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SCUTTLEBUTT 2956 - Thursday, October 22, 2009Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Today's sponsors are Ullman Sails and BIC Sport. BRAD VAN LIEW RETURNS TO THE VELUX 5 OCEANS Brad Van Liew has confirmed his entry in the VELUX 5 OCEANS 2010-11 race. Van Liew's new ocean racing campaign targets the popular and exciting Eco 60 Class, and constitutes the first United States entry in the race. The move represents a return to the race he famously won in 2003 as the skipper of the Class II Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America. "This race has had a massive impact on my life over the past decade," said the 41-year old ocean racer. "During the 1998-99 Around Alone, the predecessor to the VELUX, my family and I fell in love with Charleston, the start/finish port of the race. We subsequently made it our new home." Van Liew explained that with his resounding victory in 2003, "I felt like I'd achieved my goals in ocean racing, and could spend my time developing the South Carolina Maritime Foundation, a truly worthy organization." But when VELUX 5 OCEANS organizers decided to return to Charleston for the 2010-11 race, it ignited a spark in me that I didn't really expect, and Meaghan and I have decided to focus on building a campaign to compete in this edition of this epic race." Van Liew's nascent campaign is currently named "Lazarus" and the American sailor has targeted the Eco 60 Class from the outset. "The new Class provides a low-cost platform with true 'green' credentials that appeal to me personally and will also appeal to potential US sponsors," Van Liew said. "I've quietly built a team around me over the past few months to secure the necessary funding and a boat to race competitively and safely, and while there's a huge amount of work to do over the next twelve months, I'm confident that we can cross the starting line in La Rochelle to complete this amazing journey." -- Read on: http://www.oceanracing.org/images/release102109final.pdf * Brad is traveling to France this Saturday with his shore team and has several meetings set for touring, sailing, and inspecting available boats that qualify for the Eco 60 rule in the race. The VELUX 5 OCEANS starts and finishes in La Rochelle, France, begins October 17, 2010, and includes five ocean legs to South Africa, New Zealand, Brazil, and USA before returning to France. -- http://www.velux5oceans.com/ BEN LEXCEN'S SIDE OF THE STORY Ryoichi Steven Tsuchiya, a member of the selection committee of the America's Cup Hall of Fame since 2008, has provided Scuttlebutt audio interviews with key member of Australia II. In their own words, hear skipper John Bertrand and designer Ben Lexcen regarding the development of their innovative, wing keeled boat that won the 1983 Match. Here is an excerpt from Bertrand: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Ben Lexcen] was working on the rake of the leading edge of the conventional keel. He was working on it, I'm guessing, six month, the so-called sweep back angle of the keel, a steep angle or vertical or whatever; they did lots and lots of tank testing, getting minute. changes in performance, and it's just driving him nuts. And then he started to talk to some aerodynamic engineers.over lunch in the cafeteria .and basically, they said, "what are you working on?" "Keels." "So what is a keel for?," because they didn't understand sailboats. He said there are two reasons why: one reason is for stability.and, secondly, we need a keel to give lift, so the boat won't slip sideways. He presumably sketched what he was working on and they asked him, "Why do you have a delta wing for a keel?" He said, "Well, because if you have a square keel you'll have massive tip losses." Tip vortex, they call it. And they suggested, "Why don't you put wings on it, have you heard of 'winglets'?" And he said, "no." They were developing winglets at the time, secret work at the time. That was the essence of it.that's what Benny told me. * Listen to audio interviews: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/1021/ => Curmudgeon's Comment: This thread now extends back to Scuttlebutt 2940 (September 30th), and after hearing from key Australia II team members and Dutch designer Peter van Oossanen, it is certain that there were many cooks in the kitchen regarding the design of Australia II. While it has been fun to look back on the 1983 America's Cup, the Friday edition of Scuttlebutt will close this thread with commentary from the man whose team was asked to defend against the Australians - Dennis Conner. "MAN-O-WAR" DOESN'T FLINCH IN THE BREEZE In an exciting and windy weekend of ocean racing in Pensacola, FL, Ullman Sails customers took the top two spots in Division A of the West Florida Ocean Racing Circuit, October 16-18. In winds ranging from 17-30 kts over three days, Tom Beery's J/35 "Man-O-War" finished first overall, winning Boat of the Regatta with four wins and two seconds in six races total. Mark Palermo's Beneteau 40.7 "Sapphire" finished in second place. Both