|
SCUTTLEBUTT 2525 - February 4, 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. US SAILING'S 2008 ROLEX MIAMI OCR Miami, Fla. (February 2, 2008) – While the winds were generally light last week at the US SAILING's Rolex Miami OCR, the competition was extremely high among the 369 sailors from 34 countries, with many using this ISAF Grade 1 world-ranking event as a qualifier for the Olympic Games this summer in Qingdao, China. Racing began Monday for all three Paralympic classes, and for the four Olympic classes that could attend, as the other seven events were in the Southern Hemisphere for their class championships. By Friday, the scores for the Paralympic classes were final, while the top ten for the Olympic classes advanced to Saturday’s “Medal Race,” where race scores are doubled and cannot be dropped. The format of the final race is to produce exciting endings, and this was the case in at least two of the classes. Before Laser Radial class winner Paige Railey could top the podium, she first had to overcome her premature start. Her closest competitor in overall scoring, Anna Tunnicliffe, also had jumped the gun and was working her way up from sixth at that top mark to eventually win the race. "I knew that if Anna got a first, I had to get at least an eighth to still win overall," said Railey, who began picking off boats by playing a lane that was clear of wind-shadowing boats. In the end, she finished seventh, a score good enough to put her three points ahead of Tunnicliffe in the final standings. France's Xavier Rohart, sailing with crew Pascal Rambeau, emerged as the overall Star class winner after winning that class's medal race. Entering the final race in second overall, Rohart thought his chances of walking away with a gold medal were slim, due to the strength of previous leader Elvind Melleby with crew Petter Morland Pedersen (NOR) and the rest of the fleet, which has no less than six world champions in it, Rohart counting as one. However, when the Norwegian team started prematurely, Xavier said "the plan got easier." Elvind and Pedersen finished seventh in today's race, good for the silver medal, while Flavio Marazzi and Enrico De Maria (SUI) took the bronze. -- Daily reports for each day can be read here: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=5764 * Thanks to photogs Ingrid Abery and Jan Pehrson for the event images posted on the Scuttlebutt website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/ocr * T2P Video: http://www.t2p.tv/viewers/ocr08/ocr08.html Final Results (Top three plus top North American) Laser (23 boats) -- 13 races 1. Maciej Grabowski (POL), 2-1-6-4-2-5-[8]-1-2-3-4-2-6, 38 2. Marcin Rudawski (POL), [11]-3-4-2-4-4-2-5-7-2-5-5-2, 45 3. Anders Nyholm (DEN), [10]-5-2-1-10-3-5-4-3-4-1-4-4, 46 4. Kyle Rogachenko (USA) 1-4-1-[24/OCS]-6-1-7-7-1-1-3-6-10, 48 Laser Radial (39 boats) -- 12 races 1. Paige Railey (USA), 1-4-1-1-3-5-7-2-[16]-2-1-14, 41 2. Anna Tunnicliffe (USA), 3-1-3-2-1-12-2-1-9-8-[16]-2, 44 3. Karin Soderstrom (SWE), 7-[40/OCS]-10-5-4-1-12-6-2-7-2-6, 62 Star (66 boats) – 9 races 1. Xavier Rohart/Pascal Rambeau (FRA), 7-1-4-[34/BFD]-5-3-3-5-2, 30 2. Eivind Melleby/Petter Morland Pedersen (NOR), 6-2-1-5-7-1-[8]-2-14, 38 3. Flavio Marazzi/Enrico De Maria (SUI), 2-1-6-11-4-2-4-[17]-16, 46 9. Mark Reynolds/ Steve Erickson (USA) 3-6-9/ZFP-6-3-14-[28]-9-18, 68 Yngling (28 boats) -- 13 races 1. Mandy Mulder/Mary Faber/Merel Witteveen (NED), 76 2. Ekaterina Skudina,/Diana Krutskikh/Natalia Ivanova (RUS), 86 3. Renee Groeneveld/ Annemieke Bes/ Marge Kampen (NED), 104 6. Sally Barkow/ Carrie Howe/ Debbie Capozzi (USA), 111 2.4mR (25 boats) -- 12 races 1. Damien Seguin (FRA), 4-2-1-3-1-3-[11]-4-4-4-7-2, 35 2. Stellan Berlin (SWE), 2-7-2-4-2-6-7-2-[18]-8-5-5, 50 3. Paul Tingley (CAN), 1-9-[26/OCS]-2-4-1-3-10-8-7-4-12, 61 SKUD-18 (10 boats) -- 11 races 1. Nick Scandone/Maureen McKinnon-Tucker (USA), 14 2. Scott Whitman/Julia Dorsett (USA), 21 3. John McRoberts/Stacie Louttit (CAN), 33 Sonar (11 boats) -- 10 races 1. Jens Kroker/Tobias Schuetz/Siegmund Mainka (GER), 19 2. Bruno Jourden/Herve Larhant/Nicolas Vimont Vicary (FRA), 32 3. Paul McCarthy/Richard Whealey/Paul Ryan (IRL), 40 3. Paul McCarthy/Richard Whealey/Paul Ryan (IRL), 40 Complete results: http://www.rolexmiamiocr.org/results/index.htm LASER WORLDS - A TESTOSTERONE-FILLED BRAWL Among the classes unable to attend the US SAILING Miami OCR was the Laser class, where racing for their World Championships will begin this Thursday, February 7th. American Olympic representative Andrew Campbell offers this report: “The fleet has arrived in full force here in Terrigal, Australia awaiting the upcoming 2008 Laser World Championships. With less than a week to go, the fleet is in full training mode, which means there are easily 100 boats on the water often lining up for impromptu rabbit starts with as many as seventy boats. As if the numbers aren’t wild enough, the 3-4 foot swell running under an open ocean wind chop make the racing extremely difficult. For a group this size, this is one of the most competitive environments in sailboat racing, and because it is still informal racing, rules and general standards are thrown to the wind, making it a take-no-prisoners, testosterone-filled brawl. While the sailing is good, the crazy “No speak English” attitude you get from a guy not making a close cross gets old after the first time, especially when they don’t give you the same leeway that they expect from you. Speaking up hardly helps because there are so many guys doing it, and essentially it is the greatest motivation to be out in front early. From about 7th place to 70th is a knife fight that you are bound to see multiple times daily.” -- http://campbellsailing.com/ Worlds website: http://aus08.laserinternational.org FROM CHICAGO BOAT SHOW TO MIAMI OCR… HOW DO YOU MCLUBE? Alan C McLubes all wooden action parts on his piano for best tuning and maintenance. Joan G McLubes her birdfeeder pole so pesky squirrels can’t climb up. John R McLubes his stapler to keep it from jamming. Thomas E McLubes his single-edge razor blade and now it cuts through virtually anything with ease. Peter E McLubes the threaded bases of light bulbs so they can be easily replaced. Nick S/ Maureen M-T McLube absolutely everything that slides onboard their SKUD 18. How do you McLube? To read more creative McLube applications or to share your own favorites, please visit: http://mclube.com/sailkote/index.php?c=recapps QUOTE / UNQUOTE “Is there a lot of gamesmanship in sailing? We did want to psychologically twist the knife on our opponents at the Olympic test event (in Qingdao, China last summer), but I have the theory that if we go out every day and do as well as we can, it does enough damage. We haven't an equivalent in sailing as they do, say, in rugby. We can't flatten opponents. You need favors, because if you fall out with opposition crews, they could punish you. There is always the element over several races that those not at the top on points have a choice of who they allow/assist with a win. We try to keep friendly with everyone, especially in the Star class. What goes around comes around.” -- Iain Percy, British 2008 Olympic star skipper -- http://tinyurl.com/3d9zam BARCELONA WORLD RACE Open 60 doublehanded round the world race (started Nov 11; 25,000-miles) (Day 85 – February 3, 2008) After tacking overnight, the leader of the Barcelona World Race, Paprec-Virbac 2, is now heading towards Gibraltar, the penultimate scoring gate of the race, and the doorway to the Mediterranean Sea. Entering the Med and finishing off the race can’t come soon enough for the race leaders. This latter stage of the race has been a tough, and at times slow, slog for the leaders as they battle upwind in the Atlantic Ocean. It’s hard on the crew and it’s hard on the boat as well. And when the wind comes and the speed rises, that brings its own set of problems as Damian explained. “It's nice to see the speedo up but it brings some stress as well. The boat is always on our minds, especially now as we're doing a lot of banging and crashing. It's a bit worrying every time you jump off a wave and land on the other side of it.” -- http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com Positions at 18:00 GMT 1-Paprec-Virbac 2, Jean-Pierre Dick/ Damian Foxall, 1,525 nm DTF 2-Hugo Boss, Alex Thomson/ Andrew Cape, 538 nm DTL 3-Temenos II, Dominique Wavre/ Michéle Paret, 1,418 4-Mutua Madrilena, Javier Sanso Windmann/ Pachi Rivero, 1,492 5-Educación sin Fronteras, Servane Escoffier/ Albert Bargues, 2,862 Retired - PRB, Vincent Riou / Sébastien Josse (broken mast) Retired -Delta Dore, Jérémie Beyou/ Sidney Gavignet (broken mast) Retired - Estrella Damm, Guillermo Altadill/ Jonathan McKee, (rudder damage) Retired - Veolia Environnement, Roland Jourdain/Jean-Luc Nélias (broken mast) FOR THE RECORD * Jules Verne Trophy (crewed circumnavigation around the three capes): (Day 10 - February 3, 2008; 19:45 UTC) After a sequence of six gybes on Saturday, the 103-foot maxi trimaran Groupama 3 hooked her trajectory once again Sunday morning to catch onto a front, the prelude to an initial austral low, which should push the giant trimaran at least as far as the Crozet Islands. Now at 36-degrees South latitude with a 625 nm advance on the current record, Franck Cammas and his nine crew are on a direct course towards the tip of South Africa at an average of nearly thirty knots in a 25 knot N to NW'ly breeze. The temperatures are still moderate, and with the current forecast, the team expects three good days at over 650 miles a day, which would carry Groupama 3 to the South of Cape Town by Wednesday. -- http://www.cammas-groupama.com/en * Route de l'Or (crewed route