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SCUTTLEBUTT 1825 - April 26, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. DESIGN DIFFERENCES (The Daily Sail subscription website spoke with Team Shosholoza designer Jason Ker about the team's new Version 5 America's Cup boat. Here's an excerpt from their story.) While several (America's) Cup teams have told thedailysail that this time round they expect the main developments to be in the rig, Ker is not so convinced. "I would say there is a limited amount you can do to the hull or the rig frankly. I think they might be right in the differences between hulls will be quite small in 2007. I would also expect the differences between rigs will be quite small come 2007. However the differences between hulls and rigs now will be quite big still. Because of the racing I suspect that everyone will evolve to a more homogenous level than is typically the case in AC racing when thing things arrive out of the blue, only to discover that everyone has been doing something completely different. "Having said that people will be trying to avoid revealing what they have been doing in the background, so what you see sailing in 2006 could be quite different from what you see sailing in 2007 for example. We don't know if anyone is going to pull a blinder on something. So everyone says this is a program to do with rigs, but I think rigs are quite developed as well. I think your program is about getting everything absolutely refined - rigs and keels and hulls. I think the differences will be very small in performance and people will be looking more at tactical differences and the characteristics of the boat rather than ultimate speed around the course differences." - www.thedailysail.com QUOTE / UNQUOTE "Our (America's Cup) campaign is not only about sailing, but rather a perfect opportunity for showcasing South Africa's technology, incredible human initiative, skills and expertise in a way that few other international campaigns can," said Salvatore Sarno, Team Shosholoza's managing director, http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050422/ukf004.html?.v=7 IT TAKES MORE THAN GOLD Despite winning three Olympic sailing medals - two of them gold - it looks as if there will not be any place for Ben Ainsley in the next Americas Cup. The Briton has been part of the Team New Zealand afterguard but looks set to miss out on a place in the actual sailing crew in 2007. He is one of the hottest properties in sailing, after winning his second Olympic gold in Athens last year. Ainsley had been squaring off against other team members in testing races, but Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton says he is happy with Terry Hutchinson, Kevin Hall and Dean Barker in the afterguard, and it would take something major to happen for him to change his mind. Grant Dalton says Hutchinson has been employed as the tactician and it has been his spot to lose in testing. He says the races were never meant as a man-on-man confrontation.- NZ City, http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.asp?id=49744 WHAT DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES Kevin Shoebridge, the day-to-day boss of Emirates Team New Zealand, chuckles at the irony of Auckland's fickle weather. Two summers ago, sailors sat and waited for days on end for a fair wind to blow on the Hauraki Gulf to race in the America's Cup. Now, with the silverware elsewhere, the summer winds have been superb. In the four months of Team New Zealand's first full-blown testing session towards the 2007 regatta, the team lost one day to the weather. "It's been a phenomenal summer," Shoebridge said. "Better than we'd hoped. We almost had too much sailing - there were days we stayed ashore when we could have been out there." Team New Zealand wrapped up its summer sailing program this week and Shoebridge, the operations/sailing manager - or the guy responsible for the day-to-day running of the syndicate - is a satisfied man. "We made serious progress in the last four months," he said. The team have accumulated hard drives full of testing data from their sailing on the Gulf, to be used for the design and construction of Team New Zealand's two generation 2007 race boats. - Suzanne McFadden, NZ Herald, full story: www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=4&ObjectID=10122055 CAN'T WAIT TO GO SAILING Summer is on its way! Get yourself into a pair of Camet Sailing Shorts or Pants! Rated as sailing's "Must Have" gear in this month's Sail magazine. Made of fast drying, breathable Supplex and reinforced Cordura with optional foam padding. Available in a variety of styles and colors to match anyone's personality or boat gear. Call us, or call one of our many