|
SCUTTLEBUTT 3475 - Tuesday, November 22, 2011Scuttlebutt 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: Interlux, North Sails, and J Boats. PUMA DISMASTED IN SOUTH ATLANTIC (November 21, 2011, Day 17) - PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG has suffered a broken mast on the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, which began 17 days ago from Alicante, Spain. The crew is unhurt. The rig onboard PUMA's Mar Mostro failed at around 1500 UTC in the southern Atlantic Ocean, about 2,150 nautical miles from Cape Town, South Africa. The team was able to recover all three pieces of the mast and all sails from the water. They did not immediately retire, but after considering their options, they chose that to be the best decision. "This is about earning points in this race," explained skipper Ken Read. "We think by sacrificing points on this first leg, it gives us a chance to actually earn points for the second leg and the In-Port Race. So, that's our goal. "We have [the mast] jury rigged. We have about 15 feet of mast left. We have our trysail and storm jib awkwardly set. We're supplementing that with really low revs of the engine just to make forward progress." The team is currently headed towards the small island of Tristan da Cunha, less than 700 nautical miles away. PUMA's mast broke when she was in second position trailing race leader Team Telefonica by just 31nm. The cause of the dismasting is not known at this stage. The rig is of a different origin and manufacture to that of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Azzam which suffered a failure earlier during Leg 1. "We were sailing on a port tack," Read described, "beam reaching in 22-23 knots of breeze, heading east northeast with eight to 10 foot waves when the mast failed. There were no warning signs. "This is the saddest and most disappointed 11 people on earth. We were in a comfortable second position, traveling south to get into the final front and head across the southern Atlantic towards Cape Town. We were planning to be there in five days." -- Race media Standings as of Tuesday, 22 November 2011, 1:02:08 UTC 1. Team Telefonica, 2063.80 nm Distance to Finish 2. CAMPER with Emirates Team NZ, 92.80 nm Distance to Lead 3. Groupama, 272.00 nm DTL Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing - Retired from Leg 1 PUMA Ocean Racing by BERG - Retired from Leg 1 Team Sanya - Retired from Leg 1 Tracking/Standings: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/racetracker/rdc.html Video reports: http://www.youtube.com/user/volvooceanracevideos SCORING: If the three boats still racing complete this leg, 1st place receives 30 points, 2nd place receives 25 points, and 3rd place will receive 20 points. The three retired boats will score no points for Leg 1. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/Scoring/3/race.html BACKGROUND: During the nine months of the Volvo Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain and concludes in Galway, Ireland during early July 2012, six professional teams will sail over 39,000 nautical miles of the world's most treacherous seas via Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland, around Cape Horn to Itajai, Miami, Lisbon, and Lorient. Teams accumulate points through nine distance legs and ten In-Port races. - http://www.volvooceanrace.com APPLES AND ORANGES The move to multihulls for the 34th America's Cup has seen growth in the Extreme Sailing Series (ESS), an event schedule raced in Extreme 40 catamarans which visited nine international venues in 2011. Both Emirates Team New Zealand and Artemis Racing are fielding teams in the ESS to sharpen their multihull skills, while the America's Cup World Series (ACWS) event in San Diego has ESS helmsmen Pierre Pennec (FRA) and Yann Guichard (FRA) join the Aleph and Energy teams, respectively, for the first time. So will the ESS prove to be the gateway toward the America's Cup? According to Kiwi skipper Dean Barker, comparing the two events is still a bit like comparing apples and oranges. While similar, they do have differences. "What the Extreme Sailing Series provides is that you tune up and then get in something like 30 and 40 races in five days. You just can't duplicate racing when you are trying to learn the maneuverability and the technical situations for different scenarios. The Extreme Sailing Series is raced in very confined spaces which lead to a lot of interaction between the boats. You are forced to learn things very quickly. It has been a fantastic environment for us." But since the winner of the America's Cup is typically the team with the fastest boat, that remains a vital area to gain knowledge. And the ESS fails there. "The series doesn't teach you a lot about boat speed and developing speed. The emphasis is entirely boat handling, whereas with the ACWS there is still an element of boat speed required. There are multiple sail configurations to design and develop with the AC45." Until the America's Cup teams make the transition from the AC45s to the AC72s, they will continue to be racing in the short course venues of the ACWS. And while some of these skills might not transfer to the larger venue that San Francisco Bay will provide, for the less funded teams, it is vital to be doing well now. Their existence may depend on it. -- Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt TRAINING: For the final Act of the nine event 2011 Extreme Sailing Series in Singapore on December 7-11, five of the eight America's Cup challenging teams have declared their participation in this Extreme 40 catamaran event. Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 will compete along with helms from Aleph, Energy Team, and Team Korea (Chris Draper). Artemis Racing, which had competed in six events this season, will not be racing in Singapore. -- http://www.extremesailingseries.com/venues/view/singapore NEW INTERLUX REDUCED EMISSIONS MICRON CSC HS ANTIFOULING Micron CSC HS (High Solids) reduced solvent emissions paint controls the release of copper for better longevity with reduced impact on the environment. Provides multi-seasonal performance and reduced maintenance: haul & re-launch - no need to repaint. Get more info at http://www.yachtpaint.com/usa JUST WIN, BABY Growing the America's Cup to gain broadcast appeal and commercial revenue has everything to do with creating interest in the event, the teams, and the people. While the event has remodeled itself to be of greater interest, the race amongst the teams is as much on land as it is on the water. It takes money to win the America's Cup, and the teams with the larger fan base will win the sponsorship spoils. Scuttlebutt polled its readers to see which teams were liked (or sort of liked) during the America's Cup World Series event in San Diego (Nov. 16-20), and the rankings on the water appeared to influence the poll results. Prior to San Diego, neither of the French teams had seen much success on the water. But as the Energy Team posted top scores during the event, they evidently scored points on land as well. Here is the poll result: 21.64% - Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Dean Barker (NZL) 19.01% - Artemis Racing (SWE), Terry Hutchinson (USA) 17.54% - Oracle Racing (USA), Jimmy Spithill/Darren Bundock (AUS) 15.20% - Energy Team (FRA), Yann Guichard (FRA) 14.04% - China Team (CHN), Charlie Ogletree (USA) 06.14% - Team Korea (ROK), Chris Draper (GBR) 02.92% - Green Comm Racing (ESP), Vasilij Zbogar (SLO) 01.75% - Aleph (FRA), Pierre Pennec (FRA) 01.75% - Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 (ITA), Max Sirena (ITA) Source: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/polls/11/1117 CANADA TO REWARD MEDALLISTS' COACH (November 21, 2011) - The Canadian Olympic Committee announced that it has created a coach reward program for Olympic podium performances, financially rewarding the coaches of Olympic medal winners. Beginning with the London 2012 Olympic Games, the coach of Olympic medallists will receive $10,000 per gold medal, $7,500 per silver medal and $5,000 per bronze medal, per sport discipline. This represents half of the amount awarded to Olympic medal-winning athletes through the Athlete Excellence Fund: $20,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver and $10,000 for bronze. "Coaches are the backbone of our athletes' planning, preparation and performances," said COC President Marcel Aubut. "From the time a child takes their first steps onto the field, the track, or the ice, the coach is the key. We need to keep our coaches in Canada. We need to reward them at the level they so rightly deserve." -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/COC-112111 CREW POSITION - CASE 36 This is an installment by International Umpire/Judge Jos M. Spijkerman (NED) in a series of blogposts about the ISAF Call book 2009-2012 with amendments for 2010. All calls are official interpretations by the ISAF committees on how the Racing Rules of Sailing should be used or interpreted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A boat in an offshore class, while close-hauled, had a crew member positioned, for several minutes on two occasions, next to the shrouds with his feet on the deck and his legs inside but touching the lifelines. While his torso was substantially upright, part of it was outboard of an imaginary line projected vertically from the top of the lifelines. The boat was disqualified under rule 49.2 and appealed, which was later dismissed. To clarify the rule, this drawing shows possible crew positions: http://rrsstudy.blogspot.com/2011/11/pillowcase-of-week-4511-36.html Rule 49 - Crew Position 49.1 Competitors shall use no device designed to position their bodies outboard, other than hiking straps and stiffeners worn under the thighs. 