SCUTTLEBUTT No. 633 - August 25, 2000

MDT

If you don't know what MDT stands for now, you will. Soon. Technically it stands for Multi Directional Threading, but what is means is lighter, stronger and sooo affordable. Ullman Sails have built hundreds of these Compound Sails with Stitchless Technology from fiber/film components that address the loading patterns in a modern tri-radial. Check out the Ullman Sails website to lean why they work and while you're there, get a quote online:

http://www.ullmansails.com/

AMERICA'S CUP
The company that ran the America's Cup village has lost more than $6 million of public money on several commercial blunders, including $4.1 million on an exclusive floating yacht club. The final wash-up of finances shows that America's Cup Village Ltd cost the region $23.5 million, a slight improvement on the $25.7 million forecast in February. Company chairman Peter Kiely said yesterday that some of the projects had looked good at the time "but in hindsight it turned out that they weren't." - Bernard Orsman, NZ Herald

Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ac2000/

OLYMPICS
(After a brief respite from international one-design racing, U.S. Men's 470 skipper Paul Foerster took to his new class with a vengeance. Sean McNeill looks at the Olympic program of Foerster and crew Bob Merrick in a story on the Quokka website. Here are a couple of excerpts to whet your appetite.)

* Motivation can be found in a variety of places. Some people are spurred on by inspirational messages emblazoned on posters tacked to their walls. Others find their driving force in a higher being. For anyone other than a couch potato the television might be the oddest place to motivation, especially for a meticulous, diligent person. Nevertheless, that's where Paul Foerster's return to international one-design racing began.

A silver medallist at the '92 Games in Barcelona, Foerster found himself lying around watching the '96 Olympics on television. The Flying Dutchman, the class he held dear, had been booted from the games after '92. He didn't immediately jump into another class because he feared the learning curve would be too steep and drawn out, that he might not get up to speed before the trials. As he says, life at the back of the pack is frustrating. "With the Flying Dutchman, it takes a lot of work to learn the fine details to be competitive at the world level," said Foerster. "To get all the little things to go right to win international regattas can take a while."

Foerster, however, found it more frustrating watching the television. Working as a mechanical design engineer at Raytheon near his home in Garland, Texas, since the end of the'92 campaign, Foerster found himself missing the thrill of victory, the agony of practice.

* Downshifting to Small 470 from Big FD Downshifting to the 470 not only required Foerster to learn new techniques, but also to reshape his physique. The mighty FD, with big overlapping headsails, calls for a combined crew weight of nearly 400 pounds to be competitive. The lighter and smaller 470, however, likes a combined weight of around 300 pounds.

"In the FD, we had longer courses. The lines were a lot harder to pull. The people weighed a lot more," said Foerster. "I've lost 10 pounds to sail the 470, and Bob (Merrick) is 50 pounds lighter than an ideal FD crew."

Foerster also had to change his driving style. Measuring 15 feet and six inches, the 470 is more than four feet shorter than the FD, and weighs 100 pounds less. The 470 also has less sail area, making it critical for skipper and crew to work the boat hard and in harmony around the racecourse. "It wasn't much more physically demanding, but more of practicing riding waves and what to do to get over them," said Foerster, who explained the 470 Class allows unlimited kinetics once the wind speed tops 12 knots.

"You just have to practice and practice. If you take too much time off in a race, you're going to miss a wave that someone catches. It's more important to work the boat hard than have the right spinnaker," said the skipper. - Sean McNeill, for Quokka Sports

Full story: http://www.quokkaSailing.com/stories/08/SLQ__0822_s_hardroad_WFC.html

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net)
Letters selected to be printed are edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.

-- From Chris Ericksen - With all due respect to Peter Isler and Dave Millett, wouldn't it be better to wait and see what the Transpacific Yacht Club committee working on new rules decides before passing judgement?

PLAYING HARDBALL
In 1999, a US SAILING grievance hearing panel determined that the Albatross Yacht Club, of Warren, Michigan had improperly excluded a competitor from its Tuesday Night Series. The hearing panel found that the competitor met the entry requirements of the Notice of Race, and that his exclusion was based solely on the club membership's dislike of him as an individual.

The Hearing Panel found that the exclusion of the competitor was not in compliance with the Ted Stevens Olympic and Amateur Sports Act of 1998 (the "Act") or US SAILING's Bylaws. The Act requires that US SAILING, as the national governing body for the sport, afford "amateur athletes" an equal opportunity to participate in "amateur athletic competition." The Tuesday Night Series is such a competition, and the competitor is an "amateur athlete" within the Act.

Both the competitor and the yacht club filed appeals to US SAILING's Executive Committee. In April, 2000, the Executive Committee notified both parties that it had upheld the hearing panel's decision.

Thereafter, the club denied the competitor entry to its 2000 Tuesday Night Series, upon the grounds that the competitor had solicited one of its sponsors to withdraw support. After the series began, the club published an "amendment to the Sailing instructions" asserting that it is a "restricted competition" under the Act. However, this provision in the Act applies only to organizations that conduct competition where participation is restricted to specific classes of athletes, "such as high school students, college students, members of the Armed Forces, or similar groups or categories."

The Executive Committee determined that the reason given for exclusion from the 2000 series was not adequate grounds for denying the right to participate, and that the actions taken by the club to deny entry into the 2000 series constituted a violation of the Executive Committee's decision on the appeal. At its July 31, 2000 meeting, the Executive Committee issued the following determination:

1. Albatross Yacht Club's membership in US SAILING is suspended.

2. Albatross Yacht Club cannot participate in US SAILING-endorsed insurance programs. [Note: since Albatross YC has a fully paid insurance policy currently in effect, this determination can only take effect at the expiration of the current policy.]

