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SCUTTLEBUTT 1985 -- December 12, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.A YEAR TO REMEMBER 18-year-old Paige Railey from Clearwater Florida is the new Laser Radial World Champion, cruising to victory in Fortaleza, Brazil with a race to spare. The 18 year old American completes an incredible first year on the ISAF Graded circuit, adding the World title to the European and ISAF Youth Worlds crowns, winning six out of the eight events she entered and topping the ISAF World Sailing Rankings. Despite all her previous successes, the World title really showed the American is the early pacesetter in the class. In a wide variety of testing conditions from six to 25 knots each day there were casualties amongst an experienced fleet. Railey never won a race and only scored three top three places. Quite often she fought her way back from lower positions to achieve consistent single results. This was a high scoring Championship with a number of sailors able to hold their own at the front. Even so the rest of the fleet know they will have to raise their game significantly if they are to beat Railey next August when the Laser Radial World Championships are held at the California Yacht Club in Los Angeles, USA. In addition to Railey winning the event, US Sailing Team-member Anna Tunnicliffe (Plantation, Fla.) finished third in the women's fleet, while US Sailing Team-member Brad Funk (Plantation, Fla.) finished second in the Open fleet behind Brazil's Eduardo C. de Magalhães Couto. On Monday the Laser Radial Youth Worlds for under 18s will showcase a future generation of Laser stars. 100 sailors from every continent will be in Fortaleza to dispute the titles with racing continuing until 17 December.. Final Results - Men's Racial Gold Fleet: 1. Eduardo C. de Magalhães Couto (BRA) 29 2. Brad Funk (USA) 44 3. Blair Mclay (NZL) 45 4. Martin Jenkins (ARG) 53 5. Andreas Reinisch Perdicaris (BRA) 61 Women's Racial Gold Fleet: 1. Paige Railey (USA) 58 2. Sophie de Turckheim (FRA) 60 3. Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) 73 4. Petra Niemann (GER) 85 5. Krystal Weir (AUS) 92 12. Tania Elias Calles (MEX) 111 17. Lisa Ross (CAN) 120 http://www.2005laserworlds.com.br/ ANOTHER PLAYER? Malaysia is going to mount a challenge in the world's premier sailing event - the America's Cup - in 2011. And the good news is that world-renowned sailors Peter Gilmour and Russell Coutts are likely to helm the challenge for the event which attracts a worldwide television audience of two billion viewers. The not-so-good news: taking part in the blue ribbon event will not come cheap. The price tag of US$130 million (RM490 million) includes the cost of building the racing yacht in Malaysia, paying international yachtsmen and training local sailors. The New Straits Times has learnt that discussions are under way for Malaysia to organise a team for the Cup, which is held every four years. It is part of the plan to turn the country into a major sailing hub. Next year will see five sports centres being built to breed the sailors of the future. The centres are the national sailing academy in Pulau Duyung (Terengganu) and water sports complexes in Johor, Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak. Gilmour said today that he was willing to bring his vast organisational and sailing experience in the America's Cup to help Malaysia compete in the Cup and would ask Coutts to get on board too. Gilmour, who recently won the Monsoon Cup, is number one in the International Sailing Federation's ranking. "I am sure Coutts will be excited at the prospect of working with Malaysia. He loves a challenge and a new opportunity. "There is a good chance of both of us working together to get into motion a tangible challenge to compete in the race and even bring the Cup to Malaysia," Gilmour said during a telephone interview from Perth. "Malaysia has got the reputation of getting things done as was seen in the Monsoon Cup which was successfully organised within four months. It is perfectly poised to take on the America's Cup challenge with international partners," said Gilmour. He said the success of the Monsoon Cup, which is part of the Swedish Match Race Tour, had put Malaysia on the world map of sailing. This visibility boosted its chances of attracting sponsors and international crew for the America's Cup. He said while underwriting the cost of the project needs to have a home-grown flavour, international organisations would also be roped in. - New Straits Times online, complete story: http://tinyurl.com/d4v2r NEW FACES (Following are a couple of excerpts from a story posted on the Daily Sail subscription website.) Following the quasi-sacking of Adrienne Cahalan from Brasil 1 and Campbell Field's