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SCUTTLEBUTT 1811 - April 6, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest 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, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. CHANGING TIMES (The Daily Sail subscription website spoke to Mascalzone Latino manager Tom Weaver about Italy's third America's Cup challenger. Here are a couple of excerpts from that comprehensive story.) The America's Cup competition coming to Europe has changed the game. "This Cup is going to be much bigger in Europe than any time before, so putting a dollar value on what it is worth is quite difficult. The running costs of an America's Cup campaign are about 20 million Euros per year: over four years 80 million Euros. People are amazed and say 'how can justify that?' But I can show you exactly where that money goes and that is being tight, tough on yourselves." Weaver admits that running costs have gone up this time round - firstly everything is being paid for in relatively strong Euros as opposed to NZ dollars, and the bar has been raised in terms of running a competitive campaign. But the principle difference is that the Cup cycle is one year (or 20 million Euros) more. The big teams - Alinghi, BMW Oracle Racing, Luna Rossa and Emirates Team Zealand - will of course be spending more money, some a lot more money, but Weaver says the key is in spending the money wisely. Mascalzone Latino recently acquired the 2002-3 generation Team Dennis Conner and had both boats flown from New Zealand across to Italy and on to their base in Elba. Both Stars & Stripes were designed by Reichel Pugh where (Design Group head Harry) Dunning was principle designer focusing on these boats during the last Cup cycle, following his tenure at the Farr office where he worked on Young America and TAG Heuer. - The Daily Sail subscription website, www.thedailysail.com THERE IS NO LEE-BOW EFFECT - Dave Perry One of the most fascinating and timeless controversies in our sport is over what effect current has on how we sail and race our boats. Beginning in early 1979, Peter Isler and I filled hours of time debating the effects of current, and it wasn't until mid-1980 that he finally parted my clouds and shook me loose from years of misconceptions and incorrect assumptions. Here then is my understanding of the effects of current, substantiated by several of my more mathematically-clever friends. Assuming that we're sailing in constant current direction and strength, No! As we've determined, the direction and strength of the current created wind is the same no matter at what angle the boat is aiming or at what speed it is moving. The presumption of the lee-bow effect is that if you are sailing directly into the current you can pinch slightly, putting the current on your leeward bow, and the current will push you up to weather. This is obviously false because the only direction the current can move you is in the direction it is going (the stick on the river). The presumption of those who believe that in current a boat will have a different apparent wind direction and strength on opposite tacks, is that on one tack the boat will be slowed more by the current than on the other. The extreme example is when port tack takes you right into the current, and starboard tack takes you across it. The illusion is that on port tack it would seem that the boat is still going forward toward the wind, but that on starboard the boat is being swept away from the wind by the current. Therefore, the apparent winds must be different on the two tacks. The fallacy here, though, is that the judgment of going toward the wind and being swept away are made in reference to fixed objects such as the mark, an anchored boat, or land. In reality, both boats are being affected equally by the current and the wind "sees" both boats in the same way. In other words, if you were following the race in a motorboat and were in the ocean where you couldn't see any land for reference, the boats would look identical on either tack, and in fact you would have no clue that there even was current unless you knew from charts or perhaps from the surface condition of the water. Put another way, if you're sailing on a boat with apparent wind strength and direction instruments, they'll read the same on both tacks because the boat is affected in the same way by the current on either tacks (the stick in the river