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SCUTTLEBUTT 3104 - Wednesday, June 2, 2010Scuttlebutt 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. Scuttlebutt on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Scuttlebutt on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt Today’s sponsors: USSTAG, Melges Performance Sailboats, and LaserPerformance. FEAST, FAMINE IN THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST By David Schmidt, yachting journalist “Hey David, do you want to drive?” I glance up from a sodden perch on the rail of JAM, John McPhail’s well-rigged and well-sailed J/160, as we pound into stiff westerly winds and square waves six to eight-feet (did I mention square?) about two hours into the start of the 2010 Swiftsure International Yacht Race. This is only my second race aboard JAM, my first of any distance or importance, and I practically jump for the wheel. At the helm, I see that this is sink or swim: The seas are a cross-hatched mess of wind-against-tide, punctuated by tidal rips and boiling, evil-looking upwellings that threaten to destroy boatspeed. It’s impossible to predict wave patterns, if there are any patterns at all in this mess, so I simply drive for speed, doing my damndest to keep from plunging the bow, doing my damndest to keep from falling off the backside of a wave. The boat feels balanced, powerful, under a number three blade and a single deep reef in the big main. Balanced . . . Powerful . . . Controlled is a different story. Six hours later I take the wheel again, this time with a full main and a light number one. The sun has slipped to a palm’s width above the horizon, the square waves are down to gentle open-ocean rollers, and off our port bow is Neah Bay, one of the most northwestern points of the continental USA. The Straits of Juan de Fuca have relented, but the farther west we sail, the more the wind clocks to the south. Normally this would be time to say, Hallelujah!, but right here, right now, it’s a slow kiss of death: NOAA’s model’s predict the wind to eventually rotate to the east, giving us perhaps an hour’s worth of kite time before settling into a long, 70-mile beat back home. That’s 70 miles as the seabird flies, not 70 miles as the seaboat tacks. Looking around, our class is scattered along an east-west axis thanks to several starts and restarts. Mind you, not restarts run by the RC from the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, but restarts dictated by nature: Here in the Pacific Northwest it’s common to start racing and run into A) adverse tides, B) a no-wind zone, or C) a combination of the two. “C” is the house bet. Then, boats park up, wait for the wind or tide to relent, and wait for racing to resume. It’s a different way of sailing from what I’m used to, as an east coaster recently transplanted to Seattle. But, given the rugged topography of the wild Olympic Mountains to my left and the awesome coastline of Vancouver Island to the north, the adventurous spirit of sailing out here doesn’t take long to become addictive. -- Read on: http://kimballlivingston.com/?p=3282 COLLEGE NATIONALS Madison, WI (June 1, 2010) - Now that winners have been determined for the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Women’s National Championship (College of Charleston) and the ICSA/APS Team Race National Championship (St. Mary’s College), all eyes are turned to the main event of the ICSA year - the 2010 ICSA/Gill National Championship. While Lake Mendota was plagued with light or no air for the first two events, it delivered breeze between six and 15 knots that allowed for the completion of six races by both A- and B-Divisions as the race for this sought-after championship crown got underway today. Boston College arrived in Madison ranked number one (as determined by Sailing World’s College Rankings of May 13), and has cleared the first barrier on the way to the title. After the first of three days of competition, BC has built an 18 point margin on the field. -- Full report/results: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9968#9968 At the conclusion of the 2010 College Women's National Championships, the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association announced its 2010 All American Women's Team and recognized Allie Blecher, Charleston '10 as the 2010 Quantum Female College Sailor of the Year: All American - Skippers Elizabeth Barry, Brown '11 Allie Blecher, Charleston '10 Sydney Bolger, Georgetown '12 Rebecca Dellenbaugh, Dartmouth '10 Annie Haeger, Boston College '12 Shannon Heausler, Charleston '10 Sarah Lihan, Yale '10 Emily Maxwell, Boston College '11 Stephanie Roble, Old Dominion '11 Sara-Morgan Watters, St. Mary's '10 Complete list: http://tinyurl.com/2fn2ysh PHOTOS: Since 2005, Scuttlebutt has partnered with photographer Glennon Stratton to produce photo galleries from the College Spring Nationals. Already posted are the images from the Womens and Team Race Nationals: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/cn/ ALPHAGRAPHICS SALUTES HORTON AND LYNE AlphaGraphics, title sponsor of the US Sailing Team, congratulates Andy Horton and James Lyne for taking the bronze medal in the Star class at the Delta Lloyd Regatta in Medemblik, The