|
SCUTTLEBUTT 1630 - July 22, 2004Powered 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. OLYMPIC PROFILE - Phil Trinter From 1988-91, Phil Trinter opened holes for and protected Indiana University football stars Anthony Thompson, Vaughn Dunbar and Trent Green, and the Hoosiers went to bowl games in three of those seasons. Now Trinter is aiming for even greater athletic glory. As the crewman for the Team USA Star class sailboat, he will try to capture an Olympic medal next month in Athens, Greece. The transition from football to sailing wasn't a big leap for the 35-year-old Trinter. He grew up on the shores of Lake Erie in Lorain, Ohio, and both parents sailed. "By age 9, I had my own boat and started racing," he said. "I was known locally as a pretty good sailor." College scouts knew him as a pretty good football player, too. That will happen when you sprout up to 6 feet 6 and weigh 300 pounds. He played strong tackle for IU as football eclipsed his sailing pursuits. He stayed on campus year-round to work out, so the only time he got on the water was an occasional outing to Lake Lemon in Bloomington. "My first love is football," Trinter said, "but I wasn't good enough to play professionally or get drafted." In fact, after getting his business degree from IU in December 1991, Trinter didn't know what to do with his life. He returned to Lorain, OH, looked for work and made a few bucks as a substitute teacher. In the summer of 1992, a friend asked Trinter to crew for him at a regatta in Michigan. While there, his skills and muscular body caught the eye of sailor Joe Londrigan, who asked Trinter to be his partner in a two-man Star class boat. Later that year the pair won the North American championship, and they added a world title in 1993. "The next thing you know, I find myself living in San Diego and getting paid to sail," Trinter said. He and Londrigan tried unsuccessfully to make the Olympics at the U.S. Trials in 1996. But Trinter continued to garner acclaim as a crewman, and in 1998 he was hired to work toward sailing's crown jewel: the America's Cup. Trinter served as a "grinder" on the America One boat, meaning he helped adjust the sails. Because of the extreme wind pressure on the sails, grinders must be incredibly strong, and that's where his offensive lineman's build came in handy. "I like to consider myself someone who's always been a good sailor," he said. "And fortunately in my case, my size worked to my advantage." America One made it to the 2000 challenger finals before losing to an Italian team. Trinter also participated in the 2003 Cup with Oracle, which also lost in the challenger finals. But those experiences led to a new opportunity. America One skipper Paul Cayard, one of the most accomplished sailors in U.S. history, was impressed enough with Trinter to tab him as Star crewman in his bid to make the 2004 Olympics. "Phil is a past world champion, so I knew he was good," Cayard said in an email interview. "Apart from being a good and experienced Star sailor, Phil is relatively young and fit." - Brian Bennett, Louisville Courier Journal, full story: http://www.courier-journal.com/cjsports/news2004/07/07/E1-trin0707k-6655.html MULTI-TASKING For professional sailors, the problem with juggling the responsibility of sailing a 70ft yacht at the same time as filming events is that all the best action usually happens at the busiest time. "It's usually in tough conditions, when you are busy trying to keep the boat under control,' explains Ray Davies, helmsman and media man on illbruck (during 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race). Davies' best shots from the last Volvo Ocean Race came when the crew on illbruck was sailing to the leeward side of a huge iceberg. "We were weaving in and out of the growlers that had broken off and the crew were all on deck and looking quite anxious," recalls Davies, who captured the sequence on a hand held camera. Davies did encounter a few technical difficulties, such as making the camera cope with the extreme ranges in temperature. But Davies adds that another less technical problem was the irritation that filming caused to some crew members. "Many simply want to race the boat and are not interested in the media side of things. But crews have to understand that, if the sponsor is going to achieve anything out of it, they really have got to put things on film. The whole crew has to be on board and be prepared to give interviews. When things happen, they have to be prepared to talk through it, and I think they are beginning to come around." - Volvo Ocean Race, full