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SCUTTLEBUTT 2567 – April 3, 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. 2012 OLYMPIC EVENTS TO BE RECONSIDERED When the slate of events for the 2012 Olympics was to be determined by ISAF last November, the requirement was to reduce the event total from the current eleven fleets down to ten. Long story short, the multihull event got eliminated. Well, this proved to be tremendously unpopular amongst the international sailing community, and based on the significant outcry that followed, ISAF has agreed to reconsider. At the ISAF Mid-Year Meeting to take place in Qingdao, China May 8-12, 2008, the Council will reaffirm their decision on the 2012 Olympic Events made in November 2007 by a simple majority vote. If the vote affirms the decision, the train stays on the tracks. However, should the Council vote not to reaffirm the decision, two separate votes will then follow: 1. Should the selected events for the Men be changed – A majority of two thirds will be required to effect any change as per Regulation 16.1.3 (a). 2. Should the selected events for the Women be changed – A majority of two thirds will be required to effect any change as per Regulation 16.1.3 (a). In case one or both of the votes under 1 and 2 above achieve the required majority, the ‘new’ decisions on the list of events for the 2012 Olympic Events shall be made in November 2008 and submissions on the events can be made in accordance with Regulation 1. Also interesting are some of the suggestions that have been submitted on the equipment (i.e., boats) by member nations and class organizations: Formula 18 (Hobie Tiger, Nacra F18, Capricorn), Hobie 16, J/22, J/24, J/80, SB3, Ultimate 20. -- Complete report: http://www.sailing.org/22668.php?PHPSESSID=d61ff4b2a7b0e04f9bc8f2155d52e1a4 GUEST COMMENTARY: HELPING THE SUNFISH CLASS By Tillerman, Proper Course blog I see that there's currently a thread on the Sunfish Forum bemoaning the low attendance at two of your recent regattas with the usual wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth asking how you are going to build up the class to its former glory. I have the answers for your question: What sells products these days? * Answer 1: Cool. If your product is used by some celebrity, preferably a hugely rich entertainment megastar, then your target market will want to emulate said celebrity and be cool like him or her. * Answer 2: Sex. If there is any suggestion that your product will make you more attractive to the opposite sex, can be used in wooing the opposite sex, or can be photographed being used by attractive women in bikinis then your sales will skyrocket. So check out the article and pictures in today's Sun showing Sir Paul McCartney sailing with his latest love interest, Nancy Shevell. As you can see Sir Paul, one of the richest men in the world, has chosen a Sunfish as his sailing craft of choice. And Ms Shevell, looking remarkably well-toned for a woman of 47, is wearing a rather attractive swimsuit. If this isn't a golden opportunity for the Sunfish class to secure a celebrity product endorsement along with the rights to the images of Ms Shevell draped attractively across the Sunfish's deck, then I'm a Force 5 sailor. Just glad to help out my old friends in the Sunfish class. -- http://propercourse.blogspot.com/2008/04/dear-sunfish-class.html TEN MONTHS FROM WHEN? The America’s Cup was back in court on April 2nd, with the defender and challenger of record presenting their reasons for when the Deed of Gift match should be held. It all has to do with the 10 month time period prescribed in the original Deed of Gift, and when the clock begins. Scuttlebutt’s legal analyst Cory Friedman was in the courtroom, and provides his 20th report on the proceedings: (April 2, 2008) Do we have a date for the Deed of Gift (DOG) Match? No. A simple cruise around the buoys has turned into an epic 18th century winter rounding of the Horn. Now that it is clear that there will be a DOG Match between Societe Nautique de Geneve (SNG) and Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) before there is another conventional multi-challenger monohull event, just about everyone in the sailing community would like to see the DOG Match sailed as soon as possible. GGYC has said so. Grant Dalton has said so. Vincenzo Onorato has said so. Professional sailors in career holding patterns have said so. ‘Buttheads have said so. Before we can get there, Justice Cahn has to set a date for the DOG Match, which was the purpose of the April 2, 2008 hearing. After listening to the parties, Justice Cahn was left in irons, unable to set a date and had to hold off until he can figure the date out on his own. GGYC stuck to its previous rationale for an October 2008 Match. That pegs the Match to 10 months after Justice Cahn’s November 27, 2007 opinion granting summary judgment to GGYC and DSQing CNEV. (GGYC continues to implicitly concede that a toll was in effect despite the fact that SNG rejected a toll. See Episode 19 of this saga.) The fundamental problem with that argument is that an order has yet to be entered on the summary judgment motions Justice Cahn decided on November 27, 2007. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/cf/#p20 DISCOVER THE LATEST IN BOAT EQUIPMENT MyBoatsGear.com is a free online magazine dedicated to finding and reviewing the best boating products. Our latest newsletter is titled “Watermakers” (http://myboatsgear.com/newsletter/2008331.asp). We investigate the principle of Reverse Osmosis - the technique which watermakers use. We look at the required equipment, a typical installation set up, and then we look at a range of manufacturers and the maintenance requirements. MyBoatsGear.com is a one-stop, boating gear resource for boaters. With gear organized into 20 easily-accessible categories such as above-deck, electronics, safety, Our Aim is to promote boating products in an unbiased format. Check us out at http://www.MyBoatsGear.com * Curmudgeon’s Comment: Happy Anniversary to MyBoatsGear.com, which just celebrated its first year. If you are part of a company that is now in its second year, send us an email at mailto:info@sailingscuttlebutt.com IMPOSSIBLE TO BUILD IN SIX MONTHS In an interview with Bernard Cardis, owner of the Decision SA yard and the Team Alinghi builder, he states that it is 'impossible to build a giant multihull in six months' to compete in the 33rd America's Cup. The problems lie in the time needed to carry out the developments and the essential confidence tests. 'If one asks me to build such a machine and to test it in less than six months so that it is ready with regatta at at the beginning of October, I say not. Impossible! We have reached a level of complexity such as each part must be analyzed, validated. With such 'a marine monster', one will develop speed, superperformance ', Cardis adds. The Alinghi design team, with Nigel Irens and Sebastien Schmidt in reinforcement, has studied the concept of the boat for several months, but construction has not yet started. 'The ideal, continues Cardis, would be to start the multihull in April and to deliver it to mid-December, which would leave then three months of tests on water.' -- excerpt from Sail World, full story: http://tinyurl.com/367slu * (April 2, 2008) Desafío Español, the now-invalidated Spanish Challenge of Record of the 33rd America's Cup, hosted a press conference at its base in order to present the team's TP52 and GP42 campaigns for the summer as well as give the current state of affairs in the challenger. Among the more interesting announcements was that the team had chosen to represent a new yacht club, bringing the relation with the CNEV to an end, and aligning with the Real Club Maritimo del Abra, located in Bilbao, in northern Spain. Full report on Valencia Sailing: http://tinyurl.com/3xjsa3 SAN FRANCISCO TO YOKOHAMA RECORD (April 2, 2008 - 09:19) In order to make the maximum of headway on the 110-foot maxi-catamaran Gitana 13’s record run to Yokohama, Japan, skipper Lionel Lemonchois has opted to follow a course coloured by feisty conditions, putting a strain on both the men and the machine. The strategy has paid off however as at this morning's 0730 ranking, the sailors of Gitana Team had clocked up 1,000 miles towards the goal and had a lead of over 324 miles on the current reference time. Aboard the maxi-catamaran, everyone is adapting to this badly paved route, and relishing the opportunity to defy the stopwatch in this east to west crossing of the North Pacific. -- http://www.gitana-team.com/en/gitana/index.asp NEARLY A CLEAN SWEEP Cabo San Lucas (April 2, 2008) When the last finisher was scored Wednesday, Sabrina’s success in Balboa Yacht Club's race from Corona del Mar to Cabo San Lucas was even greater than at first reported: a clean sweep. The final numbers showed Chris Calkins’ 50-year-old wooden 50-footer from San Diego to be not only first to finish in Class D but first overall in the class and in the 37-boat fleet by both the PHRF and ORR handicap scoring systems. The only prize that escaped Calkins and his crew of navigator Fred Delaney, Doug Peterson, Norm Reynolds, Mike Dorgan, Jim Sakesegawa, and Bill White, ages 41 to 65, was a course record, which they missed by, um, about 33 hours. That went to Magnitude 80, Doug Baker’s Andrews 80 from Long Beach that sailed the 800 nautical miles in 2:10:23:27, an average speed of 13.7 knots. -- Complete report and results: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0402 INAUGURAL MATCH RACE EVENT LAUNCHED IN DETROIT Detroit, MI — Top-ranked match racing sailors from six countries will visit southeast Michigan in May to compete in the inaugural Bayview International