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SCUTTLEBUTT 2301 – March 15, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday, with support provided by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, Defender of the 32nd America's Cup (http://www.ubs.com/sailing). NOW ANNOUNCING…PORTIMÃO GLOBAL OCEAN RACE (March 14, 2007) Global Ocean Sailing Ventures (GOSV) today announced that the Portuguese city of Portimão will be the home of the Global Ocean Challenge and the name of the race will now be the Portimão Global Ocean Race. The race will also start and finish in Portimão rounding out the course that includes Cape Town, South Africa, Wellington, New Zealand, Ilhabela, Brazil and Charleston, USA. Portimão is the city that Volvo Ocean Race team ABN AMRO selected as their training base and it has also been host to the ORMA 60 multihulls as well as other top class sailing events. The Portimão Global Ocean Race will start in September 2008 and circumnavigate the world via the five great capes. It’s expected that a fleet of 25 to 30 boats will set sail from the new Portimão Marina returning nine months later after a 30,000-mile circumnavigation of the world. The boats will be sailed either solo or double-handed and compete in two size groups, a 40-foot division and a 50-foot division. -- Full details: http://www.portimaoglobaloceanrace.com/?q=en/2219 Curmudgeon’s Comment: It was Mark Twain that said, “Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.” And now maybe the Global Ocean Race too, as no sooner had they announced the race’s postponement due to sponsor issues (in S’butt 2299), they now appear to be back on their feet. RULES QUESTION A regatta is held over two days, with five races scheduled and one drop race if five races are completed. On the first day, only Race 1 is completed and Boat A finishes in second place. On the second day, Boat A finishes fifth in Race 2. Before the start of Race 3, A collides with B and is unable to compete in all the remaining races due to the damage. She protests B and requests redress. The protest committee finds that A is entitled to redress under rule 62.1(b). The protest committee awards A average points according to A10(b) for Races 3 and 4. A scores DNC in Race 5, but discards that score and is placed first in the total score. Therefore, A wins the regatta, having competed in only two out of five races. Did the protest committee make an error? (See answer below) A MID-FLEET PERSPECTIVE If you were not interested in last week’s reports on the Star class Bacardi Cup in Miami, perhaps it’s because you’re not a fan of Olympic sailing, or 22-foot keelboats that were designed nearly a hundred years ago and cost about $65k. However, the class must be doing something right, as it still attracts elite sailors and huge fleets. As so often is the case, the event reports from last week did not tell the whole story. Beyond the glory of the top ten was the rest of the fleet, a group I affectionately call the “entry fees.” Without this group, there would be little glory, and it would be hard to budget any of the event perks. One such team was Canadians William Hendershot and Alain Vranderick, who competed against the other “entry fees” in route to their 47th place finish. They have posted some great reports on the ‘Montreal Sailing’ blog, from where I have culled some of their Lessons of the Day: * When trading tacks at the windward mark, in a fleet of 75 boats, if you drop your cigarette in the bottom of the boat, let it be. The water will extinguish it. It’s a lot more prudent to keep your head out of the boat than to reach for that last half of Marlboro. * Luck is your friend. Embrace her. Nurture her. You never know when you might need her. * If you going to try to intimidate me on the starting line, better bring a bat, a gun, or a drill. I’m sorry but screaming will not do it. We’ve been through this too many times, and are not impressed by it anymore. Oh, and by the way, all that screaming only led you to an OCS. So there, don’t mess with Karma, she’s a bitch! * Repeat after me EXECUTION IS KEY. To explain my point, here’s a little synopsis of what we went through. You plan this 6 months ahead of time, you make the condo reservations, you drive 30 hours to get there, you make it out to the race course an hour in advance to figure out the wind, you figure out a great strategy, and once the gun goes off you forget everything and get sucked into riding the clean air train. Come on guys, get with the program. * The great thing about the Star is that it’s tweakable in every which way you can imagine. The bad thing about the Star is that it’s tweakable in every which way you can imagine. This ability to tune the boat can sometimes mess with your mind. You rationalize it by thinking, ‘It must be the boat. It can’t be us sailing poorly, we’re the f-ing fleet champions.’ But never underestimate your own capacity to sail badly. So, Willy, LEAVE THE GOD DAMN BOAT ALONE ALREADY!!! It’s not the boat; it’s the dummies in the hiking straps. There, I said it. I feel better now. -- Scuttleblog, for all their Bacardi Cup reports: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2007/03/mid-fleet-perspective.html TOUR A LUXURY RACER/CRUISER JK3 Nautical Enterprises, Inc. invites you to take a personal tour of the J/65 “Brand New Day” from the comfort of your own chair! Take a video tour and see for yourself the flagship for J Boats, "Brand New Day," the 65-foot custom luxury racer/ cruiser that is currently for sale in San Diego, CA. Don't miss your change to step aboard a truly a one of a kind sailing yacht. Visit ”Brand New Day” by clicking on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t24sO5zQ9tE OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS 25 top International 49er crews are invited to register for a one-off showcase event in Valencia from 10-12 May 2007. With a total prize fund of €2,000 (2,644.52 USD) and International Sailing Federation (ISAF) recognition as a Grade 3 event, this will be an opportunity to showcase the 49er Class during one of the biggest events in sailing, the Americas Cup. The event is scheduled to take place the weekend after the Louis Vuitton Cup Round Robin series final and just ahead of the Louis Vuitton semi finals. The exact race format is yet to be confirmed, but it is guaranteed to be one of the most competitive and adrenaline fuelled events of the season. Organised by Americas Cup Management, the Spanish Sailing Federation and the Valencia Sailing Federation, in association with the International 49er Class, this showcase invitational competition will involve three days of racing with finals held on the last day. -- Full details: http://tinyurl.com/3357y5 * Tickets are being sold for a raffle to win a 49er, boat number 1000. Tickets are available to buy online until 12 July 2007. The final draw will take place at the ISAF World Championships in Portugal. Tickets cost £5 (~ $9.82) and you have to answer a question. For more information, contact Ovington Boats at mailto:niners@ovingtonboats.co.uk or view details at http://tinyurl.com/2pappy SWEET IMAGERY * Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas race: This is one of those Southern California distance races where the wind direction is from astern, the air and water temps are warm, and the final destination is as welcoming as a frosty margarita. Winds were a bit light for last week’s Cabo race, but as this video footage from the R/P 66 ‘Stark Raving Mad lll’ attests, humming along at 20+ knots for the final 20 miles of the race can make it all worthwhile. -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/07/0314 * Acura Miami Grand Prix: Photographers Ingrid Abery, Walter Cooper, and Amory Ross contributed images toward this photo gallery. As Jennifer Langille reported from the event on her SailTrim blog, “During one upwind leg my pit man looks down in the clear blue water and says, ‘...looks so good I could stick a straw in it...’.” -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/07/0313 SAILING SHORTS * The Sperry Top-Sider National Offshore One Design (N.O.O.D.) Regatta will be at San Diego YC on March 15-18, where 14 one-design classes will compete among three venues: San Diego Bay, Coronado Roads and the Pacific Ocean. While many of the 146 boats registered to date are California based, a significant number represent 11 U.S. states and Bermuda. The overall winner in San Diego will receive a Sunsail charter during the 2007 Sperry Top-Sider NOOD Regatta Championship, in the British Virgin Islands, where they will compete against the overall winners from each stop on the nine-regatta Sperry Top-Sider NOOD circuit. -- http://www.sailingworld.com/nood_regatta.jsp?location=598 * The BMW Oracle Racing blog has a story on the Versus network about some of the work they are presently doing in preparation for the America’s Cup shows that they will be bringing back to North America. -- http://bmworacleracing.twoday.net/stories/3316278 RULES ANSWER Did the protest committee make an error by awarding Boat A with average points in Races 3 and 4? Yes. Although the jury did not break any rule, its decision in awarding the redress was not the fairest arrangement for all boats affected. In this case, allowing a boat to use average scores for more than half of the counting races in the series is not fair to the other boats. What would have been a more fair redress decision? The protest committee should ensure that out of the counting races in a boat’s series score, the majority of scores are based on finishing positions in completed races. Different situations may require different redress to be granted. One possible suggestion in this particular case is that the protest committee could have awarded redress only for the race where the collision took place. -- As reprinted from the ISAF website: http://tinyurl.com/3dwla9 ULLMAN SAILS J/105 ONE DESIGN PERFORMANCE At San Diego Yacht Club’s One Design Weekend on March 10 preceding this weekend’s NOOD, Ullman Sails customers again dominated the J/105 fleet. Congratulations to Mark Mitchell and his crew on “Straight Edge” finishing in 1st Place, followed by Bennett Greenwald’s “Perseverance” in 2nd and Doug & Pam Werner’s “Javelin” in 3rd. What did this trio have in common? Full inventories of Ullman Sails!! Contact your nearest Ullman Sails loft to find out how affordable your next sail or full inventory of the “Fastest Sails on the Planet” will be. For more information, visit http://www.ullmansails.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From John Fox: Steve Gregory (in ‘butt 2300) should not be surprised that U$ Sailing is widening its revenue raising endeavors with Event Management (as announced in ‘butt 2299). And as to selling sails, cleats or other gear, they are already selling support boats for junior programs, clothes, insurance. However it is interesting that for its own championships, US Sailing has been using regattanetwork.com. * From Richard Chesebrough: As a veteran of 35 years as a RC volunteer, primarily in mark boats, I certainly hope the rules committee will pay no attention to Mr. Jordan J. Dobriken's comment in Scuttlebutt 2299 about hitting marks. Boats hitting inflated marks frequently foul the ground tackle, even with a couterweight 20 feet below the surface to keep the line vertical, and alter the mark's position. Competitors coming into the mark thereafter are definitely prejudiced, particularly when they do not see a "Mike" flag if flown by the mark boat when the mark position is radically altered and that procedure is necessary. In the worst scenario, the offending competitor cuts the ground tackle or slices the mark open to get free of it and continues racing. Rather than eliminating the penalty, how about increasing the penalty when the position of the mark is altered. As to the deliberate damage to a mark or its tackle, this is certainly a