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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 871 - August 3 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
SKANDIA LIFE COWES WEEK The previous highest entry was in 1997 when the regatta received 914 entries. The entry number for 2001 beats last year's total of 890 by more than 100 boats. Racing kicks off on Saturday morning at 10:00 with a special one-off race for six Thames Barges. More used to carrying haystacks up the narrow, winding rivers and inland waterways of Britain, the Barges will be an unusual sight in the frantic waters of the Solent. Half an hour later, the serious racing boats of IRC Classes 0 & 1 get underway. They'll be competing on Saturday for the prestigious Queen's Cup and will probably be led away from the start line by the huge 90ft ocean racing maxi yacht Skandia Life Leopard. Be sure the check the site for Dick Johnson's Cowes Week Radio broadcasts, BT is arranging to stream the audio live on the net. The official site is www.cowesweek.co.uk
OVER TWO HUNDRED FASTNET ENTRIES Staged every two years, its 608-mile course takes the yachts from Cowes around the Fastnet Rock and its lighthouse off the south-west coast of Ireland and back to the finish in Plymouth. Records will be on everyone's mind, but every monohull, right down to the smallest, can win the Fastnet Challenge Cup and Rolex Chronometers after handicap allowances have been taken into account. In the IRM class, the Fastnet Rock Trophy will be awarded with a Rolex Chronometer. Many of the entries are from club competitors, achieving a lifetime ambition. Chasing the honours will be three 90-footers, Mike Slade's Skandia Leopard, Giovanni Ignelli's Stealth and La Foiles des Grinders. Also in contention should be Hasso Plattner's Morning Glory and Ludde Ingvall's Nicorette and there is expected to be a quartet of Volvo Ocean 60s in their last major tune-up before the Volvo Ocean Race round the world starts on 23 September. In addition there is a pair of the Open 60 yachts used in the Vendee Globe, Bernard Stamm's record breaking Bobst and Catherine Chabaud's Whirlpool, current holder of the Fastnet Challenge Cup and taking part in what she says will be her swan song in offshore racing. There will also be a multihull class,including the 60-foot trimaran Eure et Loire, which earlier this year smashed the record in the Round the Island -- Trish Jenkins, J2 Communications
TRANSPAC WINNER SPEAKS! "I am the owner of BULL. Your cloth made a beautiful jibtop. This was one of the giant killers in our inventory. If one knows how to use this sail right these can really light up relative performance. Add in the AIRX asymmetric spinnaker inventory and we had all our giant killers in place!" "In Transpac a boat typically looses at least one kite per race. We lost nothing this year. We had enormous success with AIRX in all of our asymmetric kites... very fast. That's what you want when racing offshore." -- Seth Radow.
BATTLE OF THE CHESAPEAKE This is a competition between clubs. All the competing boats from a club make up its team. A club's score will be the total of the finishing places of its top eight boats. This is a reverse PHRF event. Boats are assigned starting times in reverse order of their PHRF ratings. Boats with the highest PHRF ratings will start first and boats with lower PHRF ratings will follow at times corresponding to their handicaps. The race is scored by order of finish, like a one-design event. Not only are the winning club's members and friends expected to shoot off their mouths shamelessly and immodestly about their racing skills, the winning club gets its name on the perpetual trophy and a hefty portion of the registration fees will go to the CBYRA Fund for Chesapeake Sailors in the club's name. EYC will subtract party and RC expenses from the entry fees. The remainder will be the donation. For more information contact event chair Bill Sloan at 410-280-6613, email wmsloan@earthlink.net; or PRO John McLeod at 410-280-2441(H) or 301-713-3155, extension 112 (W), email 3macs@toad.net, or john.mcleod@noaa.gov. Eastern YC: www.eastportyc.org
NEIL MCDONALD LEAVES GBR CHALLENGE, JOINS ASSA ABLOY VOR
SUPER COMPASS
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Peter Vause Regarding David Tabor's woes with CO2 cannisters. the real irony is that the inflatable life vests on aircraft have CO2 cannisters in them. We had similar problems in Asia trying to get replacement CO2 cylinders. West Marine couldn't send them by Fed Ex as they were classed as hazardous materials. * From George Bailey: Typically for many races and some regattas there are really two races going on. One by people seriously engaged in "Sport" and the other by people just having fun. Not only has the first group memorized Perry's book, they work like mad to implement his recommendations. Perhaps the other group read Perry's book and agrees that one really ought to study the weather and currents, calculate just how high to point in varying wind strengths, practice tacking, and so on, but somehow never gets around to doing all this "work." The first group removes everything from the boat that the rules allow, dry sails the boat if possible, and so on. The other group thinks nothing of taking a full 36 gallon ice chest aboard and only hauls the boat every six months or so. The first group thinks that if you not racing spinnaker, why come out? The second group can't remember where they stashed the pole. The first group actually does not mind the second when they are in the same class, since membership in the two groups is uneven, the majority being in the "fun-first" group. So the people in the first group have only a few competitors to work hard to beat. When the groups are in separate classes, though, the first group gets aggravated waiting for second to finish. And so it goes. It is any wonder that some of us posting here sometimes seem to be talking past one another? * From Nick Barran: Thanks to David Tabor. I hate having to surrender CO2 cartridges. I called the number he gave to tell the FAA what they need to do, but was told that they are working on HM228, a proposal for rule making, which will be published in two months, we will then have 60 days on which to comment. I will watch for this, but in case I miss it, perhaps others can keep an eye open for it, so we can deluge the FAA with advice.
CHASING THE 24 HOUR RECORD Everyone has an obsession and for Sean Langman, the 30-something rigger and former Australian 18-foot skiff champion, that obsession is the 24-hour monohull speed record. GPS: YouÕve just missed the race record for the Sydney to Gold Coast by 15 minutes in far from ideal conditions and as a result the world 24-hour record is still out there teasing you. Do you still believe can set a new world mark? Langman: After the Gold Coast race there's no shadow of a doubt that we will break the record. And I believe 500-plus miles are well within our reach. At one stage during the race, we averaged 22.5 knots over a three-hour period in 26 to 27 knots of wind. Every time we go out on this boat, we learn a lot more, and this race was no exception. I love sailing fast. IÕve come out of 18-foot skiffs into this boat and the world record is sitting there as something to go for. ItÕs like the old adage of Everest being there so someone has to climb it. I want to go for it because we have the means with Grundig Xena to do the job.
CYA YOUTH SAILING CHAMPIONSHIPS This regatta is Canada's premiere annual youth event whereupon sailors and provinces strive to reach the podium. Asides from great racing and training opportunities for young athletes, this regatta is also the first qualifying regatta for the 2002 Canadian Youth World Team. This team will be officially announced in the next few weeks.
Winners in all fleets were as follows: For a full list of results, please got to: www.ebspars.com/sail/2001/01fb/combined3.htm
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