again). - Excerpt from Winning in One-Designs by Dave Perry, www.ussailing.org/member/library/wiodcurrent.htm INNOVATION Thirteen days into her attempt to set a new record for sailing alone around the globe, Ellen MacArthur discovered that her boat's generator had been burning so much oil it wouldn't last her even half the trip. Worse, the backup generator spewed fumes and heated the cabin to 120 degrees. In three days, she'd be entering the Southern Ocean, off Antarctica, where 40-foot waves would force her to seal up most of the cabin's ventilation. Back home, her crew was frantically experimenting with other kinds of fuel. In the sweltering cabin, Ellen-now stripped down to her black sports bra-tried to fix the generators herself, but the boat's violent rocking kept hurling her against the bulkheads. Finally, the crew told her to try the olive oil she consumed to keep her body fat up. The generator gulped down the green-gold fluid and coughed to life. "I was elated," she told Newsweek. "I think I actually shouted something out loud." - Susannah Meadows, Newsweek, full story: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7306279/site/newsweek/ MARION - BERMUDA & BUZZARDS BAY WEATHER ADVISORY! Catch the wind shift! Improve your inshore and offshore sailing skills. The comprehensive weather seminar on April 16th uses cutting edge graphics. Learn the theory at New Bedford's Whaling Museum. Combine weather & currents. Aboard or ashore from his office, Bill Biewenga, veteran ocean racer and weather router is also available to work with you, your crew, or club. Bill brings 340,000 ocean miles & 18 years of weather routing experience to each project. Review the full range of weather seminars - live & online. Email billbiewenga@compuserve.com or visit us at http://www.weather4sailors.com ISAF YOUTH SAILING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP More than 200 young sailors from over 35 countries and all six continents will be in Korea this July to compete in the 35th ISAF Youth Sailing World Championship. Two nations new to the ISAF Youth World Championship will be competing in Korea. The Bahamas are fielding competitors in both the Laser and Laser Radial and El Salvador in the Laser. With the entry deadline of 1 April, competing nations have now confirmed the number of sailors who will be representing them on Suyong Bay in Busan, Korea. Racing in seven classes will take place from 16-22 July with two days of measurement, boat allocation and practice preceding this and the final day the championship on the 23 July. Twenty seven sailors will be battling in the Single-handed dinghy for boys in the Laser Standard; 26 will compete in the Single-handed dinghy for girls in the Laser Radial; the Double-handed dinghy for boys sees 52 sailors taking part and the Double-handed dinghy for girls has 36, all of whom will be in the International 420; 20 competitors will race in the Multihull open in the Hobie 16 Spi and; 14 boys and 13 girls will contest the Windsurfer for boys and the Windsurfer for girls in the Mistral. 36 coaches will also be present meaning a grand total of 258 entrants for the competition. Last year's winners of the Volvo Trophy (the award presented to the top-scoring national authority), France, will have 10 sailors, a team leader and two coaches in Busan, Korea to defend their title. The French are the most successful nation in the history of the ISAF Youth World Championships having won 16 golds, 22 silvers and 11 bronze medals since the first event in Angelhom, Sweden in 1971. Behind them in second place last year was Great Britain. With the success of the British Olympic team in Athens, the 13 strong GB Youth Team will be aiming to go one better this year and improve on the two gold and three bronze medals they won in Poland in 2004. The USA is another formidable nation in the ISAF Youth World Championship and they will be taking a ten strong team to sail on Suyong Bay that includes 2003 ISAF Youth World Champion, Paige RAILEY in the Laser Radial. - ISAF website, full story: www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j1qFhyzC2 IT'S FINALLY OVER - FOR SOME Spirit of Sark claimed their second Southern Ocean victory by winning Leg 4 in the Global Challenge. The yacht, skippered by Duggie Gillespie crossed the finish line at 22.24.12 GMT Tuesday, after an agonizing cat and mouse game with BP Explorer, Team Stelmar and Imagine It Done