dealers right now! For sales or a catalog call 619-224-6737 or go online at http://www.camet.com ERICSSON ENTERS VOLVO OCEAN RACE Telecommunications supplier, Ericsson, has announced today that it will enter the Volvo Ocean Race 2005. The yacht will be the only Swedish entry in the line up. Ericsson will, together with Semcon as design and development partner, form the "Ericsson Racing Team". The campaign will be supported by Atlant Ocean Racing. The team's yacht is currently under construction at Green Marine in Lymington, UK, under the supervision of Jason Carrington. The launch is planned for June 2005. Information on the choice of skipper and crew will follow in the next few weeks. - www.volvooceanrace.com/pages/news/news138.htm ADRIENNE CAHALAN Growing up in Sydney, on the east coast of Australia, sailing has been a part of Adrienne Cahalan's life since she was teenager. Even after sailing for over 15 years professionally, it wasn't until the age of 38 that she returned to school in the United Kingdom for a master's degree in meteorology. Although trained as a lawyer, her meteorology degree and her racing experience ensured that she would be able to stay at the top of her field as a navigator for international yacht races. In the old days, the navigator's responsibility was simply to know where a boat was on the ocean and where it was headed. "Nowadays," says Cahalan, "GPS provides that information for us, so my main focus is to develop a strategy to handle the weather at any given time, to win races by taking the information we receive via satellite and making the adjustments to our course based on the real-time weather. I work with the crew to decide what sails to use for the weather conditions. At the same time I'm also responsible for the maintenance of electronic equipment-computers, cameras, radars, wireless networks-which can be very sensitive to the marine environment." - Full story: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Cheyenne/cheyenne2.html Curmudgeon's Comment: Adrienne Cahalan was the navigator aboard Cheyenne during the catamaran's recording-breaking, round-the-world trip in the spring of 2004 and will navigate Brazil 1 in the next Volvo Ocean Race. VIPs The transformation work in Valencia Port is going ahead apace for the Americas Cup, with the next main project to be decided is the special VIP building, which was opened for bidding contracts yesterday by the Valencia Consortium 2007, who also expressed the belief that it could become a convention centre after the Americas Cup Races in 2007. Budgeted at 36 million Euros, the VIP building would also have a huge esplanade in front of it and a parking area for 800 vehicles. The esplanade would be named the AC Park and would see the installation of many attractions for the general public attending the regattas. It was also revealed yesterday that the Jose Mari Restaurant in the Port would close its doors next Wednesday for the first time in 23 years after reaching an agreement with the Consortium and the Port Authority. The building will be revamped and become the International Press Centre. - www.valencialife.net DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN? What do the Mumm 30 North American Champion and the Swan 45 winner at Key West have in common? They both crossed the finish line wearing custom crew gear from the US Sailing Authentic Collection. Did you know you can get custom crew gear from US Sailing? Whether it's for Wednesday night races or a one-design class championship, you can put your boat name and sail number on official US Sailing apparel. Next time you're thinking about getting custom apparel for you crew, think about the Authentic Collection. Visit http://www.ussailinggear.com today. FRIDAY IS THE DAY Prospective America's Cup challengers have until Friday to enter for the 2007 sailing showpiece in Valencia. The final deadline for syndicates to join the nine challengers already declared looms on April 29. Teams from America, South Africa, New Zealand, France, Spain, Sweden and three from Italy have so far entered. America's Cup holders Alinghi, of Switzerland, will race off against the winner of the Louis Vuitton Challenger Series in Spain. - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/4464411.stm Curmudgeon's Comment: This deadline is fully spelled out on the blogsite of the Challenger Commission: www.challengercommission.com/ NEWS BRIEFS * The weathermen struck for the second day of racing in Antigua Sailing Week. Unseasonably light wind postponed the races for Division A and B fleets for an hour and while it eventually filled in enough to start races, it never really held. Although it looked like a lottery on the water, a number of class winners yesterday also