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SCUTTLEBUTT 2113 -- June 12, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.OPENING THE DOOR A BIT WIDER Roy Disney has opened the door a bit wider for young sailors who want a chance to become a part of his “Morning Light” film project. The qualifications have just been modified to include more young sailors. Now, any candidate who turns 18 years of age before next January is eligible. “Morning Light," a real-life adventure feature film, will be part of next year's 44th Transpacific Yacht Race to Hawaii. Based on the premise of "the youngest crew ever to race Transpac," the film will chronicle the recruitment, training and performance of sailors through the next Transpac Race in July of 2007. Once the crew is selected, the young sailors will undergo months of intense training on the TP52 ‘Morning Light’ in Hawaii. Then, the young crew will compete in the Transpac Race on ‘Morning Light’ … without adult supervision. There will be no script and no preconceived outcome. The film, to be shot in High Definition theatrical quality, will be distributed by the Walt Disney Co. and is tentatively scheduled for release in theaters in 2008. Deadline for filing an online application is June 19. -- http://www.pacifichighproductions.com A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE (The Daily Sail subscription website spoke to some of the key players at last week's Quarter Ton Cup for their story now posted online. Here’s an excerpt.) With 22 boats competing at this year's Quarter Ton Cup and with some big names among the entries, it seems inevitable that the class can go anywhere but up. While the Royal Corinthian YC will hold the event again next year, Morton says that they will also probably hold another in France. "Most of these boats have got trailers and there is a class growing pretty quickly in France. The French guy who has 45 deg South has tracked down about 25 boats in Frce and they are starting to race again now there, so I think we will have a regatta in La Trinite or Benodet." This year the Quarter Tonners will get another chance to race one another at the RCYC's Vice Admiral's Cup on 30 September-1 October. The Quarter Ton class was responsible for putting several name designers of today on the map. As Ed Dubois puts it - while Enigma, the fourth boat he designed, was campaigned several people noticed it who ended up commissioning him to design larger boats. Today there is no equivalent and Dubois admits it is hard to get started in yacht design. In this size range most boats are production boats for reasons of cost. Its nearest today perhaps is the Mini class, although this hasn't gained wholesale popularity outside France and is too orientated towards short-handed racing. Perhaps the ORC's new 26ft box rule boat could develop into the 21st century version of the Quarter Tonner? -- http://www.thedailysail.com SAILING COMES TO ROCKEFELLER CENTER The only U.S. challenger for the 32nd America's Cup will be showcased in the heart of New York City from June 15 to July 2, the final day of the Louis Vuitton Act 12 in Valencia – in Rockefeller Center. Highlight of the nautical public exhibit is BMW Oracle Racing’s 80-foot carbon fiber USA 49. The America's Cup exhibit highlights also include boat pools with three-foot, remote-controlled, mini America’s Cup boats for racing, an America’s Cup historical pavilion curated by Mystic Seaport, and real-time racing footage on a large screen from Valencia, Spain, where the American team is competing in it is bid to win the Cup back for the U.S. Along with a visit to New York by the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup trophy, these events mark one-year to the start of the 32nd America’s Cup on 23rd June 2007. -- http://tinyurl.com/h2zm3 Story and photos of USA 49 arriving in NYC: http://tinyurl.com/q2c4z FRESH WHITECAPS ON MENU AT ULLMAN SAILS LBRW Feel the breeze! See the whitecaps! Besides hot competition and convivial shore activity at Ullman Sails Long Beach Race Week June 23-25, historic local weather patterns promise the famously fresh Long Beach sea breeze of 13 to 14 knots. One Design, PHRF and ORCA fleets will race on three circles inside and outside the breakwater. The Long Beach and Alamitos Bay Yacht Clubs are accepting entries until 1800 PST, Tuesday, June 20, 2006. Free boat docking is available, too, thanks to the Long Beach Parks, Recreation and Marine Department. Register online at http://www.lbrw.org A NEW WINNER Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) has won leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race from Portsmouth, UK, to Rotterdam, Holland, posting their best result so far. They finished just before midnight on Friday - three minutes ahead of the overall leader, ABN Amro One (Mike Sanderson). Volvo Ocean Race Leg 8 finishing positions and elapsed times: 1. Brasil 1, Torben Grael, 7d 06h 48m 42s 2. ABN Amro One, Mike Sanderson, 7d 06h 51m 52s 3. Ericsson Racing Team, Neal McDonald, 7d 07h 17m 02s 4. Pirates of the Caribbean, Paul Cayard, 7d 18h 34m 47s 5. Brunel, Matt Humphries, 7d 19h 10m 32s 6. ABN Amro Two, Sebastien Josse, 7d 20h 17m 51s A FAMILIAR WINNER At the Volvo Ocean Race in-port race in their home port of Rotterdam ABN Amro One, which is registered and christened in Rotterdam, worked her way into the lead in the early stages and did not look back. In front of a huge spectator crowd they crossed the finish line 3 minutes and 20 seconds in front of Torben Grael’s Brasil 1. 