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SCUTTLEBUTT 2595 - May 13, 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. COURT ISSUES ORDER, BUT DETAILS FAR FROM COMPLETE (May 12, 2008) When Justice Cahn of the New York Supreme Court decided last November that the America’s Cup defender Alinghi had enlisted an invalid Challenger of Record by partnering with the Spanish Club Nautico Espanol de Vela (CNEV), and that Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) was the new Challenger of Record, it was a step toward getting the America’s Cup back onto the water, but the decision still required Cahn’s final order to confirm the details. That finally came today, but just when it appeared that the sun would shine again, clouds quickly moved in when the details of his order were revealed. Here are some tidbits: * The racing will begin ten months from when the order is served, which had not been done yet. In all likelihood, ten months would put the racing sometime in March 2009. * The location of the match is to be in Valencia, Spain or any other location selected by Societe Nautique Geneve (SNG), provided they notify GGYC in writing not less than six months in advance of the race. However, the Deed of Gift (DoG) states that racing can only occur in the Northern Hemisphere from May 1 to November 1. Either the date must change or the location. * The order permits GGYC and SNG to engage in a mutual consent process to make adjustments to the dates or other matters in the Deed, but so far the teams have a history of only “mutual dissent”. Getting the event scheduled for March 2009 (or later) is a victory for the Swiss team, providing them with enough time to complete their boat, but their comments following the release of the order revealed that they continue to contend some issues. They still have an appeal pending a condition of GGYC’s challenge (ie, that GGYC must sail a “keel-yacht”), they contend the racing must be in May 2009, and that new litigation might be brought regarding GGYC’s refusal to submit a yacht certificate as required by the DoG. As for the Americans, their comments were brief and subdued, noting that they will review the order to determine their next course of action. -- The Curmudgeon > Cahn Decision and Order: http://www.ggyc.com/20080512_DecisionAndOrder(1409756_1_NY).PDF > Alinghi comments: http://www.alinghi.com/en/news/news/index.php?idIndex=200&idContent=15641 > GGYC comments: http://www.ggyc.com/20080512_JudgeOrdersDateAndVenueForACMatch.pdf SEVERE WEATHER HALTS INAUGURAL DETROIT CUP MATCH RACE Detroit, MI (May 12, 2008) Skipper Simon Minoprio of New Zealand and crew won the inaugural "Detroit Cup" besting nine other international teams in the sailing regatta that was cancelled on the third day of racing Sunday due to weather conditions. After running one round robin series on Friday and Saturday, the organizers attempted began the semi-final and consolation races late Saturday, but by Sunday morning 20 to 30 knot winds with moderate rains and heavy cloud cover forced the cancellation of further racing. The 26th ranked Minoprio won based on the round robin results, with Brian Angel of Manhattan Beach, California finishing second, Andrew Arbuzov of Russia in third and the fourth slot went to skipper Dave Perry and crew. -- Event site: http://www.detroitcup.com DAMIEN IEHL WINS MATCH RACE GERMANY Langenargen, Germany (May 12, 2008) -- An estimated 40,000 people have come to see the sights and sounds of Langenargen this week as the town played host to second stage of the World Match Racing Tour. Match Race Germany ended today with Damien Iehl’s French Match Racing Team taking first place in a best of three final against Jes Gram Hansen’s Trifork Racing of Denmark. Iehl had fought hard the whole way through this regatta, as he was the final team to qualify for both the quarterfinals and semifinals, but got to the finals by beating out the #1 ISAF ranked match racer, fellow countryman Mathieu Richard, in the semis. The petit-final results were one all between Ian Williams (GBR) and Richard before the wind died away, giving Richard the match based on the quarterfinal round robin results. -- Complete report: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/da/78891 Match Race Germany Final Results 1. Damien Iehl (FRA) Team Sinbad 2. Jes Gram Hansen (DEN) Trifork Racing 3. Mathieu Richard (FRA) French Match Racing Team 4. Ian Williams (GBR) Team Pindar 5. Markus Wieser (GER) Team Sea Dubai 6. Sebastien Col (FRA) K Challenge/French Match Racing Team 7. Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Alandia Sailing Team 8. Peter Wibroe (DEN) Wibroe Sailing Team 9. Adam Minoprio (NZL) BlackMatch Racing/Emirates Team New Zealand 10. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team 11. Paolo Cian (ITA) Team Shosholoza 12. Eric Monnin (SUI) Team Search.ch Final results: http://www.worldmatchracingtour.com/da/78706 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Curious about prize money, we saw in the NOR that one third of the prize awards would be deducted due to the German Tax Law for competitors with no residence in Germany. Gulp! Here are the prize amounts in Euros: first place - 4800, second place - 2800, third place - 2400, etc. (approx. USD 7500, 4400, and 3700). LOOKING FOR PUMA GEAR? HEAD NORTH. The new PUMA sailing gear for the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race has arrived and North Sails has it in-stock! North is carrying the official t-shirts (very flashy in two colors), half zip pullovers (perfect layer piece or for cooler days on the water), hoodies (your kids will love this full-zip hoodie) or board shorts (great for the warm weather approaching). All gear has the official Volvo Ocean Race logo embroidered on it. Don't wait -- limited stock available! Visit http://www.NorthSailsGear.com SOLO SAILORS: WE MUST TAME THESE BOATS As the IMOCA Open 60s head west to Boston in the Artemis Transat Race, patiently awaiting enough wind to really open the throttle, they leave behind unresolved a great debate about how to choke off the power of these designs. The class is facing some of the most radical proposals since its inception. The solo skippers who form the IMOCA class association have become so concerned about the increase in power and loads, and the spiralling build costs, that they are talking about making some major restrictions to what has been quite an open rule. To take just one of the more conservative examples, Mike Golding's Ecover 3, I was told last week by designer Merfyn Owen that she is 20% cent more powerful than the previous Ecover, despite being the same weight and having an extra 400kg in the keel bulb. The solutions being proposed are to cap mast height at a certain size, to reduce ballast or to limit keel bulb weight, so that the current generation of boats are fixed as 'highest potential' boats. But which option(s) the class chooses will have a huge bearing on the future development of the class, and skippers and designers are wary about about creating limitations that might activate the law of unintended consequences. -- Elaine Bunting, Yachting World, read on: http://www.yachtingworld.com/yw/blog/20080412161730blog_elaine_bunting.html * (May 12, 2008) Light winds requiring constant attention on deck, thick fog and heavy traffic making for a stressful ride marked the first day of The Artemis Transat! As the front of the fleet has now crossed the longitude of the Fastnet rock, the skippers - led by Sébastien Josse's BT (Open 60) and Giovanni Soldini’s Telecom Italia (Class40) - are facing a new challenge, expecting a shift, and as Jean-Luc Nélias (strategy consultant for the race) puts it, "The race looks complex with many possible changes of leader." -- Race site: http://www.theartemistransat.com QUOTE / UNQUOTE During his speech at the Detroit Cup match race event awards presentation, Russian Andrei Arbuzov said, “I'm really happy to be here. I also want to thank your President Ronald Reagan. He helped bring an end to the old USSR. Now we have the possibility to come to America. We loved Los Angeles, New York City and being here in Detroit. This is the best country ... " -- Event site: http://www.detroitcup.com SAILING SHORTS * The choices of boats being considered for the 2012 Olympic Games were finalized at the ISAF Mid-Year meeting over the weekend, and it is from this list that the equipment will be chosen at the November Annual Meeting in Madrid, Spain. Among the options includes multihull equipment for the dinghy events, but the ISAF Council added the proviso that “the selection of equipment for dinghy events for the 2012 Olympic Sailing Competition will not be open to multihulls”. -- http://www.sailing.org/23280.php?PHPSESSID=dcc2e638af7573e23ffaa66a38a0941d * This year's winners of the U.S. Match Race Championship and the U.S. Women's Match Race Championship