|
SCUTTLEBUTT 3702 - Monday, October 22, 2012Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: International Rolex Regatta and Allen Insurance and Financial. WILL ANYONE CATCH THE KIWIS? It is clear that if the America's Cup was to be sailed now or even early next year, Emirates Team New Zealand would be hot favourites. Team NZ has the competition worried, even though Oracle Team USA cleaned up in the recent AC World Series sailed in San Francisco and are perceived as having far more multi-hull experience than anyone else racing the giant AC72, 72-foot catamarans round. The AC45s are a completely different game to the giant AC72s, as evidenced by the crack Oracle outfit capsizing their US$10m AC72. The key to Team NZ's design advantage is hydrofoiling, or foiling for short - where the big cats lift their hulls out of the water with only their underwater foils connecting the craft to the sea. It eliminates drag so effectively that it translates into pure speed downwind as the catamaran bullets down to the bottom mark, able to gybe while travelling at 40 knots-plus, a fearsome prospect. However, stability is no easy matter. It is all too easy to attempt to foil but to bunny-hop on the waves, like a learner driver jerks and stops a car. Crashing is more than possible. Foiling imperfectly is uncomfortable and puts enormous stresses on the multimillion-dollar boat - as Oracle and Swedish syndicate Artemis have discovered. Artemis originally thought they had stolen a march on the other syndicates, getting round the Cup practice rules by testing the AC72 wingsail on a trimaran platform. But they damaged the wingsail during a training session. They have since fallen well behind and have not yet managed to get their AC72 in the water. Oracle are also not foiling anywhere near as well as Team NZ-they previously broke a centreboard while testing before this week's crash - and they have not managed to match the Kiwis' consistent ability to foil quickly and stably. Right now, neither even have a boat in the water. Having said all that, there is almost a year to go and this is the America's Cup - anything can happen, large advances can be quickly made and the intrigue and the in-fighting has barely begun. The major reason for Team NZ's foiling skills is the dagger boards, the blades or foils which protrude into the water from the hulls, enabling the hydrofoil effect. The Team NZ design - whatever advantage the designers have managed to conjure up - is clearly helping with the lift and the stability of the boat while foiling. Their advantage has come from lessons learned on Emirates' Team NZ's 33-foot catamarans, yachts created to see if they could point to areas where ETNZ could improve performance, particularly areas like hulls, wingsails and foils which can be permitted some variables. The tactic worked and Team NZ boss Grant Dalton says they "stumbled on" foil design to enhance performance. -- NZ Herald, full report: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10841971 BAD NEWS/BAD NEWS: While there may be enough time for challenger Artemis Racing and defender Oracle Team USA to catch up to the Kiwis, their situation is challenged as both teams are training this winter in San Francisco. The winds during this time of year are far from ideal, often delivering either no wind or storm-powered winds that could prove dangerous. Daytime winter temperatures are in the mid-50s, with the greatest rain period between January and March. Compare that to Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rosa, where the teams are now training in Auckland, New Zealand and will benefit from the Southern Hemisphere seasons until they relocate to San Francisco next year. POST MORTEM: THE AC 72 RECOVERY CHALLENGE The capsizing by Oracle Team USA of their AC 72 last week demonstrated that whatever precautions were in place, they proved to be insufficient. The extensive damage and the lengthy recovery period (10 hours) were in part due to the team's inability to handle the situation. Photojournalist Erik Simonson replays the event. