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SCUTTLEBUTT 1332 - May 19, 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. SAIL TAX (The follow is a copy of a letter sent by Scott MacLeod, Tour Director of the Swedish Match Tour, to the sailors on this match racing Tour.) Dear Swedish Match Tour Sailor: The ISAF has decided to enact a regulation which they say they have had in their rules for several years. The regulation (#18) taxes any grade one match race event a 10% fee on their prize money. Recently, invoices were sent from ISAF directly to all of the events on the Swedish Match Tour asking for 10% of their prize money. Unfortunately this 10% tax will be passed on to the very same sailors that the ISAF claims to represent - you! This will additionally reduce an already small prize purse which we have been growing steadily over the last three years of the Swedish Match Tour. This regulation seems to be directed at the Swedish Match Tour since our events are the only events which offer any significant prize money in the sport. We are not sure why ISAF has decided to enact this regulation and what services they are providing you, the sailor for this fee. If you are interested in getting an explanation, we suggest that you and your crew contact the President of ISAF for an explanation. He can be contacted at: Paulhenderson141@cs.com Please note that the Swedish Match Tour had agreed with the ISAF President at a meeting at the UBS Challenge last August to pay a single fee on behalf of all of the Swedish Match Tour events to cover this regulation. The President has decided to ignore that agreement and has elected to tax the sailors through the events directly. We find this very unfortunate for the sport and our efforts to try and grow professional sailing. In addition, the ISAF is also claiming that this money will be used to pay for the umpires. Umpires at all Swedish Match Tour events currently split $5,000 (approx. $700 per umpire) in addition to their expenses that are covered by the events. So we are not sure where this additional money will go. I hope that you will be as concerned about this development as I am. We will try and keep you posted as we receive further information. Scott J. MacLeod Tour Director Swedish Match Tour scott.macleod@octagon.com www.swedishmatchtour.com NEWS BRIEFS * A badly damaged dagger board has forced the crew of the 60-foot trimaran Gitana to withdraw from the Challenge Mondial Assistance from Cherbourg, France to Rimini, Italy. They join Fonica and Belgacom on the sidelines while Groupama leads the remaining nine boats with a 25 mile advantage over Géant. Bayer CropScience is in third place, 39 miles behind the leader. http://www.challenge-mondialassistance.com/uk/accueil_uk.htm * John Podmajersky who sued the Chicago YC to get credit for winning the Chicago to Mackinac Race has been given a "stern warning" by the race jury for violating the rules of sportsmanship, and suspended from the yacht club. Podmajersky called the club 'vindictive" and has appealed the warning to US Sailing, the sport's national governing body. * So far, 41 USA athletes have registered for the SPA Regatta for the Olympic classes held May 21 through 25 and sailed on the IJsselmeer off Medemblik, The Netherlands. The SPA Regatta is an ISAF World Cup Series Event and part of Eurolymp. http://sparegatta.org/2003/entries/output2003.asp. * There will be a rematch of last February's Louis Vuitton Finals between Team Alinghi's SUI-64 and Oracle BMW Racing's USA-76 on the San Francisco Bay in mid-September. Alinghi however, will not be taking part in the IACC Worlds scheduled for the Bay from October 11 to 19 - http://www.cupineurope.com/LatestNews/2007-Alinghi-EN.htm HOW YOU CAN WIN THE RACE, ONE LEG AT A TIME There's a race on in foul weather gear technology, and Team Henri Lloyd's top-level testers are winning - which means that you'll win the battle for optimum performance, too. Check out Henri Lloyd's new advanced marine technology at http://www.henrilloydonline.com SWEDISH MATCH TOUR In a long afternoon on Elba's Portoferraio Bay, Magnus Holmberg, former champion of the Swedish Match Tour (2001), battled shifty conditions, several course changes and occasional ferry boat wakes to earn his fifth win, the most of any skipper, in the three year history of the Swedish Match Tour. The Toscana Elba Cup - Trofeo Locman was developed to showcase the island of Elba and enforce the relationship between Italy and the America's Cup and the championship final, battled between two America's Cup helmsman, Holmberg of Sweden's Victory Challenge and James Spithill of the OneWorld Challenge, didn't disappoint. Down to the final run of the final match, the title was up for grabs. Spithill rounded the windward mark a boat length ahead of Holmberg, but as the boats split, Holmberg found the fresher air. "We had a little bit better breeze on the last run and that made the difference, it was back and forth all day and close all the way until the end." Spithill, while disappointed with the result, was hardly despondent. "We came through the hard way, going the low road through the repechage. It was obviously a close day and some great racing out there." The runner-up result allowed Spithill to move into second place overall on the Swedish Match Tour 2002/2003 Rankings, 14 points behind Swedish Match Tour leader Jes Gram-Hansen of Team Victory Lane, who finished sixth here this week, and currently has 80 points. The next event on the Swedish Match Tour is the ACI Htmobile Cup in Split, Croatia, May 27 - June 2. - Shawn McBride, http://www.swedishmatchtour.com Final Results: 1. Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team Holmberg - 77,500Euros 2. James Spithill, AUS/Team Spithill - 51,500E 3. Paolo Cian, ITA/Riviera di Rimini Sailing Team - 27,500E 4. Ed Baird, USA/Team Musto - 15,000E 5. Karol Jablonski, POL/Jablonski Sailing Team - 12,000E 6. Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane - 10,000E 7. Luc Pillot, FRA/Team Pillot - 18,000E 8. Chris Law, GBR/"The Outlaws" - 5,000E Swedish Match Tour Standings 1. Jes Gram-Hansen, DEN/Team Victory Lane, 80 points 2. James Spithill, OneWorld Challenge, 66 3. Jesper Radich, DEN/Team Radich, 53 4. Ed Baird, USA/Team Musto, 42 5. Chris Law, GBR/"The Outlaws," 41 6. Paolo Cian, ITA/Riviera do Rimini Sailing Team, 39 7. Magnus Holmberg, SWE/Team Holmberg, 35 = Ken Read, USA/Saucony Racing, 35 LIPTON CUP San Diego YC - Southwestern YC's skipper Geoff Longenecker and his crew, outsailed 13 other J/105s to win the West Coast's most prestigious interclub prize by two points over ever-threatening Balboa YC, which had Jack Franco driving and Dave Ullman and world-class designer Alan Andrews on board. After Saturday's light and lumpy frustrations, the fleet found better conditions on the Coronado Roads ocean course, where it was still a bit bumpy but with clear skies and a breeze of 8-9 knots providing enough power to drive through the moderate swell and chop. - Rich Roberts, Yachtracing website, http://www.yachtracing.com/regattas03/liptoncup/051803.htm Final results: 1. Southwestern YC, Geoff Longenecker, 23 points. 2. Balboa YC, Jack Franco, 25. 3. Coronado YC, Scott Harris, 34. 4. San Diego YC, Chris Snow, 36. 5. Bahia Corinthian YC, Mike Pinckney, 37. CAL CUP California YC, Marina del Rey, CA - Although Peter Stoneberg is undoubtedly more comfortable sailing in the big breeze conditions of the San Francisco Bay than the 5-10 knots that this year's California Cup Regatta provided, the light air did not seem to be any sort of a determent. With the help of his tactician, John Kostecki, Stoneberg's Shadow won three of the eight races and never finished deeper than fifth place, to claim the Cal Cup by 13 points over defending champion Jim Richardson's Barking Mad. Final Results after eight races with no throwouts: 1. Shadow, Peter Stoneberg (John Kostecki), 22 points 2. Barking Mad, Jim Richardson (Terry Hutchinson) 35 3. Hasso Plattner, (Dee Smith) 38 4. Temptress, Alan Field (Scott Dickson) 45 5. Samba Pa ti, John Kilroy, (Paul Cayard) 46 http://www.calyachtclub.com WHAT'S THAT GREAT STARTING SYSTEM? You hear it more and more. You go to a regatta and the start gun is consistently clear, accurate, and reliable. How can their RC be that good? They're probably using Regatta Pro-Start. They push "Start" and RPS does the rest (six selectable sequences including appendix-Q and Rule-26). The beeper counts down to perfectly timed blasts from its powerful air-horn. Why wait to let your Race Committee experience the precision starting power of Regatta Pro-Start? Call 631-321-6997 or visit www.phcsystems.com TYBEE 500 RACE The final leg of the Typee 500 was a 100.7 mile upwind beat in 15 knots of wind and heavy, choppy seas. Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce on Tybee Island went into this leg with a slim 15-minute lead, but finished first and cinched the series - winning by more than 32 minutes. Kirk Newkirk / Rod Waterhouse on Key Sailing finished in second place in the series with Castrol sailed by John Casey and Jay Sonnenklar taking third overall. The final race kept most of the 27 teams on the water for 12 hours. The top four teams all sailed Inter 20 catamarans - Catamaran Sailor website, full story: http://www.catsailor.com/Tybee500/Tybee500.htm Event website: http://www.tybee500.com/ STAR SPRING CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE Gull Lake YC, Richland, MI - Final results, five races with one discard (47 boats): 1. Howard Schiebler / Rick Peters, 20 2. George Szabo / Brad Nichol, 22 3. Paul Sustronk / Mike Wolf, 25 4. Joe Londrigan / Jon Vandermolen, 32 5. John A MacCausland / Phil Trinter, 35 http://www.starclass.org/search.cgi?Action=view&Event_id=108 J/24 NORTH AMERICANS Valle de Bravo, Mexico Final results, nine races - one discard (27 boats): 1. Brain Cramp, Mike Ingham, USA, 33 2. "S," Kenneth Porter, MEX, 35.5 3. Chimera, Yon Belausteguigoitia, MEX, 35.5 4. Mr. Happy, Bob Harden, USA, 37 5. La Besanga, Pablo Cervantes, MEX, 47 Event website: http://www.j24mex.com/j242003/home.html BOW STICKERS, SIGNAGE, BOAT GRAPHICS AND REGATTA GEAR The Pirate's Lair is your one-stop event supplier. From graphic design to t-shirts, foulies, sponsorship signage and newsletters. If you are planning an event, or just have a boat and team signed up, check out our services. Call (888) SAIL-BUM for a catalog or discuss your options, or log on to http://www.pirateslair.com/sailing 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 or a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From J.W.Tyrrel: I read Ken Legler's offering in Scuttlebutt 1331 of a vision of controlled environment stadium sailing for the "benefit" of making sailing a spectator sport. The end goal I trust is to turn sailing or rather professional sailing into a marketable media event. With no disrespect