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SCUTTLEBUTT 3629 - Tuesday, July 10, 2012Scuttlebutt 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: Vineyard Race, North Sails, and J Boats. SAILING SIBLINGS OFF TO LONDON When it's time to line up to march into the stadium for the opening ceremony of the London Olympics, Zach Railey will make sure little sister Paige is at his side. It's the moment the sailing siblings from Clearwater, Fla., have been waiting years for. "It will sink in for us when we walk in together at the opening ceremony," Zach Railey said. "That's what we've always dreamed about, a brother and sister standing next to each other walking in. It's a dream come true." Zach Railey, 28, knows the drill. He made his Olympic debut at Beijing, winning the silver medal in the Finn class. Paige didn't make those Olympics. She flipped her boat in the trials and lost to Anna Tunnicliffe, who went on to win the gold medal in the Laser Radial class. "It was incredibly exciting for me to go in 2008, but it was also incredibly disappointing for Paige." Zach Railey said. "We think of ourselves as a team. So we were successful in me going, but we were unsuccessful in Paige going. That's always been what it's about, the two of us going together and the two us being successful at the Olympics. We learned from that experience in 2008 and we came back and didn't let it beat us, and now we're going in 2012 and we can't wait." Both are strong medals contenders, although Zach Railey has the difficult task of being in the same class with British star Ben Ainslie, who will be trying for his fourth straight Olympic gold medal and fifth medal overall. "We've always been a key support system for one another, so to go to the Olympics together is one of the best things in the world," said Paige Railey, 25. "We're going to do everything we can to be there for one another and bring home those medals for the country." -- AP, read on: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=oly&id=8136178 BACKGROUND: The opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games is July 27, with racing for the ten Olympic sailing events to take place July 29 to August 12. The sailing events are held at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy in Dorset, Great Britain. The number of entrants varies for each event, with the Laser having the most at 49 competitors. Three hundred eighty sailors will be representing 63 nations. -- http://www.sailing.org/olympics/london2012/home.php NAKED AMBITION Hoping to convince any doubters that sailors are athletes, too, 2008 gold medalist Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) goes sailing in the buff for ESPN the Magazine's annual The Body issue. 2008 Laser Radial gold medalist Anna Tunnicliffe was one of the lesser known athletes selected to participate in ESPN the Magazine's athletes-in-the-buff photo shoot for its annual The Body issue. But this dramatic photo, taken off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is likely to change all that. The issue will be online on July 11th, and on newsstands on July 13th. On Wednesday the world will see a side of Anna Tunnicliffe it hasn't seen before. Well, technically, the side (her right) has been seen plenty of times, but only a few have seen it like this, namely, unshrouded by clothes. Tunnicliffe, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the Laser Radial and a favorite for the gold in Women's Match Racing in the upcoming London Olympics, was one of 27 athletes chosen to participate in the fourth edition of ESPN the Magazine's The Body issue. This annual issue has featured some of the world's top athletes in the buff, often with the appropriate sporting equipment providing enough cover that the magazine doesn't require with an R rating. Tunnicliffe (technically, Tunnicliffe Funk, since she's married to Laser sailor Brad Funk) is the first sailor to be included in the series. In this exclusive Sailing World interview (with a sample photo), the 29-year-old talks about the experience, starting with how she came to be involved with ESPN's answer to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Anna Tunnicliffe: To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I think [U.S. Sailing Team communications director] Dana [Paxton] heard about it and was like, "Would you be interested in submitting your name?" I said, "OK sure, fat chance that sailing's ever going to get selected." They came back and said, [we'd] been keen on having her if she's into it. I'm like, "Sure, let's do it. Why not?" Sailing World: So it doesn't sound like there was much hesitation on your part when Dana suggested it? AT: I think it's a good opportunity to show that sailing's not just booze cruising, that you have