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Tuesdays events on the San Francisco Bay involving Oracle Racing's AC 72 " US 17" may have been a whole lot worse if it weren't for some quick action and little luck. It just so happened that AC Race Management PRO John Craig was enjoying some time away from the demands of the job and watching the "Big Sail" from the deck at the St Francis and witnessed the capsize of 17 as well as bundle of others enjoying the afternoon. After a couple minutes John realize things were really going south and boarded a RIB out to offer some supervision while the boat was still in the Bay, then switched to a more stable Protector after US 17 passed out the Gate. Outside the Gate as the big cat began to turtle and the mast finally gave way, it became very clear that the RIBS on hand were not going to be sufficient, even without the mast attached. Divers were on scene to cut way the shrouds and stays and any parts which would weigh down the salvage effort or provide too much resistance. Flotation, already part of the crisis plan were in place to keep the hulls from sinking. By 6:00 PM the call was made to bring in the primary signal boat, "Regardless" to assist. The mother ship of all things AC World Series, the Regardless was in Point Richmond getting ready for service at KKMI and had not yet been pulled. After a mad rush, with 2 crewmembers and a skipper, she arrived on the scene at 20:30, 4 miles off shore. According to John, the sea state was still "lumpy" and winds in the 15 knot range and it was dark. Using Regardless's torque they began the slow process of dragging the stricken cat back towards the Gate. The slow ride back to Pier 80 took 5 hours before the boat was tied off at 01:30 AM. In the aftermath, the obvious question was how better to protect from these things getting out of hand. "It was pretty obvious the smaller support RIBs just did not have the torque needed to pull the 72' against the current or upright her," John indicated "We are working with the teams to facilitate that." Whether that means the teams pooling together funds and spending additional monies to purchase or lease a vessel big enough or strong enough to be at the ready during practices to render assistance is in the thought train. When in town, the options might be for the Regardless to be at the ready. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/PD-102112 40th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL ROLEX REGATTA - MARCH 21-24, 2013 What makes this event so special? Simple, we are not a traveling road show as everything happens at St. Thomas Yacht Club in Cowpet Bay St. Thomas. We are the "friendly Caribbean regatta! Housing can be found at condos near club, drop a hook in Cowpet Bay, free launch service 0700 -2400, pick up crew lunches each morning with free continental crew breakfast daily. Email Bill Canfield with any questions you may have at stycisv@gmail.com Visit http://www.rolexcupregatta.com for registration and other information about the event. See you in March! FAILED TO DELIVER It was the goal of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) for the sailing events at the 2012 Olympic Games to be spectator-friendly. And while the close proximity to land of the Medal race course did achieve this (at, arguably, the expense of quality sailing conditions), it appears the investment to attract spectators to the region proved to be a loser for local businesses. The Weymouth and Portland Borough Council said there may have been 75,000 fewer visitors compared with the same period last year. The 15,000-strong spectator area in the seaside town sold out, but predictions of 60,000-plus visitors a day never materialised. Some local businesses at the resort hoping for a boom during the Games were disappointed at the lack of people. Numbers were so low at the start of the events that the Bayside Festival on the pier featuring music, events and stalls closed after a week with rarely more than 1,000 people visiting at one time. Chris Reay benefited from the Games, with a full guesthouse in Weymouth."We pitched our prices at a similar level to any other summer," he said. "I think the days of special events where prices could be raised are gone. People are much more savvy, they're much more likely to shop around." Businesses hope they will see more international tourists next season after the beach resort's television coverage. Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-20000863 DOMINANT PERFORMANCE San Diego, CA (October 21, 2012) - Chris Perkins led his Masquerade team to victory at the J/105 North American Championship. Hosted by the San Diego Yacht Club, the San Francisco-based boat led from race 1 through race 9 with a remarkably consistent line of 1,2,2,1,3,2,4,4,4 for 23 total points. The Masquerade team consisted of Perkins, Steve Marsh, Tom Purdy, Mark Chandler, Larry Swift and Rose Eberhard. This triumph marks the boat Masquerade's third North American Championship, after winning in 2006 and 2007 with Tom Coates. Perkins, Marsh and Chandler were part of those crews. Perkins praised Masquerade, veteran hull #17, and the team's familiarity with it. "We know this boat intimately. It's well prepared in its set-up with a nice new set of sails," he stated. He also applauded his crew for their flawless efforts, saying "There were no crew