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SCUTTLEBUTT 1756 - January 18, 2005Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest 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. MAJOR ENDORSEMENT Sailing World magazine is joining racing sailors and regatta organizers in the United States by endorsing the IRC Rule, a simple handicap-rating system now popular worldwide. In addition, Sailing World and US-IRC, the organization representing clubs and event organizers behind the introduction of the rule in the United States, have teamed up to produce the 2005 US-IRC Handbook. In the effort to inform the North American racing community about the IRC Rule, which has been gaining momentum around the world, the 48-page publication will be released January 20 at the Philadelphia Strictly Sail Boat Show and at Key West Race Week. In February, it will be delivered to all Sailing World subscribers. The 2005 US-IRC Handbook covers in detail the essentials of the IRC system, explains how raceboat owners can obtain a rating, describes what is required in the boat-measuring process, and lists all current U.S. events featuring IRC handicap racing this year. "The IRC Rule is a simple, yet fair, single-number rating rule," says Barry Carroll, US-IRC's executive director. "It's designed primarily for racer/cruiser designs and is used in more than 30 countries. This year we expect more than 7,000 boats worldwide to compete under IRC." In addition to being the first and only publication of its kind in the United States, the 2005 US-IRC Handbook is an unparalleled collaboration between the marine industry and leading yacht clubs and sailing associations to promote this new and exciting rating system. "IRC is much more user-friendly than any another handicap rating rules - past or present - which is why it's so successful in other countries," says John Burnham, editor of Sailing World. "Its introduction in the United States has galvanized racers and organizers, and we're excited to support US-IRC's efforts with this handbook." - www.us-irc.org / www.sailingworld.com BIG BREEZE IN FLORIDA Bright sun and big breeze ushered in Key West 2005, presented by Nautica, with a Farr 40 photo finish, a Melges 24 victory of Olympian proportions and Esmeralda's continuing high adventures in South Florida. Because of winds in the mid-20s gusting into the mid-30s, the race committee kept all 295 boats in port until noon and thus logged only one of two races scheduled, leaving eight on the burner through Friday. The sea state to the west was so rough that the three smallest boat classes in Divisions 1 and 2---Mumm 30, PHRF-3 and Corsair 28R trimarans---were grounded for the day. Many of the 58 Melges 24s on Division 3 struggled, some shunning their asymmetric spinnakers entirely. But San Diego's Bill Hardesty, though at the tiller of one of the lively sport boats for the first time, drove Philippe Kahn's Pegasus 575 through a mid-race crash to first place over veteran Dave Ullman and former world champion Flavio Favini, driving Franco Rossini's Blu Moon from Switzerland. Hardesty with a crew of Olympic medalists Kevin Burnham and Sweden's Freddy Loof, Mark Ivey and Midge Tandy led all the way, despite sustaining minor damage when T-boned by Simon Strauss of Larchmont, N.Y. near the first leeward gate. John Coumantaros drove Bambakou across the line a quarter-length in front of world champion Jim Richardson's Barking Mad in a friendly Farr 40 feud between Newport, R.I. rivals. Ken Read and Chris Larson, sailing on Makoto Uematsu's Transpac 52 won PHRF-1. John Yonover's J/109, evonne.com/2, was dismasted before the start of its race on Division 2. Chris and Kara Busch's Wild Thing, the 2002 Key West champion, was leading the 1D35 fleet on the first run when it crash-jibed into a roundup and had five boats sail past as it lay on its side. Busch, at the helm for the first time since regaining his Category 1 (amateur) status, blamed driver error. The entries represent 14 countries and 36 states and include, at last count, 17 Olympic medalists with 26 medals among them, led by Athens winners Kevin Burnham of Miami, Fla. and Sofia Bekatorou of Greece, serving as crew on Pegasus 575 and Greek businessman George Andreadis' Farr 40, Atalanti, respectively. - Rich Roberts, Complete results: www.Premiere-Racing.com BRUTAL APPEARANCE With a reverse bow like a 1900s' battleship, slab sides, and glider-wing daggerboards, the new Volvo 70 class which will be used for the first time in the round-the-world race starting in November has a decidedly brutal appearance. The first of the class, ABN Amro, was christened at her Portuguese training base in Portimau, near Faro, yesterday. All are agreed that she promises impressive speed and the possibility of flicking from full-chat to wipe-out in an instant. That is according to designer Juan Kouyoumdjian, who has created a boat which looks fairly normal forward of the mast save