in drifting conditions and fog. BP Explorer finished in second place on the 37-day, 6,200 mile leg through the Southern Ocean from Sydney to Cape Town. Team Stelmar finished third - less than an hour and a half behind the winner. At our distribution time, Imagine it Done - the leader for most of Leg 4 - was a frustrating two miles from the finish. - www.globalchallenge2004.com/en/ ORYX QUEST 2005 Tony Bullimore and his team on board Daedalus have done a masterful job of skirting the edge of a severe tropical storm as they sailed past the Mauritius turning mark. The storm, which has been on a collision course with the boat for the past five days, was upgraded to a severe tropical storm and named Isang just as Tony and his crew were approaching the worst of the winds. It's hard to imagine how two boats in the same race could be sailing in such different conditions. While Daedalus deals with gales force winds, Doha 2006 sits becalmed on a glassy ocean. At the same 07:00 GMT poll the boat speed on Doha 2006 was down to a less-than-spectacular .5 of a knot. Since midnight boat time, Doha 2006 has only covered 18 miles toward the finish leaving them with 180 miles to go to the entrance of the Gulf of Oman. The forecast does not hold out much hope for Thompson and his merry band of around-the-world sailors. At 0002 UTC Wednesday, Brian Thompson's Doha 2006 was 627 miles from the finish and 2090 miles ahead of Tony Bullimore's Daedalus. - Brian Hancock, www.oryxquest.com QUOTE / UNQUOTE "Last night we got an absolute hammering from the flying fish. Even Jacque Vincent has never seen so many... and this is from a guy who spends so much time out here he reckons he can smell whale shit across a windswept southern ocean! Seriously, there were long periods where dozens of these winged oddities of the ocean were smacking into both the hulls at once, barrage after barrage. Inside it sounded like a class full of school kids were running up and down the outside playing drumsticks on the hull with their bare hands. These multihulls make a pretty good trap for flying fish as they are spooked by one hull and then fly off into the other." - Paul Larsen, Doha 2006 as posted on the Bang the Corner website, full story: www.bangthecorner.com/da/11415 VIRTUAL EXPANSION Hall Spars & Rigging just completed a three-year factory and equipment expansion in Europe and the U.S. With the bricks and mortar in place, we turned our attention to our website. It provides a fresh look at the innovative and high-performance activities at Hall, including a peek inside our new U.S. factory. Buy rigging in our ever-expanding online store, browse the gallery of Hall's worldwide projects, or check the pricing on that carbon spinnaker pole you've always wanted. Now that we've expanded our horizons, why not expand yours? Visit us at http://www.hallspars.com PARTY TIME In anticipation of the 19th Annual Pro Am Regatta, and 4th Annual Scuttlebutt Sailing Club Championships, the Bitter End Yacht Club is having a Dry Creek Vineyard-sponsored party at their Booth (#208) at the Strictly Sail Pacific Boat Show (formerly Pacific Sail Expo). The gathering will be on Thursday April 14th at 5:00 pm. Scuttlebutt readers are welcome to come enjoy a day at the Show, and stop by the Bitter End booth for some refreshments and meet the Curmudgeon to find out how one can participate in one or both events. There will be an opportunity to win a 4 day/ 3 night vacation for two, that can be used during the Pro Am Regatta. - www.beyc.com NEWS BRIEFS * Twenty teams have qualified to compete for the Hobie Alter Cup in next week's U.S. Sailing's Multihull Championship at Alamitos Bay YC. Raced April 13 - 17 in Hobie Tigers supplied by Hobie Cat Company, the list of competitors includes defending champion Mike Montague (Santa Rosa, Calif.) sailing with Mike Luebkemann (Seal Beach, Calif.); Hobie 16 North American Champions Armando Noriega and Javier Cabildo (MEX); Nacra 20 North American Champions Nigel Pitt (Hartwell, Ga.) and Mike Krantz (Flowery Branch, Ga.); and 2004 U.S. Youth Multihull Champions TJ and Jerry Tullo (Staten Island, N.Y.). www.ussailing.org/championships/adult/usmhc * The International Umpires and Match Racing Manual Edition 6/05 is now available to download from the ISAF website. The manual is a state-of-the-art description of today's umpiring techniques and skills and is designed to be used by umpires training whilst