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SCUTTLEBUTT 2707 - Tuesday, October 21, 2008Scuttlebutt 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. Today's sponsors are Charleston Race Week, North Sails, and Sail1Design. WITH HISTORY COMES PERSPECTIVE When Alinghi won the 2003 match, American Dyer Jones was asked to be regatta director (as a consultant) for 2007. “One of the good things about the 2007 protocol,” Jones says, “is it combined the challenger and defender organizing authorities, including measuring. And I give America’s Cup Management lots of credit. ACM was huge, 240 people. The scope of their responsibility was awesome. They even had to coordinate building the stadium. It was 8 kilometers from the tip of the north breakwater around the top of the harbor where the syndicate bases were, to the tip of the south breakwater. The place comfortably absorbed 50,000 people. And the logistics of moving the Acts around was enormous. All the race management and spectator control boats were also moved, 70 of them all told. We had two containers of gear and spare parts, including engines. The 600-boat marina in Valencia was bigger than anything we had seen – an enormous infrastructure commitment. Did ACM make mistakes? Absolutely. But overall they did a hell of a job.” Having come so far and accomplished so much by 2007, including a truly memorable Cup match featuring a one-second final race win for Alinghi, how did the Cup end up in court again? “Alinghi gets great credit for winning on its first try,” Jones says. “But that’s a pitfall. The Swiss don’t have any history in the event. You have to lose to learn: suffer some hard knocks, try your hardest and fail. The people negotiating the protocol had no experience in the event, even as observers. The new protocol would have been created under a corporate management structure. Some of the executives were not sailors. They’d ‘been sailing,’ but as we know, there’s a difference. “Part of the legal standoff we’re in has a cultural base. I find it difficult to imagine the Spanish Challenger of Record had a comprehensive dialogue with Alinghi. The Spanish syndicate had never been through it before. -- Excerpt from a story on the Alinghi website: http://www.alinghi.com/en/news/news/index.php?idIndex=227&idContent=17644 PUT A SAILOR IN THE WHITE HOUSE by Gerard Sheridan, Presidential candidate I've given this serious thought and I've gotten so much support and encouragement via the internet. I sometimes think running a country is like running a yacht race campaign; the a-holes in power at the back of the boat - the so called 'afterguard' - call the shots but when we f-up we blame everyone and everything else and take no responsibility for our decisions. However, when we get it right we're brilliant! I thought, jayzus maybe I could have a career in politics! Well, I just figured that with the downturn in the economy I'd start a new career and see if I could make an easier crust elsewhere and apply the lessons learned in yacht racing and give politics a shot. I know it's a bit mad and all that, but, isn't that the whole point! I might as well chance my arm like the rest of the options in the race. Don't send money as this is a low-cost internet only campaign using Open Source software (oh, ok I'll take it if you're mad enough to send it to me), but really, all I'm asking for is your #1 Vote in November. See the internet based, grass-roots campaign that's underway in my support here: http://www.tsgnet.com/pres.php?id=370743&altf=Hfsbse&altl=Tifsjebo Isn't that just amazing! I'm the second most unknown candidate with no qualifications and I'm actually running for President - amazing isn't it folks, or should I say "My Friends". And just in the off chance you are actually interested in issues, a cornerstone policy of mine is: Jobs all round for the boys (and girls) in my 2012 re-election campaign which will begin immediately after I'm sworn into office in early 2009. Hey, it's a very important economic stimulus package so don't knock it so fast! => Curmudgeon’s Comment: When Gerard is not busy discovering his inner politician, he can be found consistently putting up good results in San Francisco with his Elan 40 Tupelo Honey, most recently finishing second in the IRC D of the Rolex Big Boat Series. HOW MANY FROGS ARE IN FROGMORE STEW ANYWAY? Relax, there are NO frogs in Frogmore Stew - in fact, it is more of an event than a dish, made with fresh South Carolina shrimp and enjoyed amongst your crew on the beach beside palapa bars, which conveniently supply you with Dark n’ Stormies or ice cold beer if you wish. This is Charleston Race Week after a hard fought day of racing. From bagels and coffee on the docks to beach parties, the folks of Charleston know how to treat their sailors. Oh, and there’s great racing too with some of the best PROs in the country. http://www.charlestonraceweek.com MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF OTHERS Peter Wood was recently appointed Interim Executive Director of CYA in Kingston, ON. Peter has had a