49.2 When lifelines are required by the class rules or the sailing instructions they shall be taut, and competitors shall not position any part of their torsos outside them, except briefly to perform a necessary task. On boats equipped with upper and lower lifelines of wire, a competitor sitting on the deck facing outboard with his waist inside the lower lifeline may have the upper part of his body outside the upper lifeline. -- ISAF RRS: Rule 86.1(c) allows class rules to change Rule 49 if desired. RRS 2009-2012: http://tinyurl.com/ISAF-112111 FREE SHIPPING THROUGH NOV 30 AT NORTH SAILS GEAR Through November 30th, Scuttlebutt readers get FREE SHIPPING on all North Sails Gear orders. We have new apparel for men & women and great gift ideas for everyone in the family. If you've been especially good... why not buy something for yourself?!. Enter 'SBUTT' in the comments box during check-out and we will deduct shipping costs from your order (surface shipping within the USA only). This is a great time to check a few items off your holiday shopping list! www.NorthSailsGear.com SAILING SHORTS * The Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) has named its 2011 All-Academic Sailing Team. The 2011 All-Academic Sailing Team recognizes collegiate sailors who have achieved excellence in national and inter-conference competition as well as excelling at the highest academic level for the 2010/2011 academic year. A nominated sailor must have a minimum of a 3.5 cumulative GPA (on a 4.0 scale), junior or senior academic standing and they must be a key starter or reserve on a school's sailing team. Each school is allowed three nominations. -- http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12893 * SAIL magazine has published their 2012 Best Boats Award winners. Among the honorees are a cat with two cockpits, another cat with two tillers, a variable-displacement daysailer and a pair of red-hot raceboats. -- Full report: http://www.sailmagazine.com/best-boats/2012-best-boats-winners-announced * In 1962, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club donated the Onion Patch Trophy. Now, 50 years later, the Onion Patch Series is being sailed for the 25th time. Considered the triathlon of sailboat racing, the 2012 Onion Patch Series is sailed every other year during three consecutive weeks in June. The events that comprise the series are the New York Yacht Club Annual Regatta, The Newport Bermuda Race, and The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club Anniversary Regatta. -- Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12897 * Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy will serve as honorary chairman of OpSail2012CT, a four-day event that will draw majestic tall ships from around the world to the New London area next summer for an expansive waterfront festival expected to be the largest tourism event in Connecticut in 2012. OpSail2012CT, which will take place July 6-9, is part of a national maritime celebration that will travel to six U.S. cities and Puerto Rico to mark the bicentennial anniversary of the War of 1812 and the writing of the The Star-Spangled Banner. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12807 ARE YOU IN THE MARINE INDUSTRY? The Marine Industry News category of the Scuttlebutt Forum provides companies with guaranteed online exposure of their personnel, product and service updates. Are you in the marine industry? Post your updates here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/industry_news EIGHT BELLS W. Richard Boehmer, age 68, of West Bridgewater, MA died on Nov. 17, 2011. I first came to know Richard in a project for building a 45' Dick Newick-designed trimaran that Bill Doelger of Boston was trying to put into production. Richard did speed analysis, and I did hull engineering. That project did not get off the ground, but later on Richard and I worked on a few other projects, one involving the design and wind tunnel testing of a wingmast rig I designed for a 45' monohull, for which we sought the advice and guidance of C.A. (Tony) Marchaj, the author of "Sailing Performance - Theory and Practice", and "Aero-Hydrodynamics of Sailing". We tested that rig at the wind tunnel at the Wolfson Unit, University of Southampton in 1986. Richard was an author of a number of interesting articles on speed sailing and sailing records. He was also the keeper of the sailing records for the Guinness Book of World Records for a time. He was the developer of the concept of "Base Speed", first for multihulls, and also applicable for monohulls, the final version of which was published in Multihull International in April 1989. -- Eric W. Sponberg, Naval Architect Obituary: http://tinyurl.com/Obit-112111 2012 J/80 WINTER TOUR - USA Join the J/80 Class for its 2012 Winter Tour featuring the Midwinters in Key West, three weekends in Miami (including