mistakes, despite the fact that we're all very busy and we had little practice. That's where luck comes in sometimes." It was easy to notice that Masquerade quickly launched to the front of the 25-boat fleet at the starts. "We had consistent starts where we got the nose out and didn't have to play ping pong," Perkins explained. "Some regattas go your way, and this one did for us. We were in the right place for the shifts." Gary Mozer's Current Obsession 2 finished as runner-up with 37 points, and new J/105 owner Dennis Connor placed third on DC's Pholly with 45 points. Full report/results: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=14666 FORMER BULLDOGS TAKE TEAM TITLE Larchmont, NY (October 21, 2012) - The US Team Racing Championship invited 12 elite teams to Larchmont harbor where they competed in Vanguard 15s for the Hinman Trophy. After two round robin stages, the top six teams advanced to the Gold Round Robin Finals where points were doubled. In the end, it was Team Extreme winning their second title. Team Extreme includes skippers Zachary Brown (San Diego, CA), Thomas Barrows (St. Thomas, USVI), Stuart McNay (Chestnut Hill, MA), and crew Emmet Smith (New Haven, CT), Marla Menninger (New York, NY), and Michael Hession (Chicago, IL). Team Extreme, who won their first US Team Racing Championship in 2009, finished the second Round Robin stage as the number one seed with 20 points. The 2010 US Team Racing Champions and five time winners of the Hinman, Silver Panda was the number two seed with 18 points. The upstarts from the home team, the Larchmont Yacht Club was third with 15 points. The Rhode Island Pistols were fourth (11 pts.); The Woonsocket Rockets (11 pts.) were fifth; and the West Kirby Hawks (11 pts.) were sixth. Team Extreme was a perfect 5-0 in the Final Gold Round Robin stage to seal the title with 30 points. Larchmont Yacht Club had a strong round to edge Silver Panda by a point for second place and 23 points. Larchmont was 4-1, including a win over Silver Panda who was 2-3. Team Extreme, who is comprised of former Yale varsity sailing team members, was runner-up in 2011. This win qualifies the team to be the United States representative at the 2013 ISAF Team Racing World Championship. "I was really impressed with how the team adapted so quickly after not competing together since last year's Hinman," said McNay. "I thought we were able to come from behind in some situations and we sailed well with the lead too. There were no easy races." The second place team from Larchmont featured skippers Danny Pletsch (Greenwich, CT), Clay Bischoff (New York, NY), and Michael Menninger (San Francisco, CA), and crews Jennifer Watkins (New Orleans, LA), Kendra Emhiser (New York, NY), and Meredith Powlison (Newport, RI). The third place Silver Panda team featured skippers Colin Merrick (Portsmouth, RI), Peter Levesque (Tiverton, RI), and Trevor Moore (Naples, FL) and crews Andrew Schneider (Marblehead, MA), Carrie Amarante (Rye, NY), and Caroline Levesque (Tiverton, RI). Full report/results: http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/2012/USTRC_12_Final.htm HEALTH INSURANCE FOR SAILORS Traveling sailor insurance. An annual worldwide accident/sickness policy available to any members of US Sailing any time. 24/7 assistance in your language. Rates 25 to 70 percent lower than standard U.S.-only plans. Immediate, unlimited coverage, no pre-existing conditions. Benefits at home and abroad. Flexibility and security for the demands of today's sailing professional. Program endorsed by US Sailing and used by sailors around the world. Serviced by a Maine-based company specializing in crew health and marine insurance. ENROLL NOW. http://www.AllenInsuranceAndFinancial.com/ussailing SAILING SHORTS * St. Petersburg, FL (October 19, 2012) - The final day of the 5-day Sunfish World Championship offered sufficient winds to complete three races for the 74-boat fleet. Closing strong to take the title was last year's runner-up Alexander Zimmerman from Peru. Second place went to Andrey Quintero (COL) and third place to local sailor and regatta president David Mendelblatt. Winners of the subgroups were: Female - Amanda Callahan (USA); Junior - Jean Paul de Trazegnies (PER); Grand Masters - Ronald McHenry (USA); and Masters - David Mendelblatt (USA). Full results here: http://sunfishworlds.org/resultsfull.asp?j=2012&e=N * As many as 118 boats will be on the start line together when the A-Class Catamaran World Championship begins Monday in Islamorada, FL, making it the largest event in class history. Current World Champion Steve Brewin is expected to be pressed from all sides with Australia's Jack Benson, Andrew Landenberger and Brad Collet all fresh from top five finishes in 2011 along with current European Champion Chris Fields of Great Britain. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/ACat-102112 * (October 21, 2012) - The Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) has named its 2012 All-Academic Sailing Team. The 2012 All-Academic Sailing Team recognizes collegiate sailors who have achieved excellence in national and inter-conference competition as well as excelling at the highest academic level for the 2011 - 2012 academic year. A nominated sailor must have a minimum of a 3.5 cumulative GPA (on a 4.0 scale), junior or senior academic standing and they must be a key starter or reserve on a school's sailing team. Each school is allowed three nominations. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=14665 * Nice, France (October 21, 2012) - Spurred on by the cheers of support from an estimated 27,000 strong local crowd over the three days of racing, Pierre Pennec led the French team Groupe Edmond de Rothschild to an impressive four race wins on the final day to win Act 7 of the Extreme Sailing Series. Pennec has secured third place on the overall Series leaderboard, with the two Oman teams led by Leigh McMillan (GBR) and Morgan Larson (USA) holding down the top two positions. The Extreme 40 fleet now heads to the 2012 season finale in Rio de Janeiro on December 6-9. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/ESS-102112 SCUTTLEBUTT SAILING CALENDAR Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Linda Frederick: I know, I know -- we all chuckle and grouse every time this happens. But really! I must comment on this report in Scuttlebutt 3701: " ... Excessive conditions cancelled the first day's racing at the penultimate Act of the Extreme Sailing Series. ... " So was there at least a Cat-1 hurricane, or a modest tsunami warning for the Riviera yesterday? Well, not quite. Folks, you might think about renaming your event, or get used to lots of ridicule. EDITOR'S NOTE: American Anna Tunnicliffe, who is competing at the event onboard GAC Pindar, provided some background: " Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and after several failed attempts to set a course and get marks to hold in the deep water, big waves and an increasing breeze that produced gusts of 30+kts, teams were sent ashore under postponement before racing was cancelled for the day shortly after 4:30pm." * From Jim Champ: The following was provided by Gregory Scott in Scuttlebutt 3701: "A look at Great Britain's Royal Yachting Association website (www.rya.org.uk) shows that "Yachting" includes both power and sail. And power includes power boat racing. Funding is based on numbers, and as sailing numbers drop, we need to find solutions." There definitely seem to be advantages to the RYA being a single National body covering power and sail. In the political sphere I understand it gives the organisation much greater power in lobbying the government and so on. I must also leads to the organisation having to resolve internally things like power boater/sailboater conflict and the like, which must cause as many headaches as it solves. But one thing it doesn't do is affect the Olympic budget. Money spent on Olympics is strictly ring fenced: the power boat club fees do not subsidise the Olympic sailors in any shape or form. That's all from the "tax on the poor and foolish", aka the National Lottery, and money from that is related to success, not the number of members of your organisation. An upcoming challenge is that other UK sports seem to have upped their game, so the sailing team did not deliver so high a percentage of the GBR medal count at Weymouth as it did in previous games. So GBR Olympic sailing team funding is not based on numbers. Whether it will continue to be as well funded: well, lots of other sports now have results and can claim the cash. As the economic crisis continues and as revenue from North Sea oil reduces I bet there will also be a temptation for politicians to dip into the Lottery money for other purposes. PRO BONO The Scuttlebutt website allows marine companies to post their personnel, product and service updates. For free. As a bonus, each week the Scuttlebutt newsletter includes some of the recent updates. Are you in the marine industry? Post your updates in the Industry News section of the Forum. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION He who praises you for what you lack wishes to take from you what you have. SPONSORS THIS WEEK International Rolex Regatta - Allen Insurance and Financial - North U North Sails - IYRS - Pure Yachting - Melges Performance Sailboats Ullman Sails - Doyle Sails - MyBoatsGear.com Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