violation of rule 2 and the affected competitor should retire. * From Mark Weinheimer: (regarding not sailing in the last race when winning) I wonder how many of the respondents have been in the position to make the choice…reality has a clarifying effect. If the fleet wants one last shot at you, tough – they’ve had all week. Get out of the way and let someone else win a race. I sail San Juan 21’s and we don’t have drop races at our National Regattas. * From John Eilers: I thought it was a courtesy to the other leaders not to sail the last race and let them settle the other positions without the winner on the course. Regretfully, I have never had the opportunity to do that. * From Rich du Moulin, Chairman USIRC Owners Committee: This week in Scuttlebutt, my friend Bill Lee (who collaborated with our Storm Trysail Club to help develop the Storm Trysail Transpac 65 Box Rule) and Mr.Klinghardt from Germany commented about the benefits of a rating rule that can be adjusted to fit specific racecourses. I agree there are some races with a single point of sail, like the recent Cabo race and Transpac, but most ocean races and bouy races have a variety of wind directions and wind strengths - usually unpredictable. I think of the 2006 Block Island Race, with average windspeed under 5 knots with all points of sail (and drifting), and a few months later the Vineyard Race with half beating and half running in 30-60 knots; virtually the same courses. I have raced 19 Bermuda Races and have sailed on every point of sail in every wind velocity, often in the same race. For most sailors, knowing your yacht's all-around rating and not trying to out-fox the weather gods is OK. For the few events where conditions are truly predictable, special adjustments are perfectly reasonable. ORR in the Cabo Race worked OK; the Pacific Cup procedure of using inputs from many rating rules to come up with a single point rating also works. But for most racing, there are enough variables that for my part, I don't want my rating to be a variable that is attempting to neutralize Mother Nature. I prefer taking an occasional hit from nature, not a committee's weather prediction. Even Commanders can't get it right all the time. One other comment by my overseas friend on stability. Sure, IMS measures stability, so eventually everyone built tippy unstable boats. IRC measures certain factors correlated to stability, but doesn't punish it, so you get fast stable seaworthy boats. Check out Seahorse's reports on the Sydney-Hobart Race. * From Donal McClement, Ireland: Juergen Klinghart's comments in today’s issue (#2300) really do take the biscuit. Firstly he is suggesting that IMS, because it rates stability, is a better Rule. Secondly he is suggesting that the wind conditions remain constant or stable during an Offshore Race and because of this IMS will give a better result. I think he needs to get a life. Firstly, one of the major drawbacks of the IMS Rule is that it encourages pretty tender boats that are also slow. Secondly, the idea that conditions remain constant is a joke. The IMS Rule has not been known as the International Mystery System for nothing, and please tell me what meaningful World or Continental Championships are sailed using the IMS System ? I think the fact that IRC is being used very successfully by more than 7,000 boats worldwide is enough of an endorsement for the Rule which gives top class racing for those who use it. How many IMS Certificates now remain in the sailing World? Curmudgeon’s Comment: If you do want to reply to Donal’s question, take it to the Forum, as this thread is now done in the newsletter. * From Bill Canfield, St. Thomas, USVI: (edited to the 250-word limit) I am in complete agreement with the comments of Sue Riley (in Issue 2300) concerning umpired fleet racing at the BVI Spring Regatta for the IC 24 Class. The class has evolved in 5 short years to one that is extremely competitive with many of the finest Caribbean's sailors involved in a 25-boat fleet. The racing is extremely tight on very short W / L courses. For the most part the class polices itself well. There are a few sailors who are probably too aggressive, but the nature and design of this modified J -24 is not to spend long hours in the protest room. I agree we need to see a few more red flags at the "two boat length circle" and more turns, but the last thing we need to do is have "baby sitters" on the water trying to monitor over 20 boats. That is a ridiculous solution to a small problem that the class themselves will deal with when the issues become too extreme. This is a class designed for those who wanted to escape the very things that are creating smaller fleets around the world. We don't hike, there are no travelers, and jibs are limited to 100%. This year we have accepted spinnakers to the mix but we don't need umpires in any shape or form. IC 24 Sailing is fun and simple - keep it that way! Do not reinvent the rule book to solve problems that do not really exist. * From Peter Commette: Responding to Bob Johnstone's comment in Butt 2300, thanks, Bob. The story is over now. Augie first, and my daughter and I fell to fourth. In between and after, there were a bunch of young guys and girls who were aching for the breeze that never came. Augie and I were just aching. Snipes have a fun mix of young and old. Obviously, because it was a Pan-Am eliminations, we picked up some strays, but that just makes it more fun. It is an honor to compete against such great young talent about whom we would otherwise only read. The Snipe is a boat that offers that mix, so it's a lot of fun for us and for the young kids, too, I think. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION You're still young if the morning after the night before still makes the night before seem worth it. Special thanks to JK3 Nautical Enterprises and Ullman Sails. Scuttlebutt is also supported by UBS, main partner of Alinghi, the Defender of the 32nd America's Cup. |
