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SCUTTLEBUTT 1554 - April 5, 2004Powered 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. NEW VENUE? Malta's reputation as an ideal sailing destination has gone from strength to strength lately. The Rolex Middle Sea Race, fast becoming one of the most popular regattas in the Mediterranean, has inevitably lured to our islands some of the best syndicates from around the world including the likes of UK maxi Nokia and Alfa Romeo, billed the top racer around. They all shared the opinion that our islands have a great potential for top-class races. Yesterday, this statement was given the thumbs-up from another illustrious personality in the sailing world - Russell Coutts. This highly successful skipper, accompanied by another top sailor, Paul Cayard, was here this week to take a closer look at the possibility of local organisers staging 2007 America's Cup pre-race regattas in our waters. Coutts and Cayard toured Malta's sailing facilities and even had talks with government ministers Louis Galea and Francis Zammit Dimech. The first reactions were encouraging. Coutts said he was highly impressed with what he saw here and did not rule out that Malta could stage one pre-race regatta. "This was a short but useful trip," he said yesterday at the Royal Malta Yacht Club. Paul and I had a quick look at what this country could offer and our first impressions were positive. Obviously, it is still early for any decision. However, I wouldn't rule out Malta from pre-race regattas. "There are still many things to be done first. As I said, this was a brief stop-over in Malta... we didn't have enough time to make a thorough evaluation of the climatic conditions and other vital matters in our sport. The early indications look positive though." - Valhmor Camilleri, The Times of Malta, full story: http://www.timesofmalta.com/core2/article.php?id=150718 SINGLE-HANDED SAILING Many of the skippers in The Transat's Open 60 class will have more on their agenda than just reaching Boston. Crucially The Transat is the last opportunity for many to qualify for November's Vendée Globe challenge and while their competitive juices may be flowing, these skippers will also understand the importance of having to reach the finish line in one piece. Jean Le Cam's brand new Marc Lombard Open 60 designs Bonduelle launched this month falls into this category as does Jean-Pierre Dick's new Virbac, which despite winning last year's Transat Jacques Vabre was dismasted during the Defi Atlantique and failed to complete the race inside the time limit. Other Open 60s who must finish the Transat to get their spot on the Vendée start line include Charles Hedrich's Objectif 3, Norbert Sedlakec on Austria One, Conrad Humphreys on Motorola (formerly Mike Golding's Ecover) and Herve Laurent on UUDS. The pressure is slightly less on former Vendée Globe competitors Roland Jourdain on the new Sill, sistership to Bonduelle, and Marc Thiercelin who is sailing his new boat Pro-Form (the former Tiscali/Whirlpool). Under the existing Notice of Race, Jourdain and Thiercelin can still qualify for the Vendée Globe by completing a 2500 mile solo passage by 20 September 2004 if they fail to finish The Transat. However, the new Vendée Globe organisers announced this week will be issuing a new Notice of Race so things could still change. Mike Sanderson on Pindar AlphaGraphics is the only competitor in the Open 60 division not competing in the Vendée Globe this autumn. Meanwhile the qualifications continue. This week Dominique Demachy on his 50ft multihull Gifi completed his, as did Yves Parlier who arrived back in his home port of Arcachon on Thursday aboard his radical new 60ft catamaran Médiatis Région Aquitaine. For the first 500 miles Parlier averaged 20 knots, an indication of the potential of his new twin masted vessel. Karine Fauconnier, daughter of 1984 winner Yvon Fauconnier, set out on her qualifier this week, but returned prematurely to sort out some technical problems on her 60ft trimaran Sergio Tacchini. Franck Yves Escoffier is currently in the middle of his qualifier while Mike Sanderson plans to leave on Monday (5 April). - http://www.thetransat.com SPRING SAILING, COLD SAILING Waterproof fleece known as Hydroknit™ will keep you warm in the cold splashes of cold spring sailing. Available with a seamless back leg of neoprene or Hydroknit, Sailing Angles farmer johns are designed to keep you flexible, warm and sailing fast. Quadrolflex™ fleece, Sailing Angles 4-way stretch, fleece/lycra base layer is the perfect base layer under a dry suit or foul-weather gear. Find this and other great functional designs at the Sailing Angles website, the place for padded shorts and longs: http://www.sailingangles.com ROUND