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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 852 - July 9 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere.
IF I WERE KING We all talk about growing the sport - Kahn may be showing us the way. His well-chosen words and dramatic photos have added drama and excitement to an offshore race that is certain to whet the appetite of anyone with a bit of adventure in their soul. This excerpt from Kahn's "Skipper's Log" from July 6 demonstrates what I'm talking about: "At 3 PM, we had Pyewacket on our beam. Amazing, right in the middle of the Pacific after 5 days of racing both boats could have a water balloon fight! Clearly side by side we push each other hard and we are both in the hunt for Chance. They are leading the race halfway down the race course. Boat racing doesn't get better than this. What we clearly have here is evenly matched boats with great crews on a very challenging race course battling each other for 8 to 9 days, around the clock. "At 5 PM we caught up with Chance. Now Pegasus, Chance and Pyewacket are within a mile from each other. "Squalls in the North Eastern Pacific form as a result of evaporation of the warmer Ocean water. They look like black threatening clouds that overtake you with lots of wind ahead of them, rain and wind underneath them, dead calm behind them. "That is how we all lost track of Chance. Pegasus and Pyewacket both jibed to avoid the squall's updrafts and Chance kept on going. Only the morning position reports will tell us their position". - Pegasus skipper Philippe Kahn, 07/06/01, www.pegasus.com/log.htm
MATCH RACING After dropping the first match in the first-to-three-wins final, Coutts survived a penalty in a tight second match to even the score with Pillot at one all. Coutts then sailed clear of Pillot in cleanly winning the finals' third and fourth matches. This is Coutts' second win on the Swedish Match Tour. He previously won the Colorcraft Gold Cup in Bermuda last October. - Shawn McBride
Final Standings:
WANNA SEE SOMETHING SLICK?
TRAGEDY Hind and Hornet were competing in the Doublehanded Challenge, a race that was expected to take 24 to 48 hours. Their 40-foot catamaran, named Great White, was among 68 boats in the annual race. According to sailors in the race, the fleet was hit by 40- to 50-knot winds for up to 20 hours, and waves were up to 18 feet high from trough to peak. Only one boat, the trimaran Stampede, an F-31 out of Chicago, finished the race without seeking safe harbor. No other boats are missing, police said.That lake can get extremely rough, no doubt about it," said Darryl Campbell, a community service officer with the provincial police. The Canadian Coast Guard began searching for Hind and Hornet after a pleasure boat reported seeing the capsized catamaran at 12:05 p.m. Monday, 15 miles west of Point Clark, Ontario, south of Kincardine, Ontario. At 12:52 p.m. Monday, racing officials reported the missing boat to the U.S. Coast Guard District Command Center in Cleveland. - Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki and Cecil Angel, Detroit Free Press Full story: www.freep.com/news/mich/sail4_20010704.htm
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Peter Godfrey: There is something to be said for proportional representation; one man, one vote. Or in this case, 1 national authority member, 1 vote. Then the question is, how do you protect the interests of the minorities? Our governmental system handles this problem through the senate: one state, 2 votes, regardless of size. Small country members of ISAF (Norway, Luxembourg, Denmark, et. al.) might not like this suggestion, and the present ISAF hierarchy certainly could be expected to oppose introducing that kind of structure, but it deserves consideration in the interest of equity and democratic representation. If such a change were made at the ISAF level, there might even be some pretty strong incentive to build up US Sailing membership by responding to the needs of the vast majority of sailors in the US. * From Paul Henderson, ISAF President: The USA has four votes at the ISAF Council - Dave Irish, Cook, Cory Sertl and Ding Schoonmaker. If you include Puerto Rico, that's five votes out of 38. Add in two Canadians - Henderson and Steve Tupper plus Jane Moon from the Caymans - that is eight out of a total of 38 — which is a fair allocation for North America. * From Bob Harvey: I note in 'Butt 851 that the Chicago Yacht Club is still billing the Chicago to Mac as 'The longest freshwater race in the world (333 miles)'. They need to add the word 'annual'. The Trans Superior race is held every other year (odd years). It sails east to west the length of Lake Superior, a rhumbline distance of about 375 miles. * From Bruce Cattanach: What do these six boats all have in common? Yacht A starts a race, sails all legs and has a rudder fitting break on the last windward leg. Yacht B, on port tack, disregards the hail of a starboard boat and holes the starboard boat. Yacht C, is over early at the start. Yacht D, whose crew is so hung over from the Saturday party, never gets its boat off the trailer into the water for sailing. Yacht E, sails the entire race but misses making the time limit by 2 minutes. Yacht F, entered the regatta, paid fees, but never showed up at the yacht club. Answer: All six boats are scored the same - The number of entrants in the regatta + 1 point. It was decades ago, but DSQ was a penalty of number of entrants + 2, DNF was number of starters + 1. DNS was number of number of entrants + 1. It actually paid dividends to go out and start! I agree, the scoring system now is easy for RC's but does it accurately represent penalties for the competitors? * From Glenn T. McCarthy: To Ralph Taylor, each of the 10 USSA Areas (A thru K) holds one vote each on the 47-member US SAILING Board of Directors. The 10 Areas have the single largest voting block within US SAILING. This system already exists for the 10 Areas to address their local needs. Get a hold of your Area Director today and let them know of your needs. www.ussailing.org/csa/ (use the Executive Committee list). With John Welty's concern about alcohol, sin taxes provide enormous sums of money in our local, state and federal taxation system. In this case, a sin donation will provide great benefits to youth sailing. I am sure the target market for the product is adults. I read that it was a sailor wishing to donate back to the sport who was willing to put their money into something great. US Sailing is a charity, if your business, or yourself, can contribute to youth, one-design, Olympics, offshore, multihull, race administration, windsurfing, providing consistent quality training at sailing schools, etc., please, please, please consider making a donation and support your chosen sport.
