|
SCUTTLEBUTT 1877 - July 11, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. PRIORITIES The idea behind the race was to expose the girls to another level of sailing. Jody Swanson knew how competitive it could get out there, which was why she estimated their chances of winning the 2004 Lightning Women's North American regatta were roughly between zero and none. At the time, last August, Maddie Waldron was 13, and Lauren Jones was 11. They were as green as they were young, toddlers in the competitive sailing world from the Buffalo Canoe Club. Swanson figured she would teach the girls the fine points of sailing and guide them through their first major regatta. Who knew Swanson would learn a bigger lesson from them? Sailing was, is and forever shall be about the voyage and not the results. Over the years, as the stakes grew higher and Swanson's competitive fire burned brighter, that message drifted away from the best women's sailor in the country. Fortunately, the girls reminded her why she started in the first place. "Every time I went out with them and came back, I was more excited because it didn't matter how we did," she said. "The silliest things that you forget were still important to them, like water splashing into the boat. Every day, they were noticing something different about the sport. It was a very innocent, very naive perspective about the sport, but they were so accurate about what was important. It really was fun for me." Of course, they won the darned thing. "Sports psychologists will tell you over and over again that it's supposed to be about fun," Swanson said. "The focus should not be on the results but the journey. I wish I would have had that experience and then gone to the (Olympic) trials. I would have had a completely different perspective. It's a life lesson. You have to live it to learn it." -- Bucky Gleason, The Buffalo News, full story: http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050705/1055150.asp ERR... NOT QUITE (A response by Andrew Hurst, Editor, Seahorse International Sailing, to 'The Contemporary Offshore World' in 'Butt 1876) I enjoyed the vigorous response from the US-based Offshore Racing Association to my recent editorial in Seahorse, suggesting that we have perhaps had enough of complex VPP-based rules for a while. However it is most important to point out that what I may write under my own name in Seahorse is exactly that - my personal view. Seahorse does indeed serve the membership of the RORC, but it is also an international sailboat racing magazine with subscribers spread across 50 or more countries, a far wider remit than just the membership of the RORC itself. Hence it is entirely erroneous for Jim Teeters and others at the ORR to try to tie in my own personal views, aimed at a wide international racing audience, with an implied position for a major British sailing club. I appreciate that this confusion does occur from time to time, and I am sure that the good members of the RORC sometimes wish I would keep quiet, but I do not wish others to be blamed for my own ongoing and deliberately blunt efforts to endorse decisive action. And by the way Jim, and speaking as a non-IRC sailor, I certainly enjoyed your line about the 'IRC experiment on the East Coast'. Some experiment. - Andrew Hurst THE ONLY SHOE NEEDED Summer is the time to take to the high-seas, mains unfurled charging across open waters. And when the day ends with warm breezes and fiery sunsets, the one shoe to take you from leeside to dockside with performance, style and comfort is the Sperry Top-Sider Billfish. Featuring an EVA-cushion mid-sole and shock-absorbing heel cup, padded tongue and air-mesh uppers, the Billfish cradles the foot in ultimate comfort. Featuring Sperry Top-Sider's signature non-marking, wave-siping™ outsole for wet/dry traction, 360-degree lacing system™ for secure fit, and rust-proof eyelets for corrosion resistance, the Billfish is a classic. Available for $89.95 at http://www.sperrytopsider.com/mens_nautical.asp GILMOUR REPEATS Marstrand, Sweden -- Peter Gilmour (AUS) and the Pizza-La Sailing Team added a sixth Swedish Match Cup championship to their meaty resume with a 3-2 victory over Magnus Holmberg (SWE) and the Victory Challenge crew. Gilmour and crew Rod Dawson, Mike Mottl, Kazuhiko Sofuku and Yasuhiro Yaji took a 1-0 lead in the final then fell behind 2-1 before rallying with two straight wins. It was a banner weekend for the Pizza-La crew. On Saturday they became the first crew to repeat as champions of the Swedish Match Tour. For their efforts they won $60,000 and a BMW 545i Touring, valued at $85,000. In winning the Swedish Match Cup they won approximately $35,000, raising their total for the weekend to $170,000. "Today was a very, very tight series," said Gilmour. "We could sense from the crowd every time Magnus got ahead or did something clever and pushed us behind; you're a very partisan crowd. It's a pleasure to be out there. This is without a doubt the best event on the Swedish Match Tour. As sailors we enjoy seeing people come down and watch the sport." Another large crowd numbering between 30,000 and 35,000 turned out for the sixth and final day of the 12th Swedish Match Cup. They were treated to more fantastic match-racing. Like yesterday's quarterfinals Round, the Semifinal Round and Final went the distance before the winner was determined. The sailors all agreed that they'd never been to a match-racing regatta where that had happened before. -- Sean McNeill, www.swedishmatchtour.com Swedish Match Cup Final Standings: 1. Peter Gilmour (AUS) Pizza-La Sailing Team, SEK 280,000 (approx.$35,400) 2. Magnus Holmberg (SWE) Victory Challenge, SEK 142,000 (approx. $17,900) 3. Dean Barker (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand, 13-4, SEK 87,000 (approx. $11,000) 4. Peter Holmberg (ISV) Alinghi, 10-7, SEK 69,000 (approx. $8,700) 5. Ed Baird (USA) Alinghi, 11-4, SEK 57,000 (approx. $7,200) 6. Russell Coutts (NZL) Coutts Racing, 6-8, SEK 50,000 (approx. $6,300) 7. Bertrand Pacé (FRA), BMW Oracle Racing, 7-7, SEK 45,000 (approx. $5,700) 8. Kelvin Harrap (NZL) Emirates Team New Zealand, 6-9, SEK 35,000 (approx. $4,400) (*Prize money based on July 10, 2005 exchange rate of 1 SEK = .126682 USD) Final 2004-'05 Swedish Match Tour Standings: 1. Peter Gilmour (AUS) 117 points 3. Russell Coutts (NZL) 78 points 5. Philippe Presti (FRA) 44 points 7. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 38 points 8. James Spithill (AUS) 35 points In the women's division of the Swedish Match Cup, Malin Millbourn and Team Santa Maria won the event. beating the defending champion Marie Bjorling (SWE). Bjorling reached the final by defeating number one sailor in the ISAF World Match Race Rankings, Claire Leroy (FRA), 3-1 in their semi final, while 2003 World Champion Malin Millbourn (SWE) dispatched Linda Rahm (SWE) in the other semi. Millbourn qualified to sail at the event by finishing sixth at the Ladies Cup in Skovshoved and has not competed on the women's circuit since 2003 - a triumphant return for the 2003 World Champion and 2003 ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year nominee. In the Petit Finals, Leroy defeated Rahm to take third place. -- http://www.swedishmatchcup.com/ TRANSPAC Thirty four of the 75 entries in the 43rd biennial Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii set sail Monday, including 14 Cal 40s. They'll be followed Friday by 20 boats in Divisions III and IV and on Sunday by the 20 top-rated boats, including a few that are the fastest ever to sail the race. There are eight boats from five foreign countries on the entry list for this Centennial Transpac. The total number of entries is second in size only to the 80 boats that sailed in the 1979 race. * The vessel Bubala gets underway Monday, and for its captain and crew, the start of the Transpacific Yacht Race can't come soon enough. After all, they're not getting any younger. The youngest is 65, the oldest 72. Few are experienced at offshore racing, and none have unrealistic ambitions as they prepare to embark on their first Transpac, a 2,225-nautical-mile journey from Los Angeles to Honolulu. Their goal, skipper Lloyd Salinger says, is to not finish last in class. Salinger, a Newport Beach oil-exploration executive tried to sign on as a crewman aboard someone else's Cal 40 during the last go-around in 2003 but was turned down because of his age. "So I said I'd do it myself," the 72-year-old skipper says, pointedly. "And I would get a whole crew and they'd all be over 65 and … I'll show you." He refurbished the keel of a Cal 40 he has owned since 1983. He bought a new mast and installed new instruments. He placed an ad in a sailing magazine, announcing tryouts. He felt bad because some of the people answering it were clearly unfit for such an arduous journey and "now here I am turning people down," he says. - Excerpts from a story by Pete Thomas in the Los Angeles Times, full story: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-oldsailors10jul10,1,1113060.story * While other Transpac sailors did their last minute packing and storing of provisions and gear on their Hawaii-bound sailboats, the Challenged America Team had more important items to also bring aboard B'Quest, their Tripp 40 sailboat. Needles, catheters, syringes, infusion sets, medications, antibiotics, emergency surgical supplies and equipment, plenty of batteries for the medical devices (blood testing and blood pressure machines, insulin pumps), and then the extensively stocked emergency kit of first aid supplies, furnished by doctors and medical professionals, along with their phone numbers in case of emergency. Securing a satellite phone, an expense beyond their already over burdened Transpac budget, was an emergency device they had to get. The six Challenged America sailors in this year's Transpac have disabilities and medical conditions to include quadriplegia, amputation, blindness, arthritis, diabetes, cancer and stroke survivors, recent kidney transplant, and other challenges. Hopefully they won't need these extra provisions, but they are available if they or other Transpac racers need them. www.challengedamerica.org Transpac website: www.transpacificyc.org THE NUMBERS IMPROVE WITH ELEMENT C6 There was a race within a race between two Farr 60s at Block Island Race Week. Before the regatta, Numbers regularly battled it out with her sistership Hissar. After retrofitting Composite Riggings' new continuous Element C6 rigging, Numbers performance improved dramatically. The change cut the rigging weight by 100kgs. "I have to say I am really impressed," said tactician Ken Read. "Not only was it lighter, easy to tune and very cool looking, it was clearly faster exactly when it should have been." Lighter, stronger, faster, Element C6 from Southern Spars' Composite Rigging division is a winner. http://www.southernspars.com NEW WORLD RECORDS * On Friday, Thomas Coville, and his 60-foot trimaran Sodebo, set a new record for the East to West Atlantic crossing between Cadiz and San Salvador. Subject to approval by the World Sailing ed Record Council, his time of 10 days, 11 hours, 50 minutes and 20 seconds will shave 15 hours and 27 minutes off the existing record held by Francis Joyon and the 92-foot trimaran, IDEC. Sodebo covered the 4614 (essentially downwind) miles at an average speed of 18.3 knots. Feeling the influence of Hurricane Dennis, Coville crossed the finish line in 30-knots of breeze doing 24 knots -- www.sodebo-voile.com/ * Olivier de Kersauson and the crew of his 112-foot trimaran Geronimo completed "The Challenge" circumnavigation of Australia on Saturday - official time: 17 days, 13 hours, 32 minutes, 39 seconds. On the final day of the record run, the boat sailed into the path of weather cell that had 70 knot breezes and a mini tornado which drove them backwards at 20 knots. The boat sustained damage to the steering, causing the boat to drift towards land at 10 knots. After taking the sails down the crew repaired the damage and Geronimo continued on her way to Sydney. -- www.superyachting.com * Although he subsequently lost his boat on the rocks, Francis Joyon did 'officially' establish a new Transatlantic singlehanded outright record with his 92-foot trimaran, IDEC. According to the World Sailing Speed Council, the new standard is 6 days 4 hours 1 minute 37 seconds for an average speed of 19.76 knots. RACE RESULTS * St. Francis YC -- Australian teams captured the top two spot in the 29er Worlds on San Francisco Bay ahead of John Heineken and Matt Noble from the USA. Final results: 1. Jacqui Bonnitcha/ Euan McNicol, AUS, 31 points; 2. David O'Connor/ Scott Babbage, AUS, 34; 3. John Heineken/ Matt Noble, USA, 41; 4. Justin Visser/ Simon Wheeler, GBR, 41; 5. Dylan Fletcher/ Nick Hollis, GBR, 51; 6. Jamie Woods/ Iain Jensen, AUS, 70; 7. Jen Morgan/ Anthony Boscolo, USA, 75. -- Complete results: http://www.stfyc.com/Files/29er%20Final%20Series%20July%209%20D3.pdf * The Dutch team of Tjarco Timmermans, Jurjen Feitsma, Fanny van Leeuwen and Ivan Peule coasted to victory in 84-boat Gaastra J22 World Champion in Medemblik, The Netherlands. With top five finishes in each of the first seven races in the Gold Fleet, the team sat out the final race - using it as their discard. It was much tougher for the Silver and Bronze spots, where John den Engelsman edged out Nic Bol in the final few meters of race eight to take second with a three-point edge. The top 14 boats were all from the Netherlands. -- http://www.j22.nl/showdocument.asp?context=1&language=1 * Newport, R.I. -- Saturday was the second day of racing for the 90 competitors of the U.S. Jr. Women's Doublehanded Championship for the Ida Lewis Trophy. The Race Committee got in four races with two short courses in the morning and then longer courses as the breeze began to fill in. Last year's third place winner, Rebecca Dellenbaugh sailing this year with Leigh Hammel was leading with 16 points. Emily Maxwell and Avery Field were in second with Shannon Heausler and Kathleen Gallagher in third. The regatta ended Sunday, and hopefully final results will be posted soon: http://senorpenguin.hostned.ws/idalewis/race_results/2005/IDA-thru-Race7.htm "MAN OVERBOARD!" Solo or short-handing? Power boating? SeaMarshall receivers/alarms send out an electronic stream that allows programming of autopilots and fuel shut-offs when a man-overboard signal is received from a SeaMarshall automatic marine beacon. Or, integrate with charting and performance instrument systems. For SeaMarshall safety gear information: Chip Barber, mailto:admin@chbarber.com or http://www.chbarber.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. This is neither 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. And please save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere.) * From Graham Kelly: I was fascinated by the ringing endorsement of Americap in the editorial statement from the Offshore Racing Association. My experience in Americap races over the past five years, including Transpac, Newport-Bermuda, and the Big Boat Series, has been totally opposite. As I see it, the rule has significant shortcomings: First, Americap does not accurately assess the ability of boats such as Transpac 52's to plane downwind. This was a major factor at the '03 BBS, when the TP52's could gain their handicaps from non-planing boats on a single downwind