will represent the United States in the ISAF Nations Cup North American Regional Championship to be hosted by Carolina Yacht Club in Charleston, SC, in the fall. The ISAF Nations Cup is a global competition to uncover the world's top match racing nations in both open and women's events and to develop a worldwide match racing infrastructure. The top teams from the eight Regional Championships around the world will qualify for the ISAF Nations Cup Grand Final in Porto Alegre, Brazil, March 23-28, 2009. -- http://www.ussailing.org * The Wot Rocket project team will tomorrow assemble the half sail boat/sail plane at Kurnell in Sydney, Australia’s south before testing for the world speed sailing record attempt commences on Botany Bay. With light autumn NE/NW winds forecast for rest of the week however, there may be few, if any, windows with enough grunt to get Wot Rocket rocketing. The current world speed sailing record of 49.09 knots (90.9 kilometres per hour) was set by French sail boarder Antoine Albeau in France in March this year. – Complete story: http://www.sail-world.com/australia/Light-winds-to-test-Wot-Rocket/44330 * (May 12, 2008) At 02h14’56’’ UT this morning, Lionel Lemonchois and his seven crew crossed the finish line of the 1,215 mile Yokohama to Dalian record. In so doing, the maxi-catamaran Gitana 13 and her men have established a new reference time by making the Chinese port in 3 days 20 hours 19 minutes and 11 seconds. Ellen MacArthur’s reference time in 2006 (7 days 3 hours 8 minutes) has thus been improved upon by 3 days. Gitana 13 will spend a few days in Dalian prior to taking to the high seas again, bound for Qingdao, China. -- http://www.gitana-team.com * Free weather forecasts for the Sperry Top-Sider Seattle NOOD Regatta on May 16-18, 2008 are available from Sailing Weather Services by subscribing to their service at the North Sails' online weather center: http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf * (May 12, 2008) The ten catamaran teams competing in the six leg 500-mile race from Key Largo, FL to Tybee Island, GA have completed their second leg from Hollywood, FL to Jupiter, FL, enduring winds gusting to 30 that dealt some damage to the fleet. Team Tybee and Marleys Yellow battled right up to the finish, with Tybee taking their second win of the event. The forecast for the third leg to Cocoa Beach, FL is calling for upwind angles. -- Event site: http://www.tybee500.com * The 78 foot biodiesel fuelled Earthrace, aiming to break the 75 day round the world record, is now speeding up the Central American isthmus in perfect Pacific Ocean conditions, and is beginning to make up time lost during her slow transition of the Panama Canal. When Earthrace powered into Colon Panama last Thursday, she was a 1100 miles ahead of the 1998 World circumnavigation world record, but then had to wait two days before getting a transit slot through the Canal and then spent another night waiting to refuel in daylight hours in Panama City. -- Powerboat World, read on: http://tinyurl.com/5a8485 WHERE DO YOU FIND THE BEST BOAT EQUIPMENT? MyBoatsGear.com is a free online magazine dedicated to finding and reviewing the best boating products. When choosing the best products to review we look through hundreds of products. This weeks featured product takes a look at the new trends in synthetic teak decks (http://myboatsgear.com/featured_product/synthetic%20decking.asp). You will also find information on watermakers. With gear organized into 20 easily-accessible categories, our aim is to promote boating products in an unbiased format. MyBoatsGear.com stores product information for access anytime, anywhere. -- http://www.MyBoatsGear.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Bill Gibbs: In 1876, the first modern catamaran, Nathanael Herreshoff's Amaryllis, was banned from racing by the New York Yacht Club for her superior performance. Since that time, all modern multihulls have carried the stigma of being different and largely unaccepted by the rest of the sail racing world. Multihull sailors do not see the Tornado as simply another 'class' of sailboat, but rather as the sole representive for all multihulls to be recognized by the ISAF in the most prestigious sail event, the Olympics. The exclusion of the Tornado from the Olympics to make room for one more keel boat event or for one more dingy event, sends a clear message to all multihull racers. That the ISAF (and US