story: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/pages/news/news72.htm CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar KEEP YOUR EYE OPEN Cost effective wireless instrument information and system control - Ockam introduces OS4 Eye. Load Eye software on your PDA (Pocket PC) and your Ockam connected WiFi PC. View multiple pages of instrument data, set cals, averaging and controller functions, track trends on stripcharts, all in your pocket - hiking hard on the rail or monitoring performance from your bunk! OckamSoft's NMEA translator will even allow connection to a non-Ockam system. Contact Tom Davis (tom@ockam.com) or visit http://www.ockam.com LEAVING NOTHING TO CHANCE * Lunchtime on the terrace of the ENOA sailing club in Glyfada, a coastal suburb of Athens. Shaded by canopies from the powerful sun, nonagenarian women sip powerful coffees while their great-grandchildren play on the little beach. An athlete zips into view on a mountain bike. He rides across the terrace, narrowly missing the ancient Greeks, continues straight through the club's lounge and out of the front door. The old women shrugs. "British," they murmur. The regulars have become used to such sights: the ENOA have, for the past two years, been the home away from home for the British Olympic sailing squad, a location selected by the team manager, Stephen Park, after an extensive tour of the area in February 2001. The club already had most of the things he was looking for: it was located close to the Olympic course, it had a dock, a boat storage area and catering facilities. The gym was rudimentary, though: a problem solved by the British with some nifty cut-price shopping on the internet. The British team's resident weather expert has been analysing the local conditions off the coast of Athens since the end of the previous Olympic regatta in Sydney. Such scrupulous attention to detail is typical of the squad, where excellence on the water is made possible by comprehensive preparation off it. "I'm pretty confident that no other country has a set-up as good as ours," Park said. - Excerpts from a story by Andrew Baker, Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/4cbx5 * Britain will become the most successful Olympic sailing nation of all time if they win more gold medals than the United States in Athens. The opportunity is certainly there. In this year's Olympics Britain will be represented in all nine classes - 11 events in all - and officials believe there is a realistic chance of a medal in at least seven of them. Funded mainly by the national lottery via UK Sport, which provides an annual grant of £1.3m, the depth and scope of planning are hugely impressive and put some of the country's wealthier sports to shame. The level of preparation even extends to having 20,000 bottles of sports drinks shipped out from London so that team members do not subject their stomachs to anything that might affect them. Explained Rod Carr, the RYA's chief executive, "Britain always had a great sailing tradition in the Olympics but before 1996 we would win one or two medals per games. Since the introduction of lottery money that has led to us converting the ones who finished fourth or fifth into medallists." But Carr understands the bottom line. "If you are using public money you have to be accountable," he said. "That means medals." - Excerpts from a story by Duncan Mackay, The Guardian, full story: http://sport.guardian.co.uk/athens2004/story/0,14529,1265533,00.html DREAM BOAT Wouldn't it be great if your dad owned a candy store? I remember that thought from years ago, along with if he owned a movie theatre, an ice cream store, or an amusement park. Those were the dreams many of us shared but few realized. But what if you founded and were chairman of the world's largest retailer of boat accessories? This would be a dream for us, and is reality for West Marine's Randy Repass. Sailing as a family was the goal when this project was conceived and his new, 66-foot, Tom Wiley designed ketch rigged catboat is a dream come true. Not just owning the store but having access to leading edge technology, experts in every field, and a background himself in electrical engineering provided Randy with an opportunity to create and define Convergence. Convergence is a sailboat with a rather unusual look. Wiley catboats have been around the San Francisco Bay Area for some time. Owners are passionate about the ease with which they sail. Comments about not needing to reef are rare from Bay sailors in the typical summer winds of 25-35 knots, but Wylie Cats reef rarely if ever. The