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SCUTTLEBUTT 2667 - Monday, August 25, 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. GUEST COMMENTARY: OLYMPIC MEDAL RACES By Jos M. Spijkerman, International Judge, Netherlands In the articles and news stories about the Olympics, I read over and over again that we are viewing the first Olympic Medal races. True enough, but a little derogative for all those people who have developed the system in the last six years. A lot of time, experiencing and rules tweaking has gone into getting to a concept that works. I remember a SPA regatta four or five years ago where the medal race was still an experiment. A lot got done since then. By ISAF, by Rules Specialists, by the Sailors, by Race Management and by Organizing Authorities. All to keep the sport of sailing into the Olympics. It is very easy to have critique about what is flawed about this concept and perhaps uninteresting to have an eye for all the positive effect that it has. With all it's drama, in heartbreaking moments for losers and jubilations for the winners, it brings out the best in sailing. It gives the ten best sailors of the opening-series a direct chance to sail in front of the camera's, sail in front of their countrymen, sail for their families and friends and show them what they have worked so hard for, in all those years. With direct judging everybody knows who is the winner, as soon as the last boat is in. I refuse to believe that an average viewer is unable to understand a simple points system and must be satisfied with first over the line. Add a little more effort in tracking and superimposing positions on TV and everybody will be able to empathize with the sailors, even more. Of course there are exceptions, sailing is a complicated sport with many variables. But that adds to the drama. Nobody had thought beforehand about this particular sequence of events in the 49er Medal Race, with DEN sailing in the CRO boat. It got handled. The Jury reached a decision after looking at all the facts and hearing evidence from all the parties. Twice. The shine on this particular Golden Olympic medal will last a lifetime. -- http://rrsstudy.blogspot.com/2008/08/olympic-medal-races.html => MEDAL RACE SURVEY: Do you like the concept of the Medal Race? The races are short, and with double points, a lot can potentially happen. Should so much be riding on this sprint? Or, does the Medal Race provide each event with a needed highlight moment, shining the spotlight brightest for the ten best entrants, and making the medal winners fight it out for their place on the podium? Post your vote and comments here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/08/0822 GREG FISHER TRIUMPHS AT J/22 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Rochester, New York, USA (August 24, 2008) - Greg Fisher of Annapolis, MD prevailed over 103 other J/22 teams from around the globe at the J/22 World Championship in Rochester, NY. Sailing with wife JoAnn, Jeff Eiber and Sarah Paisley, Fisher finished the 10 races 17 points ahead of Anthony Kotoun of the Virgin Islands in second place and 30 points ahead of Phil Wehrheim of Rochester, NY in third. Fisher was also the victor at last year’s J/22 North American Championship. Racing began on August 20 and concluded Sunday with variable breezes of 5 to 10 knots. Multiple nations were represented at the championship, including the Netherlands, South Africa, France, the Virgin Islands, Canada and the United States. Final Results – Top 10 of 104 entrants 1. What Kinda Gone, Greg Fisher, USA, 51.00 pts 2. bob's yer granddaddy, Anthony Kotoun, ISV, 68.00 3. Team Traffic, Flip Wehrheim, USA, 81.00 4. Solid Layer, Chris Doyle, USA, 97.00 5. Team 865, Bill Hardesty, USA, 99.00 6. Palmer Legal Staffin, Peter McChesney, USA, 101.00 7. Thunder Chicken, Jim Barnash ,USA, 105.00 8. Leading Edge, Todd Hiller, USA, 122.00 9. Dieselsnack, Rob Johnston, USA, 144.00 10. TBD, Allan Terhune Jr, USA, 150.00 Complete results http://tinyurl.com/j-22worldsresults Daily reports: http://tinyurl.com/j-22worldsreports ANNA HAS VISION Just like Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy/ Andrew Simpson, and Nathan Wilmot/ Malcolm Page - Anna Tunnicliffe has Gold Medal winning vision! More specifically, these Gold medalists all relied on Kaenon Polarized in Qingdao for their vision enhancement. Four Gold Medals, 12 overall. All relied on the SR-91 patented polarized lens advantage only Kaenon Polarized can deliver. The trend at the top is as sharp and clear as the SR-91 lens. Congratulations Anna, Ben, Iain, Bart, Nathan, Malcolm, Alessandra, Byony, Julien, Shahar, Freddy, Anders, Santi, Carlos, Sofia, Sofia, Viriginia, Iker, and Xabier…you all have superior vision! From your friends at Kaenon Polarized. Evolve Optically. http://www.kaenon.com * Back in February, Scuttleblog predicted doom for the British Olympic team because they had announced that Bollé would be their Official Supplier of sunglasses and prescription eyewear. Well, we all know that the Brits did just fine at the Olympics, perhaps in part because many stuck with their preferred brand… Kaenon. Another rebel was RS:X Silver Medalist Julien Bontemps who split from the French team’s deal with Bollé - and gave up the podium money that Bollé was providing - to use Kaenon Polarized. -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2008/02/brits-are-going-down.html NEW BOAT UNVEILED IN ANACORTES. (August 22, 2008) - BMW Oracle Racing has confirmed that after nine months of intense activity its team in Anacortes, WA is in the final stages of preparing its new 90-foot multihull yacht for sailing. The carbon fiber trimaran emerged from under wraps at its purpose-built construction shed here for the first time today. The trimaran is the third yacht constructed for the team in this waterfront community 100 miles north of Seattle. The yacht is a key element of the team’s preparation for the next America’s Cup, representing San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), on which a ruling is expected from the New York State Court of Appeals in the next six months. The team partnered with Van Peteghem / Lauriot Prévost (VPLP) of France and one of the most successful skippers in multihull racing, Franck Cammas, to design the innovative trimaran. -- Complete report: http://tinyurl.com/3j5by7 Photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0824 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: If you have forgotten how the America’s Cup has gotten so off track, or would like a quick booster shot to get up to speed, BMW Oracle Racing has posted their view on the timeline of events from July 2007 to current: http://www.ggyc.com/20080822_BackgrounderMilestones.pdf Also, if you were curious how Alinghi feels about all that has transpired, cartoons on their website might give you a glimpse: http://tinyurl.com/3jr76g ED BAIRD ON THE FAST CATS by Kimball Livingston, SAIL I wasn't far along with my project of the day, querying America's Cup helmsman Ed Baird about sailing these real fast multihulls he's racing nowadays, when he interjected, "A lot of my friends have been asking the same questions you're asking, and yes it's different but it's not so different. I grew up racing Lasers and the like, and when boards came along they were fast and different, but I learned how to sail them too. Now it's cats and tris. Definitely it's fun to go this fast. The moment you leave the dock you're on edge. You have to be mentally on. "Cats have their own behavior in terms of stability and acceleration," Baird said, "but if you think about it, design evolution in the monohull world is bringing us closer to this kind of sailing. We're on a learning curve, and I'm curious just how far up that curve we really are." -- Read on: http://sailmag.com/racecourse/ed_baird_and_the_fast_cats OLYMPIC GAMES – NEWS AND NOTES * Beijing, China (August 23, 2008) - The ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today dismissed the applications filed by the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) and the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE) against two decisions of the International Jury of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) related to the gold medal race of the 49er event which took place on 17 August 2008. As a result, the final results as posted are officially confirmed. -- Complete report: http://www.tas-cas.org * Following the medal count, counting the number of entrants that qualified for the Medal Race has become a secondary tier to gauge a team’s success. The top three medal winning countries were equally strong in the medal race category, with the British qualifying for the medal race in all eleven events, while the French were in 8 and the Australians were in 7. For the US and Canada, they had entrants in 4 events and 3 events, respectively. * Qingdao locals told me, as the last of the racing events finished up, that they were more than happy to see the games finally leaving town. It’s not as if the games have provided this city of 7 million with a tourist bonanza. In fact, according to the locals with whom I spoke, Qingdao has suffered a decline in visitors during the Olympics. Qingdao’s famed beer festival, always held in mid-August, was cancelled by a government fearful of drunken locals, and, the bogeyman of every Chinese government: instability. But even before the cancellation of the beer festival, Qingdao—a tourist town—was less than welcoming to outsiders interested in attending the sailing events. Tickets were cheap, but they were only available for purchase in Qingdao’s post