Sailing) have no interest in representing multihull sailors. That national interests in medal counts are a higher priority. Nothing Corinthian about that. Actions do speak louder than words. * From Brian Raney: Gotta say it, "told ya so". The revote process was designed to dead-end. There had to be a consensus on which event, and therefore a men's or women's event, to axe. There wasn't. Sad. What a sham! * From William D. Reed: Apparently overlooked by many is the context in which the yacht America sailed to England and eventually won the 100 Guinea Trophy, given to the NYYC under the Deed of Gift now being discussed The context was the Victoria and Albert Exposition where England was essentially holding an industrial expo to show off their technology. An example was the Crystal Palace, a fabulous cast iron and glass expo hall, designed to sell English technology to folks all over the world. The yacht America was basically an industrial exhibit, designed to challenge the English boat building heritage and as we all know, it succeeded. The point about being constructed in the country of defense or challenge was very plain – the America’s Cup was to be a venue to test the technological prowess of the various countries racing against each other. The idea that the donor of the trophy placed it in competition to provide a sailing competition is incomplete. The Cup really was intended to be a contest of people and machines. The possibility of a match of high tech catamarans probably more closely resembles the intent of the DofG than the previous match. The point being the DofG is really quite plain and really does make the America’s Cup a contest between nations, not teams of great sailors or whatever it has been lately. * From Chris Ericksen: Ken Guyer's letter in 'Butt 2594 paraphrased the part of the America's Cup Deed of Gift that suggests everything on a country's boat must be made in that country when he wrote, "build the boat, the entire boat, in your country and come on over here and race the boat we built in our country." Yet in the same edition Alexander Kovell called "ludicrous" that very part of the Deed of Gift. "If parts are to be sourced from the country of the boat," he wrote, "why not the sailors and designers as well?" Why not, indeed? The point of all this is this: absent "mutual agreement" to the contrary--and none seems to be unavailable--the regatta must be sailed under the NIneteenth Century Deed of Gift. The Deed of Gift is neither ludicrous nor insane; it is the situation that is ludicrous, and I leave it to others to judge the sanity of the parties involved. * From Stevan Johnson: In response to Chip Pitcairn (in #2594), I don't think I’ve heard anyone refer to the person with the tiller in hand as a "helmsman" in a decade or more. Nautical terminology is really just codified sailor's slang, and it continues to evolve at all levels of the sport, usually led by the grand prix programs. Now we have the crew positions of "pit", "sewer", "grinder", "mast", "mid bow" and, of course, "driver". Along with relatively new words like "pressure", "pushpit", "mexican", and "floater" that have come into the argot among many others. It's a sign that the sport is alive. Unlike the rules of bridge, the sailing language didn't get locked down by Commodore Vanderbilt in 1920. And in any event, wouldn't you really rather have the word "driver" on that list than "helmsperson"? Which is the only viable alternative these days, thanks to Ellen, Dee, Paige, and many other women sailors who can drive way better than me. * From Gregory Scott: (re, comments in #2594) With the recent poll exposed it is no longer an issue of doubt... the whole Alinghi thing is a "toxic" mess. Too bad! As far as you guys are concerned, I know you have big shoulders but it's never fun be accused of something even when it's complete BS. So, on behalf of the sailing world who read Butt (likely half the world), I apologize. We all appreciate the fun and good spirit of Butt. Along with the best way to get our daily sailing fix. Also, I don't recall the last time I was on a big boat when we didn't call the "helmsman" the driver.... as in who's driving today. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION There might not be a fountain of youth, but maybe we should have listened to our parents when they said that if we don't eat our vegetables, we’ll never grow up. 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