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SCUTTLEBUTT 3691 - Friday, October 5, 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: APS and Allen Insurance and Financial. WILL FOILS DECIDE THE CUP(S)? Six teams arrived in August 2010 at New York Yacht Club's Harbour Court facility in Newport, RI to compete for the International C-Class Catamaran Trophy. With the America's Cup now in wing-powered catamarans, this event that years ago was nicknamed the Little America's Cup had attracted significant attention from the outside world. Canadian Fred Eaton earned the defender role when he defeated American Steve Clark during the previous event hosted by Eaton's home club of Royal Canadian Yacht Club (Toronto, ONT) in September 2007. In 2010, Eaton and crew Magnus Clarke faced Australians Glenn Ashby and James Spithill, two sailors that were as desperate to win the title as they were eager to gain experience to prepare for the 2013 America's Cup. Eaton successfully defended his title in 2010, and hopes to continue his streak when the International C-Class Catamaran Championship is to be held September 2013 in Falmouth, UK. "The ICCC rotates locations to help promote the fleet and the event," explained Eaton. "In the earlier events, it was customary to race in the defender's home waters, but Steve Clark thought it wasn't helpful to force that if there was alternate interest. Typically, if you come and race, we'll listen to your pitch to host the next event. "Steve was the first to give up that 'Defender's right', which is how we hosted it at RCYC in 2007. We followed his example in 2010 and allowed NYYC to be the host. I think he was right in his decision, since some of the newer teams seem to find the possibility of hosting a future event to be an attractive option attached to their participation." In 2010, the teams were from Australia, Britain, Canada (2), France, and USA. For the next edition, it appears that Steve Clark along with Britain and France (maybe 2 teams) will return, plus Italy and possibly Portugal. Additionally, a Swiss team with ties to the record-setting foiling trimaran l'Hydroptere intends to compete. While foils were trialed on the 25-foot C-Class Catamaran prior to the 2007 championship, they did not sufficiently progress and have not been seen since. Could both the America's Cup and the Little America's Cup be foiling in 2013? Here is a photo from 2007: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/07/0921/ CALMER CONDITIONS ON DAY 2, AMERICA'S CUP WORLD SERIES SF San Francisco (October 4, 2012) - Artemis Racing White (Terry Hutchinson) and Emirates Team New Zealand (Dean Barker) scored convincing wins in the quarterfinal round of the match racing championship at the America's Cup World Series San Francisco. Racing on a relatively calm San Francisco Bay - with the wind blowing 9 to 13 knots and a flat sea - Artemis Racing White defeated young upstart Team Korea (Peter Burling) while Emirates Team New Zealand beat Energy Team (Loick Peyron). Both matches were won by the more experienced crews, who opened big leads on the upwind legs after holding slim advantages through the leeward gate. In the case of the New Zealanders, they regained the lead after losing it on the downwind leg. "We had a nice start and were going well, but we jibed in a light spot and they had a good jibe and came out quick," said Barker. "We had a piece of them at the first cross upwind and got back in front, and from there sailed a solid leg to the windward mark." Hutchinson and the Artemis Racing White crew welcomed back tactician Iain Percy in a wire-to-wire win. "Iain brings a sound platform to throw ideas off of, particularly in pre-start. He's one of the best sailors in the world," said Hutchinson. "These races are good opportunities for us to develop our relationship for the future." The day's racing program was interrupted after the two matches to allow the Blue Angles an opportunity to practice over the Bay for Fleet Week this weekend. When match racing got underway at 5:10pm PDT, the first two of seven scheduled races in the fleet racing championship were sailed. Overall standings at the end of two races: J.P. Morgan BAR, 21 pts, Oracle Team Racing USA Spithill, 16 pts, and Artemis Red, 16 pts. The two remaining quarterfinal matches are scheduled for Friday afternoon, with Artemis Racing Red (Nathan Outteridge) racing ORACLE TEAM USA COUTTS (Russell Coutts) at 4:05 pm PDT, and J. P. Morgan BAR (Ben Ainslie) meeting ORACLE TEAM USA SPITHILL (Jimmy Spithill) at 4:22 pm PDT. -- Results: http://www.americascup.com/en/results-standings Race