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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 584 - June 6, 2000SOLING OLYMPIC TRIALSThe last slot open to sailors hoping to represent the U.S.A. at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney will be determined on San Francisco Bay in less than two weeks time. Twenty-four sailors, racing three-strong in the eight-boat Soling fleet for a match-race only series that concludes June 11. To make it this far, these teams first had to sail in the Soling Qualifying Event held May 2-5, 2000, in Punta Gorda, Fla, where 19 teams competed in a fleet racing event. The top eight finishers in Florida earned the right to sail in the match racing series. The winning team from the match race finals, after confirmation by the U.S. Olympic Committee (Colorado Springs, Colo.), will compete in the Olympic Regatta, scheduled for September 16-October 1, in Australia. Three round robins are planned between June 3-6, wherein each boat will race each other boat three times. Following the mandatory lay day on June 7, the top four teams will advance to the semi-finals with Team One racing Team Four and Team Two racing Team Three. The winners of those pairings will race each other for the Olympic slot. The St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco) is host for the event, with boats launching from the Treasure Island Sailing Center. Top four boats mid way through Round Robin Three: JEFF MADRIGALI (16 pts), ED BAIRD (14), ANDY HORTON (10), MARK MENDELBLATT (10) Complete results: http://www.ussailing.org/Olympics/OlympicTrials/matchscores.htm ALISON WINS SANTA MARIA CUP FINALS: Betsy Alison beat Paula Lewin (2-0) PETIT-FINALS: Klaartje Zuiderbaan beat Hannah Swett (2-1) Website: http://www.santamariacup.org/results.asp LASER NATIONALS Wayzata Yacht Club (Wayzata, MN) - 84 boats from 16 states, plus Canada and New Zealand sailed for the United States Laser class National Championship on Lake Minnetonka. - Blake Middleton, Principal Race Officer Final Results- 7 races (best 6 of 7 races scored): 1 Carl Buchan, Medina, WA, 9 points; 2 Brendan Piovesan, Victoria, BC, 28; 3 Eric Faust, Austin, TX, 33; 4 August Barkow, Nashotah, WI, 51; 5 Zach Railey, Clearwater, FL, 53; 6 Jonathan Benskin, Victoria, BC, 57; 7 Tracy Usher, Palo Alto, CA, 57; 8 Eric Holden, Vancouver, BC, 62; 9 Chris Raab, Sunset Beach, CA, 69; 10 Andrew Casey, Charleston, SC, 70; 11 Zak Fanberg, Wayzata, MN, 73; 12 Peter Phelan, Santa Cruz, CA, 83; 13 Lars Hansen, Golden Valley, MN, 90; 14 Craig Beardsley, Cumming, GA, 94; 15 Tim Landt, Tierra Verde, FL, 99. DENNIS CONNER (Following is a brief excerpt from a New York Times story by Herb McCormick about the New York YC's America's Cup alliance with Dennis Conner.) In keeping with the theme of surprise, (NYYC commodore, George M.) Isdale said that if the club was successful in regaining the cup they would consider staging the defense in New York Harbor. "The venue will be very important," Isdale said. "We saw how successful financially the whole cup operation was in the restructuring of Auckland. Just think, in New York City we have three times as many people as the Kiwis have in their whole country." In the last cup, New York's two-boat Young America squad failed to advance past the preliminary challenger trials. Conner's one-boat program, with Ken Read at the helm, made it as far as the semifinals. Tom Whidden, the Stars and Stripes tactician, has already signed on for the next campaign. Read confirmed that he planned to be aboard, too. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a dream come true," he said. As for the rest of Conner's sailing team, (TDC President, Bill) Trenkle said that most of the core crew would also return. Though Isdale would not divulge details of the financial arrangement between Conner and the club, he did acknowledge that the deal was laden with incentives. "It's not the structure that everyone thinks Dennis works on, where he gets a cut of everything," he said. "He's gambling here. He doesn't get paid upfront. To make real money, he has to win." - Herb McCormick, NY Times Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/library/sports/outdoors/060300boat-connors.html MORE AMERICA'S CUP America's Cup skippers Russell Coutts and Francesco de Angelis have been given special plaudits in the Queen's Birthday honours today. Coutts, villified in the past fortnight for leaving Team New Zealand for another Cup campaign, is a Distinguished Companion of the NZ Order of Merit - an award akin to a knighthood, which would have made him Sir Russell under the old honours system dropped last month. De Angelis becomes an honorary officer of the order. His award is special because foreigners rarely receive a New Zealand honour. The sailors, who are both in Italy today, reacted differently to the news of their awards. Coutts was initially worried about how the New Zealand public would react to his new title, after the skipper jumped ship for a multi-million dollar contract with a Swiss syndicate. "They called and told me during all the controversy in New Zealand," Coutts from a regatta in Rimini yesterday. "I said, well, as long as it's not going to cause any problems. I understood the nomination was made before everything happened. But they thought it would be fine, so I said okay. "I think it's a fantastic honour - and it's great that Francesco was recognised too." In the seaside village of Punta Ala, de Angelis - Coutts' opposite in the Cup - was overwhelmed by his award. "I think they have awards like this in Italy, but we didn't get any," he said. "So I very much appreciate this. I could never imagine I could get an honour like this from New Zealand." De Angelis - nicknamed Il Baroni for his gentlemanly manner - became a surprise Kiwi hero through the Cup regatta. His award citation reads: "His sportsmanship and the high profile of the Prada team considerably enhanced the profile of Italy in New Zealand, and Italian-New Zealand relations." - Suzanne McFadden, NZ Herald QUESTION What comes in Red, Navy Blue, Khaki and Charcoal, and can make a world of difference to your disposition when you're spending a day on the water? It's the Camet 3000 Sailing Shorts. They're made of fast drying Supplex and are reinforced with a Cordura seat patch. Take the curmudgeon's advice and use the optional 1/4 inch foam seat pads - your butt will thank you. Check it out the full line of high performance sailing gear: http://www.camet.com EUROPE 1 NEW MAN STAR The first 24 hours at sea for the Europe 1 New Man STAR has been relatively easy going, physically, with light winds, sunshine and pleasant sailing. The wind, initially from the West, has meant that the entire fleet are sailing upwind in full power configuration whilst the leaders are tackling the headlands of the South Coast of England. Leaders: Class 1 Multihulls 1. Alain Gautier (2522 miles to finish) 2. Franck Cammas (2525) 3. Jean-Luc Nelias ( 2529) Class 1 Monohulls DTF 1. Michel Desjoyeaux (2617) 2. Roland (2618) 3. Ellen MacArthur (2619) Official website http://www.europe1newmanstar.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) and to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a chat room. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if people disagree. -- From Peter Huston - Perhaps RNZYS would be well advised to change their ideology from having no Defender trials, to creating an open Defence. Unless Ernesto Bertarelli intends to participate directly in either the design or sailing teams, there would be nothing to preclude him from funding a Defense team, skippered of course by Russell Coutts. To date, no one other than Punta Ala is technically a Challenger. RNZYS could charge a Defense trials entry fee equal to their current debt. Russell and his mates would no longer be perceived as "traitor's" - rather they instantly become saviors. The event becomes more interesting - and Bertarelli increases his odds of participating, as the 17th man, in the America's Cup by sailing against fewer boats. -- From Ken Guyer - Dennis sailing for NYYC is exciting news. The possibilities connected with such an announcement are vast. With all that TDC has accomplished in the past three Cup trials with limited funds, imagine what it will be like with support such as Young America had this past go around! It is a real plus for NYYC also. Just let your imagination run wild on the ramifications of a TDC win for NYYC. A completion of a cycle which began with the loss in '83. The "unfinished business" finished with a flare. The Cup itself will benefit greatly with such a team. I know it is a long, hard road to winning the Cup back, but makes for great copy don't you think? Should get some sponsors pretty excited. DETROIT NOOD The Detroit Sailing World NOOD (National Offshore One-Design), drew a fleet of 212 boats from the U.S. and Canada. It was the fourth stop on a nine-event national racing circuit organized by Sailing World magazine of Newport, Rhode Island. Hosted June 2-4 by Bayview Yacht Club, winners needed to turn in well-rounded performances to claim class trophies at this three-day event. The regatta opened in stiff 18-knot breeze, with shifts reported as large as 50 degrees, for an early-season test for racers clearing the cobwebs out of their crew work after a winter of rest. Wind velocity and windshift angles settled down on Day 2, with 8 to 10 knots of breeze. On the third and final day of racing, the breeze ran to the opposite extreme: No-wind conditions moved over Lake St. Clair and no races were held on Sunday. Although wind conditions followed a feast-or-famine pattern, the nineteen skippers who collected class trophies tonight at Bayview Yacht Club mastered every range of breeze. Two classes--the Express 27s and Hobie 33s--used this regatta to run their 2000 National Championships. Winners of the Hobie 33 Nationals Stu and Sandy Kevelighan (W. Bloomfield, Mich.) and their crew on STEALTH entered the regatta as the boat to beat after dominating this class at the '99 NOOD with five first-place finishes. STEALTH was able to replicate her winning score on Day 1, with a 1-1-1 performance in Friday's heavy air. But Stu Kevelighan was first to admit that Friday's racing had its share of tribulations. Californian Paul Deeds (East Palo Alto) and his crew on LORAX also repeated their class win at the '99 NOOD to capture the Express 27 National Championships. The Express 27s added an additional day of racing on Thursday, June 1 (run by the Crescent Sail Club) to stretch their championships into a four-day event. Complete results: http://www.sailingworld.com BERMUDA RACE This year race groupies can monitor the progress of the Newport Bermuda Race: http://www.bermudarace.com/racedata.html Daily positions of each yacht will be posted to the web starting mid-morning on Saturday June 17th and continuing through Saturday June 27th. The report will contain the lat/long position of each yacht and the straight-line distance to Bermuda as of the required morning position report. Within minutes of each yacht's finish off St. David's Lighthouse, Bermuda, the finish time will be posted on the web. This