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SCUTTLEBUTT 2439 - September 25, 2007Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is distributed each weekday with the support of its sponsors. FIRST WOMAN EVER (September 24, 2007) French female sailor Isabelle Joschke has won the first leg of the Transat 6,50 Charente Maritime Bahia (Mini Tranast) that started last Tuesday. Sailing her brand-new Finot-designed prototype Degrémont Synergie, Joschke sailed a tactically perfect race from La Rochelle to Funchal, Madeira managing to hold off her closest rival Sam Manuard on Sitting Bull - another brand-new boat this year - and crossed the line at 0211 Monday morning. And sailed 1,100 miles in 5 days, 15 hours, 33 minutes in 30 seconds. Joschke has been racing Open 6,50s for four seasons and competed in the 2005 event aboard the boat formerly sailed by British sailor Sam Davies. In this race she finished a creditable 15th overall. Now, two years on she's leading the event's biggest ever fleet and could become the first women to ever win the event. -- Yachting World, complete story: http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20070824095626ywnews.html * The 4,200-mile race is held in two legs, with the first 1,100-mile leg to Madera (Portugal), followed by a restart on October 6th for the 3,100-mile leg to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. When Scuttlebutt was published Monday evening, the latest rankings had leading North American Clay Burkhalter (USA) as not yet finished and standing in 22nd with only 3.24 miles to the finish line. -- http://www.transat650.org/en GETTING IT RIGHT After a horrible performance in the 32nd America’s Cup, Team Germany would appear to have got its next challenge right, with an excellent sponsorship line up, probably the second fastest V5 boat, a first class skipper & helmsman and a man who played a big part in Alinghi's America's Cup win and successful defense. BYM News’ Marian Martin talked to Jochen Schumann about the way he sees the future. Here are some excerpts: * On why he left Alinghi to join Team Germany: “Obviously, I’m a German sailor and this is a German team. I was with Alinghi for a very successful period of two Cup cycles and there comes a time when one looks for new challenges and I think it was a perfect moment, after being so successful with Alinghi, to have a change and a new challenge. Having a German team already in place was a great opportunity for that new challenge.” * On whether the crew will be mostly German: “I would hope so, but at the same time I’m quite realistic. We are looking for the right competitors, so we don’t care really if they are Chinese, French, English. We just want to bring the right competitors together to build a strong team. So, I would be happy to take German sailors, but also OK with other guys.” * On the change from the V5 boat to the proposed class of 90-footers: “I think it is good to level it for all the teams, with a new class, so this is a great opportunity for us, with a new class rule and a new team. I think this levels the battlefield, obviously. Take Team New Zealand, they’ve had nearly 20 years sailing the different versions of the same boat. Now everyone starts with the design office at zero.” -- Complete interview: http://www.bymnews.com/august/jochen-schumann.php CAMET TEAM GEAR All over the world, you will find that the leading teams are using a combination of the Camet Code Zero shirts, Camet vests, and the Sailing Shorts or Pants. The vests are made of waterproof, breathable fabric with a Coolmax mesh liner and have the ability to add an optional foam pad insert for protection against the lifelines when hiking out. Code Zero shirts are made out of a fast drying technical, breathable fabric with UV protection. The Sailing shorts come in a variety of different styles and colors. Camet products are made in the USA and are in stock to order today at http://www.camet.com ATLANTIC OCEAN DISAPPEARING The fact that some of the great sailing regions are along the eastern side of North America may be a mute point some day if the following proves true, as is stated on the Litoralis blog: “With all this talk about carbon footprints and global warming, there is one more Inconvenient Truth that needs to be exposed: the Atlantic Ocean is disappearing! Where is Al Gore when we really need him? About 250 million years from now, the plates on which the present day continents rest are again projected