|
SCUTTLEBUTT No. 941 - November 9, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
TRANSAT JACQUES VABRE The older generation but proven Kingfisher-Foncia (Gautier/MacArthur) is holding a tenuous lead still of 8 miles over the brand new Belgacom (Nelias/Desjoyeaux). "We are going upwind now in a South Easterly breeze, trying to get back to the East but it's hard going," Ellen explained. These top two in the West are marginally off the pace in terms of boat speed compared to the two multihulls furthest in the East. One is Groupama (Cammas/S. Ravussin), which made a lightning quick pit-stop at Santa Cruz of 1 hour to replace the starboard rudder and is already back in 3rd place, up to speed in a good 15 knot Northeasterly breeze. Still dominating the 60 footers just South of Madeira is the 'clean machine', Ecover (Golding/Hutchinson). The British skippers have guarded their backs well but they are looking over both shoulders. Over to their West is Swiss skipper, Bernard Stamm (Bobst Group-Armor Lux), back in second place, 28 miles behind. To the East is Italian monohull Fila (Laurent/Rufini), who are one degree further South, and all is not rosy for the days to come with upwind conditions ahead for them, as Marcus Hutchinson explained. "We are now more on the direct route but Bernard is a new threat to us, as we want to cross the Doldrums right over to the West but the wind is going to be right on the nose in the next 24 hrs." In fifth place is the Brit-Aussie duo of Moloney & Turner, whose sails and spirits are somewhat deflated. They found a hole in their spinnaker, but once repaired & rehoisted, it then blew out as Casto-Darty-But sailed under a big squall. Other Brits having their own competition further down the fleet are Richard Tolkien (& Wingate) in This Time and Miranda Merron in Un Univers de Service (& Brule). Richard commented "Yesterday UUDS gybed to the West, we thought a lot about whether to follow them but decided not to. Now about 2 degrees separates us, we're on the same latitude but we're further South." The other Brit-Aussie pairing of Alex Bennett & Paul Larsen (One Dream One Mission) are passing Madeira to the East, and being followed at a distance of 64 miles by Saving (Le Youdec/Bacave). Alex is counting on his router to pull them through: "We're still working on tactics with Lee Bruce to avoid the parking lot coming up to our south and think we'll be able to pop our nose through a break. The only thing to do is keep moving - nothing eats away your lead like having to stop dead!" -- Mary Ambler
Multihull Positions at 1500hrs GMT
Open 60 Monohull Positions
Open 50 Monohull Positions Event site: www.jacques-vabre.com
2002 ULTIMATE SAILING CALENDAR is hot off the press!
VOLVO OCEAN RACE GUNNAR KRANTZ - Team SEB: On plans for the next leg: 'As we did all the upwind work on the previous leg, we're leaving the upwind sails on the dock.' On crew changes: 'We're changing one person and we will announce that on the day before the restart.' JEZ FANSTONE - Team News Corp: On crew changes for Leg Two: 'We always planned to change one guy, and Joe Spooner has gone back to Team New Zealand to help them in the defence of the America's Cup and we are taking on Gordon McGuire (IRE) who is a very experienced helmsman and I sailed with him on Silk Cut. JOHN KOSTECKI - illbruck Challenge: On crew changes for Leg Two: 'We had one crew change scheduled before Leg One. We're adding Noel Drennan, who has done 17 Sydney-Hobarts. He is a great helmsman and he has been training with us for six months and it will be great to have him onboard. Ian Moore will not be doing this leg.' LISA MCDONALD - Amer Sports Too: On the short preparation time: 'We have an excellent structure to the shore-side part of our campaign and the guys have really helped to ensure that our boat will be ready for the Southern Ocean. We're down to the last minute details, loading the boat, checking our final preparations in the next day or so.' On crew changes: 'We have a change that was always meant to happen from the beginning and I will announce the starting line up for Sunday, tomorrow.' NEAL MCDONALD - Assa Abloy Racing Team: On whether he expected to be announced skipper of Assa Abloy: 'No, I didn't expect this at all. I would be lying if I said I thought that I would be skipper. It's beginning to sink in a bit. I'm actually looking forward to going out there (Southern