|
SCUTTLEBUTT 3458 - Friday, October 28, 2011
Scuttlebutt 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.
Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt
RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml
Today's sponsors: Melges Performance Sailboats and Samson Rope.
GAME ON
Alicante, Spain (October 27, 2011) - The first points of the Volvo Ocean
Race 2011-12 will be up for grabs on Saturday - and although the event is
known as the world's premier round the world yacht race, first blood will
go to the team that's quickest round an inshore course.
At 1200 UTC (1400 local time; 0800 EDT), the starting gun will fire and the
six Volvo Open 70 race boats will open the throttles in the Iberdrola
In-Port Race, marking the start of nine months of full-on competition and
intense rivalry.
In-Port races take place in all 10 Host Ports around the world testing the
crews' skills at close-quarters manoeuvres and tactics. Sailed close to the
shore, the races provide a spectacle for the millions of people who will
watch the race worldwide, while also providing opportunity for the teams to
pick up extra points that could prove vital when overall positions are
decided.
For some teams the focus will be entirely on scoring in the nine offshore
legs, and that will be reflected in the way they approach the inshore
racing. But for others, the In-Port races will be key to moving up the
overall leaderboard as more than 20 per cent of all points on offer over
the entire race can be won.
Ken Read, skipper of PUMA's Mar Mostro, said he has mixed feelings ahead of
the first in-port race. "It's very clear how good everybody is so I guess I
feel a little trepidation knowing that," he said. "But we're as good as
we're going to be and it's time to get out there and put our money where
our mouth is. Every point counts, and if you took the six teams right now
and had a tiddlywinks contest it would be a blood match. Every point is
huge."
Telefonica trimmer Xabi Fernandez explains the challenge of the In-Port
Race. "The boats aren't designed for this type of race but instead for
ocean racing and the quickfire manoeuvres required in an in-port race are
very complicated to perform," he said. "If you make one mistake you can
lose a lot of ground and end up finishing last."
Full story: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-102711A
ROSTER: The crews who will compete in the Iberdrola In-Port Race have been
named by the six competing teams. As required by the race rules each team
must name their 11 crewmembers 48 hours in advance of each race:
http://tinyurl.com/VOR-102711B
VIEWING: The Iberdrola In-Port Race will start at 0800 EDT on Saturday,
October 29. The race will be shown online live with enhanced 3D graphics
via the race's new Livestream service. Streaming begins five minutes before
the 10-minute warning signal. View on the event home page at
http://www.volvooceanrace.com
GAMERS: In anticipation of the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race on
November 5, the Volvo Ocean Race Game will have a practice contest from
Alicante (Spain) to Mallorca (Spain) and back to Alicante. The game opens
up for registration October 28 at 0900 EDT and the pre-race will start
Saturday, October 29 at 0800 EDT. It will close at Wednesday, November 2 at
0700 EDT. This race is not a part of the official scoring. The Volvo Ocean
Race Game is hosted on the Scuttlebutt website:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/GAMES/VOR2011-12/
VOLVO OCEAN RACE - SPONSORSHIP
"I kid around all the time with our team: 'You guys think this is a
sailboat-racing event; you are sadly mistaken. It's definitely not just
that. You can't look at it that way. The sailboat-racing purists who say,
'What happened to the old Clipper ship route?' - you go do that, and Puma
is not joining up. Puma wants to go to China and the Middle East and these
funky places, and they want to sell stuff." -- Ken Read (USA), skipper of
Puma Ocean Racing.
"We know it's bold for a sponsor like Groupama to get involved in the
Volvo. The Volvo costs the same as four Vendee Globes, and for the moment,
on paper, it brings in less than one Vendee Globe. We have to educate the
public and the media in France to follow this race, where in my opinion
there are all the ingredients to tell some great stories, certainly more
than a Vendee Globe, where there's just one person." -- Franck Cammas
(FRA), Groupama Sailing Team.