scheduled departure from Sunergy, so both teams have signed up new navigators for the forthcoming legs of the Volvo Ocean Race. Both are familiar faces to the race. Brasil 1 have signed up towering Dutch race veteran Marcel van Triest who the team say will join the crew of the Brazilian team for the next three legs of the Volvo Ocean Race, ie until Rio. This appointment represents van Triest's fifth participation in the Volvo Ocean Race having first competed in 1989 on board the Dutch class 2 entry Equity & Law II, followed four years later sailing with Lawrie Smith on board Intrum Justitia, then with fellow Brasil 1 crewman Knut Frostad on Innovation Kvaerner and last time around on Gunnar Krantz' lacklustre Team SEB. Most recently van Triest has been navigator for King Juan Carlos of Spain on the TP52 Bribon. Meanwhile Field Junior on Grant Wharington's Australian entry is to be replaced by Sweden-based Brit and former Dolphin & Youth skipper Matt Humphries. At present ING Real Estate/Brunel Sunergy as the boat will be known for leg two, only has funding to reach Melbourne. This will also be Humphries' fifth round the world race, having first sailed round the world in 1989-90 aboard With Integrity. For the 1997-8 race Humphries sailed leg one on America's Challenge but when the campaign ran out of funding in Cape Town, jumped ship to Roger Nilson's Swedish Match entry. - www.thedailysail.com POP QUIZ! Four new quiz questions on racing, cruising, weather, and performance instruments are posted at the North U website, including this one: Prior to the race you find the wind is shifting every six minutes. There is a shift three minutes before the start. How soon after the start do you expect the next shift? Are you sure? Enter your answer to this and other quiz questions and you could win a prize at the North U website, plus get info on gifts and seminars for all sailors. - http://www.NorthU.com A HOMETOWN CHALLENGER The Spanish Desafío Español 2007 team finished the 2005 season in a class of its own. The Spaniards sit in fifth position on the ACC season championship table, a full eight points clear of the chasing Swedish team; that's the good news. But although they're placed to be knocking on the door of the big four, Desafío Español is a full 15 points behind fourth-placed Luna Rossa, the big gap indicating how much work the team still has ahead of it. "I think we are happy with what we achieved this year," summed up Karol Jablonski, the transplanted Polish match racing legend who has been given the task of steering the boat. "We had big expectations but considering that we had such short preparation time we were able to achieve quite a lot. The Spanish team was one of two challengers who joined just ahead of the initial challenge deadline in December 2004. The team is well funded and acquired perhaps the best 'starter package' on the market, the American OneWorld assets from the 2003 Cup. The plan for the winter has the team training in Valencia since the end of racing in Trapani. The Spaniards have been sailing throughout November from their bright green base in the Port America's Cup. According to Jablonski, the sailing team will be off in December and January before reconvening in February to prepare for the 2006 Louis Vuitton Acts. The biggest project for the team is its new boat. The new boat is scheduled to be complete in April and sailed throughout the summer of 2006. "We hope that it's a good step forward and will be fast and that we'll be able to make a step towards the bigger teams," Jablonski says. "We're going to spend a lot of time testing this new boat before we look at building the second new boat. We're not in a hurry with the new boat because the old boats are being changed again and we want to see how they do with these modifications." - Excerpts from a story on the America's Cup website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/9vz5m Curmudgeon's comment: Hull number 88 has been allocated to Desafio Espanol's new boat. CORUM MELGES 24 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP The 98-boat Melges 24 World Championships started on Sunday at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo Florida. After two races, the standings are: 1. Mfatic, Neil Sullivan, (USA) 2-8, 10 pts 2. Pegasus 575 Philippe Kahn, (USA) 10-6 16pts 3. Luna Rossa, James Spithill, 5-12, 17pts 4. Pegasus 492, Samuel Shark Kahn, (USA) 19-3 22pts 5. Ale Ali, Nicola Celon, (ITA) 1-22, 23pts 6. Xcelent, John Pollard, (GBR) 17-7, 24pts 7. Fusion, John Bertrand, (USA) 9-15, 24pts 8. Full Throttle, Brian Porter, (USA) 26-2, 28pts 9. New Wave, Kullman,Martin (USA) 18-11, 29pts 10. Partners & Partners Philippe Ligot, (FRA) 22-14, 36 pts Event photos from Day One: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/m24worlds Event website: http://www.2005corumm24worlds.com KEY WEST AND MIAMI - DOUBLE THE EXCITEMENT Double your fun this winter with two Premiere Racing events: Acura Key West, presented by Nautica (January 16-20) and Acura Miami Race Week (March 9-12). Enjoy two world-class sailing venues and experience twice the distinctive international competition and professional race management. Acura Grand Prix Awards will recognize the top winners in the combined events. TP52, Swan 45, Farr 40, Mumm 30, J/105, and Melges 24 classes are eligible. 