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SCUTTLEBUTT 1431- October 8, 2003Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. FOR THE RECORD Update by Mike Sanderson, Mari Cha IV helmsman (Tuesday 7th October 2003 21:00 UTC): What an amazing few days we have had out here! We have been dreaming about this for a few years now since plans for this mighty yacht first took place, but to be honest, so far it has been even better then I had expected. The trip has just been an absolute pleasure. It has, without doubt, been the most enjoyable sailing I have ever done - day after day of awesome fast sailing with a fantastic boat and crew. The 525 mile day was a huge plus Monday and today (Tuesday) we have just done 517 nautical miles. Our main aim out here has always been to break the transatlantic record but we always had in the back of our minds the hope that we could become the first boat to break the 500-mile benchmark. What's next? Well, depending on how you look at it, 600 nautical miles could be possible if we were to use the gulf stream like the existing record holders, Illbruck. I know there are a lot of people out there that think that shouldn't be the case, but that is how the rule says you can play at the moment and it is the same for everyone - so it is all fair game. We have now got under 700 nautical miles to go, which is always a nice benchmark when you are racing offshore because suddenly you can compare your time out here to the length of a Fastnet race or a Sydney Hobart, so the boys always get excited about that. Even though everyone is having great time out here, you can tell that there is a little nervousness in the air. Really the only reason that we won't beat the transatlantic record now would be if we were to break something, and, whilst running in 25 to 35 knots there is a reasonable chance of that, I am sitting here writing this as the boat is hurtling along in relatively flat water at 25/ 27 knots - just awesome sailing. No real drama or anything to report. It's a little disappointing to have broken our lovely code 3 Gennaker last night when the lock strop broke, but it looks like we will get away without needing it from here to the finish. Keep your fingers crossed for us and hopefully we can have a speedy finish and arrive some time on Thursday (UTC). For continuous updates and onboard photos: http://www.mari-cha4.com VOLVO OCEAN RACE A new education program was announced Tuesday for the Chesapeake stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race, to be held in April 2006. The program will provide a portal through which students and their families can increase their understanding of the dynamics of the oceans and the Chesapeake Bay, while tracking the progress of the boats. Teachers and club leaders will be provided with a set of curricular materials and competition guidelines to learn about the race; its historical importance, the physics of its execution, and the calculations required to achieve success. Schools and clubs will be invited to compete state-wide in predicting the exact time the first boat will cross the Chesapeake finish line of the leg between Rio and Baltimore. To make this prediction, students will need to examine weather, tides and currents, aerodynamics, and geography. Schools and clubs with the closest to accurate predictions will be treated to a visit from the racers themselves and a trip to see the racing yachts. - Lizzie Green, Volvo Ocean Race, full story: http://www.volvooceanrace.com/pages/news/news31.htm Curmudgeon's Comment: Sounds like an innovative way to insure crowds at the dock when the boats arrive. NAME GAME When ISAF rewrote and simplified the Racing Rules of Sailing in 1997, they shortened, reorganized, and clarified the rules. But I think the rules committee missed a couple of obvious changes. Rulemakers are committed to accuracy and brevity, so I'm surprised they missed the chance to change the name of the sailing instructions to race instructions. After all, the SIs don't teach us how to sail. But even more obvious than that, they could've deep-sixed a boring little preposition and made the notice of race, simply, the race notice. Wouldn't it make sense for the rules governing our events to be called the Racing Rules of Sailing, the Race Notice, and the Race Instructions? Let's try it out for the rest of this column. - John Burnham, Sailing World editor, full story: http://www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=2035 DID YOU KNOW? Did you know the Annapolis Sailboat Show is this week? Here's the inside scoop: Harken introduces its hot-off-the-press catalog and new products in Annapolis each year. Get the first-hand look at everything from their new 40mm Carbo Ratchet AirBlocks®, to a monster foot-wide footblock for Mirabella V. Pull strings. Crank winches. Buy some new deck shoes. Mention this ad and you'll get a free poster! For a sneak peek at what's new for 2004: http://www.harken.com/scuttlebutt/sc-new2004.php NEWS BRIEFS * After over 41 days at sea, French woman Raphaela Le Gouvello has just recently passed the halfway stage of her single-handed transpacific crossing on a windsurfer. Raphaela departed from Lima, Peru on 5 August 2003, where her route takes her 4,300 nautical miles (8000 km) across the Pacific Ocean to Tahiti. Raphaela's windsurfer is a specially designed 7.8 m sailboard that is fully autonomous, allowing her to make the crossing