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SCUTTLEBUTT 1977 -- November 30, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.CONFLICTING THEMES The twin and conflicting themes of the Volvo Ocean Race have been the extraordinarily powerful performance of the new Volvo Open 70s when unleashed in big winds, and their fragility. After the massive mileages in the South Atlantic over the weekend, when Mike Sanderson's race-leading ABN Amro One set a 24-hour distance record for a monohull of 546 nautical miles, it was back to the breakages yesterday as Ericsson suffered keel function failure. Neal McDonald, the skipper, reported a massive bang as his boat was romping along at 20 knots in fourth place as the yachts closed to within 1,000 miles of the finish of the first leg in Cape Town. "One situation that I have always dreaded occurring is where the canting keel system has a failure that allows it to swing wildly on its own accord from side to side. Well, last night, much to my horror, it happened to us," McDonald reported. The Briton said that the failure occurred in the dark, while he was at the wheel. To start with, the crew were not able to work out what had gone wrong. It was only after slowing the boat down and then winding it up again, only to feel it yaw alarmingly out of control, almost to the point of capsize, that they realized the keel was swinging freely. After diagnosing a failure in the hydraulic system that controls the keel, Richard Mason, a crew member, managed to lock it off in one place, enabling Ericsson to resume sailing - but not racing - towards the finish. -- Edward Gorman, Times on Line, complete story: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4041-1897328,00.html Position Reports -- Tuesday, 2200 GMT 1. ABN Amro One, 602 miles to finish 2. ABN Amro Two, +147 miles 3. Brasil 1, +262 miles 4. Ericsson Racing Team, +360 miles 5. Sunergy and Friends, +1865 miles 6. Pirates of the Caribbean, Retired 6. Movistar, Retired Event website: www.volvooceanrace.com ON THE AUCTION BLOCK The replica of the first America's Cup winner, 'America,' will be auctioned at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in London on December 14. The original yacht was destroyed in 1942 and this replica was built in 1967 by an American yachting enthusiast. The replica of America was the flagship at the 150th America's Cup anniversary in Cowes in 2001, and her present owner has devised plans for a refit and an itinerary including a guest appearance at the 2007 America's Cup in Valencia. The sale of America will enable the owner -- the Hukka Trust based in New Zealand -- to fund philanthropic projects in Africa. These projects include building schools and sponsoring a music project for children in troubled areas of Africa. -- www.saleofamerica.com LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT (The Daily Sail subscription website took a look at the equipment top Laser sailors use to maximize their performance. Here are just a few excerpts from their comprehensive story.) When it comes to highly technical boats the Laser and Laser Radial are usually not ones considered top of the list. Lasers are supposed to be identical, the ultimate one design, and as if this weren't enough of a great leveller when you attend the Laser World Championships your kit is supplied to you and you must use that. While this might eliminate all possibility of technical development, the Laser is still a manufactured item, made to maximum and minimum tolerances, so there is a degree of variation from boat to boat and as a result there are some technical ways to improve your chances of winning. This may not help you at a World Championship, but there are still many other events where the equipment is not supplied and you can sail your own boat. When a mast is made by Laser it has to weigh in between a set minimum and maximum tolerance for it to be sold. Jon Emmett, a prominent Laser Radial sailor and coach, explains how this can be used to your advantage: "The method of manufacture for the Laser masts is extrusion and if you stick them on accurate scales you know how heavy they are and the heavier they are obviously the stiffer they are." To take the idea even further there has been trend for competitors to buy their masts overseas. There was a trend recently in the Laser Radial fleet of buying masts from Australia because it was said that they were made closer to the top end of tolerance than any other country. -- www.thedailysail.com GILL HOLIDAY PROMOTION Tired of sailing in the wet and the cold? Buy your Gill gear now and get a discount toward an escape from winter! Simply put, purchase $150.00 value of any Gill gear between Nov. 23, 2005 and Dec. 24, 2005, and receive a Sunsail vacation voucher for $100.00! For promotion details and to locate a participating 4 or 5 Star dealer near