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SCUTTLEBUTT #752 - February 15, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome. GUEST EDITOR SPEAKS: THE RACE: BULLIMORE CLOSES IN ON FOURTH PLACE Team Legato has recorded 430-450-mile runs for seven days and yesterday was 714 miles behind Roman Paszke's fourth-placed Warta Polpharma. Both will be watching Cam Lewis's Team Adventure closely. Not only is the early race leader making its second stop for repairs to the main crossbeam, but it has lost ground in light Tasman Sea winds during its approach to Wellington. As a second assisted pit-stop this one will carry a 60-hour time penalty and Warta Polpharma is almost certain to take third place away as it passes through the Cook Strait while Team Adventure is docked in Wellington. The chance exists for Team Legato to pass Team Adventure too. While this would shake up the back of the fleet, little is stopping Club Med's charge. It is now closer to the Marseilles finish (5,486 miles) than to Team Legato (7,196 miles) and could yet achieve a circumnavigation of less than 60 days. -- Tim Jeffery, http://sport.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2001/02/14/soyot15. xml * Team Adventure, the 110-foot American catamaran competing in The Race of the Millennium, entered Cook Strait this afternoon and was expected to dock in Wellington before midnight. This is the second stop to repair the main crossbeam, first damaged when the boat struck a rogue wave in the Southern Ocean west of Cape Town, South Africa. The beam is one of two major structural members that ties two hulls together, and also supports the boat's 15-story high wing mast. Lewis reported that structural repairs made in Cape Town to the internal framing of the crossbeam were holding up well and were not part of the current problem. The damage, he said, was limited to repairs to the external skin of the crossbeam, where several laminates of carbonfiber cloth were being stripped away by the action of waves blasting against the beam and exposing the inner core of the skin. - Keith Taylor, www.TeamAdventure.org * Club Med still holds a commanding lead, but has run into conditions off the coast of Brazil, which are allowing Loick Peyron in Innovation Explorer to gain some ground. Skipper Grant Dalton: "We've had to slow it right down. We are sailing in 20-25 knots of wind but we can't let the boatspeed rise above 12 knots. We'd just destroy the boat if we did. As a result we are sailing with three reefs and the storm staysail set." "The waves are not enormous, about 2.5 metres high but have a really short wavelength. On a monohull the rig would be the part the suffers the most, but on a multihull it is the crossbeams that take the loads and shocks. The hulls are so far apart that they are always in different wavetrains, one is rising whilst the other is falling. The beams are the parts that keep them together and they are working over time right now." Official site: www.therace.org VENDEE GLOBE: THIERCELIN SHOULD FINISH IN FOURTH * Ellen MacArthur makes a triumphant return to England today. She will rejoin her boat "Kingfisher" at the entrance to the Solent and sail up Southampton Water to dock at Ocean Village. Her shore team sailed the boat from Les Sables, Ellen elected to stay to welcome third place finisher Roland Joudain. She will return several more times to welcome other skippers. Plans are underway to sail the boat to London for yet another tumultuos welcome for sailing's newest superstar. -- www.kingfisherchallenges.com SCHMUNDO QUOKKA SAILING WEBSITE SHUTS DOWN EBAY AND BOATS.COM OPEN BOATING AUCTION MARKETPLACE "At boats.com, our overall goal has always been to increase opportunity for the marine industry to sell boats and enhance a boater's purchasing experience," said Stuart Johnstone, co-founder and chief marketing officer, boats.com. "The eBay relationship is another example of how we're accomplishing this goal. Boat dealers and brokers now have another channel to move their product, and the boating consumer gets the chance to participate in a dynamic marketplace." Bob Hebeler, vice president business category and community development for eBay: "The eBay community is showing more interest in purchasing boats. Last year, over $14 million in boats sold through the eBay site. Boats.com will complement our existing trading environment and allow us to tap into a broader audience of boat dealers, brokers and buyers." A separate and integrated specialty site is due to launch April 1, in the meantime go to http://pages.ebay.com/theme/boating.html OWEN TORREY, JR. Included among his many accomplishments were an Olympic bronze medal (Swallow class) in the '48 Games in London, two America's Cup campaigns and more Newport-Bermuda Races (including the 2000 edition) than we can count. A member of American YC, New York YC, Storm Trysail Club, a life member of ISYRA and president of the YRA of Long Island Sound (1992-94), he was active as a US Sailing judge, PHRF handicapper and in race management with his wife Leggie. Born Oct. 31, 1925 in New York, N.Y., Owen graduated from Harvard University in '47 and Columbia University Law School in '51. He served in the 63rd Armored Infantry Battalion 1944-45 Ardennes and Rhineland campaigns. What we'll all remember is a true gentleman who was respected and admired by everyone who met him. Funeral service will be held at the American Yacht Club, Rye, N.Y. on Friday, Feb. 16 at 3 p.m. TEAM NEW ZEALAND 2003 CLOTHING HUNTER MARINE COMPLETES FIRST EUROPEAN BUILT BOAT The boatbuilder is known as Luhrs Marine in the UK to avoid clashing with the UK Hunter Boats company. The Hunter range will be known as Legend in the United Kingdom, but remain Hunter in Europe. It will be marketed by Opal Marine. "The sailboat market in Europe has been dominated by French and German builders," said Stephen Cutsforth, managing director of Luhrs Marine as he unveiled the new boat. "We plan to change that right now." Luhrs Marine moved into the yard on the site of the former Royal Navy Air
Station on 1 September last year and production started in December. The
aim, said Cutsforth, is to add one new model every four months until the
yard is producing the full range of five Legend/Hunter yachts. - Peter Nash,
in boating-industry.com. Full article: LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON *From Rich Katz <dickatz@cmc.net> * From Jonathan Gravit <jonathang@highmodulus.co.nz> Can anyone provide information on what brands of roller furlers, autopilots, and electronics the top boats are using? In addition were they using motors, separate gen sets, solar power, wind generators (or all of the above?) for battery charging? * From Ike Stephenson <ike@torresen.com> It spends 2 pages on pollution regulation. In summary: The Refuse Act of 1899 prohibits throwing any refuse (Including garbage and oil) into US Waters. The Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (MARPOL ANNEX V) has more detailed
rules: From the above it seems like rules are already in place. Is it possible that a rule stating that all racers must follows MARPOL Annex V be inserted? This would allow sailing to piggy back on federal and international regs, as we do in some of the right of way rules. UPCOMING EVENT: THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL |
