|
SCUTTLEBUTT No. 1167 - September 30, 2002Scuttlebutt 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, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
ROUND ONE A system of elimination, sought by the strongest contenders, will leave just two challengers slugging it out on the water over New Zealand's peak holiday period. Almost all racing will be over by the end of this year, unlike the last Cup regatta when the six-boat semifinals coincided with the millennium celebrations, and the Challenger finals with Auckland's anniversary holiday and Waitangi Day. Now, the four-boat semifinals will be over by the end of the year, and the only racing in January will be the Louis Vuitton Cup final, a best-of-nine series, between January 11 and 21. Then there is a gap of more than three weeks before the America's Cup match, starting on February 15. Budget constraints mean overseas syndicates are likely to take apart their leased Viaduct Harbour bases soon after being knocked out of the contest. - Helen Tunnah, NZ Herald, full story: www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/
THE SCHEDULE
October 2: REMINDER: October 1 in Auckland is September 30 in the US.
LOUIS VUITTON SERIES ON US TV OLN Canada's cable broadcast schedule of LVC races can be found at: www.facetheelements.com.
ONEWORLD * The announced plan is to initially have Spithill backed up by Gilmour, who will call tactics from the back of the boat, and 'Gilly' made clear that his helming days are far from over. "Look, I'm certainly going to steer my share of the races as this goes on, but experience tells me it's just going to get harder and harder to get James in as the series develops. This is a way of putting his feet to the fire a bit and letting him find his way. We very much look at this as a marathon, not a sprint, and it's important that we have everybody ready to sail all of the time. This is the best way to achieve that with James." - Peter Rusch, Louis Vuitton Cup website, full story: www.lvcup.com/lvcup/
SCHNACK * We are allowed to change the boat as much as 50% of its hull surface without needing a new sail number. So, we're only allowed to build two boats and if we were to change a boat more than 50%, it would be a third boat under the America's Cup class rules. But 50 percents a lot - a huge amount. You can change it 5% here, 5% there and 10% here and add up to something a little less than 50%. So we've got an enormous amount of freedom there. As well we can change the appendages ad infinitum. We can add as many different appendages as we think are sensible. Now, what we are doing, of course, is for us to know and for other people to speculate. * There's a reasonably large similarity between a lot of the boats, you know. The bow angles and the stern angles are similar to what we saw last time with 60 and 57. The beams they vary over quite a tight range. Although as you mentioned Oracle is a little bit slimmer and it seems that Stars and Stripes is also a bit slimmer. Oracle has a smaller sail. That's significant because it means that they've gone to a different space in the parameter set. You know, you've got length and sail area and displacement that you can change within a range. The boat has smaller sails - that means that the length or the displacement or both or something else is different than another boat. So they're a little bit out to one side there and so that'll be interesting to watch. Alinghi has two different boats in appearance. One's wider than the other. They look quite different when you see them physically and yet they sail quite similarly around the race course - which just shows you can have quite a wide range of shape and sizes and similar performances. So we see an interesting range of boats. The British seem to have their rig well forward on one of their yachts which is intriguing. They even have a little bowsprit on the bow to take the foreguy, which they use to hold the pole down when they are sailing with a gennaker and the spinnaker. And so that suggests that something is a little bit different underneath. We see the other boats and think, "Oh, that's interesting." The Prada people have come up with rigging with twin rods going up the side which is interesting. We've seen quite a good variety. Cheryl as posted more of this interview on the 2003AC website: isuzu21.webcrossing.com
SPREADIN' THE LOVE TO AUCKLAND - KAENON POLARIZED
NEWS BRIEFS * Virtual Spectator begins broadcasting the Louis Vuitton Cup and America's Cup races over the Internet from 1 October - live and in 3D. Now the latest version of Virtual Spectator is bringing you all 120 races live and in 3D for only USD$24.95, or EUR 24.95, or GBP£15.95, or NZD 49.95. To get the latest Virtual Spectator, go to: www.louisvuittoncup.yahoo.com/section7.html * Jesper Bank has been named helmsman for Victory Challenge's first match in the Louis Vuitton Cup, the challenge competition for the America's Cup. Stefan Rahm will be tactician with Johan Barne navigator and Magnus Holmberg strategist. It will be …rn (SWE 63) that Victory Challenge uses in the first round robin of the Louis Vuitton Cup. The Swedish America's Cup challenge has been sailing in Auckland with the first of their two new generation boats since the middle of December last year. www.victorychallenge.com * Britain will sail their first America's Cup challenge race in 15 years with two helmsmen in the hope of gaining an edge in the important pre-start manoeuvres, GBR Challenge syndicate leaders said on Saturday. Syndicate chairman Peter Harrison said 28-year-old Andy Green, eighth in the 2000 World Match Racing rankings, would helm the silver and blue British boat for the start of the first race on Tuesday before handing over to team skipper Ian Walker. There are some pros and cons. One of the disadvantages is that you have to change at some point, so you've got to make sure that change is smooth and efficient," Walker said. "There are some advantages in that the starting helmsman is normally pretty emotional after the start, especially if it's been either very good or very bad, whereas I'd be far more detached from that," he said. - Reuters, as posted on theStuffNZ website, full story: www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2064601a7313,00.html
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) * From Paul Notary, Sydney: The thing about yacht racing is that sometimes you have 3 hrs. of riveting stuff or just 5 minutes - depending on weather, good tactics, relative boatspeed & luck of the draw. This was evident in our first 18'er TV series held live in 1983. Even the speed & drama of the skiffs was,well,"not riveting!" Bill Mc C. realized this quickly and formatted the racing to suit the TV and the international ratings & interest proved that 24 minutes of tightly edited footage was a winner. Some races editing was heartbreaking ,too much to choose from, other races -how do we pad this out? The attraction of watching the expensive lead-mines live & raw is not really how we wish to show sailing, pre start action, when edited can be built into riveting stuff but live, the dilemma is by the time a replay is shown, during the pacing on a beat to windward stage relevance is lost & confusing to the non sailor. Keep it tight-Keep it Sweet * From Jim Swan: I have to agree with Andrew Besheer's take on the Around Alone website. It's confusing to navigate, short on info and the position chart is practically unreadable with no legend to identify the boats easily. I've also had problems loading at times. It makes the event kind of ho-hum for the desk bound. * From Scott Ridgeway: Andrew Besheer is spot on about the Around Alone website. The well written reports and frequent summaries that allowed us all to vicariously experience the excitement of the Volvo Ocean Race are simply missing from the Around Alone website. Pity. * From Brad Everingham: While I won't comment on Andrew Beesher comments about the adequacy of the content of the Around Alone website, a review of the "Skippers' Logs" for Everest Horizontal on the site reveals a lot about Tim Kent's misfortunes with equipment and weather, and explain a little better why Tim appears to be on the "road less traveled". Check it out. * From Steve Schupak: I find it hard to sit back and watch the inaccuracy of the sailing press go on so ignorantly about the "new twin rudder technology". As you may recall from your personal experience from sailing aboard the Schock 40 two and three years ago, that the design team of Dynayachts (Matt Brown, and Bill Burns), have successfully mastered this technology, and W.D. Schock Corp is building a production boat using the "Canting Ballast Twin Foil" system. This production boat has been successfully racing for over four seasons and is a proven technology. I would hope that the writers/commentators over at CNN would take note and try to report the events down in New Zealand with a little more accuracy and a little less blind sensationalism. I'll be the first to admit that a boat with two rudders is a little different from the "norm", it is not however a massive technological leap forward anymore.
FINALISTS
HEY OCKAM - WHAT ABOUT ME?
QUOTE / UNQUOTE
TORNADO WORLDS Final results (57 boats - eight races with one discard): 1. BUNDOCK / FORBES, AUS 16; 2. BACKES / VOIRON, FRA, 19; 3. BOOTH / DERCKSEN, NED, 28; 4. HAGARA / STEINACHER, AUT, 39; 5. LANGE / ESPINOLA, ARG, 58; 17. GUCK / FARRAR, USA, 117; 27. HOLDEN / COAKLEY, CAN, 172. - www.aclass-tornado-worlds2002.org/results-director.htm
MUMM 30 WORLDS
A high-pressure system had moved in overnight and brought with it a sharp northeasterly breeze that made the battle flags on the boats snap to attention as they left the docks at the Annapolis Yacht Club. Guiseppe Abba's Alina won the worlds for a second time without winning a race in this regatta. Final results, 34 boats, 11 races:
SNIPE WESTERN HEMISPHERES Amid wild wind shifts and intermittent rain squalls that ultimately sucked the breeze right out of the race course, Diaz couldn't beat Paradeda in the last race but pounded him hard enough at the start to send him off to a seventh-place finish when the Brazilian needed to finish no worse than fourth to win the title. - Rich Roberts
Top finishers (7 races, one throw-out): Complete results & photos: www.abyc.org
LASER MASTERS WORLDS
SOLING WORLDS
Final results (six races with one discard): Full results: www.solingworlds.com/worlds/2002/results.htm
AROUND ALONE CLASS TWO (0226 UTC September 30): 1 Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America, Brad Van Liew, 26 miles to finish; 2. Spirit of Canada, Derek Hatfield, 584 miles behind leader 3. Bayer Ascensia, John Dennis, 668 miles behind leader. - www.aroundalone.com
BACARDI CUP NATIONAL MATCH RACING CHAMPIONSHIP
MALLORY CUP
THE CURMUDGEON'S CONFUSION |