you, visit the Gill website at gillna.com or click on the link below. Gill is the official Technical Clothing Supplier to the US Sailing Team, ICSA and Junior Olympic Events. Get promotion details here: http://209.61.234.225/Promotions/05_winter/index_wntr_promo_05.php SWEDISH MATCH TOUR Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia -- Ian Williams of Great Britain is the first day leader of the Monsoon Cup, the celebratory 50th event of the Swedish Match Tour. Williams took a sabbatical last summer from his day job as a lawyer to try his hand at match-racing full time. He has since quit his job in pursuit of racing glory, and today showed how much his game has grown this year. He scored three wins, including a come-from-behind victory over Sweden's Magnus Holmberg. "That's a good start, isn't it?" Williams said. "It was a really shifty day. It was hard to call the shifts because they were coming off the shore and we were sailing so close to shore. But we stayed close when behind and sailed away when in the lead." -- www.SwedishMatchTour.com Round Robin (After 3 of 11 flights) 1. Ian Williams (GBR) 3-0 2. Chris Dickson (NZL) 2-0 3. Cameron Dunn (NZL) 1-0 T. Peter Gilmour (AUS) 1-0 T. Staffan Lindberg (FIN) 1-0 6. Dean Barker (NZL) 1-1 7. Francesco Bruni (ITA) 1-2 T. Russell Coutts (NZL) 1-2 T. Magnus Holmberg (SWE) 1-2 10. Sally Barkow (USA) 0-1 11. Thierry Peponnet (FRA) 0-2 T. Björn Hansen (SWE) 0-2 PIRATE UPDATE The Black Pearl arrived in Cape Town yesterday, November 27 after an uneventful flight on the Antonov 124. She was then transported to "Pirate City", in the harbor area, which will be our base of operations for the next four weeks. We again want to thank our partner Pescanova for their generous and useful support to the team by making the flight to Cape Town possible. The shore team is arriving in Cape Town this week after getting a well deserved week off. Basically they had gone hard since early August without a break. The crew is taking this week off and will arrive in Cape Town December 7th. The goals of this week are for the shore team to install the new wedges and bomber doors for the keel and finish up a few other jobs on the boat. The plan is to be sailing by the 10th and then go offshore on the 12th for a few days of ocean sailing and sea trialing to make sure all is well with the repairs. Leg 2 will be one of the most demanding of the race for both the boat and the crew physically. I don't think either can possibly be over prepared so I think we are using our bit of bad luck on Leg 1 to gain a leg up on Leg 2. -- http://www.blackpearlracing.com/splash.asp NOT A SMOOTH LANDING Confusion still surrounds the reason behind the closure of the runway at Cape Town International Airport on Sunday, which was still causing mayhem yesterday when flights were delayed for over four hours. Some irate passengers had to wait overnight in other parts of the country before returning to Cape Town yesterday. Deidre Hendricks of Airports Company SA (Acsa) said even though Cape Town International was "fully operational" from Sunday 5pm, yesterday morning there was "a knock-on effect as a result of the runway closure". The runway was closed at 11.35am on Sunday and incoming flights were diverted to smaller airports, such as Durban and George. Initially it was believed that a Malaysia Airlines 747 had damaged the runway, but station manager of the airline Ghaulib Salie said: "Malaysia Airlines had absolutely nothing to do with the damage caused". Transport spokesman for the DA, Robin Carlisle, said a senior ACSA member had told him on Sunday night that an overloaded Russian cargo plane was behind the damage. -- Caryn Dolley, Cape Times, complete story: www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=269&fArticleId=3014166 Curmudgeon's Comment: "Overloaded Russian cargo plane in Cape Town." Hmmmm - could that have been the conclusion of the "uneventful flight on the Antonov 124?" TOUGH GOING Joe Harris and Josh Hall on the Doyle-powered Open 50 Gryphon Solo blasted to a win in the 4,340-mile Transat Jacques Vabre (France to Brazil). Grypon's archrival, Artforms, got a "special" on a non-Doyle mainsail, but it turned out to be not so special -- shortly after the very rough start it failed. Artforms had to return to France to pick up her tried-and-true Doyle mainsail. She then passed all but Gryphon Solo to take second. In a tough event, Doyle boats finished one-two. Call us for your suit of tough, better-engineered sails. 1-800-94-DOYLE; Transat wrap-up at: http://www.doylesails.com/news.htm NEWS BRIEFS * Tito Gonzalez of Chile, sailing with his son, Diego Gonzalez, and Cristian Herman, won the Lightning World Championship, sailed last week at Club de Yates Higuerillas in Chile. Second was David Starck, Buffalo NY, with Ian Jones and Scott Ikle; third was Pablo Herman, Chile, with Luis Felipe Herman and Claus Engell. 