NY Times, full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/sports/28iht-srvrlede28.html
HEAD TO FLORIDA THIS WINTER WITH MELGES
After Hurricane Irene cancelled the first attempt at the 2011 Audi Melges
20 U.S. National Championship, 36 teams are now headed to Miami for the
rescheduled event on November 11-13. The Melges 24 class will be at its
Atlantic Coast Championship in Tampa on November 19-20, and then the winter
schedule gets really golden. Check out the 2011 Melges 20 Gold Cup in Miami
on December 8-11 and the 2011 Melges 32 Gold Cup on December 2-4 in Fort
Lauderdale. Head to Florida this winter with Melges Performance Sailboats:
http://www.melges.com/
VOLVO OCEAN RACE - COURSE
Beginning in Alicante, Spain, the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race has ten legs,
with the race stopping in Cape Town; Abu Dhabi; Sanya, China; Auckland;
Itajai, Brazil; Miami; Lisbon; Lorient, France; and, finally, in early
July, Galway, Ireland. In-Port races take place in all 10 Host Ports.
The second leg from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi, the first Middle East stopover
in the race's history, has proved particularly problematic because of
rampant piracy off the Somalian coast. To minimize the risk, Knut Frostad,
the race's chief executive officer, felt obliged after consulting with
security experts to have the yachts transported from an undisclosed port
and deposited closer to Abu Dhabi for a sprint finish in late December.
After the stopover, they will then be transported back to the undisclosed
port for the leg to Sanya in order to preserve the continuity of the
round-the-world route.
Frostad conceded that he might have organized this route differently with
the benefit of hindsight but emphasized the importance to the sport's and
race's growth prospects of including the Middle East and Asia on the
itinerary instead of following the once-standard southern route from Cape
Town directly to Australia or New Zealand.
"People tend to focus a lot on the pirates out of Somalia, and that is a
big problem for us," Frostad said. "But people also have to be aware that
we have other issues that are really serious, too. We have pirates in the
Malacca Straits, pirates outside Brazil, pirates off the northwest tip of
Africa. We have icebergs, we have containers, we have logs of wood, we have
plastic. In the last Volvo Ocean race, the currents outside China were the
biggest danger we had the whole race," he said. -- NY Times, full story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/28/sports/28iht-srvrlede28.html
Race schedule: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-102711C
THE ONLY SURE LOSER
Mike Sanderson has sailed around buoys and also sailed around Cape Horn. He
has sailed for the rich and famous - from Ted Turner to Larry Ellison to
Richard Branson - and has sailed with his own family in modest yachts of
his own making. He even failed to sail for anything at all during his
frustrating - no, maddening - years with Team Origin, the would-be British
America's Cup syndicate that eventually fired him and folded.
But for all his nautical miles and hard-earned whiles, Sanderson, one of
his sport's most versatile and personable talents, has never found himself
in a predicament quite like this: heading out to sea in the Volvo Ocean
Race utterly convinced that he cannot be the winner.
As skipper and star recruit of the race's first Chinese entry ever, Team
Sanya, he and his 10-man crew are short on preparation, having started this
campaign extremely late in the game in June. They are also short on the
latest technology, with their yacht the only one in the fleet that is a
hand-me-down from the last Volvo Ocean Race.
Sanderson, long nicknamed Moose, is even short an appendix after having his
removed in emergency surgery this month. He now understands why some
sailors have theirs removed as a precautionary measure. "Makes a lot of
sense," he said. "It wouldn't have been much fun at sea."
But by last week Sanderson was back to physical training and planning. With
his weathered arms folded and his sunglasses perched on his dark hair, he
was upbeat if relentlessly realistic during an interview at his team's
tented camp in Alicante.
