|
SCUTTLEBUTT 2780 - Thursday, February 12, 2009Scuttlebutt 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.Today's sponsors are Ullman Sails and Harken. HOLLYWOOD SCRIPT FOR LVPS Auckland, NZL (Feb. 12, 2009) - While their lawyers battled in New York, the Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing teams were staring each other down in the challenger finals of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series (LVPS). The Swiss America’s Cup defender arrived to the finals courtesy of their best record during the challenger round robin segment, and their American antagonist survived the single elimination quarters and semi-finals by beating the Italians (Luna Rosa), and then the other Italians (Damiani Italia Challenge) that had won over the British in the other quarterfinal match. Only in Hollywood would these two embattled adversaries find themselves between each other and the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series final match with Emirates Team New Zealand. The challenger finals is a best of three series, and in the first race, BMW Oracle Racing led at all marks but the most important one… the finish. The delta: 1 second. In the next race, the result was less in doubt as Alinghi won the start and sailed on to a 67 second winning margin. Alinghi will now meet the Kiwis in a best-of-seven event final set down for Friday and Saturday. The same two syndicates faced off in the last America's Cup final in Valencia in 2007, when Alinghi retained the Auld Mug with a 5-2 victory. Event website: http://www.louisvuitton-pacificseries.com Video coverage: http://linkbee.com/CQO6 Audio coverage: http://linkbee.com/CQO7 Sailing World coverage: Click here * When Alinghi finished the challenger finals, they did so with their protest flag flying. The sailing instructions stated that there would be no boat rotation for the series finals (following an initial draw for boats), and Alinghi filed a protest against the race committee to change the rule. The condition of no boat rotation was for logistics, as Emirates Team New Zealand wanted to re-brand their finals’ boat with their sponsors, rather than being subject to the mix of generic and team branding that had been used to date. Interestingly, when Alinghi won the right to choose their boat for the finals, they selected NZL-92, and then dropped their protest. -- Sail World, full report: Click here EASIER SAID THAN DONE In Scuttlebutt 2779, Goran Petersson, President of International Sailing Federation, stated that “the key element that will draw [people to] the sport is exposure through media publicity and a planned broadcast production and distribution of attractive events.” Despite the legal mess the America’s Cup is currently in, the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series (LVPS) in New Zealand has proven that there still remains significant interest in this level and form of racing. However, even this event has struggled with broadcast coverage. Here are comments from Ian Taylor, CEO of Animation Research Ltd/Virtual Eye, whose company invented the first ever 3D animation system for sailing in 1992, has done every Americas Cup event since then (initially called Virtual Spectator - now called Virtual Eye), and is the primary provider for visual coverage at the LVPS: “Until 3 weeks before the (LVPS) event the only (video) coverage that was to be produced for the event was a half hour highlights package to screen in New Zealand at 11:00 at night. It appears that no overseas broadcasters were interested in taking live coverage of the event which in turn made it cost prohibitive for TVNZ to set up a full production for New Zealand only. Hence the highlights only package at night. “Believing that there would be interest in this event both nationally and internationally my company, Taylormade Media, put together funding to create full live coverage of every day which we would stream to the web. We offered that streaming opportunity and the associated international rights for free, and got absolutely zero response. In New Zealand TVNZ picked up the NZ rights for that coverage and it has been hugely successful. “Getting no takers for the live stream, and with just five days before the event, we then built, again at our own cost, a highlights web site, Click here, to which we upload our virtual highlights packages of every race at the end of each day.” -- Read on: Click here A FLARE FOR TRADITIONAL SAILMAKING Ullman Sails has booked a few historic customers lately. Our team in Virginia is currently finishing up a project building a new suit of square sails for the actively sailed replica merchant ship “Susan Constant.” The loft has completed almost 700 hours of labor using traditional sailmaking techniques, including an intensive amount of handwork. In total for the set of sails, there was just over a half mile of seams sewn, about 400 grommets stitched, and nearly 