from New York to San Francisco): (Day 17 - February 3, 2008; 19:30 UTC) During the weekend, the crew aboard the 110-foot maxi-catamaran Gitana 13 faced two successive cold fronts, where Lionel Lemonchois and his nine-man crew were beating to windward in 40-45 knots in their approach to the tip of South America. Their report from Saturday had the team rounding Cape Horn that evening, but their tracker display on Sunday shows that the team has turned around, now making less than 10 knots of speed in a north-northeasterly direction. No details on the cause of this course change were available. -- http://www.gitana-team.com/en/gitana10/homepage.asp CONSTRUCTION OF HULL #1 OF THE MORRIS M52 IS UNDERWAY! After nearly a year of engineering and planning with renowned naval architecture firm Sparkman & Stephens, Morris Yachts recently finalized their design work and confirmed the first order for the M52. While entirely capable of crossing oceans and perfectly suited for extended cruising, the M52 is in every way closely related to her successful smaller cousins M36 and M42. With the unmistakable S&S lines and designed to be just as easy to sail as the M36, the M52 will provide sailors with a yacht that doubles as the perfect daysailer! For more information: call 207-244-5509 or http://www.morrisyachts.com/sail/M52 SAILING SHORTS * SailFast Apparel has announced a sponsorship of three young female sailors known as Team 7 Sailing. Team 7, comprised of world champion sailors Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi and Carrie Howe, are a unique collection of passionate and talented sailors who will be vying for a gold medal together in the Yngling class next summer in Beijing, China. -- Complete announcement: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?forum=25 * The Port Captain in Isla Mujeres, Mexico is now requiring boats coming from the U.S. to have a notarized crew list - in other words, a crew list that is drawn up and notarized in the U.S. prior to departure, similar to an exit zarpe from other countries. Four boats recently arrived in Isla Mujeres from Key West without crew documentation, and while the Port Captain permitted their entrance this time, he stated that fines would be levied next time. -- Details: http://www.travelyucatan.com * The Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC) has announced the official schedule for the 29th Pineapple Cup - Montego Bay Race. The 810-mile race kicks off February 6th 2009 just outside of Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades and finishes just off Montego Bay Harbor on the North coast of Jamaica. The race is sponsored by the Lauderdale Yacht Club (Fort Lauderdale, FL), the Montego Bay Yacht Club (Montego Bay, Jamaica), and the Jamaican Yachting Association (Kingston, Jamaica), and managed by SORC with the collective group. -- http://www.sorcsailing.org * The M30 Class Association has announced that the 2008 M 30 World Championship will be raced on October 1-4, 2008 in Newport, RI, USA. The event will be hosted by Sail Newport, with Peter “Luigi” Reggio as the Principal Race Officer. -- http://www.mumm30.org * The ESPN production team that was at 2008 Acura Key West is reviewing 40 hours of footage shot during the regatta for a show that will air on ESPN2 at 2:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, March 23. Featured boats will include Numbers, Rima2, Amelia, Boat of the Week Barking Mad, Full Throttle, Star, Rumor, and an interesting interview with embattled America's Cup syndicate head Ernesto Bertarelli. -- http://forums.sailingworld.com/blogs/?q=node/121 * The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) in the US has teamed up with the International Marine Certification Institute (IMCI) to offer a seminar on CE Certification. The new seminar, which runs from March 3-5 at the Hilton Hotel in St Petersburg, Florida, will provide US boatbuilders that are currently exporting or are planning to export boats to the EU with the information needed to ensure proper standards are being met. -- IBI Magazine, full story: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20080031164732ibinews.html * The Canadian Yachting Association (CYA) announced that it has received formal approval from Industry Canada for the restructuring of the CYA Board of Directors. The new Board structure for CYA is significantly reduced from as many as 21 Directors, representing the President, and six portfolio based Vice Presidents, ten Provincial representatives and directors at large. The new non-portfolio Board is comprised of eight Directors, elected by the membership at large. Each year two of the Board positions can be elected, for three year terms and election of the President will take place every second year. -- Complete report: http://www.sailing.ca/feature/2008/01/governance.html * Chicago, IL (February 