for the reclining bow but is truncated and angular aft of it. "It's like a 100 foot with the last 30 feet chopped to fit the limits of the rule," he says. "It's a real privilege to sail the first of this new class in the world," says Rob Greenhalgh, the sole Briton in the multinational crew, brought in by Kiwi skipper Mike Sanderson, for his high-performance boat helming skills. "I like boats that look state-of-the-art." In her first test sails, Greenhalgh says the speeds are impressive. The new Volvo 70 is close in weight to a Vendée Globe 60-footer yet has the stability and sail area of an 82ft America's Cup boat. Greenhalgh's in no doubt that the boat has the power to intimidate. "I don't expect we'll use maximum size sails; we won't be able to get them down, or pull them up." That is because in the revamped Volvo Ocean Race, crew numbers have been cut to just 10 as a cost- cutting move. Ironically, these savings could be burnt up ashore in longer stop-overs given that Kouyoumdjian believes the new boats to be so fast that they will sail the longest leg to Cape Town in just 18 days, 10 quicker than old Volvo 60s managed. - Tim Jeffery, The Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/3ugcs SIXTY YEARS OF PERFORMANCE BOAT BUILDING AT MELGES Melges Performance Sailboats in Zenda, Wisconsin is celebrating 60 years of performance sailboat production. To mark this sailing milestone, Melges has introduced 2 brand new performance sailboats to the marketplace - the all new Melges 32 and the Melges 17. These boats are added to an all-star line up of one-design classes produced and supported by Melges, many of which are among the most active and strongest sailing classes in the country. Unique, exciting, high-quality boats has kept the Melges name so strong in the sailing arena. For a view of this all-star line up, race to http://www.melges.com VENDÉE GLOBE The three Vendée Globe leaders are heading due North, on a direct course in a light fifteen knot Easterly wind, which is enough to see them nudging 300 mile daily averages. The gaps between the boats have remained relatively stable over the past 24 hours, although Jean Le Cam has the best VMG of the entire fleet, best distance over 24 hours (317.8) and best instantaneous speed (17 knots). The leaders are around 300 miles East of Recife and around 2 days from what look like fairly transparent Doldrums for now. "We're in trade wind conditions," explained Mike Golding. "There are just small differences in pressure, that's all. That's the pattern for the foreseeable. Right now I can't see anything that's going to cause any big changes, certainly not for the next two days." Normally the Doldrums can be relied upon to reshuffle the cards, but even they look reasonably straightforward on the forecast. "I've been looking at the Doldrums and it looks like there is a route through," Golding continued. "I don't see any big hold-ups for Vincent, but we're going to have to hope for better things." In 4th and 5th respectively, Dominique Wavre has seen Sébastien Josse close to within 0.5 miles of him in the past 4 hours, Wavre busily trying to seal the plumbing on his leaking ballast tanks in the light winds enveloping the duo. A delighted Jean Pierre Dick has been sailing under full mainsail for the past hour. After ten days of work to repair his broken boom at sea, JP fixed his gooseneck earlier today, refitted the boom and hoisted the sail. Leaders at 1900 GMT January 17: 1. PRB, Vincent Riou, 3644 miles to finish 2. Bonduelle, Jean Le Cam, 120 miles to leader 3. Ecover, Mike Golding, 240 mtl 4. Temenos, Dominique Wavre, 970 mtl 5. VMI, Sébastien Josse, 971 mtl 6. Virbac-Paprec, Jean-Pierre Dick 2251 mtl 7. Skandia, Nick Moloney, 2775 mtl 8. Arcelor Dunkerque, Joé Seeten, 3102 mtl 9. Hellomoto, Conrad Humphreys, 3561 mtl 10. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, 3739 mtl Complete standings: www.vendeeglobe.fr/uk/ QUOTE / UNQUOTE "I'm completely out of it, I don't know how I let myself get to this point. Totally exhausted. I'm not sure what I am doing, very frustrated, but I'm wired and can't sleep, worrying about job list, but everything I touch turns to rats." - Nick Maloney, Skandia, www.nickmoloney.com "I felt Hellomoto surge forward, the acceleration was breath taking and I wondered exactly were this wave would end. Hellomoto started to round up and I could hear the pilots struggling to keep her on course, eventually they succumbed and we ended up side on, skirting along the wave like a surfer in a tube. The sound was terrifying as the crest of the wave landed and the impact threw me across the cabin. As I landed so too did Hellomoto, her powerful beam held her at 90 degrees, the mast in the water and angry foaming sea all around. I ran on deck, expecting carnage and to me surprise apart from all the sheets and contents of the deck bags strewn everywhere, everything else was fine. The auto-pilot blinked "109" no wind data, and