1. ABN Amro One 1 hr 55 mins 32 sec 2. Brasil 1, 1 hr 58 mins 52 sec 3. Pirates of the Caribbean, 1 hr 59 mins 43 sec 4. Ericsson Racing Team, 2 hr 01 mins 17 sec 5. Brunel, 2 hr 07 mins 02 sec 6. ABN Amro Two, 2 hr 08 mins 33 sec Current Volvo Ocean Race Leaderboard 1. ABN Amro One 94.0 pts 2. Pirates of the Caribbean 66.0 pts 3. Brasil 1, 62.0 pts 4. ABN Amro Two, 52.5 pts 5. Ericsson Racing Team, 52.0 pts 6. movistar, Bouwe Bekking, 48.0 pts 7. Brunel, 11.5 pts The fleet now have a few days to recover until they head off again on the final leg from Rotterdam to Göteborg on Thursday 15 June. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org. FROM THE PIRATE SHIP “The crowd here in Holland has been amazing. Hundreds if not thousands of spectator boats have been out on the water yesterday to welcome the fleet and today to watch in the In Port Race. In the harbor where the boats are in the inner city, 60,000 fans came down to see the boats and greet the sailors. This country loves sailing! At the prize giving this afternoon for today's race, all the sailors from ABN, Brasil1 and Pirates threw their hats into the crowd as a showing a appreciation for their enthusiasm for what we do. Judging from the public interest in this race here, I would expect to see three of four boats from Holland in the next Volvo Ocean Race. “Big picture is that we have a three point lead going into the last leg. I know it says we have a four point lead, but Brasil1 will win the tie breaker if we tie. So, Brasil1 has to be first or second in the leg in order to have a chance to beat us. If they are third or worse, we finish second overall. Then, if Brasil1 is first or second, we have to be with three places of them and we keep our second place. If we stay out of 5th or 6th, we finish second no matter what Brasil1 does.” -- Paul Cayard, Pirates of the Caribbean skipper RACING THE CLOCK For the first time on San Francisco Bay, speed sailors will have an opportunity to record extreme sailing speeds in conditions as they exist on a daily basis in one of the best sailing venues worldwide in the inaugural San Francisco Speed Sailing Event, June 15-18. The concept is simple - go as fast as you can with your sail-powered watercraft, straight line sailing through a 500 meter course (about one third of a mile), racing against the clock and the elements. The speed course will be marked by large yellow buoys set to the west of Alcatraz and adjacent to the Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC), which is located on the Bay east of Crissy Field. Speed runs will be made between 2:30 – 5:30pm, daily, with Thursday being a practice day, Friday and Saturday official race days where times will be recorded, and Sunday an exhibition day. San Francisco Speed Event is open to all sail craft. Catamarans large and small, Olympic and International Skiffs, Windsurfers, Kiteboarders, Monohulls, One Design and all other types of sailboats will be participating. http://www.sanfranciscospeed.com HOOKED -- THE PERFECT FATHER’S DAY GIFT Bruce Knecht, author of The Proving Ground, the bestselling book about the Sydney-Hobart Race, has a new book: “HOOKED: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish.” Part high seas adventure, part thought-provoking expose, it describes how an Australian patrol boat chased a pirate fishing vessel halfway around Antarctica, through building-size waves and an obstacl course of icebergs. It also describes how “Chilean Sea Bass” (the pirates’ target) became the fish Americans had to have. Tom Brokaw says: “HOOKED is a fish story, a global whodunit, a courtroom drama, and a critically important ecological message all rolled into one.” Details: http://tinyurl.com/oaq6g SAILING SHORTS * Frenchwoman Raphaela le Gouvello became the first person to windsurf across the Indian Ocean, landing on the French island of La Reunion after spending 60 days at sea on a specially designed 23-foot board. Le Gouvello, 46, set out April 9 from Exmouth in northwestern Australia and windsurfed about 4,000 miles. Her board capsized twice, but she had help from an escort team. -- LA Times, http://tinyurl.com/rf659 * Chris Dickson has won XII Trofeo Challenge Roberto Trombini ISAF Grade 1 match racing series by defeating Italian Paolo Cian, 3-1. The petit final were won by Bjorn Hansen, who defeated French skipper Mathieu Richard, 2-0. -- http://www.matchracetrombini.com * Aix-les-Bains, France -- Chris Draper and Simon Hiscoks (GBR) won the 92-boat 49er world championship Sunday -- five points ahead of the Greek team of Athanasios Pachoumas/ Athanasios Siouzios. Three teams of US sailors made a very good showing in the light air regatta. Dalton Bergan/ Zack Maxam finished seventh with Morgan Larson/ Peter Spaulding in eleventh and Tim Wadlow/ Chris Rast 14th. -- Complete results: http://tinyurl.com/qv9q2 * Howie Hamlin, Mike Martin and Trent Barnabas on Pegasus Racing dominated 18ft Skiff European International Championships on Lake Garda. After winning the first race on the final day of racing, the Pegasus team did not drop their kite but sailed directly back to the beach, the series in the bag with two races to spare, counting nothing worse than second place after discards. A truly impeccable display of high performance sailing and boat handling. Second place went to John Winning sailing Yandoo with third captured by Clausen Flemming on GP Covers. -- Yachts and Yachting, full story and scores: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=21895 * Newport, RI -- Strong westerly winds -- with and without sun -- greeted the fleet for the New York Yacht Club’s 152nd Annual Regatta, presented by Rolex. A total of 132 yachts, including a record 51 Onion Patch entries, sailed in the Annual Regatta June 10-11. Saturday featured a building breeze, with gusts to 30 knots, Sunday was its mirror image: 18 knots at the start and eight at the finish. The wind was gentle on Friday and from the south for the optional Around the Island Race, making it necessary to shorten the courses. -- Complete results: http://www.nyyc.org * Video on-demand of the start of the Grog & Gruel Bermuda Ocean Race from Annapolis Md. to St. George’s Bermuda is now playing on http://www.t2p.tv * The USA’s Brian Angel from Southern California defeated Trinidad’s Justin Castagne 2-1 in the TAG-Heuer Nations Cup Regional Final in St. Thomas, VI. The victory earned Angel a new TAG Heuer watch and a trip Cork, Ireland for the Nations Cup Regatta. Bermuda’s Paula Lewin also has a new watch and her team will also be going to Cork after defeating the USA’s Sally Barkow 2-1 in the women’s division. The event was sailed in IC 24s. * Doug Baker's Alan Andrews-designed sled Magnitude 80 from Long Beach set a new course record for the Encinal YC's 277-mile Coastal Cup race from San Francisco to Santa Barbara. Magnitude's new course record of 20h, 54m, 30s slashed over five hours from the previous mark set in 2003. -- ‘Lectronic Lattitude, full story: http://tinyurl.com/lu2lk * Seattle sailor John Buchan, aboard the Transpac 52 Wokita.com, represented the USA at the Sardinia Rolex Cup, which served as the ISAF Offshore Team World Championship. The event, held June 3-10 and organized by the Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Porto Cervo, Italy, hosted seven national teams of three boats each. Team Sardegna won the event with 66 points followed by Germany (81) and Monaco (88). Team USA finished in sixth place with 120 points. -- http://www.sardiniarolexcup.com * Bruno Peyron, his navigator Roger Nilson and the shore based weather team are still looking closely the way the weather systems are developing off New York and in the North Atlantic. The charts are not clear enough today to move to green code, (meaning they would set sail within the next 72 hours), nor to return to red code (meaning that no window of opportunity is within sight again). The crew of the giant multihull are remaining on stand-by, ready to jump into the first plane for New York. BE DAD'S FAVORITE Shop at Onne van der Wal's online gallery of amazing nautical photography and pick a winner for dear old dad. The 20% off sale will help your wallet...and the cool print you get him will help with your inheritance. Sale through June 18th. 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 thought at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Teki Dalton : I’m pleased to see that there is continuing debate, and valuable comments, with regard to man overboard situations. Last year I wrote an article (“Safety on the Super Maxis”: Scuttlebutt 1965) that included MOB and MOB location devices. Not all yachts crew will be equipped with 121.5 MHz or 406 MHz personal distress beacons to assist in location using RDF and will have to rely on the MOB activated on the GPS. The MOB button will only give a splash point and this longitude and latitude is subject to the normal degradation of GPS positioning. It is essential therefore to commence logging a proposed search pattern taking into account wind, waves and current before reaching the splash point. After I went overboard with John Quinn during the 1993 Sydney Hobart Race (he was recovered after four and a half hours) I collaborated with Hugh Treharne (Australia 11 navigator in 1983) in a story called “Join the Dots” which demonstrates a practical solution for search patterns using GPS. I