to reposition themselves so that a single landmass dominates. A simulation from the PALEAOMAP Project shows this giant landmass: Pangea Ultima. At that time, the Atlantic Ocean will be just a distant memory, and whatever beings inhabit Earth will be able to walk from North America to Africa.” -- See photos and post: http://litoralis.blogspot.com/2007/09/atlantic-ocean-disappearing.html THE PEOPLE'S BOAT Quick, name a class where participation has doubled in the last five years, and no, it wasn't launched five years ago. Meet the Folkboat, or more likely, renew your acquaintance. These little classics first came to the U.S. more than 50 years ago, and the fleet this year celebrated the 30th anniversary of its International Regatta. An important component of the success is that, like a very few other types, the Folkboat—to avoid confusion I should properly name it as the Nordic Folkboat—has managed to mix wood and fiberglass hulls. And it is a classic. The boat's just plain lovable, and the Folkboat Association is a cult of its own. As always, it's about the people. A member of the San Francisco Bay fleet, Svend Svendsen, built the first plastic boat, using number 95 as a plug, but you can find people who believe that the wood hulls are faster when the chop is up on SF Bay and the glass hulls start flexing in the punches. As for just how the fleet has renewed itself, that's a hard thing to put a finger on. I sat down with a handful of my locals just before the International Regatta kicked off, and class president Chris Herrmann said, "Since I came into the fleet in 2000, there has been a big change. A lot of inactive boats were sold to people who fixed them up and put them back on the track." -- Kimball Livingston, SAIL WEST, read on: http://sailmagazine.blogspot.com/2007/09/peoples-boat.html FOUR-IN-A-ROW AT BRITISH-AMERICAN CUP Cowes, England, (September 24, 2007) By 5 wins to 4, USA won the British-American Cup, concluded off Cowes this past weekend, for the fourth time in a row. Sailing strongly in the light airs of the final day (a marked contrast to the big winds of the previous two days), the USA team was just too quick for the Brits. In each of the three races that could be completed USA arrived 1-2-3 at the first windward mark, a fairly strong combination, to put it mildly, in four-on-four team racing. With the slight but present current flowing with the breeze the top turning mark saw each boat in turn stretch its lead further as it set kite and headed down wind and tide, leaving the chasing boats astern with little opportunity to engage the opponent. In only one race could the Brits get among their rivals – and they looked to have turned that race around in their favor until team captain Leo Dixon tacked just too close to an American opponent in the melee on the finish line and copped a penalty. -- Complete report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/07/0924 USA Team representing Seawanhaka Corinthian YC, Oyster Bay NY: Joel Hanneman - Newport RI Greg Stevens - Darien CT Mike Welch - Burlington VT Tim Fallon - Cape Cod Drew Buttner - Boston MA Kyle Shattuck - Annapolis MD Ramsay Key - Annapolis MD Peter Johnson - Oyster Bay NY Andy Herlihy - Annisquam MA Garrett Woodworth - Venice CA Ned Jones - Newport RI Dean Brenner - Wallingford CT => Curmudgeon’s Comment: The advent of club-owned keelboats in Northeastern US have helped spurn on the popularity of team racing. Notes US team member Ned Jones, “This was honestly one of the most fun regattas I have ever done. We trained pretty hard for several months knowing the Brits were eager to win. 4-on-4 team racing with chutes is too much fun. Totally crazy, no solid blow-outs, never over until the very end. More people need to get into this…it is awesome!” FALL SAVINGS ARE BIG AT MELGES Running until October 15th, the Annual Fall Savings Program at Melges Performance Sailboats is in effect! Take this once a year opportunity to purchase new and upgrade current boats, sails, accessories and much, much more. Visit Melges at the Annapolis Boat Show (October 4-8) to take advantage of a full range of very cool Boat Show Special Packages too. The Melges 32 will be on display! Find out more about the Melges 24, and ... the Melges 20 (melges20.com). -- http://www.melges.com => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Gotta love the tease above for the Melges 20, which is a new boat for MPS, and will be another Reichel/ Pugh design. Standing by