teams competed with Ullman Sails, sailing fast and avoiding the carnage of broken spars, cracked hulls and crew overboard. Ullman Sails - Invest in your performance. http://www.ullmansails.com The seminar season is approaching, with many of the Ullman Sails lofts planning events. Ullman Sails Newport Beach is hosting a monthly series of Winter Sailing Seminars starting on November 4th, 2009 and ending on April 7th, 2010. -- Details: http://tinyurl.com/yjs9jgs VENUE MOTION LACKS A CLEAR LEADER By Cory Friedman, America's Cup legal analyst (October 21, 2009) - There are two motions scheduled for oral argument on October 27, 2009 in the America's Cup battle between Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) and Societe Nautique de Geneve's (SNG). The first is GGYC's motion to renew its rules motion, about which I wrote in my last piece (Part 46). GGYC looks pretty good on that motion. The second is GGYC's motion to throw out Ras al-Khaimah (RAK) as the venue for the February Match. GGYC has an uphill battle on both motions, and the hill is steeper on the venue motion. At a recent talk on the AC litigation, I was asked by an audience member whether he should cancel his flight to RAK. After recovering from my surprise at the improbability of such plans, my answer was no. Based upon SNG's response to the venue motion and GGYC's reply, he should hold on to his ticket a little longer. On the venue motion there are some new faces. Despite yeoman, hands on representation for two years, GGYC has elbowed Jim Kearney at Latham & Watkins into the background as David Boies at Boies, Schiller & Flexner takes the helm. This is particularly perplexing as, although I have not agreed with every move Kearney has made (many of which were probably constrained by his client), he has done an excellent job and clearly took the laboring oar throughout. In contrast, when Boies represented Team New Zealand (TNZ) against Alinghi on a complaint that was all smoke, mirrors and bull byproduct, he never showed his face in court and his firm was totally outclassed by Jonathan Youngwood, second in command to Barry Ostrager at Simpson Thacher. TNZ ultimately threw in the towel. While Kearney's papers always had real snap and seized your attention, Boies' papers are pretty bland. Curiously, SNG's papers are much better than the papers on its rules motion and read more like the papers Youngwood submitted against TNZ. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/cf/#p47 AMERICA'S CUP TEAMS FOCUS ON FRANCE With two weeks to go until the eight teams are scheduled to assemble for practice sailing in Nice, preparations for the first Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta are gathering pace. The facilities in Nice are being readied, the race boats are being tested, equalised and prepared for racing and some of the teams spent some time on ACC yachts last week, working out the kinks ahead of the first race day, November 7. In Valencia, the site of the last America's Cup and where several teams still maintain a base of operations, the four ACC boats that will be used for the racing in Nice have been set-up for the November regatta. On Tuesday afternoon, two of the boats, GBR 75 (provided by TeamOrigin) and FRA 93 (provided by ALL4ONE - previously known as K-Challenge) arrived under tow, following a 400-plus nautical mile journey up the Mediterranean coast to Nice. The other two boats, ITA 90 and ITA 99, supplied by the Mascalzone Latino team (who won't be competing in Nice) will be shipped to the venue later this month. The confirmed line-up of eight world-class sailing teams for the Louis Vuitton Trophy - Nice, which runs from the 7th to 22nd November includes: ALL4ONE (FRA/GER) Azzurra (ITA) BMW ORACLE Racing (USA) Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Swedish Challenge Artemis (SWE) Synergy Russian Sailing Team (RUS) TeamOrigin (GBR) Team French Spirit (FRA) Complete report: http://tinyurl.com/yft5auu KEY WEST RACE WEEK FLEET TAKES SHAPE Entries are steadily growing amid the handicap and one design fleets for another week of "winter racing" in tropical, South Florida conditions at Key West Race Week on January 18-22, 2010. Always a showcase for new boats, debuts will include Sir Irvine Laidlaw's new 80 foot Wally Highland Fling and the new Mills designed (and Sailing World Boat of the Year nominee) Summit 35. Over the past decade the trend towards one design racing continues to grow, with classes using KWRW as part of their endorsed schedule. The Farr 40's will be prepping for their April World Championship in the Dominican Republic, while both the Melges 32 and J/80 classes have organized racing circuits that include the event. Along with IRC and PHRF, other invited one design classes include the J/105, Swan 42 and Farr 30. Corsair 28Rs and 750s will race as a multihull handicapped class. New this year is a 20 foot sportboat class, with the K-650, Laser SB3, Audi Melges 20, Open 570, Open 650, Ultimate 20 and Viper 640 among the interested classes "Given the cautious outlook towards the economic recovery, we're