300 boats are headed to Key West and it's not too late for you to enter. Web site: http://www.Premiere-Racing.com NEWS BRIEFS * It looks like the World Sailing Speed Record Council will be busy next year. Ellen MacArthur's trimaran B&Q has undergone her mini-refit and is now ready for shipping to Asia in January. The main objective for MacArthur and her team in 2006 will be to establish a series of fully crewed sailing records in Asian waters. The circuit will kick off in late March and end mid-May after visiting Japan, five major Chinese ports and finishing in Singapore. -- http://www.teamellen.com/en/asia2006.asp * The documentary on the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge 2005, which originally aired on the Outdoor Life Network in September, will be re-aired in the New York metro area on Wednesday, December 14, 2005, at 10:00 pm EST (PBS, Channel 21) and Saturday, December 17, 2005, at 3:00 pm EST (PBS, Channel 13). The documentary is entitled "Chasing Charlie Barr's Record: the 2005 Rolex Transatlantic Challenge." It was sponsored by Rolex and produced by Jobson Sailing, Inc. * Help us determine the winners in the latest Scuttlebutt contest, which was to provide the best reply to the "Newbie looking for Key West info" thread on the Scuttlebutt Forums. Winners get a SLAM Sailing Vest from Premiere Racing and Scuttlebutt caps. Click here to vote: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/05/1209 * The U.S. Coast Guard proposes to establish special local regulations for Chesapeake Bay during the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006. The regulations would be in effect from April 29 through May 7, 2006. Comments on the proposals should be submitted by February 6, 2006. -- http://tinyurl.com/axqzn * The Vivo Team from Brazil with Daniel Glomb, Xico Freitas and Rene Garrafielo won the South American Match Race Championship held at the CNSI, in Argentina. Second place went to Team Printus from Germany - Tino Ellegast, Arne Guelzow, Zeno Danner with the VDS team from Brazil (Nelson Ilha, Adrion Santos, Felipe Ilha) taking third. Next Year the event will be hosted by Brazil and again will use the Soling class. - www.soling.com * Paul Cayard's VO70 Black Pearl went into the water on Sunday and the crew will be sailing the boat on Monday. * Photographer Andrea Francolini has sent Scuttlebutt the first and only images thus far of the insides of the new 98ft maxi Wild Oats, the latest canting keel creation from Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design. Very cool usage of white, red, and carbon black: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/wildoats1211/ GO ONNE HOLIDAY SHOPPING SPREE! Shop Onne (ONN-A!) van der Wal's gallery website for all your unfinished holiday gift giving. Cross off everyone left on your list in one visit! Notecards, calendars, books, Limited Edition prints, posters, mini prints - even custom prints of your rail-meat pals sailing in Key West! http://www.vanderwal.com 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. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From John Rousmaniere: Adrian Morgan's concern about fragile boats is admirable. Still, it's long been a truism that any boat can break. I have seen damage of all kinds while racing and while writing about the sport, for example, in the centennial history of the Newport-Bermuda Race that I'm preparing. The sailors who have won the most races usually are the ones who push hardest most of the time, yet know their vulnerabilities and are prepared to nurse their boats through the worst stuff. If some sailors do less nursing than others, it's due to their forehandedness. An example is Carleton Mitchell. Pushing his 38-footer Finisterre as strenuously as any modern-day racer, in Force 1 to Force 9 conditions he won three straight Bermuda races beginning in 1956 -- a hat trick unmatched in any major ocean race. A small, heavy-displacement, wooden centerboarder with wooden spars, Finisterre is not for everyone, yet she had a strong hull and rig built for hard going and easy handling. A thorough realist, Mitchell thought through the risks: "My theory was that the time to get everything right is before you leave the dock. And