without any outside assistance. One of its many features is an airbag system that automatically inflates & rights the sailboard in the event of capsize. - International Windsurfing Assn, full story: http://www.internationalwindsurfing.com/Default.asp?newsid=467 * Medicine Man, Bob Lane's Andrews 61 took the triple crown of First to Finish, First in Class and First Overall in Southwestern YC's "Little Ensenada" Race, a 62-mile dash from San Diego, CA to Ensenada, Mexico that attracted over 80 entrants. Complete results: http://www.ssop.org/RaceResults/LittleEnsenada-2003.htm * The Marseille's mayor, Jean-Claude Gaudin said today (Tuesday) that his city is ready to sacrifice for the America's Cup 2007, adding that Marseille is ensured to recover "largely" its investment. During the today's meeting with the town council, Mr. Gaudin estimates to some €200 million - 120 in investments - the necessary financial commitments for the Cup. The senator-mayor pointed out that the French Government has committed to give €40 million if Marseilles win and he added, "If we are retained, we will succeed in obtaining more from the Government." - Cup in Europe: http://www.cupineurope.com/LatestNews/Where7.htm HAPPY CAMPER "Thank you folks for the help in selling my Icom SSB. I was surprised and impressed with the results of your (classified ad) listing. Please remove the listing for the SSB--I'm (still) getting a couple of inquires every few days. Again, thank you very much" - C. Keith Stump, Scuttlebutt Sailing Club Bulletin Board advertiser. Information about classified ad listings at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/classifieds MINI TRANSAT As the Mini Transat fleet heads south towards Brazil on the second leg of the race in very little wind as they pass through the Doldrums, positions, particularly at the top of the fleet are changing constantly. Pierre Rolland sailed out to the west overnight and has overtaken Jonathan McKee. Rolland now leads by 25 miles while the Spanish sailor Alex Pella trails by 51 miles and Armel Tripon, who was vying for the overall lead with McKee yesterday, could notch up no more than 45 miles in the last 24 hours and has slipped to sixth place, 53 miles behind Rolland. Sam Manuard, who won the first leg of the race from La Rochelle to Lanzarote has dropped two places in the last 24 hours to sixth place just ahead of the young Irish sailor Cian McCarthy who is once again showing amazing speed. - Sue Pelling, Yachting World, full story: http://www.yachting-world.com/auto/newsdesk/20030907151339ywnews.html Curmudgeon's Comment: The above story is not as current as the standings below, where first leg winner Manuard has now rallied back from sixth to third place. Looking at the position reports, there remains a bit of leverage between Rolland and McKee with Manuard in the middle. Stay tuned. Standings at 15:00 TU Tuesday: 1. Pierre Rolland, Extrado, 1321 miles to finish 2. Jonathan McKee, Team McLube, 1345 mtf 3. Samuel Manuard, Tip Top Too, 1359 mtf 4. Alex Pella, Aquatec - Santiveri - Texknit, 1364 mtf 5. Bruno Garcia, Saladino, 1376 mtf Event website: http://www.transat650.org/ SUPERYACHTS In the last decade, the number of superyachts - boats over 80 feet - has doubled, to around 8,000, according to Greg Mullen, the publisher of Dockwalk, many of them built by younger Americans who made quick fortunes in technology. The boats have wider cabins with no balconies, and the crews - who are increasingly educated to handle the high-tech systems on board - are in closer contact with the owners, many of whom share their backgrounds. With boundaries blurred, crews of American-owned yachts often don't know where they stand. "The Europeans don't know your name," said Betsy Millson, a former yachtie. "You're just there to serve them. Americans want to be your friend, they want to know where you went to college and they want to buy you drinks. Then they want you to work 18 hours a day and tend to their six kids." Another result of blurred social boundaries: more romance between crews and owners. The phenomenon has even inspired a phrase - "Move my things to the master" - to describe stewardesses who move up from the crew quarters to the owner's master suite and order former colleagues to fetch their belongings. For crew members of superyachts there are some basic rules - no hooking up with the guests, for example, and no drinking the boss's liquor without permission. But as any old salt will tell you, a couple of precepts trump all others: no matter how much you're enjoying yourself and no matter how exhilarating the exotic ports of call, never let it show. And never, ever let the owners think you're having as much fun as they are. Yacht crews work grueling schedules. They wake early to prepare breakfast and ready the yacht for either a day at sea or one of resort-style leisure. Colin Kearney, now the captain of a 64-foot sailboat in Newport, said his duties as watersports coordinator on a 325-foot yacht in the Mediterranean included tending to 15 motorcycles, 10 jet watercraft, 2 cars and a fleet of Windsurfers, kayaks and small sailboats. He got up at 6 and worked until late evening. Sleeping can be made harder by the partying of guests, especially those who insist on being tended into the wee hours. While guests sleep off their hangovers, the crew is up at dawn. "Sometimes you're lucky if you get to bed," Mr. Kearney said. - Excerpts