for some winter test sailing… brrr. OLYMPIC WARM-UP With racing for the US Olympic Trials to commence October 6-14, several of the classes on the west coast were hosting tune-up events last weekend: * On Saturday, Southern California got its first taste of rain since April, which stirred up the “normal” Marina del Rey, CA wind conditions for the Star fleet competing in the King of Spain regatta at California YC. Sunday reverted to a more typical forecast for the 22-boat fleet that saw Andy Horton/ Brad Nichol win, with Mark Mendleblatt / Magnus Liljedahl in second and current World Champs Robert Robert Scheidt/ Bruno Prada (BRA) in third. As the site of the Olympic Trials, CYC will host the “Last Chance Qualifier” Regatta next weekend, followed by measurement starting a week from Wednesday. -- Results: http://calyachtclub.com/cms/RaceResults/Series196.htm * The Seiko US 49er National Championship was held last weekend in San Diego, CA, where sixteen teams were on site preparing for the Olympic Trials at Southwestern YC. The top North American teams filled the top five, but it was Australians Nathan Outeridge/Ben Austin that took the top spot. Morgan Larson/ Pete Spaulding tied the Aussies on points, but fell to second in the tiebreaker, with Dalton Bergan/ Zack Maxam in third, Gordon Cook/ Ben Remocker (CAN) in fourth, and Tim Wadlow/ Chris Rast in fifth after not sailing in three of the races. -- Results: http://tinyurl.com/2a9342 * 470 campaigners are training in Long Beach, CA, and sixteen of them competed in the Mikey Murison Regatta. With men and women combined, Amanda Clark/ Sarah Mergenthaler were the lead American team after Saturday, but when they took a break on Sunday, it opened the door for the American contingent to finish in the order of Stuart McNay/ Graham Biehl (3rd), Mikee Anderson-Mitterling/ Dave Hughes (4th), and Erin Maxwell/ Isabelle Kinsolving (5th). Winning was Nicolas Charbonnier/ Oliver Bausset (FRA), followed by Matias Buhler/ Marcos Lamas (ARG) in second. -- Results: http://tinyurl.com/275wyf * The Finn faithful headed north for the 2007 Finn North Americans last weekend at Coyote Point YC. San Francisco Bay served up a variety of conditions from light shifty drifters to wind and waves in the 20 knot range. Darrell Peck won with Andy Casey in second, followed by Brian Boyd, Canadian John Romanko, and Andy Kern. The event was the qualifier for the Canadian National Sailing Team as well as the final prelude to the U.S. Finn Trials at Newport Harbor YC in Newport Beach, CA. -- Results: http://nafinnclass.org/2007NA.html SAILING SHORTS * Porto Cervo, Sardinia, Italy (September 24, 2007) Racing in conditions more akin to his home waters of Galway Bay, Ireland, than the glamorous summer resort location of Porto Cervo, Eamon Conneely and the crew of Patches (IRL) kept their wits about them in difficult conditions to end the first day of the Rolex TP52 World Championship on top of the leaderboard, one point ahead of Torbjorn Tornqvist's Artemis (SWE). A statement of intent that the Global Championship crown is not to be given up without a fight. -- Full story: http://www.regattanews.com/pressrelease.asp?pid=1734&lang=1 * MIT ocean engineer Jerry Milgram, William I. Koch Professor of Marine Technology, designed the last U.S. winner of the America's Cup, pioneered oil spill cleanup and investigated dozens of notorious marine disasters. Now, as the legendary professor and "sea-going Sherlock Holmes" prepares to retire after more than four decades on the MIT faculty, his career is the focus of a new exhibition in the MIT Museum's Compton Gallery that runs through Feb. 3, 2008. -- http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/milgram-tt0919.html * In the wake of the U.S. Coast Guard’s interest in federally-mandated boater education, Boat Owners Association of The United States recently conducted an online survey to gauge member opinion on this issue as well as to determine whether boaters should be required to carry a separate ID card/license for national security purposes. Based on the first 25,000 responding, 61% favored mandatory education for all boaters as long as an exam substitute was an option. An additional 9% were even more strongly in favor saying that no exam substitute should be allowed. The survey was sent to 325,000 of the Association’s 650,000 members for whom it has an e-mail address. -- http://www.boatus.com/news/releases/2007/september/education.asp THE SB3 HAS LANDED