Netherlands. This was their second podium finish at an ISAF Sailing World Cup event this year. AlphaGraphics also congratulates other strong team performances in Medemblik including 2008 Olympians Amanda Clark and Sarah Chin, who finished eighth overall among 46 Women’s 470 boats, and Olympic Silver Medalist Zach Railey, who finished fifth in the 62-boat Finn class. Contact your local AlphaGraphics business center to learn about their design, printing and marketing capabilities: http://www.alphagraphics.com LESSONS FROM THE OLYMPIC TRAIL The advice often given to athletes training for an Olympic berth is to appreciate the journey. Not everyone wins a medal, or even competes in the Games, but the lessons along the way can make the commitment worthy if they are embraced. At the ISAF Sailing World Cup event last week in Medemblik, The Netherlands, 2008 Olympians Amanda Clark (Shelter Harbor, N.Y.) and Sarah Chin (Hoboken, N.J.) share the experience from their eighth place finish: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Some of the best advice we’ve gotten from an anonymous veteran racer was, “You can’t win a regatta on the first day, but you can lose it.” Unfortunately, that is what we did. Day #1 was just one of those days on the racecourse where it seemed nothing went our way. Despite a clear pre-race strategy to get to an edge of the track, we let ourselves become stuck in the middle. Sailing on the IJsselmeer is similar to lake sailing: surrounded by land where even the thermal winds are offshore. This lends itself to massive shifts, which require committing to a side early and staying on the edge of the fleet. We scored a frustrating 29, 21. To round out our first day fiasco, a broken main halyard forced us to retire from the third race. After three races of a ten race series, we were stuck in 38th place! With our work cut out for us, we were determined to climb back to a respectable finish. A streak of blazing starts and great boat speed allowed us to execute our original game plan of getting to an edge. Once committed to a side, we did a much better job of playing the local shifts while gaining leverage on the fleet. In races 4 through 10 we scored: 6, 5, 4, 14, 5, 6, 6. This was enough to move us from 38th to 8th overall in just 3 days of racing and boost us into the (final) medal race. The breeze ranged from 5-25 knots, so this was an excellent test across a range of conditions. As a lighter team, we were particularly happy with our upwind speed in the big breeze. The most important lesson learned from this regatta was how to keep poised and focused after what could have been a devastating start. We are very pleased with the consistency of top 7 scores after the first day. We return the Netherlands at the end of June to begin a training camp before our World Championships. This time we will be sailing out of The Hague in South Holland. We would like to thank US Sailing Team Alphagraphics. -- http://blog.teamgosail.org/2010/06/delta-lloyd-regatta-recap.html PART 2: SAILING MENTORS - NOT ALL OLD MEN Saving Sailing Author Nicholas Hayes continues to refine and improve the core ideas of his award-winning book in this 6-part series first published and still running in SpinSheet Magazine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- If you ask longtime sailors to explain their attraction to the activity, they’ll say that they love the feeling of freedom, or the competition (if they race), or the time with friends who sail, or the constant challenge. But if you probe more deeply to understand what underlies the strength of their passion, most sailors will explain that they were led to sailing by someone whom they respect, and who took the time to help with sound advice and hands-on training as they learned. Most longtime sailors learned to love to sail from a mentor: a grandmother, a dad, a close friend or a camp counselor. Indeed, people who are lucky to have found a mentor in anything -- sailing, singing, career -- are often also people who have found ways to live healthier, happier, more interesting and more meaningful lives. And it’s a two-way street. Mentors benefit in precisely the same way. It seems that if we are privileged to find a protege’ (a daughter, niece or neighbor) with whom to share the things we love to do, we too lead healthier, happier, more interesting and more meaningful lives. One of the key findings from the research for the book Saving Sailing is that the absence of mentoring is directly correlated to the decline in participation in sailing; which is better explained as a decline in devotion to group free-time pursuits made worse by crushing pressures on family time. Americans still generally think sailing might be cool and an interesting thing to learn. They just can’t find someone to lead them to it and they don’t take the time to do it themselves. This doesn’t mean that there is a shortage of folks who could mentor another in sailing. It means, instead, that very few of us are doing it. So what is a mentor and how does one start mentoring? -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/2cuz3qt BMW ORACLE ELIMINATED Sardinia, Italy (June 1, 2010; Day 11) - With just four races remaining in the round robin, America’s BMW Oracle