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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 763 - March 1, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome. IMS For the average person the complexity of the (IMS) VPP limits the understanding that is necessary for it to become widely accepted. The VPP does not have to be this complicated. The difficulty in fully relating cause and effect in the VPP means that it is hard to explain and to understand. If the handicaps seem to come out of a black box, competition seems to be a gamble. With passing time we have modified the VPP to measure the effect of every nuance in design. Too often the designers have found combinations that can be manipulated to advantage but the layman finds these combinations impossibly hard to trace. We need to publish a simple description and diagram of the VPP logic. We need to reduce the number and influence of the marginal variables. Such measures aim at perfection rather than practicality. The aim at exactitude has backfired. Uncertain race results, too frequently followed by changed summaries have given IMS a bad name. We can mend this if we accept simplicity as a constant guide to race management. The rule's flexibility is useful under normally steady conditions, and experienced management can stretch the boundaries. But when the weather looks iffy a single number from the VPP guided by averages, can never be worse and must be better than older single number applications. If judgment is poor, luck remains the leveler and there is luck in sailboat racing. I think that the two number PCS rating is often a good alternative, especially as time on time and time on distance are combined. If these possibilities offend the purist I suggest again the value of luck. I am confident that the VPP assures better balance among types than any other rule can offer. One thing we need badly is an easy to follow, explicit guide to race management, stressing and explaining simple handicapping. We have good tools in the VPP and the computer. Let's use them with good judgement. - Olin Stephens Full story: www.sailingsource.com/features/olin.html SWEDISH MATCH TOUR Oracle Racing, will also compete in the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour. Skipper Chris Dickson furthers the team's competitive preparation with his entry into both the upcoming Steinlager/Line 7 Cup (Auckland, NZ, March 12-17) and the Sun Microsytems Australia Cup. Other America's Cup syndicates sailing on the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour include the Swedish Victory Challenge, Prada and Team New Zealand. The Tour is comprised of eight professional sailing events. In addition to over USD$400,000 in individual event prize money, the Swedish Match Grand Prix Sailing Tour awards USD$200,000 to its top eight sailors. The overall winners are determined by a point system based on a sailor's best six of eight finishes, with the first-place skipper netting USD$60,000. - Shawn McBride, www.swedishmatchgp.com . TURN YOUR PASSION INTO YOUR CAREER VENDEE GLOBE He trounced fellow Briton Josh Hall, sailing a virtual sister ship, in the process, set the fourth fastest time in the Vendee Globe and, in his fourth circumnavigation, becomes the only person to have sailed solo a monohull in both directions. Yet Golding is frustrated and unfulfilled despite a huge welcome for him yesterday morning. He was the joint favourite with eventual winner Michel Desjoyeaux. "It's not a record, it's a job done," Golding said of his 102-day voyage, which goes into the Vendee Globe record book as 110 days, 16 hours, 22 minutes as the week-long scramble to fit Team Group 4's spare mast is included in the time. I've always believed that you create your own destiny but I can't square this with what has happened," said Golding of his double dose of bad luck. I can't see where we have made mistakes and why it would hurt me two times in a row. I still believe I could have won this race and the Around Alone and haven't seen anyone look at our campaign and say we've done too much wrong." - Tim Jeffery, Daily Telegraph, UK Full story: There are still eight competitors at sea. STANDINGS: 1. PRB, Michel Desjoyeaux, Finish: 10 February 2008hrs 32 sec, 2. Kingfisher, Ellen MacArthu,r Finish: 11 February 2036hrs 40 sec, 3. Sill Matines & La Potag¸re, Roland Jourdain, Finish: 13 February 1713hrs 33 sec, 4. Active Wear, Marc Thiercelin, Finish: 20 February 1248hrs 49sec, 5. Union Bancaire Privˇe, Dominique Wavre, Finish: 22 February 1858hrs 12sec, 6. Sodebo Savourons la Vie, Thomas Coville, Finish: 22 February 2335hrs 0sec, 7. Team Group 4, Mike Golding, Finish: 28 February 0833hrs 0sec. - www.vendeeglobe.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON leweck@earthlink.net * From: Paul Kamen pk@well.com Yes, it's great for friends and family to have quick access to results. After all, most of us still race for nothing more tangible than bragging rights. But when we've all seen the results on the bulletin board, why should the RC miss a round to get them on the web? If you subscribe to the (increasingly threatened) idea that races are for racers, not sponsors, then you really don't care that much about the PR profile beyond the sailing community. McCreary makes the unqualified statement that "Regattas need sponsors." How does he reconcile this with the fact that most regattas in the U.S. run fine without them? Maybe it's the sponsors who need the public profile, not the racers. This is why we're thinking about splitting from USSA and running races under rules geared to the interests of the sailor instead of the sponsor or spectator. Let USSA/ISAF turn sailing in to NASCAR racing. It might be "good for the sport" and it might not, but at least we'll be able to opt out. And it's a good time to opt out, now that the eligibility fiasco has reduced the image of USSA/ISAF to that of an ineffective substitute teacher waving a finger at the class, warning us about violations of unrealistic rules that can't be enforced. * From: "Campbell Field" CAMPBELL@bandg.co.uk * From: "Lemke, Dick" Dick.Lemke@co.dakota.mn.us Just setting the record straight - and my congratulations on his latest honor. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy! * From: Bob Fisher TheFish@compuserve.com THE RACE Innovation Explorer is left struggling in a brave but futile chase. Loick Peyron's catamaran once more languishes 1,000nm behind and, despite the masterful spin beckoning a political career, Peyron must now be privately embracing the reality of defeat, though French pride will preclude any public acknowledgement of such thoughts. In the 24-hour period to 11:00 GMT Wednesday, Club Med covered 319nm at 13.3 knots compared to Innovation Explorer's 251 nm at 10.5 knots. Team Adventure is being catapulted towards Cape Horn at 25 knots and recorded a 24-hour distance of 459nm. Skipper Cam Lewis has less than 250nm to go to pass the rock marking the tip of South America, and his thoughts will immediately swing towards his route up the South Atlantic. Lewis is 4,876nm behind Innovation Explorer and 500nm ahead of Warta Polpharma. Team Adventure has made two stops during the Race for repairs, initially in Cape Town and then Wellington. This lost Lewis 190 hours sailing time, not taking into account the lost mileage incurred in detouring to Cape Town. It could be argued his performance on the ocean has been equal to his sister cats in the lead. - Martin Cross, NOW Sports website Full story: www.now.com/feature.now?fid=1329919&cid=997704 STANDINGS @ March 1, 0100 GMT: 1. Club Med, 1215 from finish, 2. Innovation
Explorer, +1160.3 miles, 3. TeamAdventure, +5861.9 miles, 4. Warta
Polpharma, +6364.8, 5. Team Legato,
+8721.7. * Some 8,000 miles behind the lead, Tony Bullimore's journey took a turn for the worse when Jesse Owen became the fourth member of his boat to leave Team Legato, leaving the skipper with just six crew. Owen, who injured his back a week ago when Legato nose-dived into a wave in the Indian Ocean, joins fellow Brit Rob Salvidge, and French duo Olivier Cusin and Armand Coursodon. He has decided that his body has suffered enough physical battering, especially with another brutal stretch of the Southern Ocean and the infamous Cape Horn still to be negotiated. - By Sports.com's MATTHEW BARBOUR Full story: AWARDS Alison has donated hundreds of hours advising and coaching the U.S. Disabled/Paralympic Sailing Teams, and coached the Team to a Bronze medal in Sydney this fall. She has volunteered in designing, promoting and teaching sailing clinics in the U.S., Chile, New Zealand and the Caribbean, and has been actively involved in the National Woman's Sailing Association's AdventureSail program, which helps inner city and at risk young women develop a healthy lifestyle through sailing. She is the only woman to win the Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year five times. - Penny Piva Rego. * Outstanding contributions to one-design class leadership are recognized through one-design awards, presented annually by the United States Sailing Association. These awards will be presented at the US SAILING Spring Meeting at the Adams Mark Hotel in Charlotte, NC on March 24 at 8:00 a.m. The One-Design Service Award for the John H. Gardiner, Jr. Trophy will be presented to Chuck Maschal, President Emeritus of the US Optimist Dinghy Association (USODA). The Service Award is given in recognition of distinguished service and exceptional leadership in the promotion of one-design sailing and class organization. The One-Design Leadership Award, given in recognition of individual initiative, enthusiasm, organizing ability and leadership in creating the one-design fleet-building program of the year will be presented to Keith Graham, who serves as the Growth and Promotion Chairman of the Seattle Thistle Fleet 61. The One-Design Regatta Award is given in recognition of excellence in development, promotion, and management by the organizers and sponsors of the year's outstanding multi-class regional regatta. This year, the honor will be presented to the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club of Long Beach, CA for their Turkey Day Regatta. The One-Design Creativity Award, which recognizes outstanding individual creativity and contribution in the year's most innovative one-design event of national or international significance, will be awarded to Kent Marinkovic (Miami, FL) of Adventure Sports. - Penny Piva Rego For more information about these awards: VOLVO OCEAN RACE * The illbruck challenge raceboat will be christened in Leverkusen on March 31 at the illbruck Automotive plant where the boat was built. The boat will then be shipped to Charleston, SC, USA in April where we will sail from May-July. They will sail mid-July to UK and prepare for Fastnet and start of the race. Website: www.VolvoOceanRace.org EASIER SAIL HANDLING SPONSORSHIP Due to Peter Harrison's support of the project, 'United Airlines' will be entirely crewed by GBR Challenge sailors. These will include Olympic Silver medallist Mark Covell, Richard Sydenham, James Stagg and Simon Fry. Along with the Corel 45 'Barlo Plastics', and the Farr 40 that will be selected after a trial series, 'United Airlines' (formerly known as Arbitrator) will complete the Barlo Plastics British Admirals Cup team. - Mark Bullingham CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS April 16-21: Corsair-Farrier Nationals & Rendezvous, Fort Walton Beach, Florida. www.smythteam.com/nationals THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL |
