|
SCUTTLEBUTT 1768 - February 3, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. VINCENT THE VICTOR It was at 22 hours 49 minutes and 55 seconds GMT this Wednesday 2 February 2005 that the 60 foot monohull PRB skippered by Vincent Riou crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe 2004, the single-handed round the world race, without stopovers and without assistance at the start of Les Sables d'Olonne (France). The race time after covering the 23680 miles is 87 days 10 hours 47 minutes and 55 seconds at an average theoretical speed along the course of 11.28 knots (22 km/hr). He thus succeeds Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) who won the 2000/01 version of the race, having covered the 40000 kilometres of the course in 93 days 03 hours 57 minutes and 32 seconds. Vincent thus beats the previous record by 5 days 17 hours 9 minutes 37 seconds. "I am awash in a sea of happiness," admitted the normally reserved Riou, whose quiet, matter of fact daily analysis has contrasted with the more flamboyant Le Cam. "I would agree that the percentage of work you do before the start can make the difference in whether you win or lose. Solo races are won with a team not on your own. PRB gave me all the means to prepare my boat properly two years in advance. You need a well prepared, solid and fast boat. The battle amongst the leaders has been relentless and I'm sure that in four years time the pace will be even quicker as the boats' performances are increased." At 1900, Jean Le Cam's Bonduelle was 99 miles behind Riou, with Ecover sailed by Mike Golding another 99 miles further back. - www.vendeeglobe.fr/uk/ CANTING KEELS Michel Olivier - Project Manager for Jean Le Cam's Open 60 Bonduelle - is currently in Sables d'Olonne pacing up and down the dockside awaiting position news in the closing stages of the Vendee Globe. Like many members of the shore teams Olivier has had his fair share of stress throughout the last three months, particularly when Sill - Roland Jourdain's brand-new Lombard design sistership to Bonduelle - lost its carbonfibre keel during the race. Olivier commented: "It was a big worry for us, and of course Le Cam, who was the time leading the race south of New Zealand. He immediately checked his keel and couldn't see anything obvious so basically carried on and hoped for the best." Having been launched in the Spring last year both Sill and Bonduelle were set to do the Transat but during early sea trials Sill was found to have serious keel vibration problems which forced Jourdain to withdraw from the race. Although the same problem hadn't actually been discovered on Bonduelle, Le Cam and team decided to pull her from the Transat too in order to make further investigations. Oliver added: "Because Bonduelle was exactly the same design we decided not to take part in the Transat but instead work on the keel to be sure it was ready for the Vendee Globe. "Basically to solve the problem we reinforced both keels by laminating a few layers of 45 degrees carbon fibre." Although everything aboard Bonduelle seems fine having [nearly] succeeded in completing the race in super-fast speed the immediate job for Team Bonduelle is to get her out the water and see how her keel has fared after this gruelling 25,000 mile race. - Excerpts from a story by Sue Pelling/ Yachting World. Full story: http://tinyurl.com/5k6sq VOLVO OCEAN RACE Bigger, faster and more demanding to sail, that much is clear, but to create a boat that is ten percent larger than the previous Volvo boats while weighing the same, places its own set of demands on builders. As the build phase of the new Volvo 70s comes into play, what issues are facing the builders and how are they going about creating a new generation of ocean racers? The most significant change this time around is the use of carbon fibre and Nomex honeycomb in the construction of the hulls and decks. Previously, the Volvo 60s were built using Kevlar and foam sandwich, but while the new construction materials are more advanced, the process of building the hulls has become simpler, at least in the initial stages of construction. Another new aspect this time around is the canting keel system. Here the builders are all clear that there are plenty of issues to deal with. "The starting point for this system is that you have a hole in the bottom of the boat, which is challenge in itself for builders," says Bouwe Bekking of the Spanish Telefônica campaign. Jason Carrington, who built the Assa Abloy boats last time around, emphasizes the potential trade off between having a fin that extends well into the interior of the boat. A longer lever inside reduces the forces required by the hydraulic rams to swing the keel, but this is set against the extra weight and loss of volume below decks that would result from this configuration. "I think the difference between the best and the worst systems could be as much as 100kg," he says. - Excerpts from a story by Matthew Sheahan on the event website. Full story: www.volvooceanrace.com/pages/news/news110.htm BREAKING NEW GROUND There are three firsts for this ISAF World Sailing Ranking - it is the first ranking release of 2005, it is the first ranking release to include the Laser Radial and it is the first ranking release to count the effects of the new 'quality factor' calculation for Continental events. The ranking includes the results from nine ISAF Graded events - one C1, four Grade 1, one Grade 2 and three Grade 3 events. According to the story on the ISAF website, "New World Ranking Leaders in six of the eleven events and the coming months should bring some interesting clues as to who is planning what for the next Olympic Games in 2008. Already, there are several big names who has swopped classes." (Huh?) We will not be using this space to give a class by class rundown, but those who need to know