claim is that the "bendy rig" spills the air from the top of the sail before reefing is really needed. Putting a ketch rig on a big sailboat is not unusual; two masts without stays, jibs, or deck hardware are an unsettling visual experience. - Diana Jessie, 48° North, full story and photos: http://www.48north.com/jun_2004/convergence.htm COMPLETE PERSONAL SAFETY PACKAGE FROM SAILNET.COM Everything you need to be secure and safe while aboard. Special package includes the SOSPenders Automatic Inflatable Life Jacket with Harness, SOSPenders 6' tether with quick release and Wichard snap, plus ACR C-Strobe light to attach to jacket. Inflatable life jacket includes reflective material, whistle, auto/manual deployment and integral harness. http://www.sailnet.com/view.cfm?page=12683 INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACING International yacht racing competition returns to the waters off Cowes, Isle of Wight this coming Monday with the first race of the Royal Ocean Racing Club's Rolex Commodores' Cup. Held biennially, the Rolex Commodores' Cup is a championship for teams of offshore yachts run under RORC's IRC rule. National teams each field three boats falling into small, medium and large categories according to their IRC rating. As in 2002, eleven teams in total will be competing in the Rolex Commodores' Cup. For the inshore races the crews will have to contend with the complex navigation required while racing in the Solent. This stretch of water between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland has one of the most complicated tidal situations in the world. In the long distance races the crews will have the benefit of more constant tide, but will have to tackle variable wind conditions. A significant change for this year's Rolex Commodores' Cup has been a tightening up of each team's nationality requirements. This year for the first time the RORC have stipulated that at least 50% of the crew on each boat must comprise nationals of the country their team is representing or had this as their principle residence for more than one year. To emphasis the Corinthian element to the Rolex Commodores' Cup at least 50% of the crew on each boat must be amateur sailors as defined by Group 1 of the International Sailing Federation's Competitor Classification Code. A Group 1 sailor must also helm for all the inshore races and for the start and the following hour of the short passage and Channel races. - http://www.rorc.org NEWS BRIEFS * The Bravo channel and CNBC will have highlights of the sailing events from the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, Greece beginning August 14-28. The team behind the production includes Geoff Mason, John Wilson and Gary Jobson. Geoff Mason directed the last America's Cup and has produced all of ESPN's sailing coverage since 1986, while John Wilson has been on the production team of every America's Cup since 1992. Gary Jobson provides the narration. The scheduling calls for lots of late night programming, so get ready to crank up your TIVO or VCR. See Scuttlebutt website for show times: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar/shows * Due to light air, Wednesday's distance race of the New York Yacht Club Race Week at Newport presented by Rolex was shortened to half the distance (10.1 miles). First across the finish line in just under two hours was Lightwave, David Ford's Transpac 52; however, Bob Towse's Reichel/Pugh 66 Blue Yankee beat Lightwave on corrected time in IMS Class 2. Lee Dayton's J/105 Ajax continued their first half success by winning PHRF Class 5. Classes included one IMS, three PHRF and one for Classic yachts. The second half of the regatta for one-design classes starts Friday. - Complete results: http://www.nyyc.org/ * Because we don't read French, we are really not sure what happened at the Tour de France à la Voile on Wednesday, but standings page on the website shows that American Deneen Demourkas' Groovederci has stretched its lead to 48 points over the 30-boat Mumm 30 fleet. - http://www.tourvoile.fr/ * The search for lone yachtsman Jim Wellstead, missing in West Australian waters for more than a week, will continue today (Tuesday) despite fading hopes he'll be found alive. Seven aircraft, including a Customs Dash-8 plane, will attempt to search an area of more than 53,000 square kilometres in an effort spot the 74-year-old's 7.6 metre wooden yacht Serene, which has been at sea for 11 days. Property owners along the coast and all vessels in the area have been asked to keep an eye out for the yacht, while regular attempts to make radio