long involvement in sailing spanning more than 40 years. He is currently a member of CYA's Judge Committee and serves on the Ontario Sailing Association's Appeals Committee. He is also the voluntary head coach of the Ontario Sailing Association's regional training centre for paralympic sailing at Nepean Sailing Club. Peter was a staff member of the Canadian Yachting Association from 1979 to 2000 serving as Racing Director and Training Director during that period. He was a member of the Canadian Sailing Team in the mid 1970’'s. Global National's "Everyday Hero" program, which recognizes Canadians who through their ideas, effort and dedication are making a difference in the lives of other people. Their profile on Peter spotlights his work with the disabled sailing community. -- View video: http://tinyurl.com/5fvyyw PLAYING DICE IN THE DOLDRUMS (Oct. 20, 2008; Day 10) - Ever had one of those races where everything was going just fine, and then the wind shuts off? Sailing downwind, trying to find the breeze, trying to feel the breeze, with the temperature soaring… pure brutality. Some boats are right angles to the course, seeking salvation, while others ignore the wind and just aim at the mark. An occasional rain squall breaks up the monotony. Welcome to Day 10 of the Volvo Ocean Race. It has been a stomach-churning time for the Volvo Ocean Race navigators and skippers as the light, fluky conditions of the Doldrums take their toll on the fleet. The leaderboard is a minefield, with boats moving up and down as if on an elevator. Team Russia, for example, vaulted up to third place on the 0700 GMT report, but had slid to seventh by 1300 GMT. It seems as though if you’re a navigator who is unhappy with his position, you just need to wait until the next position sked. Unfortunately for some, despite appearances, the leg standings are far from completely random. Ian Walker’s Green Dragon crew made a concerted effort to get to the west to cross the doldrums and are currently reaping the rewards of that strategy in a big way. That being said, this is a long way from being over. For the standings below, wind speed remains below 10 knots with most teams now at 5 degrees latitude north of the equator, and GD furthest to the west while DL is furthest to the east (and about 275 miles in between). GD has gone 151 nm in the last 24 hours, with 594 nm to go until the Fernando de Noronha scoring gate. The length of Leg One is 6500nm, with teams expected to finish by the first week in November. Current standings (as of Oct. 21, 1:00am GMT): 1. Green Dragon, Ian Walker, 3952 nm distance to finish 2. Puma, Ken Read, 22 nm distance to lead 3. Telefonica Black, Fernando Echavarri, 24 nm DTL 4. Ericsson 4, Torben Grael, 30 nm DTL 5. Telefonica Blue, Bouwe Bekking, 41 nm DTL 6. Ericsson 3, Anders Lewander, 46 nm DTL 7. Team Russia, Andreas Hanakamp, 64 nm DTL 8. Delta Lloyd, Ger O'Rourke, 109 nm DTL Race website: http://www.volvooceanrace.org * Delta Lloyd: On Sunday evening October 19 at about 9:30 PM, the connection between the spreader and the mast on starboard side broke. Due to the crew’s creativity, the problem was solved at 5:00 AM. By finding a solution while racing, there is no need to head inshore at Fernando de Noronha, which saves Team Delta Lloyd from a twelve hour penalty. The incident happened in the sequence of a sail change, as the halyard got stuck behind the spreader, unaware by the grinders who were working hard to hoist the sail. The repair was made possible by the light winds, as they suspect that the winds of last week would have required them to seek shelter for repair. -- http://www.teamdeltalloyd.com/ * Team Russia: “In the effort to keep the weight down someone thought we only needed one spoon per person and three spare spoons to get us to Cape Town in good shap,” said Mark Covell. “After only three days at seas we were four spoons down. Lose your spoon, and life can get pretty extreme. Food is obviously an ongoing topic. The preparation is simple, boil water, tip freeze-dried food into eski, add water and re-hydrate. Then serve up with a large ladle, doing your best impression of every prison film you have ever seen. I like to get a good splat in the food bowl before I lean over to the bemused crewman and say in hushed voice, ‘It’s tonight, we’re breaking out tonight, we’re getting out. You coming?’ It gets the same strange look every time.” -- http://www.teamrussia.org * The race website has produced a video that documented the planning and execution for when Ericsson 4 had to offload crewman Tony Mutter last Friday at the Cape Verde Islands as a result of an infected knee. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.tv/page/NewsDetail/0,,12573~1426408,00.html EIGHT BOATS: ONE COMMON DENOMINATOR Eights boats are battling it out on the 1st leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Alicante, Spain to Cape Town, South Africa. All eight boats have different designers, sponsors and strategies for winning the around-the-world race. However, they share a common denominator: they are all powered by North sails. When performance matters, the choice is clear: http://www.northsails.com SAILING SHORTS * Lanzarote, Canary Islands (Oct. 20, 2008) - The current TP52 World Champion, Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis, started this year’s edition of the championship on a strong footing, as tactician Russell Coutts helped lead the team to a first and two seconds in shifty, tricky and quite light conditions. The opening day of the event was clearly marked by a breeze that swung left and right, sometimes by more than 60 degrees, following the movements of the clouds that covered the skies over Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. Terry Hutchinson’s team onboard Quantum Racing are currently in second. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6556#6558 * The breezes were light and variable for the Bahamas Laser National Championship, held last weekend on Montagu Bay in Nassau. First place was won by 15 year old junior sailor Chris Sands, twice National Champion in the Optimist Class, who dominated the fleet by not only winning all five races but winning some of them by a large margin. -- Complete report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6553 * Hurricane Omar sank about 50 boats as it passed through the island of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands late last week. Local officials, worried that diesel from the breached vessels could pollute Christianstead Harbor in St Croix, have shut down access to Schooner Bay Channel. Of the 50 boats that were sunk by Omar, 30 were in Christiansted Harbor. The vessels included houseboats, catamarans, yachts and sailboats that were ripped from moorings and marinas. The hurricane caught many local boaters off guard because they did not take the storm seriously, Kim Jones of the St Croix Yacht Club told the Associated Press. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20080920144024ibinews.html * (Oct. 20, 2008) - As a result of the current economic downturn, the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) Board of Directors unanimously approved a temporary redirection of Grow Boating assessments to support immediate sales-driving efforts at the manufacturer and dealer level. The redirection will begin with assessments incurred on or after October 1, 2008 and continue through June 30, 2009. Based on projections by the Grow Boating Inc. team, less funding would be available for planned 2009 Grow Boating Initiative efforts. The NMMA Board determined the resulting 2009 budget would not produce the effective national advertising campaign needed to move product and create prospects as in years past. -- NMMA, read on: http://www.nmma.org/news/news.asp?id=17501&sid=3 EIGHT BELLS The man who designed some of the most well known classes in New Zealand sailing, Des Townson, who battled cancer over a long period, died at his Auckland home last Wednesday. This process was started in 1951 when he designed his first boat and over the following fifty-seven years he designed eighty-two different boats ranging from an 8ft rowing dinghy to a 72ft keel boat. During the later part of the 1950s he was at the forefront of the post war sailing expansion where he created a range of small dinghies, racing yachts and powerboats. Fifty years later the Zephyr and Mistral classes remain as popular as in their formative years. Mr Townson's most important creation was the 2.9 metre Starling yacht for teenagers, designed in 1969. Over 1300 have been built. The Starling class national championship has for many years, been the largest national yachting contest for any indigenous boat in the country and regularly attracts between 100-150 entrants. In 1987 Mr Townson designed the radio controlled Electron model yacht. Over 1000 were built in his workshop and sold throughout the world. Mr Townson's contribution to yachting earned him the award of a New Zealand Order of Merit the in the Queen's Birthday Honours this year. -- Complete story: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4729548a1823.html CHECK OUT SAIL1DESIGN’S JOB OPENINGS, USED BOATS & GEAR Sail1Design is sailing¹s classified source, from gear to boats to jobs. Today’s S1D spotlights: Mission Bay YC in San Diego seeks Head Coach; Program Directorship, Wianno YC & Northeast Harbor YC; Sailing Coaches, BVI; Professional Development Coach, Royal Canadian Yacht Club; Stanford selling three 420’s. Check these out and lots more. http://www.Sail1Design.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’. Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). You only get 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 John Garth, New York, NY: (re, story in Scuttlebutt 2706) Kudos to US Sailing for selecting Hugh Elliot for the Gay S. Lynn Memorial Trophy. Hugh exemplifies sportsmanship and dedication to the sport of sailing, and the award is well-deserved. * From John Glynn, Bitter End Yacht Club: Michelle Slade’s piece in Marin Independent Journal about Kristen Lane (‘Butt 2706) overlooked one of the Kristen’s major stepping stones. She and her husband Peter sailed in the Bitter End YC’s Pro-Am regatta twice, crewing for the likes of Russell Coutts, Peter Isler, Ed Baird and Paul Cayard. Obviously, the experience was of benefit to her – in 2001 she was the top placing amateur skipper in the Scuttlebutt Sailing Club Championship Regatta, which is held in conjunction with the Pro Am. For that achievement, Kristen and Peter got a free week at the BEYC for the following year’s Pro-Am. Hopefully this year’s event on November 1-8 will help to progress the skills and enjoyment of the sport as the attendees crew for a line-up that includes Dave Ullman, Rod Johnstone, Bruce Kirby, Keith Musto, Peter Harken, Dawn Riley, Zach Railey, Paul Cayard, Ed Baird, and Peter Holmberg. * From Bruce Wallerstein, Cabarete, Republica Dominicana: A true gentleman of sailing has been lost. The passing of Mike Campbell will certainly leave an empty spot at the starting line of most off shore races on the West Coast of the US for many years to come. I had known Michael for over 25 years and always admired his generosity and kindness to people. Michael took so many sailors into his home and family. His hospitality moved from the sailing community to others as well. There are so many wonderful memories of Michael, from chartering the Grand Cru to Cabo one year in the mid 80's to putting together a charter for the CORC in the British Virgin Islands during those same years. Whether it was shopping in St. Thomas in the middle of race week or being in Hawaii during the many TransPacs, Michael was a fun and loving man. How ironic to receive the 2009 invitation for entries to the TPYC race at the same time I am receiving the notice of Michael's passing. I will always miss his warmth, kindness and generosity. My thoughts to Victoria, Ryan, Zachary, and Nathan. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: There are additional notes posted in the Forum, along with information on the memorial service: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=6544 * From Peter Isler: (re, story in Scuttlebutt 2606) I believe college (and high school sailing) produce more better, well-rounded sailors than any other "program" in any other country. Oh... the goal is gold's in Olympic sailing? Well then maybe we should hire an Eastern European coach to take our seven year old prospects... weed them down to the "best" dozen or so, and then lavish them with money ... and more money.. .so they can have the best Olympic type equipment (no need to learn how to jury rig an outhaul when you have the best stuff), and train and travel to all the big regattas for the next decade or so... in fact, take these superstars out of school too.... focus on sailing! The "problem" with college sailing, is that at the end of four years, only a small subset of the great sailors that have developed their skills... learning how to sail a variety of boats fast, in short course, shifty venues are going to continue putting sailing first in their lives. Most college graduates, gulp, get a job... and move on with life. Any problems? I guess no medals, but as a parent, I'd rather see my kids go through the US system than a Chinese gymnastics type medal machine... it’s just more... "healthy"! -- Additional comments can be added here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2008/10/college-sports.html * From Brent Jackson: (re, letter in Scuttlebutt 2706) I feel the same frustration as R.G. Newbury when trying to access the Volvo website. Sometimes less is more. Juxtapose the VOR and the Portimao Race. I have no idea what kind of budget they have for that race but it has to be a fraction of the VOR budget. From the outset their tracker has worker perfectly, their videos are easy to access and really good to watch and the writing is insightful and entertaining. Their website has a clean look and feel. I am going to follow that race instead. * From Ric Moodie, Winnipeg, Canada: (re, story in Scuttlebutt 2706) Concerning your headline "EXCITEMENT AND TRAGEDY FOR VENDEE GLOBE" I'm sorry but when a boat and its mast are is damaged this way it is an unfortunate, probably inexcusable accident but in no way is it a "tragedy". You need to take a look at what is going on in the world to know what the word means. Some expensive equipment was wrecked, no one, at least in your report, was killed or even hurt. Tragedy is when people are disabled or die. SCUTTLEBUTT ADVERTISING IN 2009 The Scuttlebutt newsletter provides a limited amount of text ad slots in each issue, and these are often sold out well in advance. Most of the ad slots for 2009 will be booked in the next few months, so if you are interested in advertising, but always had heard how hard it was to get on the schedule… think again. Ad placement for 2009 is now available; contact Craig Leweck for details: 619-299-5678 or mailto:craig@sailingscuttlebutt.com CURMUDGEON’S CONUNDRUM Isn’t "Criminal Lawyer" a redundancy? Special thanks to Charleston Race Week, North Sails, and Sail1Design. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
