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SCUTTLEBUTT 3145 - Friday, July 30, 2010Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: Melges Performance Sailboats and New England Ropes. SOLE US ENTRY IN VELUX 5 OCEANS SEEKS CORPORATE PARTNER Charleston, SC (July 29, 2010) - It's not a comfortable position, but Brad Van Liew has been here before. Just a few short months away from the start of a world-class sailing race that sends skippers around the globe alone, Van Liew is mentally and physically prepared to win. He has a stellar racing machine, fine-tuned by the best in the business. His boat's electronics package, cameras and communication gear, and renewable energy systems are in place. His shore support team and family are primed for this - one of the most exciting adventures possible. Tens of thousands of fans are ready to follow Brad's adventure online. Yet despite all this, Van Liew is still missing one major piece of the puzzle: A corporate partner to name the boat and brand some 8,000 square feet of space onboard. "I've done this race twice before, and I've always had faith that 'if you build it, they will come,'" Van Liew said. "It's financially risky and requires some serious intestinal fortitude, but a project like this doesn't fit into the standard mold for sports sponsorship in the USA, and it always seems we need to put the 'canvas' in front of sponsors for them to understand and appreciate the potential." Van Liew's 'ECO 60' is one of the fastest of its kind, a high-tech, carbon fiber thoroughbred racing yacht, designed from the ground up for singlehanded, transoceanic racing. He has christened the boat "Le Pingouin" - a name that harkens back to the boat's original days, when French solo racer Catherine Chabaud named it after the birds that she would see as she passed remote rocky islets like the Kerguelens in the desolate Southern Ocean. The yacht has been registered with that name ever since, even when companies like Whirlpool, Tiscali, and Pro-Forms had their names emblazoned on the deck and hull from stem to stern. Today, a different kind of logo covers the boat's hull - a fierce, determined penguin set against NASCAR yellow - that signals Brad's intent to dominate this race as he did in 2002-3 with Tommy Hilfiger. -- Full story: -- http://tinyurl.com/26o2385 EUROPEANS TO DOMINATE MELGES 24 WORLDS With anticipation building ahead of the 2010 Marinepool Melges 24 World Championship, taking place in Estonia from the August 4-12, eighty-four crews from seventeen nations are very soon set to converge on the 1980 Moscow Olympic Regatta venue in Tallinn. Based on this year's form guide, Uka Uka Racing arguably goes into this event as the marginal favourites and according to helmsman Lorenzo Bressani he and his crew have been preparing for Tallinn since January this year when they kicked off their season with a victory at Key West Race Week. "Since then we have concentrated on the Italian Volvo Cup Circuit where we took the chance to try out some new techniques and setups." Having sailed in three events, won two of them, including the Italian Championships and finished second in the other one, it appears that their experimentation went pretty well. While Bressani is pleased with his team and boat speed, he sees the venue as being the wild card. "Only our tactician Jonathan McKee has sailed there once, a long time ago. It is going to be a very tough regatta as we expect to see light to medium conditions and that means that all the boats are likely to have the same speed. My personal preference is for stronger winds where good boat handling plays a bigger part in the performance. We will arrive in Tallinn in time to compete in the Estonian Championship which will give us a chance to study the racing area." While the entry list is primarily European, with only one team from South Africa and two Japanese teams from off the continent, Bressani finds the event packed with good teams. "It is a Melges 24 World Championship, so that is to be expected. But this year there are many new teams on the list too to watch for. I think we will also need to keep an eye on some of the local boats, like Tonu Toniste on Lenny who raced at the top of the 470 fleet for a long time and knows the sailing area well." Competitors will undergo three days of registration, crew weighing and boat measurement checks from the August 4th - 6th before the main twelve race World Championship series begins on Saturday August 7th and runs through to August 12th. -- Event website: http://worlds2010.fi/ MELGES 32 HARBOR SPRINGS NATIONALS UNDERWAY The first day of racing in Harbor Springs at the 2010 Melges 32 U.S. National Championship has concluded with 