offices (events in other cities were available through a Chinese joint venture with Ticketmaster). The result has been mass vacancies in Qingdao’s hotels, made much worse by the proud refusal of local hoteliers to drop their Olympic room-rates despite the low occupancy rates. -- Adam Minter, The Atlantic, complete story: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200808u/qingdao-olympics * Boris has never been to an Olympics before. Never hoisted a sail, never even set foot aboard a boat. Until now, in fact, Boris has been kept well and truly under cover. But the '18th member' of Australia's gold-medal winning sailing team has been unmasked as the secret behind their success. Commissioned two and half years ago by the CSIRO, the sophisticated weather program - nicknamed Boris by the Australian sailing team for no particular reason - propelled Australia's most successful sailing team to their best Games since Sydney 2000. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/3lafys JK3 NAUTICAL ENTERPRISES, INC. Have you checked out the latest boat listings at JK3 Nautical Enterprises? If not, it's time to stop by and talk to our friendly and knowledgeable sales staff. We are featuring many exciting boats such as the Delphia 40 GT, the Rivolta 4.5, and the spectacular J/160 "NovaKane". We will also feature the Delphia and the Rivolta in the upcoming Lido Boat Show in Newport Beach, September 11-14. So stop by the office or come see us at the Lido Boat Show. For address and information, call us at 619-224-6200 or see our website at http://www.jk3yachts.com SETTING OUT TO BUILD A BETTER SAILOR Believe you me, the place went bonkers after Yin Jian won China's first ever sailing gold medal, and it seemed as though Chinese supporters appeared from every nook and cranny until we feared the jetty would sink under their weight. You could understand their enthusiasm, though, for this was another sporting breakthrough. And it is just the start. Just as you can bet your bottom dollar that there are young kids all over China being handed a racing bike and told to go and get gold in four or eight years' time, the Chinese sailors aiming to knock Team GB off their top slot have been launched. Rather frighteningly, there are already 80 yacht clubs in schools in Qingdao alone, with 42 schools offering specific courses in sailing. The city authorities reckon that they have 2,000 children from the age of 11 out on the water and the ten best performers are picked out annually and sent on intensive training courses in Kiel, Germany. Today it is Ainslie and the Yngling girls, tomorrow it could be the turn of an 11-year-old Chinese kid who has decided to follow in the wake of Yin Jian. -- Times Online, complete story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4587724.ece * With the bulk of Olympians coming from the Optimist class, a look at the 2008 Optimist Worlds results might hold a glimpse of the future. For the top three countries in the medal count, their top sailor in the Worlds was 4th (France), 53rd (Great Britain), and 89th (Australia). Where was China? Fifteenth place. -- Results: http://www.optiworld.org/08worldsres.html SAILING SHORTS * George Reichhelm, sailing “Shucks” out of Cedar Point Yacht Club (Westport, CT), won the Atlantic Class 80th National Championship held August 20-22 at Kollegewidgwok Yacht Club in Blue Hill, Maine. The 34-boat fleet was the largest since 1981, and marked the first time the championship was hosted by the Maine Fleet. The Class of 30-foot keelboats, designed in the 1920s, completed a five-race series over three days on Blue Hill Bay, with five different clubs represented in the top five trophys. – Complete report and results: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6283 * Over 70 entries have come to the Buffalo Canoe Club in Ridgeway, ONT to compete in the 38th Sunfish World Championship, with racing scheduled for August 25-28. The countries being represented are Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Colombia, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Holland, Martinique, Peru, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, USA, and Venezuela. -- Event website: http://www.sunfishclass.org/~worlds * Fourteen yachts from nine countries will race for the Region of Murcia Trophy, the fifth stage of the six event 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit, held in the Spanish Mediterranean Navy Town of Carthagena. Leading after four events is the American entry Quantum Racing, with skipper Terry Hutchinson having led his Botin/Carkeek-designed yacht to wins in two events. Last year’s champion Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis is 30-points adrift in second. The race schedule is for inshore buoy races to be held Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, whilst