am happy to make it available to anybody who would like a copy. -- mailto:teki@ozemail.com.au * From Jim Fulton: There has been a good deal of discussion recently about the benefits to yacht racing of high technology and cutting edge design, e.g., the use of canting keels on VO70s and putative desirability of canting keels or multihulls in the America's Cup. However, it's important to remember that speed is relative. The only speed differential that really matters is between boats in the same race. No matter how much money and how much technology are lavished on sailing yachts, the differences at the end of the day are only incremental. This is from the perspective that we're talking about refining the performance of of one of the slowest forms of transportation ever devised by man. There are many reasons to enjoy sailing and sailboat racing, but speed isn't really one of them. Faster is fun for the participants, but the difference is usually indistinguishable for the spectators (real or virtual). If speed were really important, I'd get a powerboat. * From Paolo Sheaffer: I just returned from an unusually light, slow Galveston to Veracruz race. This was my first personal experience with satellite tracking. I have to say, it is a smashing success as far as stirring interest in what we are doing out there. Our sailmaker remarked that his receptionist of twenty years (who has never asked a sailing-related question, despite his active schedule on several continents) asked why we "zig zagged on day one, and sailed straight the rest of the race?" Families have been tracking their loved ones. My five-year-old daughter asked, " When did Wings (the second placed boat) finish?" There was even one tortured soul who posted an inflammatory accusation/question on the event website based on his observance of our track, and his interpretation of the weather. In any case, good stuff, and I recommend it to event organizers. If I can state the name, it is iBoat tracking. I have no affiliation with this product. * From David Barrow: Am I alone in this. The Island Sailing Club has had to issue an apology for the Round the Island race last weekend!! Why? I am not really sure what they were apologizing about was it the wind or the tide or both. When I saw that we were starting on a half tide I just thought well we have to deal with it. We knew we had three hours to get to the needles and if we did not make it then it would be the George for lunch. Never once did we think of ringing up the Island Sailing club to complain, you have your boat the wind and the water the rest is up to you and if conditions go against you "that’s yacht racing". If there had been a few more knots of wind there would not have been a problem. I have been doing the race for years and have always thought of it as a celebration of sailing and all that is means in terms of spirit and comradeship amongst the sailing community. Incidentally I did not hear of many people complaining before the race. The shipping movements intefering with the last start is a shame, but we have to share the water, and Southampton is getting busier with 6 more major shipping movements per week, announced this morning. * From Ralph Taylor: Nicole Weaver asks, "Is there then a case for having open protest hearings?" Yes, it's been done many times, often with success in educating fleets about the rules. Open hearings do require some things that might present difficulties: 1. Facilities for an audience to observe without interfering 2. A protest committee chair with a strong grasp of the rules & process, and the ability to maintain control, so that the rights of the parties are observed. 3. The parties' agreement to the open process. Some might be intimidated by having a large audience. 4. Exclusion of the witnesses until after they give their testimony, so that testimony isn't influenced by what goes before. * From Quentin Walsh (Re Gary Hoyt's suggestion on a new AC race format): I've always championed downwind starts as great fun and a super tactical challenge to have the kite up and flying and hitting the line at full bore. I miss the old downwind starts of Edgartown Regatta when there was a dusty sou'wester at the lighthouse starting area particularly for the then popular Frers 46 fleet. They tended to separate the men from the boys quite decisively. Also, in a multi- race format, why waste all the time necessary to go back downwind just to start upwind? * From Tom Priest: With apologies to the folks at Mount Gay Rum, Christopher Columbus and his buddies introduced more than just sugar cane to the “new world” on his second expedition in 1492. If I'm not mistaken, they also introduce 'disease' to the new world as well? (TB, small pox, syphilis, etc) CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATIONS Life is like a game of golf: you drive hard to get to the green and then you end up in a hole. Special thanks to LBRW, Bruce Knecht and the Onne van der Wal gallery. |