Match Race for the Detroit Cup. The May 8-11 event will be sailed on Bayview’s fleet of Ultimate 20 sailboats and will be one of the three most prestigious match racing events in North America in 2008 as measured by the International Sailing Federation grading criteria. Competitors for the 2008 Detroit Cup and their international ranking include: Victor Lanier, of France, 11th; Andrew Arbuzov, of Russia, 15th; Simon Minoprio, of New Zealand, 26th; Chris Van Tol, of Grosse Pointe Park, Mich., 31st and the top U.S. skipper; Brian Angel, of Manhattan Beach, Calif., 37th; Adam Minoprio, of New Zealand, 43rd; Dave Perry, of Southport, Conn., 44th; Juan Ignacio Grimaldi, of Argentina, 53rd; and Simone Ferrarese, of Italy, 54th. A 10th skipper will qualify by winning the 2008 BYC Spring Match Racing Invitational to be sailed April 19-20. -- Full report: http://www.detroitcup.com/index.html VIDEO OF THE WEEK We sometimes forget that sailing is supposed to be fun, and with all the professionalism and the “need to succeed,” we have lost some of the craziness that has long been associated with the sport. We remember once when the leader of a snipe regatta snapped his mast in the final race, and rather than having a pity party, turned the event into a javelin contest (using the mast). Or when a certain maxi at a prominent regatta was having trouble docking, and the next morning found curb feelers bolted to their toe rail. For this week’s video, we wanted to show how dinghy training didn’t need to be all about defined goals, and coaches with video cameras. Sometimes all you need is a swimming pool, and a beat up Laser 2 (remember those?). Good times: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/08/0331 WIND FIZZLES AT END OF FLYING SCOT MIDWINTERS Last week’s 2008 Flying Scot Midwinter Championship in St. Petersburg, FL, ran out of breeze and ended a day early, finalizing a tightly contested regatta with only one point between first and second place. Ullman Sails customers Christ Wientjes and David Bolyard were in the hunt through to the final leg of the fifth race, but the wind didn’t cooperate for one more day of battle. Wientjes and Bolyard competed with a full set of Ullman Sails, finishing second overall behind Marc and Marcus Eagan. Invest in your performance. Contact a local Ullman Sails loft and visit http://www.ullmansails.com SAILING SHORTS * Auckland, NZL (April 2, 2008) The youngest skipper in the line-up, Silja Lehtinen of Finland, lies in first place after eight matches in the first day of racing in the BSPORT ISAF Women's Match Racing World Championships. She is closely followed on the scoreboard by Australian Nicky Souter and Liz Baylis from the USA, who each has four wins after five races. Conditions on the Waitemata Harbour in the morning started out on the light side, but the prevailing south-westerly developed to a steady 15-18 knots, gusty and shifty at times. -- Full report: http://www.rnzys.org.nz/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=2GRNZDvIaj8%3d&tabid=251 * Blanes, Spain (April 2, 2008) After taking the lead after the opening day of the Yngling Europeans, the American team of Sally Barkow/ Debbie Capozzi/ Carrie Howe slipped to second overall on the second day in shifty winds seldom over 6 knots. Now leading is Renee Groeneveld/ Annenieke Bes/ Merel Witteveen (NED), with Sarah Ayton/S arah Webb/Pippa Wilson (GBR) in third. -- Event website: http://cvblanes.esportcatala.com * The 70th Annual Snipe Mid-Winter Championships hosted by Clearwater Yacht Club on March 30-April 1 had 21 entrants, with the winner in doubt until the last leg of the final race. Only 1.25 points separated the top three finishers, with Augie Diaz and Kathleen Tocke closing the event with two firsts to win, followed closely by Andrew Pimental and Julia Langford in second and Ernesto Rodriguez and Megan Place in third. The Mid-Winters represent the first stop on the Snipe Winter Circuit, with the Don Q Rum Keg Regatta in Miami up next, and the grand finale in beautiful Nassau. -- Results: http://www.regattaprocessing.com/CLWYC/SNMW08/results.htm * Newport Beach, Calif. -- Newport Harbor Yacht Club (NHYC) hosted its inaugural Invitational Team Race on March 28-30 – one of the few invitational keelboat team racing events ever held on the west coast. Six eight-person teams from Rochester, Southern, Alamitos Bay, San Diego, New York and Newport Harbor yacht clubs competed in the two-person Harbor 20 sailboats. Newport Harbor YC and Southern YC needed all five races in the final match to determine the win, with the gulf coast club ultimately taking the victory. In the Petit Finals, San Diego YC beat New York YC for third place. -- Complete report: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=5968#5968 * As of the April 1 close of the Application for Entry in the 2008 Newport Bermuda Race, 