schedule: http://tinyurl.com/ACWS-100312 Tips on how to follow the AC World Series in San Francisco (Oct. 3-7): * LIVE: broadcast commentary can be heard on marine VHF channel 20. * MOBILE: the 'AC Race Tracker' app by CupExperience brings the LiveLine data to both Android and iPhone mobile devices. * BROADCAST: 35 networks throughout the world are carrying the races. In the U.S., commentators Gary Jobson and Todd Harris will host the YouTube broadcast Thursday through Saturday, moving over to NBC to host the 'Super Sunday' final races. QUOTE UNQUOTE Paul Cayard, sailing as tactician today on Artemis Racing - Red alongside helmsman Nathan Outteridge, commented on racing on the AC45, "Hanging onto the front of this thing is tough. But I am still there. The guys are looking out for me! I know one thing, I will be missing all this come next Monday!" -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/8bqc2dt SAVE 15% OFF TOP BRANDS FROM APS! The APS 2012 Boat Show Sale is here! The World Leader in Outfitting Performance is offering 15 % to ALL our customers to celebrate. For one week, get 15% off almost every product in the store including our APS Sale Rack, items! Enjoy discounts on all the top name brand items you want from Atlantis to Zhik. Click here for details: http://bit.ly/APSdeals AINSLIE'S AMERICA'S CUP TEST DIFFERENT TO OLYMPICS (October 4, 2012) - Olympic champion Ben Ainslie believes achieving success in the America's Cup will be among his toughest challenges. The 34-year-old, who won a fourth Olympic gold at London 2012, is now skippering his Ben Ainslie Racing AC45 catamaran in the World Series. "It's like going from a go-kart to a Formula 1 car," Ainslie told BBC Sport. "The boats are bigger, faster and more expensive, so it's totally different to the Olympics and a much bigger challenge in many ways." Great Britain's most decorated Olympic sailor added: "Being about teamwork rather than the individual really is a huge change and making all of the decisions on my own, all of a sudden you have to verbalise your thought processes and make sure the communication is right, because if you don't have that the team doesn't work so well." Ainslie and his team, who finished tenth in their opening event in the US last month and return to the same waters this week for the second round, are hoping to become serious challengers for the 35th America's Cup. "Right now the World Series circuit gives us the opportunity to be out there racing, show the brand and give our partners some exposure," Ainslie continued. "In the next 12-18 months we need to build that up so that we have the funds in place to start recruiting the best team in terms of sailors, designers and managers." -- Story at: http://tinyurl.com/9ktres6 HEINEKEN SHARES LEAD POSITION AFTER DAY 1 KITE WORLDS Cagliari, Sardinia (October 4, 2012) - Three races in light winds kicked off the qualification races for the Kiteboard Racing World Championship in Cagliari where 195 competitors including 42 women are racing for the Championship title. The light Scirocco breeze picked up in the afternoon at Poetto Beach, allowing three races in each of the four fleets the competitors were divided into (three male fleets and one female). All the favorites were right on top, like World Champion Johnny Heineken (USA) in the Red Fleet and his sister Erika Heineken (USA) in the Women's Fleet. It was also a great start also for the new European Slalom champion Andrea Riccardo Leccese (a Columbian riding with the Italian team) who won all the races on his fleet and is leading the overall ranking together with Heineken. Leccese said, "After the three first places today I' m convinced I can win the title. I can't wait until Saturday, so I can compete against Heineken in the Gold Race: He is my only concern." Qualification rounds continue on Friday to determine the 50 finalists in the men's Gold Race and 20 in the Women's Fleet for Saturday medal race. Event website: http://www.kitecagliari.com/news.php?id=33 OPPONENTS CHOSEN FOR QUARTER FINALS ARGO GROUP GOLD CUP Hamilton, Bermuda (Oct. 5, 2012) - Adam Minoprio (NZL) Team Argo Group, the Alpari World Match Racing Tour champion in 2009, came storming out of the Argo Group Gold Cup Qualifier round robin matches with eight points, not losing a match in the last two days and the top scoring sailor among the eight skippers moving up. As top qualifier from the round robin matches, Minoprio should have had first choice of his opponent in the Quarter Finals but wasn't present when the draw was conducted so his choice went to the next ranking skipper, Taylor Canfield (ISV), Team Chicago Match Race Center. Taking the first pick of opponents, Canfield sailing in his third Gold Cup selected David Chapman (AUS) a newcomer to Bermuda as his Quarter Final opponent. Chapman was the surprise performer of the top eight. He was ranked 91 by ISAF and seeded ninth in Group 1. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) Alandia Sailing Team got the next choice for his Quarter Final opponent and picked Eric Monnin, Oklays Corum Sailing Team. Johnie Berntsson (SWE) Berntsson Sailing Team next picked to sail against his Swedish nemesis Bjorn Hansen (SWE) Mekonomen Sailing, leaving Ian Williams Team GAC Pindar matched up with Minoprio by default. This pits the top scoring team from the qualifier round robin stage against the number one match race sailor in the world as ranked by both ISAF and by Alpari World Match Racing Tour points. The Quarter Final matches are knock outs with first to three in each of the matches moving on the Semi Finals on Saturday. Full listings of the results in each group and the full pairings for the Quarter Final matches that begin on Friday are on the event website at http://www.argogroupgoldcup.com. WERE YOU WAITING FOR THIS? Audible timer is a countdown timer app for the iPhone. The countdown timer lets you set the time from 0-60 minutes so easily handles all the start times for sailboat races, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 etc. The Audible sailboat timer for the iPhone can be heard through the iPhone speaker or through Bluetooth to an earpiece. This to me would be great for start times as it leaves me to focus on start line tactics and positioning without having to look away at a watch. This makes Audible Timer a great racing sailboat iPhone app. If you have a Bluetooth device for your phone, you can use it to listen to the countdown and have it whisper in your ear while you focus on handling the boat. You can use a sail timer watch but this requires you to look at the watch which takes your eyes off the starting line, and even for a second you may miss a situation on the Start Line. The audible alarm on a watch is not loud enough to overcome noisy situations on a sail boat, so an earpiece will keep you informed of the time to start while keeping your eyes on the job. -- Read on: MyBoatsGear.com, http://myboatsgear.com/mbg/product.asp?prodID=2524 PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include young gun, celebration, twin rudder, flying the colors, kings of the court, Navy beats Army, elevation, tradition, and classic. Here are this week's photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/12/1005/ Bonus Photos: * In the grand scheme of professional sailing, the Melges 32 provides a lot of bang for the buck. With an owner driver rule, a maximum of three pros on each boat, and plenty of performance, the recent World Championships in Newport, RI attracted all the players for a shoot out that wasn't decided until the final race. Here's a sampling of the action courtesy of Joy Dunigan: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/12/1004/ 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 Now that kiteboarding is an Olympic event for the 2016 Games, the 2012 Kiteboard Course Racing World Championship this week in Cagliari, Sardinia will provide an early look at who the frontrunners are for the next quadrennium before the Olympics are held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Here is a preview video for the Worlds: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/12/1005/ Bonus Videos: * This week's Discovered opens up the 34th America's Cup diary, now less than a year away. The excitement is building on the streets of San Francisco, we get the people's perspective on all things America's Cup as the city readies itself for America's Cup World Series San Francisco Oct 2-7 and looks ahead to next year. Tune in youtube.com/americascup on Saturday October 6 approx 0800 PDT 1100 EDT * It's hailed as the Olympics of canoe racing. This year, 72 crews from throughout the Hawaiian Islands as well as California, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia entered the race. But the Sept. 23 competition got off to a treacherous start. Video and first-hand accounts of the event show massive waves pummeling canoes as competitors struggled to paddle out to the starting line: http://tinyurl.com/Wave-100312 * This week on Chalk Talk, Erik and Jane take the reins while Chris is on the road. They tackle questions like: Who will be the best women's team this weekend? Who are the best freshmen this season? Why is Jane's camera sometimes out of