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SCUTTLEBUTT 1998 -- December 30, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.HOW TO MAKE SAILING BETTER, RIGHT NOW! -- Philippe Kahn Here are some thought about what we can learn from the success of golf (I am not a golfer!) 1. Introduce Sailing handicaps in regattas like golf handicaps: In golf a beginner can play against Tiger on the same course at the same time and have a real competition. The handicap system works wonders and makes any game a real challenge. Why not do the same in a regatta. A beginner in the Star fleet would get for example 125 points from Torben Grael in a 9 race event encompassing 40 boats, and so on. Then we'd post the corrected results in the rating computer and after a little while this would make the handicaps as good and interesting as they are in golf. Now we get to race against everyone at all levels, and the competition is meaningful. They play 18 holes in golf, we race 9 races over a weekend. Same principle. 2. Return to Meaningful records: Every time we read "record smashed," it is almost hilarious: It takes a 100 ft canting keel maxi to "smash" the record established by a 60 ft sloop in the Sydney Hobart race. Check each major race around the world and you'll find new hyped, but meaningless records. Records in sailing should be about tremendous human achievements, performance, achievement and courage. We must get back to meaningful records. Just like in golf: The record on any course is meaningful. Certain technologies for balls or clubs are banned. 3. Define Olympic classes that make sense: Why have classes with redundant weight combinations. Let's make sure that there are classes for sailors from 100 to 250 pounds to compete in. That's no different than what is possibly the oldest Olympic discipline in the world: Weightlifting. All sizes and shapes get to compete. Success is not measured by body fat content, but by real performance in each weight division. Sailing should be the same because in small boats the sailor's weights mean a lot as far as performance is concerned. This will help grow the sport through participation. People watch golf on the tube because people play golf. There are no crashes, multi-million dollar machines, adrenaline rushes. Golf is a participation sport. The same should be true with sailing: We'll get TV coverage when we grow participation and people watch, like they watch golf. If we limit participation to those between 110 pounds and 175 pounds, we'll cut the participation in half. 4. Simplify the rules and regulations: If there is wind, even if it comes from "the wrong direction," we should race. We should race in 3 knots and in 30 knots. If someone doesn't want to race, then they are free to pull-out. We should simplify the rules down to the bare bones. Just like with golf: There are rules, but they are simple and easy to understand. 5. Make the starts objective, using high tech: Let's invest as a sport into a high tech digital starting system that is objective and eliminates the guessing. No more OCS, general recalls or black flags… You're over or you not. It's that simple. Just like a golf ball is out of bounds or on the course. I think that these five simple suggestions could help. Things won't happen overnight. However we need to start somewhere. We can make our great sport even better! -- Philippe Kahn, Pegasus Racing (Thanks for the input from Russell Couttts and Jeff Madrigali who as accomplished golfers had the patience to play golf with me in Key Largo. We had a great game, they gave me a handicap and it came down to the last hole. We were all intense. And I can't play. That really was in contrast to what would have happened in a sailing regatta. Time handicaps etc. are silly. Points for a regatta … just like golf. - PK) CLEAN SWEEP Wild Oats XI has been confirmed as handicap winner of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, making her the first yacht to win the fabled treble since Captain John Illingworth and his yacht Rani won the inaugural race across Bass Strait 60 years ago. Bob Oatley built this hi-tech multi-million dollar maxi to win line honours. To break the course record was an added bonus. To win the Tattersalls Cup for fastest yacht under IRC handicap was beyond his wildest dreams. There was a tear in his eye yesterday as he looked down the list of past winners engraved on the base of the JJ Illingworth Trophy, the prize for first boat to Hobart. Geoff Lavis, Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, confirmed this afternoon that none of the boats still racing could challenge Wild Oats's position at the top of the IRC handicap leaderboard. "The oldest boat in this year's fleet, Ray White