THE WORLD RECORD ATTEMPTS * Cheyenne Skipper Steve Fossett has confirmed that they are hobbled by the localized micro-depression - with relief not expected before 0300 GMT Monday. Crossing the finish line at Isle d'Ouessant in France is now expected for between 1200 and 1800 GMT Monday, which will slash something like six days off of the World Sailing Speed Record Council's Round the World sailing record. After crossing the finish line, Cheyenne will not stop in France, but will continue on to Plymouth, UK. - http://www.fossettchallenge.com * Sunday morning, the Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran continued her approach to the Horn via the ice fields. It's the only way of approaching this hugely turbulent area in which the forecasts change every 6 hours. As the hours tick by it becomes increasingly certain that the Drake Strait will become more and more difficult; the crew will have to choose their moment and throw themselves into the arena at the least bad moment during the transition between two major climatic brawls. The sea states promise to become difficult very quickly after the first front passes through and it would be pointless to wait while the second does more to churn up an already troubled sea. daydreamed the skipper. During the last 24-hours, Geronimo did 443.60 nautical miles for a 18.48 knot average. - http://www.trimaran-geronimo.com HERE COMES THE JUDGE (Over the weekend we received the following two press releases about a current litigation.) * The Race Event has commenced legal proceedings in France against the British sailor Tracy Edwards, and the legal entities involved in the organization of her round the world sailing events, Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar Ltd, Maiden Ocean Racing Ltd and Maiden Two Ltd. The Race Event is seeking damages for passing off and use of TRE know-how in respect of her round the world projects for 2005 and 2006. - www.therace.org * "Tracy Edwards has not a party to the proceedings that the Race Event commenced against Maiden Ocean Racing, Maiden Ocean Racing Qatar (in the UK) and Maiden II ltd.. The Race Event has produced no evidence in support of its claim for compensation. The defendant companies have been advised by their lawyers Denton Wilde Sapte that the claim should be struck out." - Tracy Edwards, tracy.edwards@easynet.co.uk AMERICA'S CUP The man chosen to spearhead Britain's challenge for the America's Cup, yachting's oldest and most prestigious trophy, affirmed on Thursday the team's commitment to turn the campaign into a four-year sporting business with Formula One-style sponsorship deals. Irishman Gordon Moultrie, the newly appointed team principal, will lead a 100-strong team of sailors and technicians, to take on the world's finest yachtsmen over the 2004-2007 contest. With 15 years' experience in the information technology industry and organizational expertise honed in the EDS Atlantic Challenge, he takes the helm at a time when GBR's team building and sponsorship negotiations are well under way. His team hopes to capitalise on the success of billionaire Peter Harrison whose team was placed sixth in the last competition off Auckland which was won by Swiss challengers Alinghi. The Cowes-based team with four boats will start its sailing programme in June in readiness for the preliminary regattas in Marseilles and Valencia in the autumn. Technical specialists have successfully completed a second phase of tank testing on the modified hull of the GBR70 while others work on the rig developments, sails and hardware systems. An interim sailing base has been hired at Valencia's Real Club Nautico for Mediterranean training and trials. About a third of the team of about 96 has been recruited. It will include ex-Prada men Andy Hemmings, a sails specialist, and Will Brooks, a structural engineer. With the world's best sailors preparing for the Athens Olympics, Iain Percy, an Olympic gold medalist, is joining GBR for the first time. GBR is also involved in discussions with former skipper Ian Walker and Ben Ainslie, another Olympian. Other key personnel still on board include technical coordinator Derek Clark and head of sponsorship and marketing Leslie Ryan. Tecnical partnerships concerned include Wolson, QinetiQ and Insensys. - Simon Greaves, Financial Times.com, full story, http://tinyurl.com/3b379 DO YOU LIKE SPLINTERS? Your boat doesn't either. There's no better way to store your boat than on a Seitech rack. They have a rack for any style and quantity of boats. They make custom racks too! See their ingenious designs, learn about the high quality materials, and order yourself a rack at http://www.seitech.com NEWS BRIEFS * Discount tickets are available for members of the Scuttlebutt Sailing Club members (that's you) for Pacific Sail Expo in Oakland, CA, April 14-18. The Curmudgeon will be speaking at the show in the seminar tent on Thursday, April 15. Stop by and say hello. To get your discount ticket, go to the SSC membership page and click on "Membership Benefit" up at the top: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/ * AC Management, the event manager of the 32nd America's Cup, has launched the official Italian version of the America's Cup website. The official website of the America's Cup has been a bilingual website supporting English, the official language of the event, and French, since June 2003. Following the decision to make Valencia, Spain, the Host City for the 32nd America's Cup in November 2003, the Spanish language version of the site was created, and now, a week after the first Italian challenge for the 32nd America's Cup was accepted, the Italian language version is live online. - www.americascup.com/ * Race Officers take note - If you have run at least a national level regatta, take advantage of this opportunity: The North American edition of the annual ISAF Race Management Seminar will be conducted this year in San Diego, at the San Diego Yacht Club, beginning Monday, May 31(Memorial Day) and finishing Wednesday, June 2. The ISAF Mid-Year meeting will be held immediately following from June 3 to June 6. Visit the ISAF website and link to Race Officials for more information: www.sailing.org. Application with seminar criteria: http://www.sdyc.org/raceinfo/pdf/isaf_form.pdf *Antarctica Cup race management announced that the Norwegian watchmaker Amunden Oslo will undertake time-keeping responsibilities for the inaugural Antarctica Cup International Yacht Race scheduled for December 2005. Amunden Oslo will provide each skipper with a custom made timepiece, and will also donate the 'Roald Amundsen Trophy to the first boat to pass through the 'Roald Amundsen Gate located at Longitude 148° 00 West along the Antarctica Cup Race course. The Antarctica Cup Race is a biennial 45 day non-stop circumnavigation of Antarctica in which national teams compete with crews of the same nationality in identical 82 ft. boats. - www.antarcticacup.com ENTRY FEES Historically the entry fee structure for the huge Cowes Week regatta (8000 sailors racing in 40 separate classes over an eight day period)) has been very complex and used to be based on an estimate of the crew numbers. However, this year it has been simplified with a huge reduction in the number of different levels of entry fee. This means that some classes will see a reduction in their fees from last year whilst others will unfortunately have an increase. Event Organizer, Cowes Combined Clubs (CCC), had hoped to be able to keep the level of entry fees static. However, ISAF have stopped event organizers from charging differential fees for boats that carry advertising. This left CCC with a large black hole in its budget that would have meant increasing fees by over 10% just to stay still. CCC and event sponsor Skandia decided that this level of fee increase was not going to be acceptable to the majority of non-advertising boats and have therefore agreed to swallow over half the losses. Despite this, CCC has had to increase fees by an average of 5% and hopes that all competitors will understand. However, if they feel strongly about it they should write to ISAF. CCC also suggests that corporate entries might like to donate at least part of the savings that ISAF has brought them to the official Skandia Cowes Week charity, Sail 4 Cancer. www.sail4cancer.org PIRATE'S LAIR CUSTOM RASH GUARDS DEFINE SUMMER RACING! Looking for fresh items for your regatta or team? * Rash Guards with your logo start at $25.00 * Coolmax Tees with your logo start at $35.00 * Trophies with your event pics start at $15.00 * Drybags with your event logo start at $12.00 Minimums apply. Email ken@pirateslair.com for quotes 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 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 Toby Cooper: The sport of polo is a team sport which handicaps its players. Polo, which is sort of ice hockey on horses, is played with 4 players per team, and for whatever reasons buried deep in its long and obscure history, the sport ranks players from -2 (beginners) to 10 (Jerry Rice-level pros). For openers, there are but five 10-handicap players worldwide, and most of those are from Argentina. So, the handicap of a team is the sum total of the handicaps of its players. A team composed of four players ranked at +2 would be 8. If a team ranked 8 is playing a team ranked 9, the 9-rated team spots the 8-rated team one goal at the beginning of a match. Would this work for sailing? Maybe. Sailing is mired in constant fury over handicapping boats. I