inclement weather, boat defects, on-the-water hazards, and high-risk boater behaviors. -- Soundings, full story: http://tinyurl.com/Soundings-092611 * CORRECTION: In Scuttlebutt 3434 it stated that Global Sailing in New Zealand was one of the three builders for the International Laser Class Association. Actually, the proper name for the entity is Performance Sailcraft Australasia, which has common ownership with Global Sailing. FREE CLASSIFIED ADS The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. Here are recent For Sale ads: *1985 Catalina C25 Tall Rig * PEARSON 40 - 1980 * Tartan Pride 270 * Holder 20 * J/22 1050 - Rochester, NY View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads MELGES 32 WORLD CHAMPIONS Congratulations to William Douglas and the Goombay Smash team. 2011 Melges 32 World Champions. This year's World Championship was amazing! The Melges 32 class continues to gain momentum with new boats entering the fleet every month. Next up for 2012 - Newport, RI for the World Championship one year from now. Time to freshen up to some fun sailing - The Melges 32! http://www.melges32.com GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Bill Trenkle: It was sad to hear about the passing of Rudy Choy, a very passionate catamaran sailor and designer. I know he will have left this world for the big ocean race in the sky a happy man now that catamarans are being used in the America's Cup. When all the teams got together after the 1988 Cup to decide on a class to replace the 12 meter, Rudy was the sole representative pushing multihull. "How can you go back to lead mines after seeing the performance of the Stars & Stripes catamaran? Imagine a whole fleet of similar boats racing!" Too bad he will not get to see the AC 72's race in the 34th America's Cup in 2013. Sail on Rudy! * From Matt Lindblad, Head Coach, MIT: I have to comment after reading Scott Mason's post (in Scuttlebutt 3434. I had a couple opportunities to coach his son and a large group of kids from the Newport Harbor area (in SoCal) at East Coast 420 regattas and walked away with a good understanding of why that area has produced so many recent top sailors, beyond their great yacht club support, great coaching, and tradition. There were a lot of parents at the travel event with the team, completely hands off from the beginning of the day until after racing. The exception was in organizing logistics of coach boats, etc., as I remember Scott and another dad working on the coach boat engine with flashlights well into the night one night. After racing, the whole group (parents and kids) relaxed at the hotel pool and went to dinner together as a group. Racing results and regatta specific details were rarely discussed; we could have been having dinner after a day at the amusement park based on the atmosphere. Now, not a weekend of college racing goes by that I don't see at least a few kids from that group racing for colleges all over the country (including Scott's son racing for Georgetown). Great job to that group of parents and kids for getting the right balance of fun, support, and encouragement to make sailing a blast for their kids. It worked. * From Hal Smith, NRO: The situation of a competitor hitting a finish mark when finishing but not performing an exonerating one-turn penalty and re-finishing is a long time question on the US Sailing race management exam. The official answer is: “score her in her finishing place, and consider protesting her for contacting the mark.” You can have a different view and argue all you wish with the judge, but you will lose the debate. She did finish per the definition, so DNF is inappropriate. No other rule was “turned on” afterwards that allows the RC to take a scoring action without a hearing. The RC must protest the boat and have a hearing to score the boat DSQ. It is that simple. COMMENT: This thread has been ended in the newsletter, with all the dialogue now in the Forum. If you have something to add, please add it here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12626 CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION An object in motion will always be headed in the wrong direction. SPONSORS THIS WEEK JK3 Nautical Enterprises - Summit Yachts - Gowrie Group - North Sails Melges Performance Sailboats - Morris Yachts - Doyle Sails LaserPerformance - Team One Newport - Ullman Sails Premiere Racing - US SAILING - Beneteau Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