focus? The hosts are joined by BC's Raul Rios, who called Puerto Rico home before heading to Massachusetts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTHhZcTSJSY&feature=youtu.be 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 * Long Beach, CA (October 4, 2012) - The first stop of the 2012-2013 California Dreamin' Series will be held October 6-7 with the Butler Cup, an ISAF grade 3 match race hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club. San Diego Yacht Club hosts the second stop of the tour January 12-13, 2013, and the teams are back in Long Beach for the third and final stop at the 2013 Butler Cup on March 16-17. -- Info at: http://www.xssailing.com/tag/butler-cup/ * (October 4, 2012) - The newest version of Techscore - Techscore 3 - has been released, according to Mitch Brindley, President, Intercollegiate Sailing Association. It features a superior public viewing site and a new scoring side, as well TS3 will have improved speed and will not bog down during peak times. The public viewing site has a new layout and added features. The link to regatta scores is http://scores.collegesailing.org/. The current season results are linked at the top off the page just to the right of the burgee; past seasons are on the left of the burgee. -- Report at: http://tinyurl.com/8ue6rtj * Rovinj, Croatia (October 4, 2012) - A lengthy opening day of the Adris RC44 World Championship proved challenging for PRO Peter Reggio and his team as they attempted to make the best of tricky light conditions off the Croatian coast. Three races were eventually held for the 15 RC44s, with a different winner in each: Fleet racing favourites Chris Bake and his Team Aqua crew claimed the first race; newly crowned match racing champions Synergy Russian Sailing Team won the second, while Pieter Heerema turned his Dutch team's fortunes around to pip John Bassadone's Peninsula Petroleum at the post in the third. -- Read on: http://www.rc44.com/news/view/strong_opening_for_team_aqua * (October 3, 2012) - The finale of the 2012 Extreme Sailing Series will take place in the city of Rio de Janeiro as the Series heads West to make its South American debut. The event will be the culmination of 11 months of global touring for the eight Extreme 40 teams where the final races of the Series will be played out for the overall 2012 Series championship title. Racing will take place over four days from the 6th-9th December - the first of which will be open water racing in front of the world-famous Copacabana beach, before three days of stadium racing off Flamenco Beach. -- Event website: http://www.extremesailingseries.com HEALTH INSURANCE FOR SAILORS Traveling sailor insurance. An annual worldwide accident/sickness policy available to any members of US Sailing any time. 24/7 assistance in your language. Rates 25 to 70 percent lower than standard U.S.-only plans. Immediate, unlimited coverage, no pre-existing conditions. Benefits at home and abroad. Flexibility and security for the demands of today's sailing professional. Program endorsed by US Sailing and used by sailors around the world. Serviced by a Maine-based company specializing in crew health and marine insurance. ENROLL NOW. http://www.AllenInsuranceAndFinancial.com/ussailing 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 James Leopold: Many of us are aware that there are very few American's who are members of the Oracle Team representing the U.S. in the 34th edition of the America's Cup. And there are other countries in the competition that have few or no nationals on their teams. But when I read the short news brief in 'Butt # 3690 under Sailing Shorts (which I thought were something one wears sailing) about the Luna Rossa Challenge 2013 team launching their AC72 catamaran on October 26 in Auckland, New Zealand, I realized that the AC Deed of Gift has been all but abandoned. Whatever happened to a friendly competition between nations? How does an American team represent the U.S. of A. with a crew with only one or two Americans? And how is it that a boat built in New Zealand can and will represent an Italian team? This is too confusing to me to have any allegiance to an American team...Nice job Russell and Larry! CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Build something foolproof and every fool will use it. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Point Loma Outfitting - Summit Yachts - Premiere Racing Atlantis WeatherGear - US Sailing - KO Sailing - IYRS - North Sails e sailing yachts - Ullman Sails - APS - Allen Insurance and Financial Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