"People ask: 'Why would you do it? You've won the race. Why would you sail
around at the back half of the fleet?"' Sanderson said. "But the fact of
the matter is, I do enjoy it, and I don't really care what anyone else
thinks. By the time you kind of put your ego aside, which would be the only
reason you wouldn't do it, I realized how much I wanted to have this
experience again." -- NY Times, read on: http://tinyurl.com/NY-TIMES-102711
SAILING SHORTS
* Key Biscayne, FL (October 27, 2011) - With the two round robins near
completion at the U.S. Olympic Team Qualifying Women's Match Racing
Regatta, three teams have clearly risen to the top of the overall standings
with only four matches dropped among them. Anna Tunnicliffe's and Genny
Tulloch's teams are tied at the top with 10 wins, one loss, while Sally
Barkow's team is close behind with nine wins, two losses. Once the two
round robins are completed on Friday, the top four teams will advance to
the Semi-Final Round. Racing continues daily through Sunday, Oct. 30. --
Full report: http://olympics.ussailing.org/2011/10/27/964/
* In Sailing World's College Rankings as of October 27th, Yale hits the top
of both the coed and women's rankings. Charleston and Roger Williams round
out the coed top three, while Connecticut College and Georgetown hold
second and third in the women's rankings. Full rankings here:
http://tinyurl.com/Sailing-World-102711
* La Trinite-sur-Mer, France (October 27, 2011) - The third day of racing
at the Student Yachting World Cup saw two more windward-leeward races
completed. After ten races, Euromed Arthur Loyd (FRA) maintains their lead
with defending champion Solent University (GBR) in second. Dalhousie
University (Halifax, Nova Scotia) and Maine Maritime Academy (Castine,
Maine) are in sixth and tenth, respectively. Fifteen university teams
representing 14 countries are racing in the 9.54 m Grand Surprise through
October 28th. Event website: http://www.sywoc.org/
* US SAILING's Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC) seeks nominations from the
public for the 2011 Coach of the Year Awards in Sailing. The OSC will
select coaches in five categories: National Coach of the Year,
Developmental Coach of the Year, Volunteer Coach of the Year, Paralympic
Coach of the Year, and the "Doc" Counsilman Science Award. These awards are
a part of the United States Olympic Committee's (USOC) Coach Recognition
Program which highlights the accomplishments and contributions of coaches
who train athletes at all levels of sailing.-- Read on:
http://tinyurl.com/USA-Team-102711
* (October 27, 2011) - Ross and Campbell Field continue to lead the
double-handed, Class40 Global Ocean Race (GOR) fleet on BSL, and have an
ETA of early Friday morning at the Cape Town finish line with an 80+ mile
lead over Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron on Campagne de France in
second. This first leg of the five stage event began in Mallorca on
September 25th. -- Event website: http://globaloceanrace.com
MLX GETS YOU THERE IN STYLE AND UNDER BUDGET
Designed for the club racer and the performance-oriented cruiser, MLX is a
double braid that has a first-of-its-kind core made with a blend of
Innegra-S, a high modulus polypropylene, and Dyneema, a high modulus
polyethylene. Exclusive to Samson, Innegra-S allows MLX to bridge the gap
between the performance characteristics and price tags of traditional and
high-performance synthetic fibers. MLX is designed with variegated color
covers and matching color cores. Available in black, blue, green, red - all
mixed with white or solid white. Visit us at http://www.samsonrope.com/
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt
include recycling, testing, trailering, shipping, campaigning, blending,
saluting, and tripping. Here are this week's photos:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/1028/
SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the
Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor:
mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
The 2011 New York Yacht Club Invitational Cup presented by Rolex was won by
the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, skippered by Terry McLoughlin. Twenty-two
amateur yacht-club teams from 16 nations from six continents competed in
Swan 42s on Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound. This video, by Michael
Levitt, shows some sights and sounds - and the prizegiving - of the second
biennial NYYC Invitational Cup. Click here for this week's video:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/11/1028
BONUS: Episode 14 of the weekly 'America's Cup Uncovered' magazine show:
All eyes are on San Diego as we countdown to AC World Series Nov 12-20. But
first, we make a visit to Brittany, France for some cross training with
Loick Peyron and France's Energy Team. As the sun sets over France, the day
is just beginning in San Diego; we tour Broadway and Navy Piers and check
out the course area with AC Commentator Annie Gardner. Back in Europe we
visit Green Comm Racing's Vasilji Zbogar at his home in Slovenia. Vasilji
shows us his Olympic sailing medals, and takes us out for a sail in trying
conditions. October was a busy month for San Francisco; Oracle OpenWorld,
the biggest technology show on the planet overlapped with Fleet Week.