Ocean) and doing some sailing, rather than standing around on the shore.' GRANT DALTON - Amer Sports One: On looking forward to the Southern Ocean: 'No not at all - I hate it. These guys are masochists if they like it. I'll be pleased when we get to Sydney frankly!' KEVIN SHOEBRIDGE - Team Tyco: On Leg two: 'It is an interesting leg in that there is going to be two distinct parts to it. There's the southern ocean leg which is going to be a hang- on sort of leg, and we're going to pile into the high pressure up by Western Australia and battle across the Australian Bight, so there are opportunities there for someone breaking through and getting away, or a park-up. It could go either way.' KNUT FROSTAD - Djuice Dragons: On crew changes: 'Yes, we have one planned change, Christen's wife is giving birth next week, so that was obviously known to him before we started. So Terry Hutchinson is coming onboard. Terry has been with us since early August and has been involved early in the programme. He is going to do quite a few legs with us, and we are looking forward to having him onboard, he's a strong driver. We have made another change which is not scheduled. We have had two navigators for the first leg and decided that it didn't work out. We were in the wrong place quite a few times, so we have worked hard on that during the stopover and so one of the navigators is going off and another crewmember is coming on, from inside the team.' The second leg starts this Sunday, the fleet is expected to arrive in Sydney around December 4. -- www.volvooceanrace.org
TEAM NEW ZEALAND LOSES A RIG "It was not boat-threatening and, thankfully, no one was injured," said Barker who was preparing for a second training race of the day against fellow Team NZ skipper Bertrand Pace when the rig on Pace's boat broke above the second spreader. "The real concern is that this is the second Millennium rig to break in the past month. There has to be questions now about the rig concept." The rig on Peter Gilmour's One World suffered the same fate a few weeks ago. At the time the Millennium rig was regarded as being innovative - the first of its kind and was copied by the One World syndicate. -- Terry Maddaford Complete article on the New Zealand Herald site: www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Jan VanVleet: Re: Paul Henderson's statement in 'Butt #939: "Every Sailor has the right to express their own bias as I do mine." It is my contention that the President of ISAF is no ordinary sailor and therefore as the leader and main promoter of the sport of sailing, he has to moderate his own bias for the benefit of all. He should portray every aspect of sailing in a positive light in public. If he has a problem with a particular area of our sport, he should address those persons in private. * From Gareth Evans: Response to Bill Dutcher - The "Implosion of Windsurfing" It appears, maybe as a result of his injuries, that Bill has missed out on the latest generation of early-planing short boards. His comment regarding the need for 15kts to get boards planing was true 5 years ago. The modern, light-weight "Early Planers", such as the AHD Free Diamond 77 can start planing in wind as light as 8 knots with a large sail. The Formula Windsurfing race fleet reckon they can plane in as little as 6 knots of wind. These new boards have rekindled my interest in windsurfing. I have got rid of all my old kit and replaced it with a single early planer, and go out in conditions that previously would have left me sitting on the beach. The same is true for many of my friends. I believe that the real reason for the "Implosion of Windsurfing" is that the popularity of sports goes in phases. Just look at the popularity of skateboarding at the moment - I can remember doing it when I was young! Fifteen years ago windsurfing was the "New thing" and everybody wanted a piece of the action. Fashions move on and people need new challenges, leaving the hardcore carrying on with the sport they love, with people being lost to kite surfing, and mountain biking. * From Reg Smythe-Liphook: Rene Appel is a Dutch Coach who figured out through very technical bio-mechanics how to pump an IMCO board. He was hired by Hong Kong and trained their famous women's boardsailor Lee-Lai Shan to Gold in Savannah. He is an icon in Hong Kong as it was the only Gold they ever won in any sport in the Olympics. That