45 Lightnings from eight countries sailed nine races with one throwout. Tito was able to discard his OCS from Race four, although in the final accounting, he still would have won the event - he won five races, including the last three. -- Final results are (finally) posted: http://www.lightning.cl/2005Worlds/Worlds.htm * US Sailing together with Vanguard Sailboats are sending a team of youth sailors to represent the U.S. at the Laser Radial Youth World Championship in Brazil next month. Scheduled for December 10 to 17, the World Championship is held in Fortaleza, Brazil. The five sailors who make up the US Laser Radial Youth World Team are: Cam Cullman (Rye, N.Y.), Cameron Friedman (Crown Point, N.Y.), Kyle Rogachenko (Collegeville, Pa.), Jerry Tullo (Staten Island, N.Y.), and Blake Warner (Newport Beach, Calif.). The five sailors have each received a grant to apply toward the expenses incurred in attending the World Championship. -- www.2005laserworlds.com.br * The ISSA Cressy Singlehanded Championship for high school sailors was held November 26-27 in Honolulu, Hawaii, and sailed in Standard and Radial Lasers. Hosted by the Hawaii and Waikiki Yacht Clubs, 17 sailors competed in each division, sailing in the Ala Wai lagoon in light and shifty conditions. Standard Rig: 1. Juan Maegli, Portsmouth Abbey HS, Portsmouth, RI; 2. Drew Robb, Punahou School, Honolulu, HI; 3. Zeke Horowitz, Pine View HS, Osprey, FL; Radial Rig: 1. Mitch Hall, Seminole HS, Seminole, FL; 2. Jesse Kirkland, Tabor Academy, Marion, MA; 3. Kyle Rogachenko, Methacton, Norristown, PA. Complete results: http://www.highschoolsailingusa.org * The Swan 45 Class has been designated as an ISAF recognized class, which allows the Swan 45 biennial class regatta to be officially re-named the Swan 45 World Championship, at which Swan 45s will compete for the coveted Gold Cup and world champion title. The first Swan 45 World Championship will take place at Acura Key West 2006, January 14th-20th. * Registration for US Sailing's Rolex Miami OCR (Jan. 22-27, 2006) opened about 2 weeks ago and already 59 boats (91 sailors) from 15 countries have registered. The upcoming event is a qualifier for the '06 US Sailing Team, '06 US World Sailing Games Team, Canadian Team, and a country-qualifier for the '07 Pan Am Games. If you're curious to see who has already signed up to compete, go to the link at the right-hand side of the event website for "Who's Coming". -- http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/RolexMiamiOCR/index.htm * Rochester YC, in Rochester, New York has been selected by International Foundation for Disabled Sailing to host the IFDS 2007 Disabled Sailing World Championship Regatta, The regatta will be held September 7-15, 2007, and all three of the Paralympic Sailing disciplines will be competing -- 2.4mR class (one person), UD-18 (two-person teams) and the Sonar (three-person teams). Approximately 120 competitors from some 20 countries are expected. It will be the Final Country Qualifier Event in which a country can qualify for the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. * The fleet for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race now stands at 92 yachts, with entries scheduled to close at 5.00 p.m. this Friday. -- www.rolexsydneyhobart.com RICK TOMLINSON PUBLICATIONS There is still time to purchase the exciting 2006 Rick Tomlinson Portfolio and Desk Calendars. Also the new edition of Shooting H20 is now available - a portfolio book of Rick's pictures, with 2 additional chapters on the Volvo Ocean Race and the Americas Cup. See http://www.rick-tomlinson.com/ or email mailto:cathie@rick-tomlinson.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. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Nick Voss: Coaching in the optimist class is not a problem. Coaches often become role models for the sailors. As a recent opti sailor, I have seen far more kids quit sailing because of controlling parents then coaching. This "little league" attitude of some parents causes kids to hate the support because of the pressure from parents. The notion that opti sailors should run their class is completely unreasonable. Most opti sailors are around the age of 12, do you remember how you thought when you were 12? It is when of the largest classes in the world and one of the best organized. If 12 year olds ran the class all havoc would break loose. Most kids are not afraid to tell their parents they want to quit. In response to the idea that the class should survey the sailors at international events, they do! At every international event I have been too, all of 7, they have asked each team to sit down and answer a question air and asked what could be improved. No matter what you do some kids are not going to like sailing, just like not every kid likes baseball of