leg. Second, Americap is not capable of accurately predicting the performance of boats not designed to the rule. This leads to a situation where non-IMS/Americap boats are not accurately rated, especially heavy cruising-type boats. Finally, the rule is type-forming, and disproportionately favors ungainly, heavy, slow boats formed to the rule. This was demonstrated in the '03 BBS, nevermind that the IMS/Americap boat finished 5-10 minutes behind the smaller TP52's. Despite the decades of research that underlie its attempt to assess performance, my experience is that Americap is not capable of accurately handicapping the existing fleet, and is often far less accurate than PHRF. If Americap were capable of working as well as the ORA claims, we would not see the wholesale move to IRC, or the move in Europe to the TP52 class. IRC may have problems. But it appears to handicap the fleet as well or better than Americap, and the boats that excel are fast and capable. * From Anthony Bowker: The ORA describes Americap as much-improved for 2005. I, like many Chicago skippers, obtain an Americap certificate solely for the purpose of entering the annual Chicago-Mackinac race. Each year we, out of curiosity, calculate the 'implied' PHRF rating (as if the Mac were scored with PHRF) of the boats that we regularly compete against throughout the year. In previous years there have been interesting disparities and anomalies between actual and 'implied' PHRF ratings. This year the Americap ratings of thirty-or-so boats of varying types produces 'implies' PHRF ratings almost identical to their actual PHRF ratings. A resounding endorsement for PHRF? It begs a question about Americap: why bother? * From Scott Mason: Craig Leweck is experiencing the same emotions that our parents did when they first sent us off the dock many years ago. Our parents rebuilt an old boat, turned us over to a summer instructor and wished us well as we sailed away (and were hopeful that the summer instructor would shepherd us home at day's end). Youth sports teach a lot, but no other sport teaches self-sufficiency like sailing. I have bumped into a lot of talented parents at junior sailing events over the years, and to a person they take more pride in their children's accomplishments than their own. Welcome to the "parent sailing fraternity" Craig--I hope your journey is as enjoyable and gratifying as many others have been. * From Ed Botterell (edited to our 250-word limit): If you knew where to look, in an old box in a dusty corner of some long forgotten attic, you would find an original manuscript. As near as I recall, it would say; " The most important part of the Olympic Games is not the Victory, but Taking Part; just as the most important thing in Life is not the Triumph but the Struggle; the Essential thing is not to have Conquered but to have Fought Well. The capitals are mine, but the words are (close enough) by Baron Pierre de Courbetin, father of the Modern Olympics. A long, long time ago. All brought to mind, somehow, by that wonderful short story by Craig in 'butt 1876. Must the sheer joy to be found in Sailboat racing be constantly spoiled by the angst regarding which rule gives 'me' the best chance of winning? How do you re-gain the fun so beautifully described by young Mr. Marshall, when pervading the 'game' is constant bitching about PHRF numbers, or the subjectiveness of IRC or the cost of IMS or the advantage of ORR? I think Mr Wade, also in 'butt 1876, got it about right. If you want to win, under whatever rule, you have to pay the price; in money, organization, practice and patience. If you don't want to, though, that's fine, too. The beauty of our sport is that you can, and should, still have fun, and receive immeasurable satisfaction from 'Fighting Well'! * From Dave Hoy: I very much agree with John C. Wade in his appraisal that it's the disparity between sport boats and racer/cruiser boats that is the cause of the problem (diminished participation in PHRF races on Puget Sound - J. M. Marta's comment). But I wish to go on and say that last year I successfully challenged a PHRF-NE base handicap for a 1970's Pearson-Vanguard of 240 that failed to recognize the true race potential of that yacht by comparing its race restored performance to my own smaller C-27 that has a consistent handicap of 213. The handicap committee was reluctant to reduce its base to the 200 that I believed the race-ready Pearson-Vanguard in New England PHRF probably warrants but it went a long way to bring it down to 222 and saying, "we will watch it in the future." The point of this is that PHRF ratings can get badly skewed in valuing older boats whose performance over the years has deteriorated more due to condition with fewer and fewer competing. There's a certain joy and satisfaction in campaigning an older boat many of which are timeless designs that properly maintained and suited with competitive racing sails will continue to perform well. The trick is to come up with a fair handicap that recognizes the race potential of a boat in its restored race condition. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people. |