influenced the IOC and China's decision to allow them to keep their separate Olympic Association after assimilation. Limiting pumping by putting in the Formula Windsurfing class or changing the minimum wind strength (and then curtailing some pumping) will diminish his coaching advantage. That's his angle on this situation. * From Tyler Garrett (edited to our 250 world maximum): Modern "wide style" (up to 100cm) "short boards" (around 280Cm) can plane in sub 8kt range. However a small amount of pumping is required, egads. Modern windsurfing equipment is so good it has no relation to gear from 5 years ago let alone 15. Yes, pumping is here to stay in windsurfing, just as ouching, rocking and pumping will always exist in small boats like Lightning's. Olympic windsurfing is in trouble for the future however, and not because of pumping. In countries that have strong Olympic sailing support (lord knows not the USA) sailors are provided IMCO's and enough money to travel and compete against the rest of the world on the same equipment. Here in the USA why would a sailor want to compete on antiqated slow equipment at his/hers' own expense? Olympic windsurfing should provided a even playing field for different sized men and women, something the IMCO can not do. Olympic windsurfing should be something fun to pursue as is the 470 or Tornado which it is not. Massive pumping on the IMCO exists because it is a slug, not a performance piece of equipment. Olympic windsurfing in the USA needs young blood. We have not sent a female sailor to the Youth IMCO worlds in 10+ years! It is very hard in these times to get young sailors intrested in spending the time and money it takes to get to the Olympics on the windsurfing equivalent of a model T Ford.
INVESTMENT ADVICE
CYA ANNUAL AWARDS The complete line-up of awards is as follows: Terry McLaughlin (Toronto, ON), Rolex Sailor of the Year Award Terry McLaughlin has earned his place at the pinnacle of Canadian sailing: helmsman of Defiant, the successful Challenger for the Canada's Cup earlier this year; Olympic silver medallist in the Flying Dutchman class (1984, Los Angeles); five-time winner of the York Cup, the most prestigious match-racing event in the country; skipper of Canada I in the 1983 America's Cup Trials; world champion, Flying Dutchman (1980); two-time Intercollegiate All-American. Jen Provan (Toronto, ON) and Nikola Girke (West Vancouver, BC), Female Athletes of the Year and Marvin McDill Memorial Award (top rookie) Chris Cook (Whitby, ON), Male Athlete of the Year Award Don Pearson and Craig Coleman (London, ON), Volunteer of the Year Award Anton Mihic (Hamilton, ON), Coach of the Year Award Mike Leigh (Vancouver, BC), Bill Burk Memorial Youth Elite Award 2001 Canada Games, Chisholm Trophy For Excellence in Race Management: Burrard Yacht Club (North Vancouver, BC), William Abbott Senior Trophy For Sail Training Ontario Sailing Association (OSA) BOOM program, Recreation Event of the Year Award Chester Yacht Club (Chester, NS), CYA Eastern Intermediate Championships, City of Kingston Regatta of the Year Award Details at: www.sailing.ca/news/headline.asp?numNewsID=68
TORNADO NORTH AMERICANS
ENTRIES OPEN FOR MELBOURNE - OSAKA RACE The Melbourne/Osaka Double-Handed Yacht Race, held every four years, is expected to again attract an international fleet to take on the 5500 nautical mile course. Applicants have until September 2002 to enter, although a discounted entry fee will be offered to those who apply by March 2002. The fee is 50,000 yen (40,000 yen for early entries), which equates to $860 AUS ($665 early entries) at current exchange rates. For 2003, two new racing groups have been added to the traditional mono-hulled yachts of 10 to 16 metres. These are:
- Open racing, allowing yachts of up to 60 foot; and The race is being planned by the City of Osaka, with help from the City of Melbourne and the Melbourne Port Corporation, which has a sister port relationship with Osaka. The organizing authority is the Melbourne/Osaka Double-Handed Yacht Race Promotion Council in conjunction with the Japan Sailing Federation. The main sponsor is Tosaka Shinju Company, a Japanese pearl manufacturer and jeweller. For further information potential competitors should contact Scott Eccleston at Sandringham Yacht Club on +61 3 9598 7444 or visit www.osakacup.syc.com.au.
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION |
