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SCUTTLEBUTT 2164 - August 22, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.UNDERWAY Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre -- Racing for eight of the eleven Olympic events got underway on Fushan Bay, with China claiming the finish gun in race 1 of both the women’s keelboat event in the Yngling and the women’s single person dinghy event in the Laser Radial. Nations across the Asian continent have performed well, concluding the opening day with Asia represented in the top three across four of the eight events. With the final registration completed Sunday, the entry total now stands at 456 athletes from 40 nations, which marks the largest sailing competition ever held in Qingdao. Sally Barkow and her crew of Debra Capozzi and Carolyn Howe (USA) scored a 3-1 in the Yngling fleet to start the regatta with a five point lead in this 16-boat class. In the seven-boat Star fleet, George Szabo/ Eric Monroe (USA) and Andy Horton/ Brad Nichol (USA) both have five points after two races to be part of a four way tie at the top of that class. In the 34-boat Laser Radial fleet, Paige Railey (USA) is in third place, just a point behind the leaders, with Mexico’s Tania Elias Calles Wolf in eighth place. The USA has two well-placed boats in the 42-boat 470 Men’s fleet - Stuart McNay/ Graham Biehl currently in fourth and Mikee Anderson-Mitterling/ David Hughes in sixth. Amanda Clark/ Sara Mergenthaler (USA) in 11th place are currently the top North American 470 Female (37-boats) competitors. In the 22-boat 49er fleet Dalton Bergan/ Zachary Maxam (USA) are in eighth place with Rob Dale/ Hunter Lowden (CAN) in tenth. The Finn, Tornado and RS:X Women classes did not race on Monday “China rolled out the red carpet for us,” said US Sailing Team Leader Katie Kelly (Barrington, R.I.). “The city of Qingdao is certainly prepared and excited to welcome the world to their home. We are always greeted with warm smiles, and ‘how can I help you?’” “We have never seen an Olympic venue like this, ready two years before," said David Kellett, the vice president of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). -- http://www.2006qdregatta.com/ FROM USA COMPETITORS IN QINGDAO * From Andy Horton, USA Star sailor: Okay, remember the late 70’s movie the China Syndrome? Well today our coach (Mike Wolfs) and Brad both had their personal reenactments of the movie. It all began around 9 am just after Brad and I had finished our official weigh in. I asked Brad if he wanted to get something to eat before we launched the boat and he said, “I don’t really feel like eating”. If you know Brad you know that means there’s a huge problem. Brad’s stomach was bothering him so he sat in the shade and hydrated while I put the got the boat ready for racing. No big deal right? If either of us knew at this point how the day would end up… Within an hour Mike and Brad were both vomiting and couldn’t keep even water down. The team doctors were on top of it but there was really nothing they could do. It was quickly concluded they had eaten something at the opening ceremonies last night and needed to get it out of their systems. Well, luckily I can tell you as an innocent bystander Mike and Brad (didn’t) have anything left in their systems. So, we did the only thing we could do and went on with the day while trying to make it as comfortable as possible for the two of them. Luckily the wind was too light to race when we got out to our race course so we were postponed for a few hours. After a little while we put Brad on a medic boat to get some rest. When the breeze came in I picked him up. He wasn’t looking very good, but did have a pretty funny story about waking up, running to the back of the boat and “surprising” the Chinese medics. Remember we are five miles from the harbor and there are no facilities… * From Stu McNay/ Graham Biehl, USA 470 sailors: US Sailing has done a fantastic job organizing and facilitating this event for the US athletes. There are three team sports trainers, a weather lady Jennifer, and David, our interpreter and guide. Thank you! This event is different from others in that each country is only allocated two births in each class of boat (of the 11 Olympic Classes form keel boat to windsurfer). Last night they held an extravagant opening ceremony that felt somewhere between a game show and a pageant. We are being treated very well over here. Qingdao is known for light winds in August and today was no exception. A light North wind died and gave way to a 4-7 knot sea breeze. The wind was very unstable in velocity, but held a stable direction. * From Carrie Howe for Team Seven Sailing, USA Yngling sailors: Going for groceries was absolutely amazing. During the cab ride there we believed this would be the scariest part of the trip, flying around corners with near accidents and narrowly avoiding head-on collisions with baby carriages and people roaming the streets (and we weren't stopping) When we finally arrived we all looked white in the face as we said "shay sha" (thank you in Chinese) and handed him 10 yuan which is just over one dollar! We walked into the store and quickly lost each other. Traffic jams of people, lines for pig's feet