18-year old Ryan DeVos (youngest helmsman in the fleet) on 'Volpe' in first place. He leads the championship by two points followed by European Champion Joe Woods on 'Red' in second and John Kilroy, Jr. on 'Samba Pa Ti' in third, both tied with ten points each. Great, tight, competitive racing happening now in Harbor Springs! Tune-in and turn-up the speed each day at melges32.com for full race news, photos and results! -- http://www.melges32.com COWES WEEK ON COURSE FOR SPECTACULAR 2010 Cowes, England (July 29, 2010) - This Saturday the largest sailing regatta of its kind, Cowes Week, kicks off for its 184th year. This year Cowes Week welcomes a number of new classes and has made several improvements to ensure that 2010 is the best regatta yet. At the current time, entries are in great shape at 893, with more still coming in. 2010 sees a number of class changes, including the inclusion of the Longtze class to Cowes Week as part of its European tour circuit. This sportboat is the result of a design by Steve Thomson, a New Zealand naval architect, and was developed and readied by the America's Cup team "Le Defi". Produced in Qingdao, sailing venue for the 2008 Olympics, the boat benefits from technologies developed by "Le Defi" for Longtze, the first Chinese America's Cup class yacht. Longtze Premier combines the excitement of sailing a dinghy with the security of a small keelboat. In addition to the traditional Cowes Week fleets, a number of exciting associated events will add some extra sparkle, including The Extreme Sailing Series, the second part of this exciting competition where the Extreme 40s will go head-to-head in a series of sprint racing. The 1851 Cup is a new trophy event, and the brainchild of TEAMORIGIN, the British America's Cup sailing team who have invited America's Cup holders, BMW ORACLE Racing to Cowes to compete in a match race tournament. Racing will take place late afternoon off Cowes on Tuesday 3, Wednesday 4, and Friday 6 August. On Thursday 5 August, a race clockwise around the Island will take place over the historic original course that saw the birth of the America's Cup in 1851. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/2du9s4s *Event Website: http://www.cowesweek.co.uk US SINGLEHANDED CHAMPIONSHIP BEGINS FRIDAY Portsmouth, R.I. (July 29, 2010) - A new division for women 16 or older has been added to the fold for the U.S. Singlehanded Championships (USSC). This US SAILING National Championship event, hosted by the Pensacola Yacht Club (Fla.), starts Friday and runs through Sunday, August 1. Women will race in Radials and the men will sail in Lasers on Pensacola Bay. A talented fleet of 12 will compete for the inaugural women's event, including Mallory Buechler (Pensacola, Fla.) who finished seventh out of 46 at the U.S. Junior Women's Singlehanded Championship. Three-time Sunfish North American Champion, Anne Edwards (Baton Rouge, La.), will try her hand in the Radial class. In the men's division, four prior US SAILING National Champions are competing for this year's title, including last year's runner-up, Zeke Horowitz (Siesta Key, Fla.), former two-time U.S. Junior Triplehanded Champion, Fred Stammer (Nokomis, Fla.), Kevin Laube (San Diego, Calif.), and Evan Hoffman (Escondido, Calif.). The U.S. Singlehanded Championships are open to male and female sailors 16 and older. A day of practice racing and a Rolex Clinic led by Kurt Taulbee will be held prior to racing on Thursday, July 29. -- Full story: http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/2010_USSC_Preview.htm SURVEY SAYS The America's Cup community is in agreement that a new design is needed for the event, but is less in agreement as to whether it should be a multihull or a monohull. There is an eagerness by the America's Cup defender BMW Oracle Racing team to invigorate the event, and they are leaving no stone unturned. Every aspect of the event is open for discussion, but much of what is decided will depend on the platform used. When the Scuttlebutt Survey asked the 'buttheads this week what type of platform should be used for the 34th America's Cup, nearly 70% said it should be in a monohull. Here are some of the voter comments: * "The most critical aspect is not multi or mono but keeping the boats closely matched with a perception of speed. Also critical to try and keep both boats in the shot, creating personalities that you can root for or against and most important get audio from the boats to the audience so that you are taken onto the playing field." * "I readily agree that the knowledgeable spectator will likely be happy with either hull (option) as long as the competition is close. Maybe I'm cynical, but the only way to