1, 2008) – The US SAILING booth at the Strictly Sail Chicago show last week won the Best of Show award in the large booth category. The US SAILING display, located in the center of the boat show at Navy Pier in Chicago, includes several Olympic and Paralympic class sailboats and a wide range of information about the organization. The award winners are selected on the following criteria: accessibility to audience, good traffic control, quality surroundings, sailing appeal, and staff presentation. -- http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2008/ss_chicago.asp * On February 1st, Fedor Konyukhov entered the Antarctica Cup Racetrack to become the first sailor to take on the 14,000 nautical mile journey solo around Antarctica below Latitude 45 South. The record attempt is expected to take 60 days before the 56 year old Russian adventurer complete the voyage in Albany,W. Australia. -- http://www.antarcticacup.com STAY CURRENT WITH THE LATEST US-IRC NEWS Subscribe now for e-news from US-IRC at http://www.us-irc.org/join.cfm 2007 was a great year for US-IRC, with excellent competition in club, regional and championship events. 2008 looks even better from coast to coast. Get all the US-IRC news at us-irc.org. 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 Christian Fevrier: I must point that the Nigel Irens’s testimony (on behalf of the Swiss) about the non-existence of keeled multihulls surprises me a lot. Nigel has a huge historical knowledge of the multihulls development. How can he forget suddenly that Mike Henderson’s catamaran Misty Miller, built in the end of the 50’s, was fitted with two keels? Or the great navigator David Lewis, who modified the Colin Mudie original design during his circumnavigation aboard Rehu Mohana? Lewis added a 17ft long wood keel bolted to each hull to his great satisfaction. Hey, he sailed 41,609 miles in 3 years and 2 months. It was Nigel himself who recommended me to read the Lewis’s great book “Children of Three Oceans”. And if you look further back in history, you will find a catamaran built by John Mackensie in 1868 that had keels beneath the hulls. It is not to the ISAF to say that multihulls cannot have a keel. It simply belongs to the navigators or designers decisions. * From Damian Christie: Before judging the validity of GGYC’s challenge, Justice Cahn should study Justice Ciparick’s July 1988 ruling in the Mercury Bay/San Diego case. Before the 1988 America’s Cup match, Michael Fay sought an order from Ciparick that SDYC sail a monohull (not a catamaran) against his big boat. Ciparick ruled that Fay’s motion was premature and that she was not deciding on the question of yacht design. She concluded that as the Deed of Gift permitted SDYC to not name its yacht until the start of the match, it would not be in contempt until the ‘foreseeable future’. She directed the two parties to ‘proceed with the races and to reserve their protests’ until after the completion of the Cup match. In 2008, the same logic could apply. SNG contends that GGYC’s challenge is invalid because it is building a multihull, but cited a ‘keel yacht’ in its certificate. However, as the Deed stipulates that the challenger’s dimensions in its certificate ‘shall not be exceeded’, this suggests SNG cannot reasonably arrive at this conclusion until it measures GGYC’s yacht shortly before the start of the Cup match. Therefore, Cahn could order SNG and GGYC to prepare for the Cup match and direct SNG to reserve any protests until shortly before (or during) the Cup match. The downside of such a ruling is that it could mean this ridiculous dispute could continue long after the Cup match is completed (as happened post-1988), but at least we might see some bloody sailing! * From John Sherwood, Annapolis, MD: The photo of winning 470 Women's Worlds team Erin Maxwell/Isabelle Kinsolving and their great coach Skip Whyte shows Skip apparently wearing a medal similar to those worn by the ladies. I am unaware of competitor awards being given to coaches in sailing. Is this a first, or is it just that we rank amateurs (without coaches) simply don't see it at our level? If it is now standard procedure, it underlines the accepted status of coaches in the sport. -- Photo: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0201/ => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Says Skip, “The ladies certainly did an outstanding job, constantly growing throughout the events and sailing with increasing confidence. The ‘bling’ I am wearing are the medals from Sail Melbourne and the Worlds, on temporary loan from the ladies.” CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Five days a week my body is a temple. The other two it's an amusement park. Special thanks to McLube, Morris Yachts, and US-IRC. A complete list of Scuttlebutt’s preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