and seaweed, people yelling everywhere and every type of food you could ever imagine. At this point my headache crashed in. The store was smelly, elbows flying and frantic loud Chinese people apparently thinking that there was a food ration problem. It helped that Sally and Debbie have blond hair and stuck out from the crowd. We managed to find each other after an hour and make it out safely. A WINNING COMBINATION! Ockam offers integrated instrument solutions with proven race-winning performance for all boat types. The powerful Tryad processor supplies a smarter, faster & lighter platform that includes built-in RS-232 communications, GPS, NMEA ports and polar data. Your information streams unimpeded throughout the system’s single cable network. Add an available 3-axis compass will provide the most stable, accurate real-time numbers available. Take advantage of the The new Matryx, a transflective graphical display II with red backlighting that provides a simple, clear way to view information, strip-chart data and control the system.. Contact Ockam to discuss flexible instrument solutions for everyday use. lat@ockam.com DO YOU HAVE THE FEEL? “Some people instinctually have a feel for sailing. Some people don't. I also think that the people that aren't "born with it" can achieve the feel with a lot of time in the boat. I attribute much of my success to spending more time than the competition practicing and racing. Preparation was the key to us winning the World's this year. We spent more time than anyone else prepping the boat and going over it with a fine tooth comb. It paid off when we didn't have a single breakdown in the 30 knots of breeze.” -- From an interview with Brian Bissell on the North Sails one-design website, http://www.onedesign.com/class/j24/j24_whatsnew.html#31 UNIQUE PATH TO THE AMERICA’S CUP Jochen Schuemann, Jesper Bank, Luis Doreste, Iain Percy, Ian Walker … you need a lot of hands to count how many Olympic medallists are participating in the 32nd America’s Cup. Rafael Trujillo, Ben Ainslie, Thierry Peponnet … they all have something in common; their Olympic success came in sailing. But Jean Galfione, the mainsail grinder for Areva Challenge, stands out. He has a gold medal from the summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, but not from sailing. Over 10 000 athletes from 197 countries competed in 26 different sports, in the Atlanta Games where Carl Lewis became the third man in history to win nine medals. Michael Johnson broke the world record in the 200 metre and 400 metre sprints and a 25 year old Frenchman set an Olympic record in the pole vault - Jean Galfione. At the age of 14 he discovered his talent in the event and since then he dedicated his life to becoming number one. He worked hard and 10 years later he had won three bronze medals (two in the world championships and one in the European championships), and he was about to amaze the world at the Olympic Games. After his gold medal jump in the 1996 Olympic Games, Galfione continued training and jumped to glory again in the 1999 World Championships in Seville (Spain). He won the gold medal there and joined the exclusive club of men who have jumped over 6 metres. After that, his body began to rebel under the strain and his time off due to injury increased dramatically. Over the following five years, he began to fade from top competition he took part in his last official competition last summer in Finland. His jump was 55 centimeters lower than his best mark and he decided it was time to retire. However, Galfione had already started to plant the seeds of a new career in sport. A sailor since he was a kid Galfione realized that his physical size and condition and mental toughness could be an asset on board a top-flight sailing team. He impressed the former skipper of Areva Challenge, Thierry Peponnet, who suggested Galfione try out with the team during the first Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts in 2004. His learning curve was so advanced that he was promoted to the race crew in a match against Le Défi (now China Team). Since then, Galfione has become a core crew member of the French America’s Cup challenger, also taking responsibility for the physical training of the team. -- America’s Cup website, http://www.americascup.com/en/ CAMET PADDED VEST The Camet padded vest is made of a waterproof, breathable fabric with a Coolmax mesh liner. Features include a chin flap, spandex-bound armholes for a smooth fit, a wind flap behind the front zipper, and a draw cord hem. Additional inches have been added to the lower back of the jacket for greater protection from the elements. It is designed with two large inside pockets with 9-inch zippers and two outside pockets with 7-inch zippers. The vest has the ability to add an optional Foam Pad insert in the inside front pockets for protection against lifelines when hiking out. http://www.camet.com/ SAILING SHORTS * Scott Dickson beat Bill Hardesty 2-0 in the finals of the Ficker Cup match race series to win the event for the tenth time, and earn a spot in Long Beach Yacht Club’s Congressional Cup next April. The event was sailed in the Catalina 37s used for the Congressional Cup in brisk conditions. Dickson had the same crew he