800 feet of rope sewn along the edges of the sails! Make an investment in your performance. Visit Ullman Sails at www.ullmansails.com WHERE WERE YOU ON FEBRUARY 10TH? by Cory Friedman, Scuttlebutt legal analyst By now many ‘Buttheads have had the opportunity to watch oral argument before the State of New York, Court of Appeals in the Cup case and have formed their own opinions. I heard the argument live (on Feb. 10, 2009) and have watched the webcast twice to nail down my impressions. While it is easy to fall into the trap of evaluating the argument based upon which side you are rooting for, that is not my purpose here. These are my observations -- as a lawyer who has argued plenty of appeals and heard plenty of appeals argued -- regarding the legal quality of what I heard and the reactions and questions of the judges. Nobody can be completely objective, but here are my style points. Maureen Mahoney (for Golden Gate Yacht Club) turned in a stellar performance. She was not perfect and passed up some opportunities, but her sustained lawyering was as good as it gets. Certainly, she far surpassed David Boies and Ted Olsen in Bush v. Gore. The prize in that case was the presidency of the United States. On her feet, she far surpassed her briefs, which were very competent, but not exceptional. Clearly, in preparation for oral argument she developed the essential insight of a dispositive argument, which Judge Smith took and ran with, which may decide the case once Judge Smith has worked it out. More about that later. -- Read on: Click here THIRD COULD GO EITHER WAY (Feb. 11, 2009; Day 94) - Certainly a St. Valentine’s Day finish for Sam Davies’ would fit so perfectly with the Roxy spirit, but for the British skipper who has a home in South Brittany and has gained a huge fan base in France during the Vendee Globe race, her weekend, into Monday may yet prove to be a nervous countdown until the arrival of Marc Guillemot. Predictions, albeit based on some slightly shaky weather and performance variables, still conclude that when the corrected times – net of redress compensation – are computed there could be just hours between the effervescent Roxy Chick Davies and Guillemot, and third could go either way. The one consistent theme is that the finish will be slow for all four of the boats closest to the finish in Les Sables d’Olonne, but trying to work out polar speed predictions for Guillemot’s Safran which has no keel and is effectively hobbled by having to sail with two reefs in the mainsail is not easy. -- Full story: Click here Solo, non-stop, around the world race in Open 60s. Standings as of 18:30 UTC (30 entrants; 11 now competing): 1. Michel Desjoyeaux (FRA), Foncia, Finished Feb. 1, 15:11 GMT (84:03:09:08) 2. Armel Le Cléac´h (FRA), Brit Air, Finished Feb. 7, 08:41 GMT (89:09:39:35) 3. Samantha Davies (GBR), Roxy, 419.7 nm Distance to Finish 3. Vincent Riou (FRA), PRB, Dismasted - Redress Given 4. Marc Guillemot (FRA), Safran, 589.8 nm DTF 5. Brian Thompson (GBR), Bahrain Team, 939.2 nm DTF Event website: http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en Complete standings: http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/ranking.html Race tracking: http://tracking.vendeeglobe.org/en * Samantha Davies (Roxy) and Marc Guillemot (Safran) were awarded 32 hours and 82 hours respectively, as a result of the assistance provided during Yann Eliès’ rescue (broken leg) on Dec. 20th. These times will be deducted from their final finishing times; Sam will need to finish at least 50 hours ahead of Marc to beat him. * Brian Thompson, Bahrain Team Pindar: “Bilou managed brilliantly to get through a strong gale with his keel-less Veolia, and of course in the last race Nick Moloney sailed into Rio and Mike Golding crossed the finish line with no keel, so it’s become more common - maybe there should be a term for it!” STILL RACING AGAINST THE CLOCK Qingdao, China (Feb. 11, 2009) - Ericsson 3 has departed its adopted boatyard in Hualien, Taiwan to begin the belated finish to Leg 4 to Qingdao. Magnus Olsson and his crew must first reach the waypoint 60 miles north of Taiwain where they suspended racing on 27 January before officially resuming their passage to China. They are currently motor sailing and are expected to reach the waypoint by 19:00 GMT. Team meteorologist Chris Bedford is predicting a relatively fast passage, raising the prospect of the boat reaching Qingdao with enough turn-around time to join the rest of the fleet for the leg start. But it’s going to be tight. By reaching Qingdao and completing the leg they will collect the four points on offer for fifth place. After two weeks of repairs they are still racing against the clock in an effort to reach Qingdao for the start of Leg 5 to Rio on Saturday. At this stage their ETA is late Friday night or early Saturday morning local time. -- Full story: Click here Leg Five from Qingdao, China to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil will start February 14th, is 12,300 nm in length, with the finish estimated on March 20th. -- Overall scores: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/rdc/#tab4 THIRTY DAYS & COUNTING The iceboating season is winding down but it’s not too late for a heart-pumping finish. To keep the ice chips flying and smoke the competition, gear up with Carbos at your favorite Harken dealer. www.harken.com * Addicted to Speed: Learn why hard water sailors are addicted to speed. Check out this video of stern steerers, Skeeters, Nites, and DNs burning up the ice - and the spectacular spinout by DEUCE, the largest stern steerer in the world: Click here * Three Kings of Iceboating: You gotta love iceboaters, you simply gotta. And here’s your chance to listen to three kings of the ice. Get the inside scoop on this X-treme sport from master speedsters Buddy Melges, Peter Harken, and Bill Mattison in their freewheeling Q & A held at the Chicago Strictly Sail Boat Show: Click here CROSSING PATHS The Los Angeles adventure sailor, Zac Sunderland, is still in Cape Town, South Africa, where he has been living it up since safely rounding the Cape of Good Hope two weeks ago. But the parties, concerts and many friends the 17-year-old has made must be left behind, as it's time to resume his unlikely quest to become the youngest person to solo-circumnavigate the planet. However, England's Mike Perham, who is slightly younger than Zac, is attempting the same feat aboard a much larger, faster boat. Interestingly, both are in Cape Town, though Zac is headed west and Perham east. They met for lunch at the local yacht club, and that has been the extent of their relationship. "He's a nice guy, but he's more like a sailor you see in the yacht clubs, doing everything by the book," Zac said in an interview this morning. "And I'm more like a thrill seeker who just goes out and does it." -- LA Times, read on: Click here SAILING SHORTS * Just a year ago, Franck Cammas (FRA) and his nine crew capsized 80 miles off New Zealand following the breakage of Groupama 3s port float. Twenty-four hours ahead of the reference time set by the current Jules Verne Trophy record holder when the incident occurred, the crew was airlifted to safety by helicopter before heading back to the zone to rescue Groupama 3. Ten months in the yard and 50,000 hours of work later, Groupama 3 has been relaunched, and will seek several records in 2009 to include an around the World attempt in November for the Jules Verne Trophy. -- Full report: Click here * A new disabled sailing event, the Robie Pierce One-Design Regatta, will debut at American Yacht Club (Rye, NY) June 5-7, 2009. The event has been named in honor of Robie Pierce, a long time advocate of disabled sailing. Since being diagnosed with MS in 1985, Pierce almost single-handedly put disabled sailing on the map. The Robie Pierce One Design Regatta will rotate among yacht clubs in Western Long Island Sound, with Larchmont YC scheduled for 2010 and Riverside, host to this year’s US Disabled Sailing Championships, hosting in 2011. -- Full details: Click here * Sir Keith Mills, leader of the British Challenge for the America’s Cup, TEAMORIGIN, will be the keynote speaker at the America’s Cup Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on April 30, 2009. This black-tie event, being held at the New York Yacht Club in Manhattan, will also feature a special presentation about the history of the Cup by Gary Jobson and John Rousmaniere. Honored at the ceremony will be John Biddle, cinematographer of the 12-Metre era; John Longley, member of the historic Australia II team and co-author of the IACC rule; and Golden Era sailmaker Thomas Ratsey. Tickets and information at 401-253-5000 or s.watson@herreshoff.org * North Sails and Sailing Weather Services have partnered to provide free weather forecasts for the Sperry Top-Sider St Petersburg NOOD Regatta from February 13-15, 2009 in St Petersburg, FL. To sign up for daily email forecasts, visit North's online weather center: Click here CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Here are a few of the events that are coming up: Feb 13-15 - Laser Masters Midwinters East - Sarasota, FL, USA Feb 13-15 - St. Petersburg Sperry Top-Sider NOOD - St. Petersburg, FL, USA The Scuttlebutt Event Calendar is an important tool used by the sailing media to follow all the events in the sport. It is a self-service application - be sure to add your event by clicking here LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Reader commentary is encouraged, with letters to be submitted to the Scuttlebutt editor, aka, ‘The Curmudgeon’. Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). You only get one letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Bill Porter: (re, the windward mark gate used for the Etchells Jaguar Series) I sailed this past weekend in the Etchells regatta in Miami, and it was the first time I sailed with the windward gates. To my knowledge we have had one broken mast and several boats with holes that have sent competitors home for the day since this experiment was started last year. This is not a way to keep competitors happy and coming back. The gates are not always square, although the RC gives its best effort, but I did see that the gates are even but the standoff marks are not. Biscayne Bay is very shallow and easy to set marks, but how can you set 4 marks square to the wind in other areas where the water can be 50-100 feet deep. Also some people say you end up with two tracks to the leeward mark and that there is a new middle lane, which is not true, there is no air in the middle until halfway down the run if ever. This is because you have two lay lines going for marks that are not up wind, and with the new 3 boat length circle the marks have to be a minimum of 180 feet apart so a 5 degree shift at the top can make the one gate significantly favored to one side or the other. Once you are on the run you better like that side since you cannot go back to the other side. -- Read on: Click here * From Brian Morris: (re, story in Issue 2779) I find Goran Petersson - President of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) - and his comments on marketing the sport quite a funny read. This is the man who chairs the organisation that removed the multihull. He gave no guidance to the ISAF Council about marketing then. He did not mention “distribution of attractive events” when the Keel Boat versus Multihull issue came up. He has done nothing to openly have the multihull reinstated. He wants attractive events but endorses the removal of the multihull. At the May Mid Year meeting he even had a ‘closed’ vote so the world could not see how the delegates voted. He openly said he endorsed the November meeting decision to remove the multihull. Sorry Goran Petersson, you cannot have everything. I think you are a funny man. Unfortunately funny men should not lead serious debates controlling people’s lives * From Allan Johnson: You gotta be kidding Goran! This is the leader of our sport? He states: "We understand that the key element that will draw [people to] the sport is exposure through media publicity and a planned broadcast production and distribution of attractive events." This may be indeed the way to get sponsorship dollars, but how did Goran, Cayard and all the others at this forum get drawn to the sport? It was early exposure to the sport with big boats and small. The key element that will draw people to the sport is access to the water and neat sailing boats. My yacht club has to stop buying outstations and dining tables, and start buying dinghies and small keel boats. A requirement for Volvo, AC, LV and other high profile events should be a mandatory donation of 50 lasers, 50 29ers and 50 optimists to the organization of their choosing. (much less money than a mainsail!) Let's get kids of all ages into boats, and forget sailing on TV. * From Keith Taylor, press officer, Louis Vuitton Pacific Series: Our thanks to Bob Colpitts for his comments (Issue 2779). I can’t correct any shortcomings of the website but perhaps I can modify some of Mr Colpitts’ perceptions. The results tab served to show five pages of information about the structure of the racing. It now contains one page showing the challenger sail-off details. Clicking on Race Reports will lead to information about all deltas and finish times for all races, plus highlight comments. Online viewing of Television New Zealand’s comprehensive Freeview coverage is a bandwidth issue. The cost to make this signal available worldwide is prohibitive. The new race tracker is still in beta development which might explain why Mr Colpitts had difficulty finding it. The Virtual Eye team only began work on it after racing started. Given that they’ve got this far it’s a miracle. * From Manfred Schreiber: In Scuttlebutt 2779, Bob Collpitts wrote, “Surely Louis Vuitton can do better. Maybe they should have a look at the Vendee Globe web site.” Thanks Bob, I thought about writing a similar comment when reading Goran Petersson’s comments about how the sport of sailing can draw people. The Vendee Globe website has it all. It is a great site about a great race and pulling people into the sport, bringing them close to the competitors. Educating about the winds, how forecasts are working and all without fuzz. Quick and easy. The wheel does not need to be re- invented. Thanks to the organizers for giving us a great month of following a spectacular race. May the ISAF look a bit over their fences. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION "Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other." - Karl, age 5 (Hint: Valentine’s Day is Feb. 14th) Special thanks to Ullman Sails and Harken. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