Koomooloo, which was Overall Winner in 1968, has been the closest competitor to threaten Wild Oats XI all day," said Commodore Lavis. "It shows that any well-sailed, well-founded boat has a realistic chance of winning this race." Team Lexus has dropped a crew member suffering from injured ribs at the port of Bicheno on the east coast of Tasmania. Crewman Robert McClelland is being assessed by the local medical officer in Bicheno while the yacht and remaining crew have now continued on to Hobart. The competition between three DK 46 design boats in the Rolex Sydney Hobart has been close with Ray Roberts' Quantum Racing taking the honours. Second in the class across the line, Rob Hanna's Shogun from Victoria, had a horror trip up the Derwent. "The real frustration was the last three hours," Hanna said."We had 30 knots on starboard tack. Then 30 knots on port. Then no breeze!" -- http://rolexsydneyhobart.com FORUM UPDATE Great topics now on the table at the Scuttlebutt Forums: Who is the most influential boat builder in North America? How come San Diego YC got the flick as the host of the ISAF Youth Worlds? Should the sailing Hall of Fame be based in Annapolis, MD or Newport, RI? Also, congrats to Steve Hunt for his post on the Melges 24 Worlds Forum contest, which began the competition and was strong enough for a wire-to-wire win. View the Forums at: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?forum=5 HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM TEAM ONE NEWPORT The whole crew at Team One Newport hopes you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season! And for those of you lucky enough to traveling to Key West in January, remember that Team One Newport has a large stock of Henri-Lloyd, Musto, Gill, Patagonia, Railriders, Camet, Harken, Ronstan, Kaenon, DuBarry, Suunto, Spinlock Harnesses, Sharon Green's Ultimate Calendars, and Onne Van der Wal's A World of Boating. We can still do crew uniforms for the regatta too! Just call 800-VIP-GEAR or visit http://www.team1newport.com TEAM EFFORT (Here's an excerpt from the daily Aviva Challenge report of Dee Caffari attempting to sail non-stop round the world single-handed against the prevailing winds.) The technical team sent through the tasks for the day and off I went, tools in hand and a printed version of the instructions in my pocket. I was to try and eliminate all the air from the system and then complete the re wiring. I furled the headsails away and then started sailing full lock to full lock with the poorly pump. This took some time and I almost convinced myself that the aerated fuel level was much lower and then, Wham! Back it would come again. Next job was some wiring. I must be better at this, as I was getting some good practise in. It was all going so well and I was finding it all quite easy, as it was pretty much an exact opposite of what I had done on the other side of the box last week. I got to the last three wires and ...all I could hear were alarms. I had not only got it wrong but had ruined both pumps in one easy step. I went from two working if not fully functioning pumps to nothing in the pull of a wire. So I was sat in the rain, in 20 - 25 knots under a black cloud, with no pilots at all, no heading, therefore no true wind direction. Fantastic, life just keeps getting better! I lashed the wheel and rushed down to the phone. Poor Andrew Roberts, he was expecting me to call and say great things and I told him that something had gone seriously wrong and now nothing was working, and it was raining! In a sulk I sat on deck awaiting the reaction to my news. It probably took about ten minutes but it felt like about three hours. I had laughed, cried, stamped my feet, and had tried hitting Aviva, but she is steel and I just hurt my hand. The answers came by email and I adjusted the wires and it was like the light had suddenly been turned back on and all was well with the world again. Quite bizarre, to go from nothing to everything, is a weird sensation. I hadn't got it wrong there was just another wire we had to deal with and the solution was simple to do. Yet again the technical team had saved the day. So we now have two separate autopilot units, all wired in with only 1 switch to change from one set to the other. We are now able to continue with our aeration issue, but we shall save that excitement for tomorrow's installment. I can only take so much in one day and today's events nearly pushed me over the edge. I am quite delicately balanced right now! http://www.avivachallenge.com/ NEW GAMES Two new games have been added to the Scuttlebutt website in the News & Extras section. If you didn't get everything you wanted for Christmas, here's your chance to get even when playing Elf Snowball