3. Albatross Yacht Club cannot conduct US SAILING events, or enter a team in US SAILING events.

4. US SAILING-certified officials shall not officiate at Albatross Yacht Club events.

5. As a condition of reinstatement of Albatross Yacht Club's membership, no committee chairperson who participated in the decision to exclude the competitor from participating in the 2000 series, no current member of its Board of Directors, and no current officer may hold any position of authority in the Albatross Yacht Club for a period of two years from the date of reinstatement. - http://www.ussailing.org/News/albatross.htm

VOLVO OCEAN RACE
Team SEB building a new boat in Sweden and setting up training camp in Portugal winter 2000/2001 for sail development. Team SEB, with Gurra Krantz as skipper and head of the sporting side, has decided to build its new V.0.60 for the Volvo Ocean Race 2001-2002 in Sweden. Construction of the Bruce Farr designed boat, will take place during winter 2000-2001, with building estimated to start this September and an estimated launch in April next year from Nacka Strand, Team SEB's home base and home port.

Team SEB's competition boat will be built by an international team of boat builders, at rented premises put at Team SEB's disposal at a local boatyard in Saltsjobaden, Stockholm. At the same time, Team SEB is establishing a training camp in Cascais outside Lisbon, Portugal with its two training boats from the 1997-98 Whitbread - Silk Cut and Toshiba. The training camp on the Atlantic coast provides useful opportunities for developing and evaluating the range of sails available to the project. It also enables the team to do some serious Sailing training and test various systems. The time in Portugal will also be used to appoint the remaining crewmembers.

Team SEB will also be completing its negotiations this autumn with companies interested in becoming partners in the project. The principal partner role was acquired by SEB in May this year, and it gives SEB the right to name both the project and the competition boat, as well as the training boats.

Event website: http://www.VolvoOceanRace.org

ISAF WORLD MATCH RACE RANKINGS
1 Bertrand PACE FRA, 2 Dean BARKER NZL, 3 Sten MOHR DEN, 4 Magnus HOLMBERG SWE, 5 Peter GILMOUR AUS, 6 Luc PILLOT FRA, 7 Morten HENRIKSEN DEN, 8 Jes GRAM-HANSEN DEN 8, 9 Jesper Radich JOHANSEN DEN, 10 Roy HEINER NED, 17 Peter HOLMBERG ISV, 30 Ed BAIRD USA, 115 Jeff MADRIGALI USA

Complete rankings: http://www.sailing.org/iyru/aug00mrrankings/22mrranking.html

SOLUTIONS FROM SAILCLOTH.COM
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MORE OLYMPICS
The preliminary list of Olympic entries has been updated and is now on the ISAF Olympic Website: http://www.Sailing.org/olympics/

CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS
* September 2-3: Sailing World NOOD (National Offshore One-Design) Regatta, St. Francis YC. 110 boats expected to compete at the seventh stop on a nine-event national racing. http://www.sailingworld.com

* September 12-16: U.S. Sailing Women's Championship 16th (Adams Cup) in Etchells with a crew of four women at the San DiegoYC. Representatives from eleven geographical areas of the United States. http://www.sdyc.org

THISTLE NATIONALS
Sayville, Long Island - About 80 boats from all over the country met for ideal conditions at the Sayville Yacht Club for the 55th Thistle National championship. After 5 days of racing, the team of Mike and Delia Ingham (Rochester, NY) with Blair Dryden (Chicago, Ill) won by 6 points.

The event was raced mostly in characteristically heavy air of Long Islands Great South Bay. After the first two days of racing, the fleet is split into two groups, the championship division and the presidents division, making the last three days very competitive with all the top teams racing together. Another Rochester resident, Doug Kaukeined with Joe Kaukeinen and Amy Gorton won the last race moving them barely into second place over Bruce King of Indianna.

Final results: 1. Mike Ingham, 19points 2. Doug Kaukeinen, 25 points 3. Bruce King, 26 points 4. Eric Gesner, 51 points 5. Bryce Dryden, 67 points

VANGUARD 15 NAs
Dinghy racers from across the US converged on San Francisco Bay for the 2000 Vanguard 15 North American Championship. The event, held outside of New England for the first time ever, was hosted by the St. Francis Yacht Club and sailed out of the Treasure Island Sailing Center. Using the same racecourse as the recent Star Olympic Trials, the 41-boat fleet completed a 12 race series over 3 days of racing. Winds ranged from 0 to 30+ knots.

FINAL RESULTS: 1 Nick Adamson & Charlie Boukather / Carisa Harris (36 points) 2 Morgan Larson & Chelsie Wheeler (61) 3 Steve Bourdow & Ki Mun (73) 4 Mike Zani & Mike Huang (86) 5 John A. Meade & Alice Maynard (87) 6 John Torgerson & Alex Silverman (95) 7 Carl Ziegler & Chris Museler (96) 8 Tim Fallon & Karen Renzulli (105) 9 Krysia Pohl & Brian Hill (110) 10 Shawn Bennett & Debbie Bennett (152)

Complete results: http://www.stfyc.com/race-office/2000race/V15%20FRIDAY%20RESULTS.htm

THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS
Eat right. Exercise. Stay fit. Die anyway.