really pleased to hear about so many owners making plans to race with us in Key West," said Event Director Peter Craig. -- Event website: http://www.premiere-racing.com/keywest10/pages/KW10_event_homepage.htm * Does anybody need crew? The Curmudgeon is accepting offers, plus the Scuttlebutt crew list is up and active. If you want to sign up to crew, or if you are looking for extra personnel, this is the official list for Key West Race Week 2010: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar/eventdescription.asp?ID=16746 "NO SUBSTITUTE FOR FAST AND FUN" Paul Heineken (and St. Francis YC) "gets it" and makes the point perfectly in his excellent commentary (SB#2952); "There is no substitute for FAST and FUN!" BIC Sport offers two platforms to bring that spirit and excitement to YOUR Junior Sailor(s). The O'pen BIC is the modern junior dinghy that kids LOVE, and the BIC Techno 293 is bringing kids (and families!) back to windsurfing with a huge international One Design class. Contact info@bicsportna.com for attractive offers and fleet purchases for O'Pen BIC and Techno 293s for your local sailing program. Learn more at: http://www.openbic.com and http://www.techno293.org * To read Paul's commentary: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/1015/ SAILING SHORTS * Clearwater, FL (October 21, 2009) - After four days of racing at the US SAILING's 2009 U.S. Multihull Championship (USMC), 2007 winner John Casey (Longwood, Fla.) and crew John Williams (Long Beach, Calif.) continue to lead the 16 team field. Racing concludes on Thursday. -- http://championships.ussailing.org/Adult/USMHChampionship.htm * St. Petersburg, FL (October 21, 2009) - The ten teams at the ISAF Grade 1 match racing Rolex Osprey Cup enjoyed brilliant sunshine, eighty degree temperature and a steady 6-9 knots on the first day of racing. Completing seven of the nine flights in the first round robin series, American Anna Tunnicliffe has so far run the table with a perfect score, but must still face Karin Hagstrom (SWE) who is next in the standings at 6-1. Competing in Sonars, all teams will complete two round robin series before the top teams advance to the knockout rounds. -- Standings: http://www.rolexwomensmatch.org/ROC/2009/Results2009.html * Valletta, Malta (October 21, 2009) - With 41 of the 62 starters having finished the 606-nm 2009 Rolex Middle Sea Race, and the balance confirmed as non-finishers, the top five overall IRC boats are now officially Alegre (Mills 68), Beau Geste (Farr 80), Luna Rossa (Judel & Vroljik STP 65), Ran (Judel & Vrolijk 72), and ICAP Leopard (Farr 100). -- http://www.rolexmiddlesearace.com/index.cfm * The International Lightning Class Association (ILCA) is accepting applications for the fourth year of its incredibly successful Boat Grant Program, which puts race-ready Lightnings into the hands of young sailors who might otherwise not have the opportunity. The deadline for the 2010 program is December 31, 2009. The class program provides each recipient a top quality racing Lightning with trailer, practice and racing sales, insurance, help with regatta expenses, and support from an established Lightning sailing mentor. -- Details: http://tinyurl.com/ylxzmm4 * Nassau, Bahamas (October 21, 2009) - Racing on the third day of the 2009 Sunfish World Championship was cancelled due to wind and sea conditions. American David Loring holds a narrow .2 point lead over Venezuelan Marx Chirinos in second. Three races are scheduled for the 72 competitors on Thursday, with racing concluding on October 24th. -- Event website: http://sunfish2009.nassauyachtclub.org/index.html * The 2009 Canadian Yachting Association Annual General Meeting Weekend will take place in Toronto, Ontario November 19-22. All meetings and the Annual Rolex Awards Banquet will be held at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. -- Details: http://www.sailing.ca/features/2009_cya_agm_weekend_november_20_22_2009/ PROMOTE YOUR EVENT IN SCUTTLEBUTT Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool is the easiest way to communicate to sailors, plus it is another information platform that will get picked up by Internet search engines. Additionally, the calendar database is shared by several media outlets, further increasing the reach of your message. View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar Another opportunity to promote your event is on the Scuttlebutt Forum, where reports can be posted before, during, and after the racing. Here is the dedicated section for event reports: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/Discussion_C6/Event_Reports_F29/ LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, 'The Curmudgeon'). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Jon Rogers, Coronado Yacht Club (regarding youth sailing thread): By far our most successful day in our After-School and Summer Programs is Bring a friend/parent for a sail day. We have done this on the last day of every class for about 15 years - a concept started by my predecessor. You'd think that by putting a parent in the front of a sabot, the rudder barely in the water that the kid would struggle to sail, especially upwind. Not the case. The kids often sail the best they have all session and I still can't quite put my finger on exactly why. My guess is that they love to show what they can do and thus their motivated. * From Frank Lawson, Port Ludlow, WA: Back during my college years I spent 3 summers running junior sailing programs; 2 at SSA in Annapolis and 1 at the Ram Is. YC in Connecticut. In each case one day a week, for the older kids, was a day to use sailboats for exploration; sailing to nearby islands, creeks, etc. with escort of an instructor in a powerboat. I felt then and do now that learning that a sailboat is a wonderful means of quiet, windborn transportation to expand young horizons should be an integral part of a junior program. We would look at large scale charts of the areas we would sail to and talk about tide, current, weather before setting out. It was a great success, as I recall, for the kids to have that freedom and a change of pace from a wholly race-oriented program. * From David G. Houck: Thank you - love the focus on all the sailing in Annapolis mentioned in today's issue: "ANNAPOLIS: LONG RANGE FORECAST While the spotlight in Annapolis, MD has been on the Melges 24 Worlds, the town will also be busy during the next two weekends hosting prominent events for the J/24, Etchells, J/105, and IRC." But there's also lots of junior sailing during next two weekends, with Annapolis YC hosting its Annual Halloween Howl Optimist Regatta this weekend, and then hosting the I420 Atlantic Coast Championships the following weekend. (Don't forget about junior events!) => Curmudgeon's Comment: Thanks for the information. With all the racing going on, the best way to insure events don't get missed is to add them to the Scuttlebutt Calendar. The database is also shared by other media, so the calendar exposure is significant. Here is the link: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar/ * From Peter Wilson: Bravo Stuart Streuli and to those who have recently spoken out to get America's Cup 33 race - on the water! The assertion by the GGYC under the guidance of Mr. Ehman that the rules as proposed by SNG are inadequate and/or one-sided is interesting, particularly as they were adopted by them as originally written by Mr. Ehman himself for the '88 Cup (Cat vs. Big Boat) when he was on the side of the defender. Secondly, the assertion that RAK is an unsafe venue for the Cup, I challenge GGYC to present a list that equals the terrorist bombings and deaths incurred by just one group in their preferred venue - Spain. The separatist/terrorist group ETA is blamed for more than 800 deaths and many more casualties, and is listed as a terrorist group by Spain, the EU & US. In fact, it was only a few weeks ago that bombs went off in Palma, summer home of King Juan Carlos. RAK not safe? -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8463#8463 * From Damian Christie, Melbourne, Australia: There is an easy way to solve the current legal confusion about whether SNG/Alinghi is entitled to defend the America's Cup in RAK or in "any other location", as stipulated in the ambiguous language of the New York Court's 7 April, 2009 Order. Just ask Justice Cahn, the man who wrote it! Justice Cahn originally issued the Order in March 2008 before SNG had it temporarily overturned in the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court. While he may have since retired from the bench, Justice Cahn is the perfect independent witness to bring to the stand. He could explain what his intention was when he wrote the order, ie did he give the Swiss carte blanche to hold the Cup defence practically anywhere in the world, or did he mean a southern hemisphere location if the Swiss chose not to defend in Valencia? It would save hours of the court's time, spare Justice Kornreich the headache of having to glean meaning from the words in the Order and finally put the Cup back on track! This whole legal farce has centered around what one man - George Schuyler - meant when he drafted the rules 150 years ago. Unfortunately, for the sailing world, he is no longer alive. Justice Cahn is - and in all likelihood, he would very happily answer the proper questions if he was asked! So why not USE him? From retirement, Justice Cahn must be laughing at how ludicrous this case has become! => Curmudgeon's Comment: As a reminder, the Deed of Gift states that a Match in February must occur in the Southern Hemisphere unless the Challenger agrees for it to be elsewhere. The Deed of Gift always has afforded the defender the right to choose the venue, so the question becomes whether Justice Cahn's decision provided SNG the right to disregard the hemisphere rule in the Deed of Gift. Read the decision and judge for yourself (see Page 8): http://www.ggyc.com/20080512_DecisionAndOrder(1409756_1_NY).PDF CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Bad decisions make good stories. Special thanks to Ullman Sails and BIC Sport. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
