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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 748 - February 9, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome. YACHTIES OF THE YEAR The annual award, established in 1961 by US SAILING and sponsored by Rolex Watch U.S.A. since 1980, recognizes outstanding on-the-water achievement in the calendar year just concluded. Although historically individuals are considered for the award, nominations submitted by the membership of US SAILING were overwhelmingly consistent for both teams. A panel of noted sailing journalists selected the four Olympic medallists for this year's distinction from a short list of five nominees for the Rolex Yachtsman and four nominees for the Rolex Yachtswoman. Reynolds and Liljedahl were recognized for their dominance of the Star class, culminating in winning the Star Worlds and an Olympic gold medal, while Isler and Glaser were recognized for their perseverance in the 470 Women's class, which resulted in a silver medal at the Olympics. This is the first time a men's team has received the award and the second time that a women's team has been selected. (In 1988 Allison Jolly and Lynne Jewell won for their gold medal performance at the Seoul Olympics in the first-ever 470 Women's event.) Reynolds and Liljedahl were presented with steel and gold Rolex Submariner timepieces, while Isler and Glaser were presented with steel and gold Rolex Oyster Lady Datejust timepieces. ANOTHER RECORD "It was relatively easy because the weather was ideal - perfect wind angle and flat sea," said Dalton. "As we're more than halfway round, we have consumed a large part of our stock of food and [battery] fuel. So the boat is much lighter and inevitably we are sailing faster." Not only was Club Med the first catamaran to break 600nm - and now 650 - in a day, but she is the first sailing boat to average more than 27 knots (50kph/30mph) over 24 hours. Such unprecedented progress has seen Club Med move to within 1,200nm of Cape Horn, but she is sailing smack-bang into the center of a massive depression which will halt her record-breaking speeds. This will give Peyron the chance to make up some of the lost ground, as Innovation - thanks to 25-knot northwesterlies - should still be keeping up a 25-knot average for the next day, at least. - Colin M Jarman, NOW Sports website. Full story: http://www.now.com/feature.now?cid=997704&fid=1269445 POSITIONS - February 9 @ 01:59 GMT: 1. Club Med, 8061 to finish, 2. Innovation Explorer, +880, 3. Team Adventure, +4958, 4. Warta Polpharma, +5984, 5 Team Legato, +6801. ARE YOU READY FOR INSPECTION? VENDEE GLOBE - Philippe Jeantot Ellen MacArthur (Kingfisher) has slowed a little this morning, already in this dorsal of calmer breeze, and is herself waiting for the new system to get going again straight to the finish. These weather systems roll in from the West and so this last one will reach her first and Kingfisher should keep good boat speeds until Les Sables DÕOlonne. A revised ETA for Ellen is looking now like Sunday afternoon. Logically, if she is the first to hitch a ride on this depression, she will thus reduce the mileage between herself and the leader, however with nearly 200 miles of water between them, it may seem unlikely that she will threaten Desjoyeaux on pure boat speed alone. Ellen, with the finish line in her sights, has been thinking about what lies ahead: "My life is here, home is on board Kingfisher with water surrounding us. I just adore being at sea and to suddenly stop this will not be easy at all." Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) is expecting his arrival to be Saturday 10th February in the afternoon, and Ellen MacArthur (Kingfisher) on Sunday 11th February in the afternoon. STANDINGS - February 8 @ 14:02 UT: 1 PRB (Desjoyeaux) 660 miles to finish,
2. Kingfisher (MacArthur) + 228 miles. 3. SILL Matines La Potagere
(Jourdain) +942, 4. Active Wear (Thiercelin) +1260, 5. Sodebo (Coville)
+1702, 6. Union Bancaire Privee (Wavre) +1704. - LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) * From: "David Shore" <david@davidshore.com> It is common to fear the unknown and for many that is the new starting system. In two years few will remember this fear and most will agree the new system is better than the old System 2. I can predict this because here in Vancouver we have been using System 3 (which was very close to the new system) for two years and I have heard nothing but praise for it. Before this was implemented there were concerns voiced by the usual suspects, but their predictions of chaos never materialized. In fact there were no problems at all, even though we changed to trapezoid courses at the same time. This new system provides options for race management that are unavailable under System 2 and it is easy to understand for the racers, provided ample communication is offered well before the race. The new rules are now available online in .pdf form from http://www.sailing.org/newrules/. If you are in race management, offer a seminar to go over all the new rules and spend some time on the starting signals. * From: Murray B de Lues <merdel@xtra.co.nz> I would like to comment on the endless discussion over the pleas to retain system 2 for starting. We were using system 3 (1 minute prep signal, then 5 minute sequence) up to the start of our summer season (Keelboats/Trailer Yachts/Multis on Wednesday nights or centerboard classes on Sundays). We have now moved to the new system with out many problems. The only sailors who could be seen to be disadvantaged by this new system are the first starters. They don't get the 1 minute to prepare for starting the 5 minute countdown. For the first couple of starts, the Race Officer signaled a postponement at 7 minutes, brought it down at 6. All were happy. However we now mainly just run the normal 5 minute sequence. We frequently have multiple classes on any given sequence. There are only three of us on the boat. 1 on the hooter and line judge, 1 on the stopwatch and 1 on the flags. I can have 2 flags in one hand to signal the start while having two flags in the other hand for the next starters. It is fun, no big deal, so my advise is stop fighting it and just get on with it. People learn real quickly, both on yachts and committee boats. Now the eligibility rule is another issue altogether. * From: Abbi Seward <riracer@home.com> To add to Bruce Campbell's observation on the 'easier' start sequence having up to five configurations: Learning white, blue, red as 'we be racing' was easy to explain to newbies. Tell me again, what about the start sequence so desperately needed repair? * From: Mike Urwin, RORC Technical Manager, responsible for IRC <mikeurwin@compuserve.com> (in response to Jack Mallinckrodt and Dan Nowlan ) - Jack describes IRC as a subjective handicap. Not so. It is a rating rule with each boat's TCC calculated by a set of objective maths using her rated data. There are no 'tables for an initiation guess'. Where I do agree with Jack is in the use of time-on-time. No rating system can ever be perfect. TOT however compensates infinitely better than TOD in varying conditions. IRC does not (as Dan states) emphasise windward/leeward courses and tidal flows. It is aimed squarely at the broad constituency of cruiser/racer keelboats, whatever courses and in whatever tidal conditions they sail. Yes of course race conditions have an effect; they do under any rating or handicap system. However, experience tells us that over a series, individual race ups and downs are balanced out in the overall results with invariably the best campaigned boats coming out on top. In the course of research, we have re-calculated many regatta results using single number TOT scoring to replace performance curve or other multiple number systems. Absolutely invariably, and irrespective of the mix of boats, the regatta results are unaffected. So why use complex multiple number scoring when single number TOT is so effective? We see no benefit. What sailors want is a simple to get and even simpler to use ticket to go racing. The steady growth of IRC proves this to us beyond all reasonable doubt. As Dan says: let the racers decide. They already are under IRC in 32 countries around the world! * From: Nicholas Castruccio, President Virgin Islands Sailing Association, <tailhooknick@worldnet.att.net> I am surprised that no one has referenced the CSA (Caribbean Sailing Association) in the water measurement system for handicapping of dissimilar sailboats. The CSA rating rule has been in existence for over twenty plus years and was the brainchild of Trinidad & Tobago sailor, Mr. Al Rapier. Initially called the West Indies Yachting Association (WIYA} rule, then Caribbean Yachting Association (CYA) and presently CSA, it has stood the test of time and is constantly being tweaked. There was a period in the mid Eighties when it was in disfavor and a number of Caribbean Regattas opted to use the PHRF system. However PHRF was far from satisfactory for handling one off boats and the use of the CSA rule was quickly reinstated. Like all rating systems their are those who seek out the weaknesses in the rule. It is the standard for the premier Caribbean Regatta, Antigua Race Week and a host of other regattas in the Caribbean. Like I said, I'm surprised someone hasn't referred to it's existence. * From: "Andrew Burton" <andrew@tridentstudio.com> The powers that be haven't really screwed up completely with Starting System 3. We generally get upwards of 30 Shields (boats that don't turn, stop or accelerate very well) on the line on Wednesday nights. We've been using System 2 for three years now and it seems to work well. The one thing we did to modify it was to say in the sailing instructions that the course signals would be hoisted with a sound signal at about ten minutes before the starting gun. * From: "Kevin Ellis" <KEllis@getty.edu> As I'm sure many others are, my YC is attempting to get ready to implement the new starting system in the new rules, which are now posted on the ISAF website. There is an element to the new system that is not clear to me. In rule 26 it indicates that the warning signal shall be 