contact continue. -The Sunday Times, http://tinyurl.com/3mr57 DO YOU "ONE DESIGN?" WE DO! Tornado, Sabots, Yngling, 470's, J/105, Schock 35, Etchells, Acat's, Farr 40, 505, Cal 20, Coronado 15, Fireball, J/24, CFJ, 420, Europe Dinghy, Harbor 20, International 14, J/22, Holder 20, Flying Scot, Lido 14, Lehman 12, Lightning, Melges 24, Optimist, Snipe, Thistle, Cal 25, Soling, Sonar, Santana 20, Santana 30/30, Capri 14.2, El Toro, Ultimate 20, Flying Junior, J/80, Hobie 21, San Juan 24, Nacra, Prindle, J/120, Antrim 27, Olson 30, Mumm 30, J/109. Ullman Sails has been one designing 30+ years. Give your local loft a call or visit us at http://www.ullmansails.com 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. 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 Steve Travis (edited to our 250-word limit): I've just returned from Cork Race Week and it was interesting for me to look at the boats that raced in IRC. In Seattle, under PHRF, probably 90% of those boats in the IRC classes would have been sitting tied up to the docks and not participating. The fact cannot be ignored, however, that all these other boats were on the race course and IRC is successful in Europe and encourages participation. I did not hear one person on shore complaining that my rating is not allowing me to win - a typical complaint at all PHRF events! By separating into two groups (IRM and IRC), it appears to me that you encourage participation rather than discourage it! It is a crying shame that the US sailing community has withdrawn from any attempt to work together with the rest of the world to develop a rule that will allow us all to race together and encourage participation in the sport. The people that made this decision in the US should have participated in both IRM and IRC events to understand how working together can only improve sailing at all levels. Come over to Cowes and sail once around the Isle of Wight and see between 1700 and 1900 boats of every possible type participating and tell me that they are doing something wrong, and then come to any Seattle regatta and see the attendance steadily dropping. Shame on us as Americans to allow this scenario to continue! * From Bruce Thompson: The problems in the maxi world are just a continuing manifestation of a general problem with handicap racing. The open secret is that the fastest way to improve your season score is to buy a bigger boat. For example, based on a section rating band of 30 sec/mile, less than 10 mile races and 5 minutes between sections; the bigger classes should not catch the smaller ones. But experience indicates that they do. There are many reasons why, such as surface friction reduces average wind speed for shorter rigs. The handicap systems don't compensate adequately. The practical consequence is the progressive growth in the length of the average racer, and therefore reduced numbers of entries. In Chicago, a Catalina 30 tall rig would have essentially no chance to win his section in buoy racing. Boats less than 35 feet are few in PHRF racing, except for port to port. Of course, the majority of boats in the harbors are less than 35 feet! * From Peta Stuart-Hunt: In response to John Seymour's comments on 21st July, I too was astonished at the amount of money quoted as being sought for services rendered by Sports Impact from Tracy and her company. On the other hand, if you are in a position to snaffle a client who is desperate enough to even agree to pay such ludicrously inflated fees, then go for it! * From Chuck Allen: Mikey Murison was an unbelievable kid! We hired him at West Marine, in Sausalito, before he could drive a car. It became apparent that he was a good hire when every person walking through the door said "hey Mikey," not to mention his knowledge of sailboat racing - Mikey owned Marin County. I had the good fortune of coaching him at The College of Marin, where he developed a competitive team from the ground up - he was awesome at motivating the others to go sailing each and everyday. He loved sailing: living aboard in Richmond, windsurfing, Santana racing, 470's, V-15's - just to mention a few. * From Nancy & Pat Broderick: The 2004 Santana 22 Nationals being held this weekend at the Encinal Yacht Club (Alameda, CA) are dedicated to Mikey Murison's memory. He was a 3-time 'Tuna' National Champion and sailed "Mizzen" to many victories on San Francisco Bay. His most notable victory, however, was his personality and his willingness to share his love of sailing. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Some people suffer from stress - others are carriers. |