to be athletic. So it was a great opportunity to show the world that it is a physical sport. -- Read on: http://www.sailingworld.com/racing/olympic/naked-ambition BODY PAINTING: For anyone thinking the Americans have lost their mind (have you seen the recent bikini photos of Amanda, Sarah, and Paige?), here's a reminder of what the very successful British team did before the 2008 Games: http://tinyurl.com/SW-070712 IMPRESSIVE: A report on the 2012 British sailing team provides a synopsis of their representatives in the ten events, each of which is a legitimate medal contender: http://tinyurl.com/G-070712 WHY SHOULD YOU ENTER THIS YEAR'S VINEYARD RACE? Take part in an East Coast classic. Three courses; huge awards party; cruising division; multihull division; race tracking; Corinthian challenge; NORT qualifier and much more. Join Bruce Nelson at our skippers' meeting. Start date: August 31. Register today: http://www.stamfordyc.com. Follow us @vineyardrace SOME REGATTA PARTY Scuttlebutt correspondent Leighton O'Connor travelled to Ireland to experience how excited a city can get for a sailing event. Near as Leighton can tell, Galway has set the standard... here is his report:. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay....so a GoPro wasn't the best thing to capture the Volvo Ocean Race prize giving for the final standings in Galway, but I wanted to show the energy and size of the crowd and didn't have time to launch a sky cam. So I used one of my favorite tricks...a GoPro on a stick. Which worked out well considering the media pen in front of the stage was more like an overcrowded pig pen on raisers. Once again Galway came out in full force to support the teams at the prize giving in the evening. Galway was alive again for Volvo Ocean Race and the energy of the crowd was incredible. A favorite of the crowd was Ireland's own Damian Foxall who was a crew member on board France's Groupama, the overall winner of the 39,000 mile race around the world. Ireland's Afloat Magazine reported Sunday that over 800,000 will have visited Race Village in 9 festival days, roughly 90,000 a day, With an estimated economic impact to Galway that will exceed 80 million Euros, Now that is a some regatta party! So put my video in full screen HD mode and cheer and sing along with Galway: http://youtu.be/Fuc2d5CBE0k Party photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/12/0709/ BOAT BUILDING PLAN The next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race will use the Volvo 65 for the 2014-15 race, a new high tech class designed by Farr Yacht Design. The goal is to have at least eight teams competing in the event, which is a tight timeline to produce the boats. To guarantee the production of eight boats in less than 2 years, a team of four prominent boat builders have been assembled to take on the task. Decision (Switzerland), Green Marine (UK), Multiplast (France) and Persico (Italy) will each provide pre equipped sub assemblies in order to reduce the construction time while at the same time guaranteeing extremely tight tolerances for dimensions and weight between the boats. Decision boatyard in Switzerland will produce the bulkheads and internal structural elements. At the same time, Persico will mould the hulls and lay the longitudinal stiffeners in Italy. The decks will be constructed and fitted out at Multiplast in France before sending to Green Marine, the UK leader of the consortium, in charge of assembly, who will also finish and launch the boats. Green Marine will be the sole contactor for supplying the boats to the racing teams. The consortium is committed to deliver one boat every seven weeks from June 2013; the eighth boat being delivered in May 2014, four months before the beginning of the Volvo Ocean Race 2014/2015. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/MP-070712 QUOTE / UNQUOTE "It is always interesting when we show people the interior or our carbon-fiber rocket ship they smile and shrug their shoulders and wonder aloud what the heck makes people live like this. It's simple. It is the moments that we share amongst the crew that only we have had and will remember for the rest of our lives. We have lived through the good and the bad as a team and a family. It has been worth the exhaustion. But now that we are done we can relax and consider this job well-done as a completed chapter in our lives. Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012. I can't believe it is over." - Ken Read, PUMA skipper, 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race, http://tinyurl.com/KC-070912 CONGRATULATIONS GROUPAMA SAILING TEAM, Powered by North Sails North Sails would like to congratulate Groupama Sailing Team on their 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race around the world win! Racing with a complete North Sails inventory, Groupama sailed the 39,000 NM course and finished their epic around-the-world journey with 253 points overall. The top five boats in the VOR raced with North sails, including PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by USA's Ken Read, who won the VOR In-Port Race Series. Congratulations to all! When performance counts, the choice is clear: http://www.northsails.com SHATTERED (July 9, 2012) - In an age when sailing records are 'smashed' by just a few hours - if not minutes - beating a 16-year-old transPacific record by nearly two and a half days is mind-blowing. But that's exactly what Alex Mehran did early this morning (01:16 PDT) at the finish of the Singlehanded TransPacific Yacht Race. Mehran crossed the line aboard the Open 50 Truth shortly after 1 a.m., completing the 2,120-mile course in just 8d, 12h, 21m, 5s. He crushed the race's elapsed time record set by Ray Thayer on his Open 60 Wild Thing in '96 when he made it to Hanalei Bay in 10d, 22h, 53m. -- Latitude 38, read on: http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2012-07-09 Records aren't smashed without some luck. The boat can't break, and the weather needs to be just right. Here are the reports that Alex posted during the race: http://singlehandedtranspac.com/category/truth/ PRESERVING MARITIME TRADITION FOR THE FUTURE Essex, MA -- With a river basin view that mesmerizes, out-of-towners might miss the tree trunks stacked along the street by Harold Burnham's shipyard. But locals see these mounds of mostly white oak for what they are: the building blocks of the Massachusetts shipwright's dreams. This is the raw stuff that makes its way from the street to the sea, helping Burnham keep afloat a wooden boatbuilding culture in a town known for constructing more two-masted wooden fishing schooners than anywhere else in the world. Many see the 45-year-old Burnham as a master of a dying art. The Essex-born shipwright uses locally harvested wood and hand tools to build schooners at Burnham Boat Building with a modern adaptation of the same techniques builders used on this waterfront land in Colonial times. Burnham recently captured recognition by winning one of nine $25,000 heritage fellowships the National Endowment for the Arts awards annually. The prize is meant to pay tribute to his craftsmanship and mission to preserve a part of American culture for future generations. "This craft is so tied to place, in a way it's reconnected a town with its shipbuilding heritage that's sort of been lost," said Maggie Holtzberg, who manages the folk arts and heritage program for Massachusetts Cultural Council. Burnham is the 28th member of his extended family to run a shipyard in Essex since the town incorporated in 1819, a tradition he can trace back 11 generations on the same land. "It's as if he was born and had to do this," said Molly Bolster, who runs the New Hampshire maritime nonprofit Gundalow Company. -- Washington Post, read on: http://tinyurl.com/WP-070912 SAILING SHORTS * (July 9, 2012; Day 3) - Even the most battle hardened crews have been finding the very wet going and relentless high speeds tough as the MOD70 fleet devour the Atlantic miles in the 2950nm KRYS OCEAN RACE from New York to France. Yann Guichard (FRA), skipper of Spindrift Racing, leads the field (1753.5nm to finish), also holding the 24 hour record of 711.9 miles. Two of the five boats are now limping, as Steve Ravussin's Race for Water has a damaged dagerboard and Sidney Gavignet's Musandam-Oman Sail has a failed foil. -- Full report: http://www.krys-oceanrace.com/en/news/news/264/living-on-the-edge.html * (July 9, 2012; Day 2) - Offwind conditions are propelling the 27-boat fleet along the route of the 350 nm Route Halifax Saint-Pierre Ocean Race, with Mike Sutton's Soto 40 Helm's Deep and Luc Coquelin's Open 50 Sainte-Pierre en Bessin now under 90 miles from the finish. With 14 nm of lateral separation, the final shift could decide the winner. Each boat is fitted with a tracker that can be viewed here: http://yb.tl/halifax2012 * Newport, RI (July 9, 2012) - The C. Thomas Clagett Jr. Memorial Clinic and Regatta is North America's premier event for sailors with disabilities, with the 10 year anniversary of this annual event hosted on July 6-9. With the 2012 Paralympic Games rapidly approaching, The Clagett, which utilizes the same boats - the three-person Sonar, the two-person SKUD-18 and the singlehanded 2.4 Metre - was being used as a final tune-up before teams headed for London. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/CTC-070912 * Chicago, IL (July 9, 2012) - Forty-eight competitors today began the 2012 US Junior Women's Singlehanded Championship, hosted by Chicago Yacht Club on Lake Michigan. Jumping out to a convincing lead was Madison Gates of St. Petersburg Yacht Club with a 6-1-1-1, building a 16 point lead over Lindsey Baab (Saratoga, CA), who recently was the top American (13th) at the Laser Radial Youth World Championships in Australia. Racing continues through July 11. Details: http://championships.ussailing.org/Youth/USJrWomensSinglehanded.htm * (July 9, 2012) - After staggered starts on July 5 and 7, a high pressure system offshore has the thirteen entrants in the 2308nm Vic-Maui International Yacht Race hugging the coast in moderate to strong offwind conditions. Mark Ward's Beneteau 456 Radiance leads the fleet, gybing to starboard about 150 nm north of San Francisco, and looking to extend toward the southwest toward the finish. -- http://www.vicmaui.org/ * In what began with a list of 64 American sailing living legends, a tournament-style bracket has reduced the field now to the two finalists who face off in a massive test of accomplishments and popularity. Number one seeds Buddy Melges, Jr and Dennis Conner are in the Finals, with voting now until July 15, 2012 at 11:59 PM EDT. Vote here: http://membership.ussailing.org/sweeps.htm J/111 - BRINGING BACK THE FUN The J/111 has been lighting up the sailing world for 12 months. Whether seen sprinting to victory in the Around the Island Race (Cowes); one-design racing at Spi Ouest, NYYC Rolex and Chicago-Mac, or simply daysailing and weekending with friends, the J/111 is all about the joy of sailing. http://www.jboats.com/j111 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 Joel Teeters: Pretty interesting to hear from someone (in Scuttlebutt 3628) who has competed in two Olympics, and is getting ready for her third in the windsurfing event, finds kiteboarding not just too dangerous but too different. I wonder how many of the voting officials thought that since both windsurfing and kiting were 'board' events, that it would be easy enough for the athletes to cross over. Apparently not. * From US Windsurfing: The ISAF Council voted on May 5, 2012 to replace windsurfing with kiteboard racing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. US Sailing's support for kiteboarding played an important role in the narrow 19-17 decision at ISAF in favor of kiteboarding. We believe that this decision was misguided, and respectfully appeal to US Sailing to examine the facts and reconsider its position. If a formal request can be assembled and submitted by August 1, 2012, the ISAF Council will revisit the issue at its Annual Meeting in Dun Laoghaire in November 2012. Windsurfing is a unique discipline of sailing that is both physically and tactically demanding. It has a storied history at the Olympics and it should remain part of the sport of sailing on the biggest stage in the world. Olympic class windsurfers are some of the fittest athletes at the games. Like the laser class, the Olympic windsurfing class attracts participation from countries all over the world, including many emerging nations. It abides by one-design principles. It's affordable, accessible, and safe to do at almost any wind speed. It attracts youth sailors everywhere and is colorful and exciting to watch. The decision to replace windsurfing with kiteboard racing failed to properly evaluate the weaknesses of the new discipline of kiteboard racing at this point in its development. -- Read on: http://www.windsurfingtour.com/?p=5483 * From Peter Sutton: Did I read that right in Scuttlebutt 3628 - the Swan 42 National Championship was going to include a distance race in their event? Is it possible the American addiction to windward-leeward race courses could be getting an intervention? * From Tom Martin: Thank you to Jeff Dusek for pointing out (in Scuttlebutt 3628) how sailors can help to grow their corner of the sport by tapping into the interest being created by the AC World Series. The AC event authority had been known to say how the format for the 34th America's Cup will help grow the sport, but the reality is that the sport won't grow without also doing some work. By harnessing any new interest, and directing it to ways to get involved, is the way the sport will grow. SELLING. BUYING. HIRING. The Scuttlebutt website provides a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. For free. As a bonus, each week the Scuttlebutt newsletter includes some of the recent ad postings. Have an ad? Post it in the Classified Ad section of the Forum. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Flying is not dangerous - crashing is dangerous. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Kaenon Polarized - Vineyard Race - North Sails J Boats - Point Loma Outfitting - Pure Yachting Ullman Sails - APS - New England Boatworks Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