224 boats had met the race entry application deadline. Of these, 214 boats have been cleared to enter the race. Another 10 applications are still under consideration. This will be the second-largest fleet in the 102-year history of the race, surpassed only by the fleet of 263 boats that sailed in the 2006 Centennial Race. The 2008 fleet is more than 40 boats larger than the previous non-Centennial entry record. -- http://www.bermudarace.com * Eight top quality teams signed-up so far for 2008 iShares Cup With the Extreme 40 catamaran fleet now numbering 14 boats, there is potential that even more will make the start line of the five iShares Cup events, which begin in Lugano, Switzerland, on May 30. The entry list includes Alinghi (Ed Baird), BT (Nick Moloney), Holmatro (Andreas Hagara), iShares (Hugh Styles), JPMorgan Asset Management (Shirley Robertson), Team Aqua (Cameron Appleton), TEAMORIGIN (Rob Greenhalgh), and Volvo Ocean Race (Herbert Dercksen). -- http://www.iSharesCup.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Here are a few of the events that are coming up: Apr 4-6 - Bald Head Island Regatta - Bald Head Island, NC, USA Apr 4-6 - Don Q Rum Regatta - Miami, FL, USA Apr 5-6 - AYC Thistle Invitational - Lake Pleasant, AZ, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar 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 the Forum (JScott, in regard to Henry Menin’s comments in SBUTT 2566): I guess that I am not really qualified to compare the merits of women match racing being in the Olympics and multihull racing not being in the Olympics. I am not a multihull sailor, nor a match racer, nor a woman. Shame on me for confessing that I would have loved to watch (and paid to watch) the cats flying around the courses at the Olympics and I find myself disappointed that the fastest sailing athletes on the planet are excluded from 2012. I am reassured that ISAF is pointing to the large number of women match racers (200 skippers, 1200-1500 crew). Can I assume that this dwarfs the number of competitive multihull helmsmen and helmswomen? -- http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=5965#5965 * From David Brookes. Executive Director, International Hobie Class Association: I would like to raise some of the comments by Henry L. Menin (in SBUTT 2566). He says that “To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a women's 2 person HP dinghy regatta (again, excluding the 470)…” If we can accept Wikipedia definition of a dinghy: “A dinghy is a often utility boat carried by a larger boat, the term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor but they could also be rigged for sailing. They are used for off-ship excursions from larger boats, outside of docking at suitably-sized ports or marinas. A small vehicle towed behind a motorhome is colloquially referred to as a dinghy.” The definition doesn’t say how many hulls a dinghy has. So if we can accept that a dinghy may have more than one hull, then I can enlighten his knowledge. The Hobie 16 Class has been running separate Women’s World Championships for over 10 years. ISAF has used the Hobie 16 at their ISAF World Sailing Games going back to the IYRU 1994 World Sailing Championships and always had a separate Women’s event. So as to enlighten some of my colleagues in ISAF, yes there is a Class organising women’s 2 person dinghy racing, and yes, there is a Class promoting and assisting women’s 2 person dinghy racing. Sometimes it is too easy to forget there is a big world out there that has more than one hull. * From Jim Capron, President, US SAILING: Your lead story in issue 2564 on April 1, regarding mandatory US SAILING membership for U.S. Navy and Coast Guard sailors, failed to mention that this proposed initiative will require a new US SAILING Prescription to the US Code. We are working with Congressional leaders on the exact language. Contrary to recent speculation, casual Wednesday night patrols are exempt. The Board is confident that with this expanded membership base, we can reduce adult membership dues to 59 cents (54 cents for a 3 year membership). => Curmudgeon’s Comment: This thread is closed… again. Post additional comments here: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=5935#5935 * From Andrew Riem (Regarding Fietlje Judel comments in SBUTT 2565) I went and looked up the ISO 8666 standard and it says..."It applies to small craft having a length of the hull of up to 24 m". I then went and converted 24m to feet and found it to be less than the 90 feet (around 78 feet actually) proposed by BMW Oracle Racing. So with no disrespect to a yacht designer of undisputed talent, however, the devil really is in the detail. CURMUDGEON’S COUNSEL Never trust a stockbroker who's married to a travel agent. Special thanks to MyBoatsGear.com and Ullman Sails. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