above at the mast head I could just make out the vertical wand bent at 90 degrees." Conrad Humphreys, Hellomoto, www.conradhumphreys.com FRUSTRATION IN THE EXTREME Ellen MacArthur has done nine jibes in just 90 minutes - trying to get through a ridge of high pressure. Frustration in the extreme - 2-3 knots of breeze, 1.82 knots boat speed - and a false alarm as the wind went into the east and Ellen thought maybe she had already got to the other side but, no, the wind went back into the west. On Ellen MacArthur's 51st day at sea she has built an advantage of 3 days 15 hours over Francis Joyon's solo round the world record pace, but that advantage is under serious threat from three major weather obstacles that she will have to face in the next 72 hours. There is no way around the weather hurdles ahead and each one is different, with its own characteristics, presenting different challenges: "We're going to get a lot of different conditions in the next 36 hours and, quite frankly, it's going to be horrendous and we're going to come out of that into light upwind airs in order to try and get to the Equator. So it's going to be pretty miserable and pretty full on for the next few days," she said. MacArthur estimates that her average speed over the next four days will drop to as low as 9 knots. B&Q passed the 21,000 mark of miles sailed through the water earlier today at an average speed of 17.5 knots and for the first time in this record attempt MacArthur's average VMG required [velocity made good to the finish] has dipped to 9.9 knots with 5,394 miles left on a 'best possible course' distance. Monday MacArthur's voice sounded a bit stronger as she managed to recoup some sleep in the last 24 hours, taking the opportunity when she can to sleep: "Zonking out when I can, breeze was better through the night then expected, averaged 20 knots, I guess." Allowing MacArthur to grab every opportunity she could to sleep. - www.teamellen.com ISN'T IT TIME? It's that time of the year again, to start thinking about the improvements you can make to your boat to enhance the performance for the 2005 season. Just imagine the advantages of upgrading your outdated or inadequate Brand "X" system with Ockam's proven Tryad based system. And since backward/forward compatibility is a mainstay of Ockam's design, it is simple to update your older Ockam system to current specs. We even offer trade in credits! Ockam's proven performance means your race winning decisions will be more reliable than ever. Break away from the middle of the pack! Contact Ockam: mailto:lat@ockam.com ANALYSIS Last night Ellen was 5,750 miles from the finish line off Ushant. Her average VMG to date, according to Offshore Challenges, has been 15.4 knots or 396.6 miles per day. If she maintains this speed for the remainder of her voyage (which is most unlikely) then she would finish in 14.5 days or 31 January! Ellen was 10 hours 45 minutes ahead of Joyon outboard down the Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope or 2.308% faster. In the Southern Ocean from the Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn Ellen was 3 days 16 hours or 14.35% faster, partly because she pushed hard but also because the weather allowed her to sail a very much more direct route to the Horn. But will she be faster in the Atlantic? Obviously Ellen faces the normal weather hurdles - complex weather up until Rio, the Doldrums, the position of the Azores high, etc - ahead of her. Statistically the passage up the Atlantic is much slower than it is coming down or in the Southern Ocean so we can expect her average speed to drop off. Also worth considering is that the return trip up the Atlantic may be the occasion when the 15ft longer waterline length of Joyon's trimaran in the upwind conditions may well have paid in terms of her relative performance with B&Q Castorama. While Joyon was held up off Rio he was exceeding fortunately with the weather in the north Atlantic, Ellen may well not be so lucky. - Excerpt from a story on The Daily Sail subscription website, http://thedailysail.com/ NEWS BRIEFS * Andrea Gancia and Matteo Micelli claimed a new world record by spending 13 days 13 hours 58 minutes 27 seconds on a 20-foot open catamaran sailing from Dakar to Guadeloupe. (Average speed: 8.28 knots - Dates: December 27, 2004 to January 10, 2005) The World Sailing Speed council has ratified this new record which is more than a day and a half faster than the previous standard set in 1999 by Hans Bouscholte and Gerard Navarin. * Verizon Wireless, ekkosoft.us and the American Sailing Association announced the availability of MarineWeather - a national service providing wireless access to marine weather forecasts and buoy data for sailors. Select Get It Now-enabled wireless phones may obtain seven-day forecasts, current sea conditions and access to Marine411 to access local safety, towing and retail phone numbers. MarineWeather data is sourced