TRANSPAC At Sunday evening's roll call Philippe Kahn's mythical winged horse had flown 328 nautical miles in the past 24 hours, was 277 miles from the Diamond Head finish line and led Roy E. Disney's magical cat by six miles, with Bob McNulty's dark blue blazer another nine miles back. The latter boats were 10 and nine miles south of Pegasus, respectively, as they approached the critical jibe point for the Molokai Channel. The recent surge along the normal track of trade winds carried the trio past Seth Radow's Bull, a Sydney 40 ID-T competing in Division 4, into the 1-2-3 positions for overall corrected time honors, despite their near-scratch handicaps. None will approach Pyewacket's elapsed time record for a monohull of 7 days 11 hours 41 minutes 27 seconds set in1999, but besides the Barn Door trophy for fastest elapsed time as well as first in class in Division 1, the winner also could ultimately claim first place on handicap. James McDowell's Grand Illusion, the '99 overall winner with a home port of Haiku, Hawaii held on to first place in Division 2, although David Janes' new Transpac 52 J-Bird III, Newport Beach, Calif., held a 16-mile lead boat for boat. - Rich Roberts Other class leaders - Division 3: Cantata (Andrews 53), Brent Vaughan; Division 4: Bull (Sydney 40 OD-T), Seth Radow, Aloha A: Willow Wind (Cal 40), Wendy Siegal; Aloha B: Axapac (Wylie 39), Barry Ruff - www.transpacificyc.org TRANSPAC ADDENDUM: If you are following the Transpac, or interested in weather routing in offshore sailing, please note that we are posting daily position/routing analysis of the Transpac Race 2001 at www.goflow.com/tpac2001.htm
CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * July 13-14 - Wall Street Corporate Challenge Cup, Shake-A-Leg Newport. Investment firms and corporate teams compete in 12 meter yachts to raise money for spinal cord and neurologic rehabilitation. - www.WSCCC.org * July 25-28: National 470 Championship, Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, Milwaukee, WI sailingsource.com/470na/2001_470Na.htm * July 30-August 4: Sunfish North American Championship, North Shore YC / Lake Bluff YC, Highland Park, IL. www.sunfishclass.org * September 10-14: Etchells NAs, Macatawa Bay YC, Macatawa, MI. www.mbyc.com
HELP WANTED- SAILING COACH
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Chris Dickson Full story: www.nytimes.com/2001/07/08/sports/08BOAT.html
ROLEX IMS OFFSHORE WORLDS But in the end it was a comfortable victory for both Spanish teams. Leon had just edged into the lead overnight after winning the second race in Saturday's strong winds. His closest rival, the IMX-40 Telefonica Movistar, was involved in a collision and also snapped her vang. This was the third Rolex IMS Offshore World Championship to have taken place, following the inaugural event in Sardinia in 1999 and Newport in 2000. With 64 entries, this has been the best-attended and arguably the most competitive regatta yet seen. - Susannah Bourne
Final Results:
Class B
STAR EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS
Final results: www.kblsail.dk/regatta/emstar/results/race6.html
EDS ATLANTIC CHALLENGE
Final Results Leg One - St Malo to Cuxhaven: www.edsatlanticchallenge.com/en/
THE CURMUDGEON'S QUOTATIONS |