Thursday will see a double points scoring coastal race of up to 50 nautical miles. -- http://2008.medcup.org * The 2009 Stanford Antigua Sailing Week has announced a new race format and schedule that will sail off a day earlier for the racing and cruising fleets on Saturday April 25th and will culminate on Thursday April 30th. The bareboat fleet will start their regatta on Sunday finishing on Friday. Both divisions will race 6 days rather than the previous 5 days. -- Full details at http://www.sailingweek.com * Formula One officials turned down the opportunity to tie in the inaugural grand prix in Valencia this past weekend with the world of sailing, according to the British newspaper The Times. A walk around the port city layout on Thursday showed that many America's Cup teams are based nearby, and a glance at some of the boat components demonstrated how closely-related the two technology-based sports are. But sailing sources said F1 did not want any 'contamination' of its product by associating with the America's Cup teams. "All of the (sailing) teams wanted to be part of the F1 show and F1 said no," said a source. -- http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080822120113.shtml BIG BOAT SKILLS: GET YOUR TEAM INTO TECH TEES AND POLOS The Pirates Lair is the leader in printed technical team and regatta gear. DryShirt, Nike Dri Fit and Sport Tek, among others, all with your team graphics. Double up with Mount Gay Rum logo'd gear and look hot…er… cool at your next event. For more info call (888)SAIL-BUM or log-on to http://www.pirateslair.com/wicking CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) The Scuttlebutt Event Calendar is a comprehensive listing of sailing regattas and other events occurring in the sport. This is a self-serve tool, with all entries posted by organizers interested in promoting their events. To view the events, or to post an event, go to http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’. Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). You only get one letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Phil and Tracy Lyon, Grosse Pointe, MI: Cheers to the US SAILING Team for the excellent choice of the incredibly talented Kenneth Andreasen to succeed Gary Brodie. He is a consummate gentleman that combines the rare ability to communicate to athletes in a way that brings out the best in performance while taking organizational elements and politics in stride. And, yes, his CV does include a great tenure with the Optimist fleet. * From James Stewart: (re, the arbitration hearing for the 49er medal race) What miserable and ungracious beings must hide under the disguise of the Italian and Spanish Olympic committess to try to overturn the decision to allow the 49er medal race to stand. The Danes overcame the great adversity of breaking their mast priotr to the race, the Croations sportingly gave them their boat and they survived to finish and win the gold medal. The Italian and Spanish only had themsleves to blame for not doing better during the week and in the medal race. Is sportsmanship truly dead in the Olympic sailing world? * From Frank Pong: Larry Ellison and Ernesto Berterelli should come to a compromise and not go to Final Appeal. Everything to gain for both persons in a settlement for the next AC33 in monohull AC90 boats in multi fleet format, under a set of rules that will reflect the wishes of both parties and the other entrants. Nothing to gain for either man from whichever way the Final Ruling falls. A resolution between the two on the next, 33rd, edition sailed with the much faster 90 footer monohulls will regain the applause of the sailing world. That is what should happen if they are reasonable people; they don’t really need to be reasonable, just being sensible will do. Their lawyers and advisers are most likely urging them to settle, all the points have been made already. Going to the Court of Final Appeal in New York is merely handing something the two persons can resolve, over to a few people who need have little care about the whole issue. What they are asked to do is to decide on what they think a few words written in the Deed of Gift in 1851 was intended to mean, and how it reflects in today's use of the English Language. The Final Appeal will not even rule on whether Alinghi or Oracle was right in doing what they had done between July 2007 up till now. That is the sad and silly part. Yes, fight over the Protocol, but there is no need to hand over you prerogatives to an unconnected third party. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION We cannot fail to win unless we fail to try. - Tom Clancy, American novelist Special thanks to Kaenon Polarized, JK3 Nautical Enterprises, and The Pirate’s Lair. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