Fight. And if you are tired of fighting the crowds, stay in today and go Bowling. Enjoy all the games at http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/news SAIL DEVELOPMENT Since the end of the first leg, the Volvo Ocean Racing teams have been working furiously on their sail development in a bid to match ABN Amro, who by anyone's reckoning have the most advanced sail program in the fleet. Ericsson's efforts have been frenetic and there is talk that one other team has come up with something similar to the Spinnoa, the sail that ABN Amro skipper Mike Sanderson has described as their 'secret weapon'. The Spinnoa, just to clarify, is a spinnaker-genoa combination sail, which is classed for measurement purposes as a staysail, a big one obviously, but has the same effect as a spinnaker in reaching conditions. Reaction to the sail among other crews has ranged from downright impressed to downright cynical. "Lot of fuss about nothing," snarled one crewmember who added the ABN Amro sail program, which has worked so well on the fat ABN Amro boats would never work so well on the skinny Farr ones. In Ericsson's loft however, work has started on a sail which will, we understand, closely resemble the Spinnoa. It does not have a name as yet, but has been three weeks in development and according to sailmaker Mats Skyttergaard, will make a major difference to Ericsson's speeds in the second and third legs. The need for a tight reaching sail became apparent when their spinnaker blew out in the first night and when they started having problems with their keel, he explained. "The weather conditions on that leg were pretty unusual, but the loss of the spinnaker and the difficulties we had with the keel left us exposed so we decided to do something about it." - Volvo Ocean Race website, complete story: http://tinyurl.com/blwel CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar NEWS BRIEFS * On January 7-8, USC and Pt. Loma High School will defend their championships in the nation's largest combined college and high school regatta organized by the US Sailing Center and Alamitos Bay YC in Long Beach, California. There will some two dozen college teams and as many as 60 prep teams from throughout California sailing sail CFJ dinghies. Beside number five ranked USC, the college teams include Georgetown (#1), Hawaii (# 3), Brown (# 4), BC (# 6), Stanford (#7) and UC Irvine (# 8), St. Mary's (# 14), Charleston (# 15) and the U.S. Naval Academy (# 17). -- www.ussclb.org * Even though Monday is a holiday, there will be an issue of Scuttlebutt on January 2. Happy New Year. UK-HALSEY ADDS OLYMPIC GOLD UK-Halsey has just made a major addition to its racing sails team, bringing aboard Dede De Luca. His sails for Torben Grael won 2004 Olympic Gold in Stars plus a Silver in the 2005 Worlds. A talented racer himself with two Americas Cups in his resume, Dede's sails have also won numerous other one-design and fleet victories. Based at UK-Halsey Verona, he'll be providing valuable input to the entire UK-Halsey system whose 50 lofts take global experience and add local knowledge. If your racing aspirations exceed the commitment or results of another sailmaker, it's time to contact UK-Halsey: http://www.ukhalsey.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 Peter Harken: (Regards the critics, Mssrs Longley, Keefe and Sheridan regards Alfa Romeo and Wild Oats XI and Neville Crichton) Normally I'm somewhat careful of my mouth in 'Butt due to my business with most of all Buttheads, but in this case I'm mad because the comments from the above are simplistic shots with the gun still in the holster and an insult to an amazing yachtsman and individual. I can assure that if either of you had the chance to simply see these magnificent racing sailing machines in real life from the outside to their unbelievable mechanical working innards, much less ever sail on one, your jaws would drop to the deck. These two Titans are two of the most magnificent racing monohull sailing machines on Earth to date, excluding Mari Cha and Maximus. Their leap in performance from one year old racers in this category is phenomenal. The top Americas Cup and ocean sailors that handle these charging beasts are in absolute awe of them. What kind of man is it to have such new technology built and racer/ owner this scary beast with all his own money? Neville Crichton, a self made New Zealander that grew up from ground zero to one of the most prolific and successful, yacht builder and ocean racer of our time, and all on his own earnings. Their is not enough room in all of Butt to tell this man's incredible story, but the Sydney newspaper, The Telegraph, had a great article on his life before the Sydney/ Hobart so look