will be available as long as the finish line is manned. Times will be entered manually for very late finishers. Unofficial, corrected time results and standings will be promptly posted and updated from finish line data. Final results and prizewinners will be posted as soon as they are available. Timely press releases and a photo gallery will be posted from the start in Newport and the Finish in Bermuda. Standings and results for the Onion Patch Series / IMS North American Championship will be linked to the Bermuda Race site and also www.nyyc.org Race organizers estimate that up to 190 yachts will start the Newport Bermuda Race in 2000. Anything over 178 entries would break the old record set in 1972 and tied with 178 again in 1982. - Talbot Wilson THE RACE * Team Philips being renovated In Totnes (UK), Pete Goss' wave-piercing catamaran is getting back to her original shape. The forward section of the port hull, which broke off on March 29th 2000, is about to be re-grafted. On the port hull of Team Philips (36m), the yard technicians started by sawing straight the two edges of the break. Then they fitted them either side of a wooden mould in the shape of the missing section of hull. This section about 1.5m long will now be reconstituted by laying up carbon fibre around the mould. - In the meantime, one of the two masts is ready for flexibility tests. The goal is to determine at what wind strength (and therefore from what state of bend) one should reduce sail. A dozen electronic transducers are fitted along the 41m of the mast. According to calculations, the masts should be able to bend almost 3m without any risk. * Facelift for Polpharma-Warta Near Lorient (France), the 26m catamaran of Polish skipper Roman Paszke is almost back to bare carbons. Once emptied and stripped, her platform will be receiving in the next few weeks a whole series of new equipment destined to provide her with a new level of performance. Inside high technology (new electronics) and relative comfort (new head) are the order of the day. On the outside, renovation is total. It concerns not only the livery, but also the winches, sails and above all the mast which will replace the one lost in February 2000 during her successful bid for qualification in February 2000 between Cadiz and San Salvador. Polpharma-Warta should be returning to the Baltic Sea by mid-July. The Race Website: http://www.therace.org CALENDAR June 29-July 2 - Over 50 vessels from 13 nations will converge on Newport, R.I. for the Verizon Wireless Tall Ships Newport Salute 2000. http://www.tallshipsnewport.com A GATHERING OF THE EAGLES Reading the names of the tacticians at the Farr 40 Worlds (which starts today) is truly mind-boggling. Here's a partial list just to give you an idea of how tough this class has become: Adrian Stead, Ben Cesare, Brad Butterworth, Brad Dellenbaugh, Ed Adams, Eric Doyle, Gary Weisman, John Cutler, John Kostecki, Kimo Worthington, Paul Cayard, Peter Holmberg, Robbie Haines, Ross MacDonald, Seadon Wijsen, Terry Hutchinson and Tom Whidden. For the full list: http://www.farr40.org/farr40worlds/entriestodate.htm INTERCOLLEGIATE TEAM RACE CHAMPIONSHIP Though frustrated by light winds and numerous delays in racing, St. Mary's College (St. Mary's City, Md.) successfully defended its title at the Intercollegiate Yacht Racing Association (ICYRA) Ronstan North American Team Race Championship. Held May 31-June 2 in two-person Flying Juniors, the event was hosted by St. Mary's College and sailed on the St. Mary's River. District eliminations qualified 12 colleges, each of which fielded a three-boat team for a single round-robin competition that was to have led into a final-four round to determine the winner. Representing St. Mary's College were skippers Ty Reed (Ocean Beach, Calif.), Chris Gaffney (Miami, Fla.) and Anthony Kotoun (St. Thomas, USVI), with Molly Curtiss (Lake Forest, Ill.), Erin Sheridan (Columbia, Md.) and Jane DeLashmutt (Hillsboro, Va.) crewing. Final Results: 1. St. Mary's College, St. Mary's City, Md., (11-1) 2. Georgetown University, Wash, D.C., (10-2) 3. Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., (10-2) 4. Dartmouth University, Hanover, N.H., (9-3) 5. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif., (8-5) 6. Stanford University, Stanford, Calif., (7-6). Full results can be found at: http://www.collegesailing.org OPINION The Star has a rightful place in the Olympic Games. I, at least, need no convincing after attending the world championship of the class at Annapolis, watching the crews sail these strangely graceful boats and appreciating what they were doing to breathe every last ounce of efficiency into their craft, seeing the results of their efforts, while listening to one of the world's greatest sailors, Buddy Melges, provide the detailed commentary for ESPN. The Star is a boat for athletes who can think on their feet. It may well be an old design, but so is the Eiffel Tower and there ain't much wrong with that. What it has done is to have stood the test of time and progressed with the changing face of sailing over the years, controlled by a management body that considers each move with precision. This has resulted in a thoroughbred boat that is responsive to the trim of the sails, and it is just as easily possible to make it go slowly as it is to 'light up the afterburners,' to use a Buddyism. - Bob Fisher, Sailing Source website Read Fisher's full comments: http://www.sailingsource.com/fisher/default.html THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Nothing is more maddening to the senseless than sense. |