won today including Dasian, Mustang Sally, Nanuk, Justice, Seabiscuit and Durley Dene. - www.sailingweek.com * The Marion to Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race which starts on June 18 now has 76 applications. The race website will follow all the action on iBoat Track. Every boat in the race will be equipped with a transponder to track location and progress during the 645-mile race as well as the return home. During the race, iBoat Track will continually update each yacht's position, speed and standing within the class and fleet. - www.marionbermuda.com * Long Beach YC and the Long Beach Sea Festival Association will host a new women's match racing regatta on July 14- 16 in Catalina 37's. Headquartered in Long Beach's downtown Rainbow Harbor, the new Mayor's Cup will be an ISAF Grade 3 Women's event . The event will not charge an entry fee, and all expenses including hotel, meals and charter of boats will be paid by the organizer. The only expenses will be the skipper and crew's travel and damage deposit. The intent is for this event to grow to a Grade 1. - Event chair, mailto:camilledaniels@verizon.net * US Laser National Championship Regatta, Carolina YC, final results (8 races with 1 discard -82 boats): 1. Brad Funk, USA, 10; 2. Andrew Childs, CAN, 10; 3. Kurt Taulbee, USA, 32; 4. John Romanko, CAN 37; 5. Alex Steele, CAN 49. Laser Radial (62 boats): Anthony Kouton, ISV, 16; 2. Kyle Rogachenko, USA, 24; 3. Magalie Bonneau-Marcil, CAN, 30; 4. Mitch Hall, USA, 30; 5. Fred Strammer, USA, 38. - www.carolinayachtclub.org/lasernationalsresults.html * This past weekend saw the launch of IRC racing on Long Island Sound at American Yacht Club's Spring Regatta. The late launchings due to the cold Spring kept the entire fleet small, but nine boats raced under the IRC rule. They braved blustery conditions with rain squalls on Saturday and a cold clear southwesterly on Sunday to get in four races. Except for some equipment failures and evidence of winter "rust" build-up, all went smoothly. The race committee posted results while we were in the bar and the IRC ratings produced lower corrected times for the better sailed boats. http://www.americanyc.com/. * Swiss bank Gonet & Cie. confirmed in a press conference at the Société Nautique de Genève that Russell Coutts will steer the Décision 35 SUI 8, Gonet, for a number of this season's events on Lac Léman [Lake Geneva]. Coutts will steer the initial racing commencing on Saturday plus the 75-mile the Bol d'Or in June,and possibly for up to three other events. He did point out that his international schedule had priority over the local sailing on the Lake. - Anne Hinton , International freelance sailing journalist * Racing in the ISAF Grade 1 Semaine Olympique Française got underway on Sunday in Hyères, France, with some very windy weather. As the first ISAF Grade 1 European Regatta of the season, new partnerships and new faces are up against old hands and experienced heads as the Olympic cycle begins to turn once again. The Yngling fleet finished three races on Monday and Sally Barkow, with crew Debbie Capozzi and Carrie Howe, the top-ranked Yngling team in the U.S., are tied for first place. - http://tinyurl.com/d8njy BIDDERS WANTED While not quite eBay, the Scuttlebutt Classified ad postings offer an assortment of gear, jobs, and items wanted. This is the official bulletin board of Scuttlebutt Sailing Club, where no one has (yet) been turned away at the door. Ads are free too. Check it all out at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/classifieds LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Steve Gregory (Regarding the fastest hull finish): I have become a believer in the teflon-based hull wax. As a dinghy racer, I have spent plenty of time fairing my hull and sharpening chines and stern with gelcoat filler and multiple grades of wet-dry sandpaper. However, until I started using the wax, I never was able to seal it all up again. What's nice too is that after sanding the hull, continually graduated toward finer paper, going from 1000 or 1200 to the wax brings the hull back to its near-new shine. Once I had a dinghy that had deformed around the trailer bunk. After filling and fairing, the hull was corrected but the fairing would blister from sitting on the wet trailer pad. Rather than spray the fairing area with gelcoat, I used the wax. No more blisters! For me, that was enough proof that the teflon-based wax (available at West Marine, etc.) was doing the job. Be careful though, as this stuff is slippery. You almost need to tie the boat to the trailer when pushing it around the yard. * From David Redfern (Re Gareth Evans' and hull finishes): I believe that a non smooth finish is fastest. There was a time in America's Cup development when an aircraft surface plastics material was applied to the hulls. Dennis Conner's 'Stars and Stripes' had them, England's Victory '83 tried them. They were developed by NASA. The first riblets were machined on flat aluminum sheets and tested in a Langley wind tunnel. When engineers of the 3M Company, St. Paul, Minnesota, learned of the tests, they suggested moulding the riblets into a lightweight plastic film with an adhesive backing. 