IN NORTH AMERICA Come see what the buzz is about at the SB3 debut during the US Sailboat Show in Annapolis, October 4-8th. View and sail the SB3 at the Vanguard booth at dock H2. Get in the next generation sportsboat while you can. To read up on the SB3 go to: http://www.teamvanguard.com/2007/Boats/SB3 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: As for teasing, Vanguard is no longer being coy about this new product. The Annapolis US Boat Show is shaping up to be a dandy, and I will be there to take it all in. LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Ray Wulff, Annapolis, MD: Kudos to Greg Fisher and his team upon winning the J/22 NA's. Greg was joined by his long time crew Jeff Eiber and class workhorse, Todd Hiller. It was particularly special to see Todd on the winning team this year. Todd has been supporting the J/22 class for more than 15 years in every way, shape, and form and deserves to win such a championship. There is a flip side though. The unfortunate result of such a win is that it was done with Todd's boat (Leading Edge). This means he will have to return to housework as he doesn't have the excuse he has to work on his boat to make it faster. * From Doran "the Ron" Cushing: (regarding Susie Powell’s letter in Issue 2438) As an ASA instructor, I talk about the same movie, the same scene with "Bob" tied to the mast with an oversized $10 PFD, with all my new students. Most recall the scene and it breaks the tension while initiating a real sense of safety (to the extreme in Bob's case). I follow it up with some Captain Ron stuff, "Wind, " and "Waterworld." It works better than the dry text of most sailing books. * From Michael H. Koster: The McLube ad (in Issue 2438) and its multiple uses left me scratching my head regarding one of the uses mentioned. I would think that lubricating sandpaper would be counter productive. If you lubricate something that relies on friction and abrasion, wouldn't you have to sand longer? Who wants to do that? => Curmudgeon’s Comment: We asked Ron Rosenberg from Team McLube to explain: “Good question... I can see how some of these creative uses of Team McLube Sailkote may appear counter-intuitive from the outset. In the specific case of spraying a light coating of McLube onto a sheet of sandpaper, this works quite well for three very different reasons. Let's take the example of the initial sanding of keel fairing compound, putty, or filler using 320 grit wet OR dry sandpaper. We all know that feeling of great progress when you take the first few good strokes with your sandpaper against the surface of the keel... the grit on the paper has excellent cut and bite, as the filler is quickly removed, and that single sheet of sandpaper is holding together well and it looks as though it might just last the entire project! Predictably, just a few moments later all progress has stopped because the filler dust has completely "gunked up" the sandpaper and then the paper begins to fall apart. By lightly spraying your sandpaper with McLube, you will prolong that initial feeling of great progress for these three reasons: 1) The sandpaper will not "gunk up" nearly as fast due to the ultra-slick nature of the McLube coating. 2) The sandpaper will not fall apart as quickly due to the hydrophobic characteristic of the McLube coating (the paper will absorb much less water). 3) The sandpaper grit appears to increase its "cut and bite" durability due to the protective nature of the McLube coating, just as it does on the cutting edges of knives, drill bits, files, and other similar tools.” -- If you have an interesting use of McLube, or want to see some of the others, go to http://www.mclube.com/sailkote/recreation * From David Storrs: As I was racing in the Long Island Sound match racing championships at Larchmont last Saturday, we had a total of eight volunteers on RC boat, chase boat, and pin boat giving up their day. Even though we all thanked the RC members later, it struck me that it would be great to know them - and the other competitors - better. So my modest proposal is that when the RC sends out the results (which most do), they include the names and positions of all the RC members with their email addresses and the emails of all the competitors, to help us better enjoy the friendships we form in this great sport. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person. Special thanks to Camet International, Melges Performance Sailboats, and Vanguard Sailboats. |