from a long story by Warren St. John, New York Times, full story (but unfortunately you have to pay to access it): http://tinyurl.com/q4c5 FAST SAILS DEMAND FAST CLOTH Why are Ullman Sails the Fastest sails on the planet? Simple, fast designs demand fast cloth! At Ullman Sails we choose only the best sail cloth from Contender, Dimension/Polyant and Bainbridge International. What good is a fast sail design if the cloth can't hold the shape! Our fast designs combined with superior sail cloth continue collecting trophies for our customers across the country. If you and your crew are ready, let Ullman Sails bring our speed technology CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Terry McLaughlin, winning skipper of 2003 Canada's Cup: I may be a day late in responding to Ed Furry's letter about the Canada's Cup. There is no doubt that sailing on a boat like a Farr 40 is a team sport. Though the work load of organizing a project like the Canada's Cup may be borne by only a few of the crew members, once the matchracing 10 minute attention signal goes it is nine or ten sailors on our boat against the nine or ten team members on their boat. Everyone has their role to perform at each point in the race. Mistakes are going to be made on the race course. It is how the crew as a unified team responds, both physically and mentally, at those moments that often determines the outcome of the race. Both Heartbreaker and Defiant had excellent teams in the 2003 Canada's Cup series. It is not a coincidence that both teams were very similar to their 2001 Canada's Cup crew. * From Bob Ratliffe, former Executive Director, OneWorld Challenge: You quoted Mark Twain the other day which I enjoyed. I was reminded of another great Twain quote... "Always do right, it will gratify some, and astonish the rest." At "OneWorld" we did all three! * From Matt Carter: (re Steve Morrell's comments on sailing stoned) Anyone who thinks beating a team of stoned sailors is easy has obviously never raced in Santa Cruz, or participated in the Double-handed Farrallones. * From Alistair Cowen: But it's okay if you don't inhale, right? * From Donna S. Womble: Ever noticed that politically correct and personal computer have the same acronym? Must be Election Day on the left coast because everyone is wondering, will it be Arnold or Gray. And alas, even in sailing the "Tilting at Windmill" debates go on... The name of the Auld Cup, where will sailors get funding, why doesn't the media like us, is Mary Jane legal according to the RRS? I think it is in Santa Cruz. Can we at least agree on something? Sailing is a hooter... oops, I mean a hoot.... is it an owl? No, I guess it is just fun. * From J. Dirk Schwenk: I hope that Scuttlebutt readers have heard the resounding silence on the topic of successful lawsuits race committees for decisions made about racing. As a maritime lawyer, I have been approached about hundreds of possible lawsuits, but I have never been asked to consider such a suit. I am not aware of any reported decision holding a race committee liable for race-day decisions. Race organizers should purchase insurance, yes, but the chance of a successful suit is minimal. The justice system of the United States is among the best in the history of the world. It can and does distinguish between meritorious and frivolous claims. * From Judge Geoff Newbury: (Re comments from Malcolm McKeag on race organizers' liabilities). The House of Lords has unanimously signaled a return to common sense with a strong denunciation of the 'nanny state': Tomlinson v. Congleton Borough Council [2003] UKHL 47 (31 July 2003): http://www.bailii.org/recent-cases-uk.html Although framed as occupiers' liability, the thrust is free will and, assumption of risk. "...A duty to protect against obvious risks or self-inflicted harm exists only in cases in which there is no genuine and informed choice, or in the case of employees, or some lack of capacity, such as the inability of children to recognise danger...." Note, "informed choice." "... In truth, the arguments for the claimant have involved an attack upon the liberties of the citizen which should not be countenanced. They attack the liberty of the individual to engage in dangerous, but otherwise harmless, pastimes at his own risk and the liberty of citizens as a whole fully to enjoy the variety and quality of the landscape of this country. The pursuit of an unrestrained culture of blame and compensation has many evil consequences and one is certainly the interference with the liberty of the citizen. The discussion of social utility in the Illinois Supreme Court is to the same effect: Bucheleres v. Chicago Park District 171 Ill 2d 435, at 457-8." "... Of course there is some risk of accidents arising out of the joie de vivre of the young. But that is no reason for imposing a grey and dull safety regime on everyone. This appeal must be allowed." * From James H. Stevralia: There were very fun and interesting announcements in Scuttlebutt yesterday. First involves the Australian solution to the America's Cup nationality issue. Replace it with a generational competition. The OzBoyz WI FI's vs the Depends Deep Ends. And how about Steve Morrell's suggestion about stoned sailing. How could the media pass that one up? It would be a real hit, or two. Lastly, look out Harken, Timberland etc. Straight from Europe, Ferragamo High Fashion boat shoes. CURMUDGEON'S OXYMORON Random order |