can quickly get up to speed: www.sailing.org/rankings/ ULLMAN SAILS: 2005 KEY WEST UPDATE For the second straight year, Ullman Sails powered Corsair 28's to victory. Congratulations to Freudenburg/ Hudgins. In the highly competitive Melges 24 class, James Spitill finished 2nd and Neil Sullivan finished 3rd*. After tough day 2 of racing, Ullman Sails powered Roger Elliott's Crosswave from 6th place to finish 2nd in the J/120 class. If you and your crew are ready for the "Fastest Sails on the Planet" along with exceptional customer satisfaction, contact your local loft or visit on line at http://www.ullmansails.com (check out the new FiberPath sails) *partial inventory A HUGE HIGH The evolution of the high pressure south-west of Ireland is turning Ellen MacArthur's record attempt into a game of dice with very high stakes, as B&Q heads north to pass through the islands of the Azores. Every minute of MacArthur's current 3 day 10 hour lead is going to be needed to soak up the losses as she sails into the high pressure Thursday. Joyon doesn't have amazing mileages for the next couple of days but from Saturday he starts to wind up to blistering speeds directly towards the finish. The wind will start to diminish in the early hours of Thursday as B&Q gets closer to the ridge of high pressure, bringing a very slow period from Thursday afternoon through Friday. There is no avoiding the high pressure - it is too big, with the ridge axis from NE-SW stretching across MacArthur's pass - and the question is how quickly B&Q can cross the ridge to get to the other side and into more breeze. MacArthur spent four days trying to cross a similar high pressure ridge in the South Atlantic - in fact, she never caught it and the impact on her advantage was that it was cut to just six hours on Day 60 from four days. However, MacArthur is now 3 days and 10 hours (920 miles) ahead of Joyon's record pace. And the average VMG (velocity made good towards the finish line) required now for Ellen to break the record is down to less than 8 knots, and her time ahead is over 50% of the time remaining - a very positive indication for the young skipper. - www.teamellen.com TWEAKING THE BOX Farr Yacht Design has developed two new third generation Transpac 52 designs to compete in both the European and US Transpac 52 competitions starting with the 2005 summer season. Commissions from a number of clients were pooled together to expand the research work originally conducted for Beau Geste and later for Esmeralda, Bright Star and Sjambok. Weather studies initially focused on Mediterranean venues, and then were expanded to include US venues to explore if and how the designs should be adjusted to suit these areas. Design #585 was developed to meet the demands of a specific selection of Mediterranean venues; design #586 was developed to fit a broader mix of regatta conditions. This generation of designs has slightly narrower waterline beam and slightly wider maximum beam than our previous designs. Observations of existing boats at various speeds and loading combined with the results of heeled and upright CFD studies encouraged Farr to make these new hulls more dinghy-like with straighter ends to maximize effective length at high speeds. Bow entry shapes were developed recognizing the need for upwind performance in sometimes bumpy conditions while at the same time using the full length available in the "box". - www.farrdesign.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar ORANGE II Bruno Peyron's maxi-catamaran Orange II is continuing on her way due south off Brazil - aiming for a narrow weather passage between Argentina and the island of Tristan da Cunha. Averaging 22 knots, the maxi catamaran is benefiting from south easterly trade winds for the moment. "We're sailing against the sea and the wind," explained Bruno Peyron on Wednesday afternoon, during the live video link-up with the boat. "We're trying to keep up a fairly high average speed to give us a small margin to reach this link to the south. It's a bit of a gamble, as there are no other ways through to the west. If we indeed make it, the gain will be huge: if we manage to do it, we'll be 600 to 800 miles ahead." A lot is therefore at stake. If they succeed, Orange II could well gain an advantage of one or two days over the absolute round the world record, before they reach the deep south. On Day 9, Orange II had traveled 4352 miles and was 636 miles ahead of the Jules Verne record and 555 miles ahead of Cheyenne's absolute RTW record. www.maxicatamaran-orange.com/ NEWS BRIEFS * The Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race (formerly known as the Miami - Montego Bay Race) starts Friday with 19 boats listed on the race website including some big hitters and four TP 52s. The current weather forecast shows two low pressure systems compressing toward each other setting up conditions that could easily upset the current record run of 2 days, 23 hours, 5 minutes and 57 seconds achieved by Zephyrus V in 2003. - www.montegobayrace.com/ * Will Keene, President of Edson International, was awarded Sail magazine's 2005 Industry Award for Leadership. Actively involved in the marine industry on a national level, Keene has served on the Board of Directors of the NSIA (National Sailing Industry Association) and moved to the Board of Directors of Sail America when those two industry associations merged. He testified before the U.S. Congress in support of the Clean Vessel Act, and has worked with the Fish and Wildlife Department to write standards and guidelines for Marine Pump-out Systems. * The two special prizes went to Luna Rossa, which is about to embark on its third America's Cup campaign led by Francesco De Angelis, and to disabled athlete Andrea Stella, who crossed the Atlantic on board of a TIM Progetto Italia-sponsored specially equipped catamaran. "He