sailed with in last year’s Congressional Cup -- Mark Callahan-Bow, Mark Struble-Tailing, Sonny Gibson-Trim, Matt McKinley-Main/Pit, and Tony Stuart-Tactics.” Brian Angel won Petit Finals, 2-0 over Chris Van Tol to nail down third place. * Four new North American Champions were crowned last week at Performance Race Week. Racine Yacht Club on Lake Michigan was the host. Winds ranged from 5-10 knots on day one to 20+ on day three. Eleven races were completed to decide the winner in each class. John Casey and Kenny Pierce won the Nacra 20 class, Matt Struble won the F17 Class, Mike Krantz and Rob Remmers won the F18 Class, and R. Johnson won the N6.0 class. Complete results and pics at: http://www.nacraclass.com/NCW2006/north_american.htm *It took Jim Madden’s canting keel Reichel/Pugh 66 Stark Raving Mad a little less than 23 hours to complete the Ida Lewis Distance Race -- a 175-nautical mile course that twice took the fleet out past Block Island to Montauk Point off Long Island. However, the IRC "corrected time" winner was: New Orleans' Stephen Murray, skippering his TP52 Decision (the old Rosebud). Newport's Tim Woodhouse, skippering his Thompson 35 Rumours, took line honors for the PHRF class and also won the class on corrected time, finishing at around 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night -- some seven hours after Stark Raving Mad. -- http://www.ildistancerace.org * Bellport Bay YC hosted the 2006 Club 420 North American Championships on Long Island's Great South Bay. 117 boats competed in the event. Taylor Canfield and Nate Rosenberg (St. Thomas YC, USVI) won the event by one point over Molly Lucas and Charlotte Williams Bay Head YC, NJ). Finishing third was Ian Donahue and Caroline Patten (Brigantine YC, NJ). For complete results: http://www.bellportyc.org/C420_Nats_2006/Final_race_results_081706.htm * Thirty five teams from 12 states enjoyed five days of perfect weather at the Ensign National Championship Regatta held at Edgewater YC in Cleveland, OH. Brian C. Simkins’ Ensane from Huntington, New York, scored a two point victory in the 10-race, one discard event over former class champion, blind sailor Vince Morvillo’s Novie Marie from Houston, Texas. Greg Eiffert (Rochester, New York) took third place on White Lady. -- http://www.ensignclass.com/2006NationalsResults.html * John Cook’s British flagged Cristabella, with double Olympic medalist Charlie McKee calling tactics for helmsman Tim Powell and Andrew Cape navigating scored a 2-1 and holds the lead after the first two races of the Breitling MedCup TP52’s Athens Trophy on a hot, sticky Saronic Gulf. Peter de Ridder and the Mutua Madrilena crew’s pair of third places leave them second for the day With their win and 11th today Siemens lie third overall going into tomorrow’s 80 mile offshore race, with Bribon lying fourth. -- http://www.medcup.org * Brian Chapman has been named the Design Coordinator for the 50 UK-Halsey lofts and service centers worldwide. He has over 40 years of competitive sailing as well as three decades of sailmaking under his belt, having served as both a sail designer and sailmaker for Quantum, Hood, UK Sailmakers and Horizon. His loft experiences have exposed him to a variety of computer design programs and sail construction techniques, which will serve him well as he orchestrates sail designs and construction techniques for the network of UK-Halsey lofts. -- http://UKHalsey.com * Correction -- Updated final results from the 16-boat U.S. Singlehanded Sailing Championship for the George O'Day Trophy at the Milwaukee YC are now posted: 1. Mitch Hall (Seminole, Fla.) 28 points 2. Chris Branning (Sarasota, Fla.) 31 points, 3. Michael Karas (Kirkland, Wash.) 36 points. -- http://www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/ussc LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (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 thought at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Simon R. Smith (With reference to the book launching of Ranger): I had the good fortune of spending 12 years on her foredeck. A pencil like 60 footer with a 10 foot beam and boy was that bow narrow; a place for one crew member only. But a beauty to sail on; super fast, pointed like a 12 metre, but more importantly a beauty from any angle. It was always a pleasure to see other boats alter course as we returned home from a weekend away in order to photograph her, hard on the wind, heeled over and going like a witch. Her genius of a skipper, Lou Tercel, was a man of many talents as has been eluded to, a man who designed a yacht that could hold her own, even at 25 years of age, against designs of Olin Stephens or John Spencer [Ragtime]. My fondest memories include eight of us below, (she only had eight berths) smoking cigars and downing the odd bottle of beer that had been carefully carried onboard in crates, going over the days race. Isn’t it a pleasure to row over to ‘your’ boat believing she is the most beautiful one in the bay. For us that was true; and most of our competitors agreed! CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATIONS “If voting could really change things, it would be illegal.” - Will Rogers Special thanks to Ockam Instruments and Camet Int’l. |