to Ken's contributions, stature or standing in our community, several things struck me right away. First why would anyone outside the sailing community watch such an affair? Rules in most other sports are not by any means as complex nor as interpretive as in sailing thus how would John Q. Public even stand a chance of knowing what is going on. Then there is the NASCAR angle of collisions and capsizes, even at 15 knots this all appears to happen in slow motion on camera so I think we can cross that of the list as a big draw. Toss in removing the challenge of managing waves, wind and weather and we have just lost half or more of the base audience, those adventurers that are sailors. Seems to me what we have left is a sterile and engineered version of a once paramount competition between man vs himself, his peers and the whims and forces of nature. Now can someone please explain to me how this furthers the sport of sailing, professional sailing or sailing in general as a viable spectator sport? * From Jim Champ, UK: Ken Legler's suggestions have only come from team racing enthusiasts. With its high dependance on the subtlety of rules and "1st boat doesn't necessarily win" I can't see team racing being very accessible to the causal viewer, no matter how compelling it is to the afficionado. The public don't actually like the team format - think of the controversy thrown up by team orders in Formula One. (Maybe you haven't heard that in the US). The only time I have *ever* seen the general public watching sailboat racing with interest was at a Championship in Wales in which a relatively small fleet of very distinctively coloured boats were racing very close inshore. The public could and were following their favourite boat ("I like the green one with the black sail" - "I like the blue and yellow one" - "I'm following the one with purple camouflage") round the track in shortish course races where the boats were distinguishable all the way round. And also boats that were extremely quick and spectacular to watch. I also don't know about flat water, waves make for big spectator appeal (remember how Freo was the only AC really worth watching on TV). * From Patrick Broderick: Amen to the East Coast bias Rich Roberts points out so well. * From Ron "Bart" Bartkoski: Bravo, to Rich Roberts for actually doing something about something that the rest of us just bitch about. * From Brian Raney (re Rich Roberts' regional bias story): Gee, as a Laser sailor now living in the NE part of the country, I thought we were the ones who dropped off the continent. The previous Olympic trials were in San Fran as were most of its qualifiers. This time around, it's Texas. Doesn't seem quite right, given that the NE has the most Laser sailors, * From Pierre Heliasre (re Rich Roberts' story - East Wind Leaves Western Sailors Adrift): I know it is too late to change anything, and maybe everybody is happy, however, when you look at the qualification system for the Olympic Laser Trials, 32 sailors will be able to compete, including the top eight of the US Sailing ranking, the winner of the O'Day champ, and, for the next 23: < in Kemah, *TEXAS*); and the top 10 finishers, not previously qualified, from the Laser North Americans (June 27-July 1 at the Corpus Christi Yacht Club in Corpus Christi, *TEXAS*). The Last Chance Regatta, scheduled for October 23-26 at Rush Creek Yacht Club in Heath, *TEXAS*, will qualify eight finishers, not previously qualified>> We may wonder how "lucky" the Texans are, and why they are so lucky. I am sure all these venues are great, however, that's a lot of regattas in Texas. See you in Texas, where the conditions in November are similar to the conditions in August in Athens? http://www.ussailing.org/pressreleases/2003/olympictrialsannounced.htm * From Susan Daly (edited to our 250-word limit): While Rich Roberts is correct in his statement that there will only be one US Sailing championship on the West Coast in 2003, it is worth looking back at where the US Sailing championships have been held over the past couple of years. Speaking for the US Sailing youth and adult championships that Vanguard sponsors, the following have been held on the West Coast since 2000: - 2000: Youth Championships at Seattle YC; O'Days (Adult Singlehanded) at Santa Barbara YC. - 2001: Bemis (Junior Doublehanded) and Smythe (Junior Singlehanded) at San Francisco YC; Leiter (Junior Women's Singlehanded) at Richmond YC; O'Day at St. Francis YC 2002 - Youth Championships at San Diego YC; Ida Lewis (Junior Women's Doublehanded) at Newport Harbor YC 2003 - Hinman (Team Racing) at St. Francis YC While there is a hiatus in 2004, the following championships are scheduled to be back on the West Coast in 2005: Bemis/ Smythe, Leiter and O'Days. And in 2006 the Youth Championships and Ida Lewis are scheduled. The area rotation for the Championships is set several years in advance to ensure that the events are spread around the country. US Sailing maintains a planning calendar for all of their championships at www.ussailing.org/Championships. It outlines the areas and host clubs (if set) through 2006. There is also information and bid packets for clubs interested in bidding for a championship. I know that the Committee Chairs would welcome bids for any of the events still looking for host clubs. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION In America, anyone can be president. That's one of the risks you take. |