would hate to serve on the PHRF committee for handicapping sailors. However, at least in one design, if I sailed Stars it would be nice to start a regatta with Paul Cayard spotting me 10 points. Anyway, it works pretty well in polo. * From John McLeod: The premise of crew handicapping would hurt the sport in the long run by limiting boats' time on the water. Time on the water would become a metric used to establish a handicap. It would become a general assumption that the more races and practice sails you do, the better you are. By staying off the water, you would be perceived as a novice and therefore receive a "better" handicap. If a boat participates in all of their club races, all the local traveling regattas AND does some practice sails, they get hit with a penalty. I can see it now: "Hey John, make sure you blow a couple of jibes and takedowns today so we can keep our handicap". There has to be better ways to get race participation up. Crew handicapping is not one of them. Let's put an end to this idea *From Bill Tingle. I find the discussion on handicaps quite interesting but I see therein no satisfactory solution. Sailboat racing is most exciting when most of the boats are close together around the course and arrive at the finish line within a few boat lengths of one another. Time corrections cannot provide that. Horse racing has done a good job by adding weight to the faster horses. Adding weight to sailboats would be inconvenient and difficult to certify. A simpler method is to have a winning boat drag a loop of two-inch bull rope (line?) with a knot at the end. Every time the boat wins a race a length of rope and a knot are added. This is great for a series of club races. By mid season most boats are approaching the finish line together, and all are enjoying both exciting races and the chance to win a race. At the end of the season the boat/skipper combination with the longest rope is awarded the trophy. After all, the real hero is the skipper who has overcome the greatest handicap. Thereafter, when one signs up for a handicap regatta, all one reports is the boat number and the rope length. How would you like to be known as a "five knot skipper"? Voila' * From Dr. Joe McCoy (edited to our 250-word limit): Many of the "Big Boat" and medium boat one designs (F40, 1D35, Melges 24 etc) have evolved in a conventional "Big Boat" manner with obvious changes in the displacement/sail area/ righting moment/ crew weight limit part of the package. The lifeline technology and design have remained very much unchanged from decades ago with the one exception of allowing for loose lowers. This unfortunately rewards a very unhealthy form of hiking that has significant health risks. The major blood vessels and nerves of the groin and lower abdomen are compressed continuously on the beat. The lumbar spine is subjected to tremendous forces that are inherently damaging. The better the hiker the more the compression exists and the more havoc created for the lumbar spine. Having raced in this manner for several years, I can't help but be concerned for all that have done it with me and continue to do it on a regular basis. I strongly favor the built-in reward for athleticism and fitness in sailboat racing but remain concerned about the hiking technique in these select classes. I cannot help but think that with a little thought and planning, a more healthy manner of hiking could be worked into the new boat designs that both rewards the fit and athletic while still providing some protection for the anatomy of the sailors involved. Many sports have tried to eliminate unsafe practices while still rewarding the most athletic and fit. I think sailing has some room for improvement in this category. * From Michael A. Rosenauer: Once again, Olin Stephens adds a succinct observation. With this clarity of thought, no wonder his designs are consistent winners. * Dan Hirsch: Re: Different handicaps for the 2003 Mac Race: I don't know about the Farr 40's but I do know that the seven Farr 395's that started with the Farr 40's had different Americap ratings using Olin Stephen's definition. I sailed on one of them and this is a fact. The differences were not based on deep vs shoal draft keels, either. The Americap ratings were based on owner reported measurements and the time allowance fastest to slowest boat was over thirty minutes. * From Douglas Johnstone (In response to Rick Nelson): I believe that you can use the trapeze on your Tempest under Southern California PHRF as long as you have a set of class rules for one design racing. This is how the Schock 40 has been able to race in PHRF with a canting keel. THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL Never under-estimate your ability to over-estimate your ability. |