Racing and the French ALEPH Racing Team, with ninth and tenth places respectively, are on the outside, looking in. James Spithill and Oracle, the winners of the America’s Cup, decisively won races today against Italy’s Mascalzone Latino and Azzurra, but the late improvement in form still left them in ninth place. With all their races complete, and only the top eight advancing to the next stage, the Americans are effectively eliminated. The mistral winds had eased and conditions were perfect for racing this morning under sunny skies. The first race of the day started in 15 knots of northwest wind after a short delay. The breeze continued to build but after Oracle beat Azzurra in winds that gusted over 20 knots, organizers ordered a delay until conditions eased. Current standings 1. Artemis, SWE, skipper Paul Cayard (USA), 6-2, 6 pts 2. Emirates Team New Zealand, NZL, skipper Dean Barker (NZL), 5-3, 5 pts 2. Synergy, RUS, skipper Karol Jablonski (POL), 5-4, 5 pts 4. Mascalzone Latino Audi Team, ITA, skipper Gavin Brady (NZL), 5-2, 4 pts* 4. All4One, FRA/GER, skipper Jochen Schümann (GER), 4-3, 4 pts 4. Azzurra, ITA, skipper Francesco Bruni (ITA), 4-5, 4 pts 4. TeamOrigin, GBR, skipper Ben Ainslie (GBR), 4-3, 4 pts 8. Luna Rossa, ITA, skipper Ed Baird (USA), 3-6, 3 pts 9. BMW ORACLE Racing, USA, skipper James Spithill (AUS), 3-6, 3 pts 10. Aleph, FRA, skipper Bertrand Pace (FRA), 2-6, -2 pts* * Penalties deducted by Jury/Umpires Racing is scheduled to start each day with a warning signal at 10:00 local time (GMT+2). Racing concludes June 6th. Complete coverage, including live streaming Virtual Eye tracking of each race of the Louis Vuitton Trophy La Maddalena is available at http://www.louisvuittontrophy.com BACKGROUND: The Louis Vuitton Trophy series is designed to be a cost-effective format for match racing competition in Version 5 America's Cup Class boats. For the La Maddalena event, teams will take turns racing on four equalised America’s Cup Class boats: two have been provided by BMW Oracle Racing (USA 87 and USA 98) and two by Mascalzone Latino Audi Team (ITA 90 and ITA 99). After La Maddalena, the 2010 series continues on to Dubai (Nov. 13-28). AUDI MELGES 20 IN EUROPE AND THE USA The AUDI Melges 20 Racing Series in the USA and Europe continues to grow. The Audi Melges 20 Series had over 30 boats at the last event in Scarlino, Italy, and Melges Europe will be delivering new boats all through the season as the interest is very high. In the USA the Detroit NOOD and Toronto Championship will be the next big Audi Melges 20 events building momentum for the US National Championship in Holland, Michigan late August. -- http://www.melges20.com TRANSATLANTIC SPEED RECORD ATTEMPT (June 1, 2010) - The 100ft super-maxi racing yacht ICAP Leopard owned by Helical Bar PLC chief executive Mike Slade is on the second day of its 2,925 nautical mile monohull transatlantic speed record attempt. The team is 166 nm ahead of their 2008 record for a power-assisted yacht (of 7 da, 19 hr, 20 mn), but their goal is for a faster crossing then the record held by Mari Cha IV of 6 days, 17 hours and 52 minutes (set in 2003) for non-power assisted yachts, and will need to cross the finish line at Lizard Point before 12h 37m UTC on Saturday, June 5 to beat it. Here is an onboard report from skipper Chris Sherlock: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wet cold and windy out here and today (June 1st) we said goodbye to the Gulf Stream which plays a major part in the weather we receive in that area. The water temp has dropped from a nice warm 22 degrees c to a chilly 9.0 degrees making every drenching on deck that bit cooler - or as they say 'as cold as your mother in laws kiss'! Yesterday afternoon the surfing down waves was fantastic with speeds into the late 30's and we are still doing it 18 hours later with the forecast for more wind to come which is good news for us and thankfully we can see the horizon tonight. In answer to a question on the message board - ICAP Leopard cannot get Mari Cha IV’s record as she did not have power assisted sailing systems and we do. We only use the Mari Cha time as a bench mark in an effort to improve on our current ‘power assisted’ record for monohulls. I cannot think of a non power assisted monohull that is capable of beating Mari Cha’s time afloat today and I believe that record will stand until someone builds a purpose built yacht with manual winches which is not practical for anything other than these types of records. A few people have asked what the significance is of the word "Alfie" in front of the Leopard bow logo. On April 5 2010, dear friends of Leopard, Greg and LA Norwood Perkins, tragically lost their six year old son to meningitis in Antigua WI. Alfie was a beautiful little boy and into 'everything' as well as being my godson. We thought it would be nice for all of Alfie's friends, their parents and teachers from West Hill primary school in the UK to follow our adventure across the Atlantic in dedication to his short but wonderful life. -- http://www.leopard3.com/transatlantic_record_attempt_2010.html SAILING SHORTS * (June 1, 2010) - In a race which went right down to the wire, Uniquely Singapore has secured their first ever victory in Clipper 