working towards qualification as an International Umpire (IU) as well as a reference document by qualified IU's wanting to keep their knowledge as up to date and fresh as possible. The 149 page book was co-ordinated by Marianne Middelthon and is divided into 15 parts. To download the manual: http://www.sailing.org/?cm=t,,FGipvDLn5/7 * The schedule on the website for the Sausalito Challenge shows the April 29 Challenger Entry deadline for the America's Cup, and follows that with the syndicates "Unveiling of Sponsors and Team" on June 3 in Valencia, Spain. And on January 1, 2006, the boat is scheduled to begin construction at Novis Composites with the launching scheduled for May 1 in San Francisco. Stay tuned. - www.sausalitochallenge2007.com/race_with_us.html *If you were in San Francisco last weekend, you likely saw the local J fleet participating in the first of five J/Fest events that are scheduled this year in various cities around the US. Photos from the event are now on the Scuttlebutt website, provided by photographer Glennon Stratton: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/jfest-sf/ LOOKING AT THE FUTURE There may be untold trophies and Olympic medals out beyond the horizon awaiting some of the 136 bright young prospects who absorbed brain- and bone-crunching instruction at the California International Sailing Association's 28th annual Advanced Racing Clinic, but that's in their hands now. The total enrollment was a record and included about one-third girls. Selected on the basis of their sailing résumés, they ranged in age from 13 to 19 and came from 13 states in every corner of the country, plus Hawaii and one girl from Vancouver, British Columbia. Over four days and nights, a staff of 21 coaches with world-class credentials, including three 2004 Olympic medalists and four other participants, drilled them in classroom clinics ashore and sailing drills afloat in six classes of single- and doublehanded boats. - Rich Roberts Class winners (ages noted): CFJ - Steven Natvig, 16/Wes Byrne, 13, Redondo Beach. C-420 - Allie Belcher, 16, Fullerton/Rachael Neal, 16, San Diego. I-420 - Adam Roberts, 17/Nick Martin, 16, San Diego. Laser - Sean Kelly, 16, San Francisco. Laser Radial - Fred Strammer, 16, Nokomis, Fla. 29er - Lauri Lehtinen, 17/Sean Doyle, 17, Kailua, Hawaii. Complete results: www.cisasailing.org JUST ADD WATER (AND AIM FOR HAWAII) Winnetou, the spare-no-detail Santa Cruz 52 and 2004 Pacific Cup Overall Winner, is for sale. Comes with a totally optimized A-Sail inventory, instrumentation, and rigging package specifically tailored for the race to Hawaii. The attention to detail is exhaustive. For more info contact norman@sailcal.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (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 Greg Sturnbridge (In response to ideas for American VO70 skippers/ crew): The VO70 is a high performance Grand Prix boat, as the race is nothing like the Vendee or Around Alone. Inexperienced and amateur skippers (not that Brad or Bruce are inexperienced, but this is hardly their forte) or crew would either break the boat, or kill someone. At best, they would come last. Hardly the objectives of the sponsors, and the desire of the competitors. You don't see Formula 1 back markers trying to raise profile/press by putting 'celebrity' drivers in their cars. This is a professional event, not a circus. * From Cliff Bradford (re skipper for the Disney VO70): It should be noted that ABN Amro 2 is to be skippered by single-handed RTW sailor Sebastien Josse who just finished the Vendee Globe. www.volvooceanrace.org/pages/teams/teaminfo.htm#abn1 * From After reading Rich Roberts interview with Bruce Cooper regarding the rudder problem (Scuttlebutt Issue 1810), and having had to deal with rudder problems, leaks, faulty bearings, etc., on multiple sailboats, and hearing horror stories (like Cooper's) from several other sailors, I am curious as to why all designers don't do the simple fix; that is, run a substantial fiberglass (or whatever) tube from the hull to the cockpit deck to support the rudder post, house the bearings, and prevent water leaking into the boat. There may be additional weight in the stern of the boat but come on you designers! Give us poor sailors a break! CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION How come you don't ever hear about 'gruntled' employees? And who has been dis-ing them anyhow? |