attract the non-boating public is with personalities. Boxing needs another Muhammad Ali. Sailing needs another Ted Turner." * "Speed alone is not what makes watching a sport on TV exciting. Note the introduction of side by side skiing and snowboarding events at the Winter Olympics. It is action and closeness of the boats. The tri vs. cat race last year was a crashing bore to watch even though they were traveling at really fast speeds for sailboats. Match racing can be explained to the non-sailor with ongoing commentary and overhead graphic views like those with Virtual Eye for the last few matches in mono-hulls." View poll results and all the comments here: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/10/0728/ CONGRATS TO FLYING JENNY VI! Congratulations to the J/122 Flying Jenny VI and owners David and Sandra Askew on their impressive win in the 2010 Chicago to Mackinac Race this week. The boat was recently outfitted with all New England Ropes cordage, including our smoking hot product "Poly-tec", Endura Braid "Euro", STS 12 (Formerly Endura 12) and V100. Close collaboration with our rigging partner, Jay Herman of Annapolis Rigging, helped us fine tune the product line so it performed beyond expectations on the racecourse. For complete information on our products, call 1-800-333-6679 and talk to a race specialist! -- http://www.neropes.com PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include a room with a view, a big mommy boat, Jaguar vs. BMW, Cali dreaming, euro sexy, kiwi sexy, multihull sexy, and not-so-sexy. Here are this week's photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/0730/ THIRD DIMENSION: Strap on your 3D glasses as photographer Daniel Forster takes us sailing in the third dimension: http://tinyurl.com/Third-Dimension NOOD: Photographer Leighton O'Connor provides a glimpse of the action at the 2010 Sperry Top-Sider Marblehead NOOD: http://tinyurl.com/23uu2c3 GROWING: The first ever French Junior O'pen BIC Championship had BIC Sport supply all the boats for the 74 competitors to come and participate. Have lifejacket, go sailing: http://tinyurl.com/2cdovq6 SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK Between the affordability of handheld video cameras, and the ease of uploading digital video clips to internet hosting sites, there are now countless sailing clips available from amateur shooters. This is all good for the viewer... as long as your standards are not too high. Fortunately, there are plenty of people interested in producing high quality content too, and they are even seeking to push the envelope a bit. This week Adventure Online TV show us what they have been doing with 3D HD video. Click here for this week's video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/10/0730/ SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com SAILING SHORTS * The 2010 Intercollegiate Sailing Association/Gill National Championship will air on ESPNU Saturday July 31st at 2:00pm (Eastern Time). The hour-long show will feature high-definition coverage of the college dinghy championship that was held in Madison, Wisconsin on June 1-3. The show is produced by Gary Jobson and Jobson Sailing for ESPN. It will also re-air on August 1 (1:30pm), and August 13 (9:00pm). -- http://www.jobsonsailing.com * Aarhus, Denmark (July 29, 2010) - A massive 14 boat American team is in Aarhus, Denmark for the 2010 5O5 SAP World Championship, which kicks off on Friday and runs through Thursday August 5. In the Pre-Worlds that finished on Wednesday, American boats took three places in the top ten of the 78-strong fleet. Perennial class champion Howie Hamlin sailing with Andy Zinn took 5th; Augie Diaz and Luke Lawrence finished 9th; Edward Conrads and Brian Haines finished 10th. -- Event website: http://www.505sapworldchampionship2010.com * Watsonville, Calif. (July 29, 2010) - West Marine, Inc. (Nasdaq:WMAR) today released unaudited operating results for the second quarter of 2010. Income before taxes was $36.0 million, a $3.7 million, or 11.5%, increase compared to the same period last year. Earnings per share for the second quarter were $1.52, compared to $1.46 for the same period last year. Earnings per share year-to-date were $1.12, compared to $0.75 for the same period last year. Stores opened during 2009 and the first two quarters of 2010 increased revenues by $9.9 million versus last year. During the quarter, the company opened its fifth Flagship store, located in Newport, Rhode Island. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/2ee2osu * July 29, 2010 - Following on the heels of Sunday's conclusion of four days of highly successful America's Cup media trials, a new web site has been launched, www.acmediaevaluation.com, where all the clips have been posted and comments are welcome. The media trials were geared to examine every aspect of America's Cup racing, including the type of boat (monohull or multihull), the format of the racecourse (upwind, downwind and start sequences) and, importantly, the video output for broadcast and on- line viewing. More than 150 hours of video requiring 10 terabytes of memory was captured in the trials, which used a pair of BMW ORACLE Racing's RC 44 high-performance monohulls and X40 catamarans. 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 Rick Merriman (re, Scuttlebutt 3144): Al, I was in the first generation to race Opti's. I had US IODA hull #38. In 1975 and 76 I was on the US team that traveled to the Worlds in Denmark and Turkey and the South American Championships in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires. So traveling for Opti kids is not a new phenomena. It did not burn me out or some of the other kids that were on the team. You might have seen their names, Morgan Reeser and Pete Melvin to name a few. Sure, not all of the kids kept sailing competitively, it is just like every kid that plays Little League does not continues to play baseball. I still like competing on an international scale. I am heading over to England next week to compete in the Weymouth Sail for Gold in the Star class. This is my third trip to Europe this summer for Star racing. I still race against the some of the same adults now that were kids with me. It has been great to have friendships all over the world for so many years. * From Brooks Magruder, Istanbul, Turkey (re, Scuttlebutt 3144): Much ACup debate of whether a multihull or monohull would be better - one solution: use BOTH - first stage uses one type; next stage uses other. To keep costs down - first stage uses one-design boats and we get additional benefit of crew vs crew excitement eliminating boat differences. * From Adrian Morgan (re, Scuttlebutt 3142): Eric Camiel notes how "...the astounding success of 'Deadliest Catch' is based not primarily on their spectacular shots but on the ability of the cameramen and editors to tell the personal stories of the fishermen." Well, yes, but are you seriously suggesting fishing for crabs in a storm in the Bering Sea has any relevance to yachting around Valencia or San Francisco Bay in a Force 4? And why on earth would any America's Cup sailor willingly invite the media to pry into his personal life when all he wants to do is win a yacht race? Would he have to sign a declaration before stepping aboard, stating that he was willing to pour his soul out to the media; divulge personal details of his life to make the action more "interesting"? Have a camera thrust in his face all day? If this is the price the sport has to pay to attract a moronic, couch-potato TV audience, then farewell yacht racing as we know (and love) it. Dogs being wagged by their tails comes to mind. * From Fin Beven, San Pedro, Calif. (re, Scuttlebutt 3144): Imagine the excitement and video potential of the finals of the AC being a fleet race among the top 5 finishers of several elimination series fleet races featuring 10 - 20 boats. * From Kathleen O'Donnell (re, Scuttlebutt 3144): I think Gary Hoyt's comments were great, and thought provoking. We all know that watching sailboat racing has frequently been compared, unfavorably, to watching paint dry. I assume that the question of redesigning the event to appeal to non-sailors is driven by the need to generate a lot!!! of revenue to offset the costs. But many people are appalled at the idea of wasting leisure time watching billionaires throw money at each other. I like the idea of separating the America's Cup from the racing we all do, but I think the cost of the boats should be reduced to allow for greater participation. You shouldn't have to own your own software company to race a boat - monohulls have my vote. * Felix Hunter, Montego Bay, Jamaica (re: Scuttlebutt 3143): Having met Steve Benjamin over the many years that he has sailed the Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race, I am not in the least surprised that he has turned negative into positive, and not only for himself. May his personal journey through a difficult time and the campaign of his boat Robotic Oncology serve as an inspiration for all men to be proactive about their prostate health and to realize that one's attitude to each and every situation in life impacts the result. Good sailing through countless more years Benj. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now. Special thanks to Melges Performance Sailboats and New England Ropes. 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