from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to offer customers easy reading text forecasts for coastal, offshore, synopsis and advisories for the U.S. contiguous states plus forecasted wind speed and direction, wave size, direction and period, sky cover and visibility. - www.verizonwireless.com * Harken Yacht Equipment has named marine industry veteran Jim Andersen Northeast Sales Manager. In his new position, Andersen will work with boat manufacturers in the Northeastern United States and coordinate Harken sales efforts in that region, focusing primarily on the OEM market. He will also provide input into the company's overall sales and product development strategy working closely with Harken Sales Manager, Tim Kent. Home base for Andersen will be the Harken-Newport, Rhode Island office. Andersen was the sales/marketing manager at Carroll Marine prior to moving to US Watercraft where he served as COO. - www.harken.com/ SAILBOAT SHOW SEASON Three major Strictly Sail Shows are scheduled in the next five weeks, starting this week with the all-new Strictly Sail Philadelphia (Jan 20-23), the 10th Strictly Sail Chicago (Feb 3-6) and Strictly Sail Miami (Feb 17-21). Each offers 200+ exhibitors, a wide array of sailboats and seminars. For tickets: http://www.strictlysail.com 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 Damien Smith: I hate to inform your Correspondent Paul Jacobs that his proposed 'Herreshoff number" is not new. Normally expressed as, Length / Cube root of Displaced Volume. This ratio has been routinely used by naval architects and other industry professionals to compare the relative length and displacement ratio of models and full size craft in towing tank testing and speed prediction for decades. Paul is correct in his reasons for the used of this and other non dimensional ratios, it allows easy comparison irrespective of the units used to design the vessel. The ratios listed by Paul for different types of boat are about right, planing however can occur at lower ratios than those listed by Paul if enough power is available. Larger boats tend to have higher length displacement because of the square cube law. For reference the upper end of the spectrum is probably something like a C Class Cat which on Ronstan, came in at 10.81 * From George Ward: Don't you think that Herreshoff has been amply honored, and maybe it would be better to call it the Stephens Number, in honor of both Olin and Rod. * From Ralph Taylor: I like Paul Jacob's suggestion for the dimensionless "Hereshoff Number", a straightforward measure of performance: H = LWL/((Disp/d)^1/3). It could help us more readily appreciate performance differences between boats. Even (especially?) those with some background in math or physics are confused by D/L ratios because they're illogical. Let's hope it gains traction. One suggestion though -- "d" (density of water) should take the value for the fluid in which the boats sail. That is, 64 lb/cu.ft. (or metric equivalent thereof) for seawater or 62.4 for fresh water. A boat floats lower in fresh than seawater and more hull surface is submerged. It's a small but possibly important difference. Also, in response to Ron Rezac, sailors love to talk handicaps because it take the focus off how the boat's sailed. Killing a handicap thread looks like an almost impossible task. Calling for killing a handicap thread is sure to set it off again. * From Stephen Wells: Why are you folks still fussing about handicaps? It's a given that it's impossible to have a fair system under all conditions. It's a given that all handicap rules can be attacked successfully. Accept reality or take up tennis. * From Michael Breid: 'Butt 1755 said that the Ft. Lauderdale to Key West overall winner on corrected time was Sjambok, the TP52 owned by Michael Brennan. Yet when I checked the results on the website, it says the overall went to the over 20 year old Hobie 33, "Mirage" and Christian Slayter. If that's right, I think you should give that little 33 footer a giant killer kudo! * From Christian Schaumloffel: The Fort Lauderdale to Key West Race was won overall by Mirage, a Hobie33 with a whopping lead of 1 hour 15 minutes corrected over 2nd place. Sjambok took 3rd overall. No big or small boat was favored. 2nd to 4th place finished within 3 minutes corrected. Mirage was rated the slowest in C class and beat all on the water. www.keywestrace.org/2005KW-R.HTM * From Ken Guyer: Extremely sad news the passing of Chuck Riley - an extreme loss to the sailing world. His gusto for living life to the max and his passion for sailing left a lasting impression on me. It is sad to see him go, but in his spirit all who had the pleasure of meeting or knowing him, will surely smile when thoughts of Chuck come to mind. CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL If you plan to visit a singles bar, it would be good to recall your Mom's wise words: "Don't pick that up - you don't know where it's been." |