Episode 14 will be posted online by Saturday 29 October approx 0800 PDT
1600 BST: http://www.youtube.com/americascup#p/c/915CDC8233C7B14E
BONUS: The "World on Water" Week 43 Global Boating Video News Report
features Vestas Sailrocket 2's World Speed Attempt in Namibia, The 2011
Transat 6.50 progress, 2011 UIM Class One Italian Grand Prix, Student
Yachting World Championship France, Luderitz Speed Challenge Namibia, 2011
Transat Jacques Vabre Pre-Start France and in "Fresh to Frightening" we pay
tribute to the gallant crews who sail their Volvo Open 70's at warp speed
24:7 in the up-coming Volvo Ocean Race series which starts tomorrow
Saturday October 29. See it on www.boatson.tv approx 1200 BST, 0700 EDT.
SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week,
send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com
GUEST COMMENTARY
Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community.
Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted
comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250
words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should
save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com
Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum
* From Wes Oliver:
Bruce Golison encourages top competitors to join a race management team for
the racing expertise they would bring to the party (in Scuttlebutt 3455-6).
As a longtime PRO, I would like to suggest that the competitors can learn a
lot from RC service that would help them be better competitors on the race
course. I have found that many do not have a clue about what goes into
managing a regatta on the water, and why PRO's make the decisions they do.
* From David Searle:
One of the coolest compliments I've received from the racers was that close
radio communications made them "feel they were part of the [RC] team in
making the regatta successful". Something I learned from Wayne Bretsch,
another great communicator, while working with him for ten years at Key
West Race Week (KWRW... Hmm, a pattern develops, perchance???). It goes to
something I used to tell clients about dealing with bankers: "When things
are going well, tell them everything. When things are going poorly, tell
them more."
* From Shannon Bush:
Regarding the Bruce Golison interview this week (#3455-6), there already
ARE a number of top-level sailors who are PROs. The number keep growing as
some of us realize we're not as competitive as we once were and it's time
to give back to our sport by running the races, as Bruce so aptly put it,
in a manner in which WE would like to race. Trust me, you have to LOVE what
you are doing because it is gut-wrenching at times, knowing you are at the
helm of the entire regatta's success or failure.
* From John Oliver:
I just read the article on courses (in Scuttlebutt 3457), and enlarged the
page of the Dec 1935 Rudder magazine, and read it right through to the last
paragraph, where the writer criticizes as "Pansy" the dingy sailors who
were required to wear life jackets.
When I learnt to sail, in 10-foot Cadet plywood dinghies on the blustery
south coast of England in the '50's, I don't remember ever wearing a life
jacket or seeing a stand-by rescue boat. How times have changed under the
influence of health and safety laws!
* From Roland Schulz:
Thank you for the very amusing link to Davy Jones' Long Island Soundings
feature in the Dec. 1935 RUDDER. The last entry regarding the eternal "PFD"
thread should be reprinted in Scuttlebutt for the edification of all.
COMMENT: Credit goes to Hank Thayer of Baxter & Cicero Sailmakers for
sending the article to Scuttlebutt. Here is the entry regarding
lifejackets:
"The dinghy sailors in Manhasset Bay have turned pansy. They have passed a
rule that all hands have to wear life preservers at the discretion of the
race committee. Anybody who ever tried it knows that the durned things make
you so clumsy that they increase the risk of capsizing a boat by your sheer
inability to get around in one, but some of the boys seem to be sort of
timid." -- http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/11/1020/
CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we
supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they just put their pictures on
the postage stamps so the mailmen can look for them while they deliver the
mail?
SPONSORS THIS WEEK
JK3 Nautical Enterprises - The Pirates Lair - North U - North Sails
J Boats - Melges Performance Sailboats - Doyle Sails - Salt Harbor Studio
Team One Newport - Ullman Sails - Premiere Racing - Gowrie Group - Samson
Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers
|
| |