succeeded in proving that windsurf passion can break down all barriers", the event organizers explained. The Tim Progetto Italia catamaran is a lab-boat which allows handicapped athletes to take part in innovative therapeutic programmes, highlighting the importance of windsurf as a means to recover a 'normal' life. - http://tinyurl.com/4v8jn SAIL BETTER - SAVE $25 North U Weather, Cruising and Racing Seminars teach the latest in sailing technique. "Weather for Sailors," created with Bill Biewenga, teaches how to gather, analyze, and apply weather information to your sailing or racing. "Cruising and Seamanship," created with John Rousmaniere, teaches skills to improve cruising performance, comfort, and safety. "Racing Trim" teaches the latest in boatspeed and boathandling. Top instructors and multi-media presentations keep the focus on your sailing. Scuttlebutt Readers save $25. Call, or add "Scuttlebutt Discount" to the comments when signing up on-line. Call 800-347-2457 or visit http://www.NorthU.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. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Barbara Horner: Sandy Purdon is absolutely on the mark. The City Fathers of San Diego let this Golden Plum, (America's Cup), go right through their fingers, not only once but twice. Kudos for Mr. Purdon for bringing it up. * From Kenny Robertson: As an additional comment to Chris Ericksen's comments about using a rack and pinion, has anyone thought of using a worm gear type of actuator [like the tuning nuts on a guitar]. The advantage of this is that it is a one way system, where the actuator can move the keel, but once in position, it would be impossible [if we exclude catastrophic mechanical failure of components] for the keel to move even if the actuator was removed completely. It would also be very easy to add a manual emergency system to it. Once again to echo Chris' comments "I am sure folks smarter than I have considered and rejected this, but I wonder why this simple and robust device has not been used heretofore." * From R. Geoffrey Newbury (Re: Canting Keels): I've been reading Conrad Humphrey's posts on his site. I am utterly astounded that anyone would build a canting keel system and expect to race it around the world without any arrangement which would allow the keel to be physically pinned in position. These designs rely totally on the integrity of the hydraulic system. Have these designers never heard of Murphy's Laws? Is there any reason why the keel design could not allow for the keel to be pinned with a hulking great clevis pin? For safety reasons ORC should ban canting keels which cannot be physically pinned in at least the upright position. Anything less than that is manifestly unsafe. * From Steve Gregory (regarding the Ken Read interview in Issue 1763): The story on professional sailor pay was long overdue. Let's take the focus off of Ken - he was only the messenger. The sport of sailing is being professionalized, and compensation is a big part of that. It is hard to sit through a segment of ESPN's Sport Center or to read the newspaper sports section without the mention of player salary coming up. For sailing, maybe some people would rather ignore this, but at the upper end of the sport, this is reality. Sailor pay isn't, nor should it be, in the closet anymore. * From Nicole Weaver: (In reply to John Maxwell's comments about the ISAF sailor classification and edited to our 250-word limit): The ISAF sailor classification states that only those who either get paid directly for participation in racing or who are employed to utilize their knowledge of boat performance are classified as professionals. The rule clearly states " A competitor, who is not a Group 3 competitor and any of whose work at any time in the 12 months before the Classification Date has been in a marine business or organization is a Group 1 competitor if the work does not utilize or require knowledge or skill capable of improving the performance of a boat, and is limited to being an investor, business adviser, manager, administrator or production worker, provided that he or she is not for any other reason a Group 2 or 3 competitor." So if your job requires you to be skilled at, and spend all day thinking about how to make boats perform, you're a pro ... seems fair to me. Group 2 seems like it would be full of former Group 3 sailors who have stopped getting paid for racing related activities, but have to serve their 2 years out of professionalism before attaining amateur status again. An alternative question might be whether Group 3 sailors should ever be able to get back to Group 1 - if Ken Read decided to become a farmer, then after two years is he an amateur, like the accountant or car mechanic who has always just sailed for fun? * Tom Fischbeck: I agree with John Maxwell and Group 2 industry sailors. I concur, being a "Group 2 sailor" most all of group 2 sailors can not sail their way out of a wet paper bag! We are all "working stiffs!" * From Susan Epstein: No matter the activity, to describe someone as "a real pro" has always been an expression of admiration for a job well done. Chris MacLeod's description of Ken Read indicates that Ken is the very definition of the word professional, in more ways than one and in more areas of activity than just one. Fortunately, for our sport and especially the youth in our sport, we have many "pros" like Ken who serve as outstanding role models and teachers. Getting paid is not the only criterion for earning the title, professional. In fact, giving back will probably get you "real pro" status a whole lot quicker. A roster of the "real pros" in sailing...paid or not...would easily fill this page. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Sign on an Optometrist's Office: "If you don't see what you're looking for, you've come to the right place." |