then, once you leave the dock, to be able to drive the hell out of the boat and never have to worry about something carrying away. And if anything did let go on you, the spares were on board with the know-how to put it back together." Not a bad approach. * From: Scott Truesdell: Adrian Morgan asks, 'At what point in the history of yacht racing did the vessel become more fragile than the crew?' Answer: Long before yachts were raced for sport. Boats have been shortening sail, bailing water out, slowing down to avoid damage (or "sailing under") forever. Cruisers in extremely sturdy yachts employ sea anchors, trail warps, etc. Performance boats have always been capable of overdriving past the point of control. How many heavy air races have been won in the last century because the skipper and crew had the huevos and skill to keep the chute up when all around them were broaching? When did this start and why? Ask Noah. As to the comment about F1 cars not having that problem: tell that to Kimi Raikkonen. I'm sure he has some very definite views on that subject after the 2005 season. * From Stevan Johnson: Some of your readers seem to have a bit of a misunderstanding about Formula 1 race cars. They seem to think the drivers just put their foot to the floor and steer like crazy, occasionally spinning our when they "lose it"? Rarely do the drivers apply all the power at their command. Just like Volvo 70's, the judicious use of power - while having amazing power available for the right moment - is what the game is about. Come to think of it, isn't that why my boat has reef points and small kites and smaller jibs? So I can back off as appropriate. This doesn't mean that I don't think Volvo 70's must be astoundingly unpleasant to sail at speed or that I have any interest in being on board in the southern ocean. Yikes. 14 days of running on adrenalin is 13 days too many for me. * From Chris B McKesson, PE, Naval Architect: Adrian Morgan asked, "At what point in the history of yacht racing did the vessel become more fragile than the crew?" This changed when Naval Architects started giving the racers what the racers asked for. If the naval architect gave the racer a boat that they couldn't break, then the racer would come back complaining that the architect had cost him the race, because the boat was too heavy. So, responding to their clients' requests, boats become 'thinner and thinner' in some sense. Caveat: I am not a designer of racing sail boats. I am a designer of Warships. In warships we have the same problem - our clients are always asking us why we can't make the ship smaller lighter fast cheaper. But we have the benefit of having an entrenched bureaucracy that allows us to say "Nope, sorry, can't build it that light. The weapons you want can only be fitted on an 8000 ton ship." And much as he might wish, he can't simply go to my competition and buy from them instead. I suspect that if you ask the warship designers' clients you will hear that those darn naval architects are stick-in-the-mud conservatives. In racing sailboats the stick-in-the-mud conservatives are simply out of business ... or designing cruising boats. * From T.J. Perrotti, Perrotti Performance Design, LLC: I have the good fortune to attend last night an insider's tour of the Ships Plans Library at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, CT. Librarian Maria Bernier happily allowed 40 or so naval architects from SNAME to delved into dozens of historical lines and construction plans from countless notable historic sail and power yachts with pedigrees like Herreshoff, Hunt, Lawley, Sparkman & Stephens, etc. The collection of plans is simply indescribable in scope and depth. Of particular fascination to me was a full set of drawings for the 1930 Burgess-designed J-Class yacht "Enterprise" including detailed lines plans for the hull, centerboards, AND Park Avenue boom! The Library is open to the public, and offers research and drawing copies for very nominal fees. As the snow falls in New England, give yourself a winter treat and delve into the past at Mystic. www.mysticseaport.org/shipsplans * From Jay Sharkey: In response to the announcement of the new book from Gregory O. Jones, Herreshoff fans should also make an essential addition to their collection with Herreshoff of Bristol by Maynard Bray and Carlton Pinheiro. It is stunning and contains some truly amazing photos of the Herreshoff legacy. And yes, I am biased because Mr. Pinheiro was my high school English teacher, but it is definitely a must have for any classic yacht enthusiast. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS "Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet." -- Robin Williams Special thanks to North U, Premiere Racing Events, and Onne van der Wal, Inc. |