09-10, crossing the finish line at Ambrose Lighthouse at 12:18 local time (16:18GMT). The south east Asian team has been in a nip and tuck race with fellow competitors Cape Breton Island since departing Jamaica eight days ago on the tenth leg of the global series, but managed to pull ahead in the last few hours of racing. The next leg departs New York on June 6th for Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada with an estimated arrival time of June 11-13. -- http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com * Sheboygan, WI (June 1, 2010) The women’s match racing Northern Lights Cup Clinic and Regatta were held May 27-31 at the Sheboygan Yacht Club and US Sailing Center - Sheboygan. Teams enjoyed four days of beautiful weather for the clinic and race days, but a lack of wind on Monday May 31 cancelled the final match. Seven all-women teams participated in the regatta including two time previous champion, Julianna Senfft representing Brazil. Julianna finished second to Adrienne Patterson from Annapolis, Maryland and her crew Emily Flint, Megan Watson and Jennifer Chamberlin. -- Full report/results: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9967#9967 * The 2010 Canadian National Championship for the International Farr 30 Class will be held September 24-26 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is open to any member of the International Farr 30 class. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=9963 LASERPERFORMANCE WORLD OPEN REGATTA The World Open Regatta is fast approaching and we want everyone to join in the fun. Race your Laser, Radial or Sunfish, or sail a Bug or Pico in our “Fun Race”. June 26-27 will be a great weekend in Newport with plenty of on water and on shore activities. For more details: http://na.laserperformance.com/special-events/worldopen Sail Legendary LaserPerformance.com LETTERS AND FORUM Please email your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Peter Rugg: Nice to know the end of this sad story in the history of the Cup. It seems the lesson learned is that the writers of the Deed of Gift knew best, and ISAF is just not up to adding any value to an AC challenge. Kudos to Harold Bennett who did the right thing. It is just unbelievable that ISAF could agree to "PRO by committee". One can only assume that ISAF does not comprehend leadership, and a PRO with the authority to employ his judgment. Fortunately, BMW Oracle and Mascalzone Latino seem to be focused on the 'mutual consent' clause with the shared goal of a competitive match to restore the majesty and integrity of America's Cup competition. * From Bill Carey: When I wasn’t on the water this weekend, I was glued to the live coverage of the collegiate team racing nationals. Sure the wind was incredibly light and the video coverage was low-res and often spotty, but the coverage was coming from on board an umpire boat right in the middle of the action. How this (team racing) is not an Olympic sport is beyond me. I’m aware of the arguments against having six athletes taking up one discipline, and how other classes would have to be cut, but I don’t believe any of the arguments are compelling enough to keep team racing out. 3 on 3 is easy enough to understand and fun to watch. The sailing is obviously athletic yet women are equal (several teams have female skippers who were crushing their male counterparts). With the addition of a combined minimum crew weight, no body type would have to be excluded. I hope it happens in my lifetime. * From Dennis Cherone (regarding title thread from Scuttlebutt 3102): As skipper of my boat, I raced for years with one of the crew steering. Why? I was more useful trimming. I wanted sail trim that was as perfect as I could get it. At the same time watching where the helm was steering. Did it work? Yes. We won many races and came in second overall in our class two years in a row. SUPPORT YOUR SCUTTLEBUTT The Scuttlebutt e-newsletter was first launched in 1997, well before regatta organizers and the sailing media had embraced the Internet. The early focus was Southern California, but as interest in the publication grew both nationally and internationally, so did the content. But the roots of Scuttlebutt sailing news remain in North America, with content selected to emphasize the events and stories of most interest to sailors on this continent. Scuttlebutt’s readership growth is largely due to satisfied “customers” spreading the word about the publication. Maintaining an active readership is vital for any media, as active readers are hopefully active shoppers for the advertisers that support the publication. And Scuttlebutt is supported by an elite group of companies, such that the limited supply of ad slots are now sold out until January 2011. Please help support Scuttlebutt by letting your sailing friend know about the publication. It is very easy to spread the word by clicking on this link: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/wordofmouth CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION “Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don't move.” - Satchel Paige Special thanks to USSTAG, Melges Performance Sailboats, and LaserPerformance. 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