3M's offer to produce riblet tapes for research was accepted by NASA. See www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/news/factsheets/Riblets.html It was the film riblets that was applied to the 12 metre hulls. There are various designs of riblets, from short sharp pointy ribs, to rounded ribs. They form a corrugated pattern, and the air or water in the case of a boat, is trapped in the gaps offering less resistance in passing through the medium than a smooth and shiny surface. Shark skin has a similar 'technology' * From Paul France, Opua, NZ (re Gareth Evans' letter re the fastest bottom finish): As a competitive youngster I read of experiments in the UK which suggested a mat finish was faster than the gloss one. We promptly cut the paint finish on our Kiwi racing dinghy to the stage it looked desparately in care of love and attention. As an added measure we coated the hull with a thick industrial detergent before each race. It seemed to work in light airs anyway. We won every light-airs race easily. However, I noted at the time and subsequently that everyone else's desire to have a glossy "showroom" finish on the boat meant that no-one followed our example. * From Ken Legg: I've been thinking that if it's OK to use power (electrical or hydraulic, which is activated by an engine or genset) to cant keels or spin winches, why not spin props to get through the "light stuff?" It seems to me that allowing power is a slippery slope that leads to a vastly different game. * From Cliff Bradford: I assume the point Mr. Strube was trying make is that the new canting keel, trim tab, canarded monohulls are complex attempts to attain performance relative to your typical multihull. He should note that the highest performing multis (e.g. the ORMA trimarans) have three daggerboards and three rudders. The daggerboards are adjustable for depth and probably (at least for the main hull) fore - aft and/or rake. The latest boats have adjustable, T-foiled rudders and, oh by the way have had canting mast for years with all the complication that involves. I like multis myself but they can be just as complicated as even the most complex monos. * From Chris Ericksen: (re R. Howard Strube screed in 'Butt 1824): Canting rigs are old news - not only were they used in Six Meters many years ago, I seem to recall that Olivier de Kersauson's "Geronimo"--a multihull--sported a canting rig during the recently completed Oryx Quest regatta. More to the point, however, I note there have been very few letters in Scuttlebutt by monohull sailors casting aspersions on multihull sailors; one has to wonder why Mister Strube, among others, spend so much time ragging on those of us who prefer monohulls. * From Bruce Thompson: Rory Lewis should note that the problem with keels falling off is due to the frequency of the input from the waves being quite different than the natural frequencies of the hull and keel. The hull is closer in natural frequency to the waves than the keel is. The natural frequency of the keel is quite low, just as the pendulum of a grandfather clock is quite low. So as the wave tries to roll the hull, the keel lags. As the wave passes and the hull tries to change the direction of roll, the keel still lags and wants to keep rolling in the original direction. This reversing, opposing rolling motion imposes a cyclical bending moment on the hull to keel attachment. And just as you will break a paper clip by bending it repeatedly in opposite directions, the hull to keel attachment will fail from fatigue. The problem is worst when the boat is sailing upwind in modest size waves as they are big enough to cause a significant bending moment due to roll, but of a short enough wavelength to have a high frequency. The whole problem gets even crazier when you cant the keel or add impact loads from falling off a wave! Note that the original impetus for such keels was from Vendee Globe racers sailing in huge, low frequency Southern Ocean swells, with more of a pitching motion than a rolling motion, and where the problem was therefore small but the egos were huge. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION You know it's the 21 century when you've sat at the same desk for four years, and worked for three different companies. |