ballet, this is not the coaches fault. Some of the best people I have met are my coaches and there have been none that have influenced me negatively. I think the focus should be on how adult classes pull these opti sailors into their classes. * From Blake Middleton: The thread on coaching and kids reminds me to suggest that all Junior Programs check out a national organization with a great approach: The Positive Coaching Alliance has a goal to build coaching (in all sports and activities) based on the philosophy of striving for excellence combined with using sports to teach life lessons. A PCA representative by the name of Tina Syer was a keynote speaker at the 2004 US Sailing National Sailing Programs Symposium in Oakland. I spoke to two people who were completely blown away (in a good way) by her positive presentation. Link: http://www.positivecoach.org/ * From Bruce McPherson: I am surprised no one has addressed the age issue as related to the drop out factor inherent in Junior Sailing. On Cape Cod, we see more Opti's each year, but hardly any sailor's graduating to 420's. There, juniors start sailing about age 8. Of a club of 30 Opti's, maybe 6 will try sailing 420's in July, but none in August. Years ago, on Long Island, we didn't allow anyone under 10 to join the JYC! I think I would still recommend this. If I were to start a Junior program on the Cape today, I would want to start 10 year olds in something like Hereshoff 12 1/2 Footers. Those who show exceptional talent might then be introduced to Opti's. Note, in the 20 knot winds of July, a recent 110 pound graduate of Opti's is usually not strong enough to trim the jib on a 420 sufficiently tight for competitive windward work. So an intermediate boat is needed; one like a JY 14 with a small jib.... I agree that kids do better in crewed boats.... Weekend races are mandatory.... The bottom line: what best to keep the youngsters interested and continuing as sailors? We have sold our cruising boat for lack of knowledgeable local racing crew; just flaking the main is a problem half the time! * From Adrian Morgan: In 'Butt 1976 ABN Amro One skipper Mike Sanderson was quoted as saying, 'Just had the exciting experience of hitting a shark doing 25 knots. Unfortunately the shark didn't make it.' Exciting? What sailor finds excitement in bludgeoning a living animal to death with a 16 tonne lead weight? A word of advice: if you expect good PR for your trip, let's hear a little compassion for other sea users, not all of which are blasting around the world for big bucks. Sharks have to make a living too. And just wait until you hit a blue whale. Bet that won't be too exciting, 1,000 miles from land in the Southern Ocean with your keel hanging off. * From Angus A. Macaulay: Donna Wotton (scuttlebutt #1970) brought up a great point about the shift in Olympic scoring in that Golf has not had to change their rules to attract TV viewers, they just have Tiger Woods. I'll add another example, The Tour de France. Like sailing events, the winner is based on an accumulated score from all of the stages. Most of the time you watched Lance Armstrong over the past 7 years, he was leading the overall event, but not likely leading or winning the stage you happened to be watching. However, in both examples, they had a person and a great story to focus on. All of the comments about Olympic sailing seem to be focused on the specifics of the scoring format, or the course format, or the racing format (fleet vs. match)... I say, give me an individuals story to root for. The general public, whether reading about sailing or watching it on TV, will never get the nuances of racing. They can, however, understand a story of someone's personal challenge to make the Olmpic team (the US team or another team). * From Peter Huston: Yes, it is a shame that the Lightning Class didn't get the results posted for the just completed Worlds as quickly as they could have. The class is rich in history and the sailors who passed through the class at one time or another include many that have gone on to Olympic and America's Cup fame. There are many classes that are strong relative to the rest of the sport - but yet have declining participation at all levels. Perhaps it is time for several classes to band together and form an "office of administration" for all the basic functions required to manage the class - why have membership management, web-hosting, PR, sponsorship sales all be redundant, and with minimum resources of individual classes? Perhaps an industry or commercial sponsor would benefit from running the "one design classes office" - the classes sure would. Top placing American in the Lightning Worlds, David Starck, did a short Q&A on the regatta and the class that can be found here http://buffaloniagarasailing.blogspot.com CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed? |