Bacardi Race Week) and the finale at Charleston. The top guns in the class are coming and a few new boats are still available for a fun winter of southern sailing! http://www.jboats.com/j80/ GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Bill Reilly: It's a shame to hear about Puma's dismasting during the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, and I feel sorry for them (and the other 2 boats that have had to retire), but it's the fault of the VOR organisers. Ever since they switched over to the points system there has been a high rate of breakages because the crews know they don't have to finish every leg. That in itself is just asking for trouble. Back in the old days of the Whitbread/Volvo, when they raced under elapsed time, the rule was very clear: If you don't finish a leg you can't win the race - period. It made the teams really look at their gear a bit more seriously and try to make the boats as bullet-proof as they could without sacrificing too much performance. Now they build the boats and the gear too close to the bleeding edge, and common sense and seamanship are getting tossed aside to save a few kilos. With 50% of the fleet now out of the first leg it's turning into a big joke, and the joke is on the VOR organisers. Knut Frostad has done this race enough times to know exactly what I'm talking about, and I'm sure he's starting to feel a bit stupid at this stage for letting it happen. If they change the race back to an elapsed-time race then I'm sure you'll see boats and teams that are better prepared to handle the conditions, which makes for better competition and better return for the sponsors. The VOR is going the same way as the America's Cup, who sold out to the sponsors and the quest for more viewers and higher TV ratings at the expense of the sailing. And guess what, it isn't working. * From Adrian Morgan: America's Cup Healthy Ocean campaign? Give me a break. Carbon fibre, jet skis, support boats, helicopters, container ships, gasoline, air miles... This has to be one of the most cynical marketing ploys in sport. * From George Morris (re America's Cup World Series): Believe it or not stadium racing is not new. Anyone who sails on a lake or a reservoir or a river, probably with a fixed land-based starting line, does 'stadium racing'. That is probably most of us. As a spectator sport it is more interesting than steady wind sailing. As we saw Friday, in steady wind the guys who won the start won the race but when it went fluky passing lanes opened up. And when the 'wrong' guy won, we had an abandonment and a resail which was very similar. A bit like a safety car? The nationality thing is difficult. The Americans lead Chinese and Swedish teams, the Korean team is British, the U.S. teams have Aussie and Kiwi leaders. Thankfully teams from New Zealand and France are more or less as flagged. It would be more honest to stick with the club names as in football (Manchester United is largely staffed by foreign players). * From Robert Johnston, New York City: After four days on the spectator pier at (America's Cup World Series in San Diego), I can offer a couple of comments from the spectators' point of view. First off, clearly extraordinary sailing and excellent commentary with tremendous popular accessibility. But if you're going to have a stadium, why not a scoreboard? For all the high tech in the racing, the only leaderboard around is decidedly low tech, essentially an ordinary (print) bulletin board back in the village, tended by a gofer on foot with paste-on labels and updated well after the close of racing. I would think well-designed real-time scoreboards could be positioned all over the village and viewing areas for instant reporting of progress in each race (mainly timings at marks), results and standings. Second, the much bemoaned dilution of the nationality rules and takeover of corporate interests to the point of making the boats floating (or flying!) billboards, may be here to stay, but this is still nominally a friendly competition among nations, isn't it? You'd never know that as most of the boat names have become increasingly opaque. The boats still carry national flags but most spectators can't make them out (virtual TV coverage adds them on top of each top) and commentary doesn't usually mention them unless they are part of the boat name. Why not require that they should be? Some boats still do, and Emirates Team New Zealand has certainly established itself with solid brand recognition for both corporate sponsor and country. For most casual spectators, how do they know who to root for, or against? CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM Why is all the wisdom in the bottom half of the bottle? SPONSORS THIS WEEK Ultimate Sailing - Team One Newport - Interlux North Sails - West Marine - Ullman Sails - J Boats Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