5 min before the start, the prep 4 min before the start and the prep down 1 min before the start. The time before the start for the warning has an asterisk which below indicates the time between the warning and the start may be "as stated in the sailing instructions", but there is no indication that any of the other durations can be modified. Does this effectively eliminate using 3-minute sequences? * From: "Maggie McCormick, US SAILING Training Department <MaggieMcCormick@ussailing.org> (Regarding littering the oceans.) [Edited to our 250-word limit] - This is a serious matter, though I don't feel that The Race needs to be singled out. Jeff Kaloustian asserts that, "The pollution of the ocean by sailing racers is a mere cigarette butt on the face of Everest compared to the vast amount of junk put in the oceans by commercial shippers, cities, corporations, etc." Absolutely true. Still, I would ask Jeff to take a walk between 1 Mile Corner and 2 Mile Corner here on Aquidneck Island (Newport, RI). I'm willing to conjecture that if I collected every "mere cigarette butt" littering that mile over the next 6 months, I could make a chain that would encircle the globe. As humans, we have always trusted the earth to take care of our wastes. And, in our pursuit of "greater things"--sailing around the world or reaching the highest summit--we have been willing to justify pollution in the name of adventure and achievement. Is it justified? How long will it be before there is no longer any pristine place to go to escape the fetters of the mundane? Also - As an employee of US SAILING, I am distressed that "we" don't seem to be serving the sailing community. In defense of US SAILING, we are here to implement and administer the programs that the VOLUNTEERS who ARE US SAILING create. If "you" aren't happy with what's being done, step away from your keyboard and be part of the solution by joining the Rules Committee working party. * From: Nick Barran <nickbarran@earthlink.net> Save Our Seas is a reef and ocean research organization based in Hawaii and is one of many organizations dedicated to cleaning the oceans. One focal point has been an effort to encourage long distance race organizers to include a "no trash overboard" rule for all races. This means that racers will arrive with all their trash. TransPac has adopted this rule in the past, and even made special arrangements for a disposal bin to be set out at the harbor in Honolulu. We should encourage them and all other racers and cruisers to do likewise in future passages. There is little downside (if the trash is double or triple bagged) and big gains on the upside. Craig Fletcher's thread on ocean pollution by racers is important, not because it will clear the ocean of broken dagger boards, but because, we who see the ocean from the closest viewpoint, should be the most caring. VIDEOTAPE And it was with that attitude that I sat down to 'sample' the one hour and 50 minute videotape of the Transpacific Yacht Race produced by Roy E. Disney and Leslie DeMeuse. Oh my - was I ever wrong. This video is absolutely great. All two hours of it. The Transpac Race has been going on since 1906 - pretty much uninterrupted except for a couple of wars. There's a lot of history there. If you like ocean racing, you'll find this history lesson absolutely fascinating. I have no idea where Disney and DeMeuse got all of the historical footage, but they acquired some really wonderful stuff. And they've used it very skillfully to capture the changes, the drama, and oh yes, the romance of this 2225-mile race. My hat is off to the producers for even undertaking such a huge project. But it's the result that truly impressed me. Disney and DeMeuse are both pros, but they've poured more than just their professionalism into this video. While the video provides a remarkable showcase for their talent, it also dramatically demonstrates their personal commitment to this project. To order the video: http://www.transpacificyc.org/ QUOTE / UNQUOTE EASIER SAIL HANDLING SSC NEWS * HOT DEALS - The Bitter End YC on Virgin Gordo in the BVI just announced the following freebees and hot deals for SSC members: 1. For SSC charterboat visitors, we offer a complimentary two-hour Hobie Wave (your new favorite boat) or Vanguard 15 or Pico or Laser rental. This rental may be used during our weekly (Sunday morning) Laser regattas (if boats are available). This is a $40 value. One rental per member/per visit. Members are also entitled to one free shower or pool pass (again, one/member/visit). 2. For SSC members who wish to visit BEYC as resort guests, we are going to offer "preferred pricing." What that means is that SSC members will always have access to the best rate we have going at any time (and we run a lot of time-sensitive & regional specials). To get the best deals, SSC members should call 800-872-2392, or log on to www.beyc.com to find out the "latest and greatest." Remember - identify yourself as a SSC member. * To join the SSC without any cost whatsoever: http://sailingsource.com/scuttlebutt/ RRS THE CURMUDGEON'S QUOTATIONS |