it up folks and read in wonder! Without the Neville Crichton's we would still be sailing on a raft of Papyrus weeds! Curmudgeon's Comments: Yesterday we published a letter from Gerald Sheridan commenting on Neville Crichton's quotes after the race about Sydney Hobart Race winner Wild Oats XI, "Maybe they're smarter than I am. Maybe if we had had someone we could have copied with a perfect boat we would have done the same. I would rather they hadn't copied the boat but they've done it. That's life unfortunately." There has been a lot reaction from readers. Here's the link to the complete story: http://rolexsydneyhobart.com/news.asp?key=2244 * From Richard Clark: Why is it that Homo Sapiens love to quote text out of context? Just imagine, I have built a new yacht, spent 10 million bucks for the best of the best, I sail over 650 miles of the wildest ocean in the world to finish an hour behind the winning yacht, I haven't even had time to sit on a real John, not even time to pop the top on a Cascade cold one and some news commentator shoves a big black mike like thing in my face and asks "well you lost mate, what does it feel like?" or words to that effect. Then that tired mumbling statement gets dissected into negative one liners by those who, especially on Scuttlebutt, should know better. Bah Humbug. Have a Beer and Cheer the buggers instead. Good job Nev, good on you Alfa Romeo. I can just see Nev musing, Steinie in hand, after the John visit, "Romeo, Romeo where for art thou Romeo?" He'll be back, why? Because he can! A Happy New Year to all the crew and cast who produce this great rag on the web and those who bitch and moan and give it wind to go forward.. * From Don Rave: Your link to the full story containing Neville Crichton's quotes was well placed. Clicking on it instantly demonstrates what a cheap shot Gerard Sheridan took at a disappointed but very gracious competitor. * From Peter W. Grimm, former SORC chairman: Many years ago in the SORC, Mr. Crichton lost a protest that caused damage to, I believe, Pat Malloy's Intuition. He packed up his "toys" and went home crying all the way. His behavior after the Hobart Race is no surprise to many of us. * From Ron Baerwitz (re Neville Crichton statement after the Sydney Hobart Race): I completely agree with Mr. Gerard Sheridan. That is a typical response from someone who thinks they can buy their way to the podium. Mr. Crichton, you lost because you did not have the best team this go around -- plain and simple. Maybe you will next time. Any "RO" who thinks building the latest, greatest design and spending the biggest buck is a guarantee to victory is in the wrong sport. And, in any case, being victorious in a fleet of 4 - 6 boats, be it Cal 20's or SuperMaxi's, is hardly proof of being a great sailor. Mr. Crichton, I invite you to follow in the footsteps of the classy Mr. Kahn and take a few of your best team members off that SuperMaxi and come play in the large OD fleets like the Etchells or Melges 24's and see what talent is. When you finish mid fleet you will have all the right in the world to complain that all the boats on the course are copies of yours. * From Bruce Gresham: OK - I did what you asked and looked at the images on the Scuttlebutt photo link for the Sydney Hobart race. Fun or no fun? I vote No Fun. Isn't that water cold? http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/sydneyhobart/ * From George Backhus: R.C. Keefe's comment about Wild Oats XI reminds me of a comment that a wealthy friend once made to me. He said "I spent half my fortune on boats, broads and booze, and squandered the rest." * From Michael Foster: San Diego YC is much better off without the ISAF Youth Worlds! Have you ever noticed that a horse will always walk away from you and, what do you see … unless you then produce an apple or sugar cube? *From Charles Ross: As we quickly approach Scuttlebutt #2000, congratulations on this achievement. I for one would be very interested to see you re-issue Scuttlebutt #1 for an interesting look back and reflection on what we were talking about then. I suspect somewhere in there would a discussion on handicap systems, much like today. Curmudgeon's Comment: I'm afraid that issue #1 is lost forever, but the Scuttlebutt on-line archives do go back as far as #194 published on October 5, 1998. As a matter of record, there were no comments about rating systems in that issue … or even a letter from Peter Huston. - http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/archivedMonth.asp?year=2005 CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free? Special thanks to Team One Newport and UK-Halsey Sailmakers, who along with the 'entire Scuttlebutt staff' wish you a Happy New Year! |
