SCUTTLEBUTT No. 624 - August 14, 2000

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FOR THE RECORD
Yvan Bourgnon and his crew have just accomplished an incredible performance during the Quebec / St Malo Transat. They literally shattered the speed record in their category, swallowing 625.34 miles in 24 hours. (the former record was 540 miles) aboard their 60 ft trimaran Bayer en France. Even better : they almost beat the all categories speed record established by Club Med (625.7miles/24h) one of the latest generation maxi-catamarans in the line-up for The Race.

Marc Van Peteghem one of Bayer's architects put the record into perspective : "it's very difficult to compare what happened with Club Med's record that took place in different conditions with a rougher sea. Bayer en France benefited from ideal sailing conditions", he underlined, "allowing her to get closer to the speed estimations calculated " in the laboratory " for calm seas".

Besides, Yvan Bourgnon was not the only one to take advantage of those conditions, three others competitors in the Quebec / St Malo Transat also broke the former record ((Groupama - 615.80 miles, Foncia - 601.43 and Belgacom -573.5).

"On the other hand", continued Marc Van Peteghem, "60 foot trimarans have a sail area: displacement ratio superior to the big cats, which explains why a machine of Bayer's size could attain such a result. Put in other words : Over a short distance, a maxi-cat could be pipped at the post by a 60 footer. Obviously it's not the same ball game over a long distance race.

However, Marc Van Peteghem considers that a 60 foot trimaran is in a better position than the latest generation maxi-cats to tumble the North Atlantic record still held by Serge Madec. - Te Race website.

Full story: http://www.therace.org/asp/une1.asp?NewsId=771&LangId=

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net)
Letters selected to be printed are edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.

-- From Marc Skipwith - Lawrence of Arabia managed to unite all the infighting Arab tribes to attack and defeat the Turks by promising them Gold, Silver and Bronze. The sailing community should lobby for a twelfth medal and show solidarity instead of bashing one Olympic Class vs another. There would be definitely more momentum and positive energy flow pulling on the same halyard and we the sailors would look strong and a force to be reckoned with on the Olympic platform. The same people who say "NO" will say "Yes". It's just a matter of time and it takes maybe a Lawrence of Sailing to make it happen.

-- From Kevin Hall (In response to Peter Dryfuss' comments about rankings and "the most competitive classes") - "Shear numbers" have little to do with the competitiveness of an event such as the Olympic Trials. Would you rather race against just 3 boats, all ranked in the top ten in the world, or 50 boats not ranked in the top 100? One is treading on extremely thin ice to suggest that one class of boat can make a legitimate claim to having more talent than another.

What is talent? Strong quads and the ability to get good starts? The ability to tune a tricky rig and pick good shifts? How many of us can get a Mistral around the course in 25 knots of wind, or a 49er? What about the experience and teamwork it takes to win a Soling match race? "

Classism" should be reserved for the sailors who sail that class uniquely, and even then only late at night after too much beer. Rankings are indicative of the level of competitiveness of that class in that country - not how many, but how many already at the highest world level. ISAF rankings are participation oriented and Euro centric: more boats, more regattas, more points. Chris Nicholson and Daniel Phillips won two 49er world championships in a row and found themselves ranked... 7th!

Finally, high rankings may be achieved by determined individuals and teams. However, we have seen time and again that they have little bearing on who will be on the podium when it counts. Good luck to the US Team in Sydney!!

-- From Vicki Lawrence Schultz - I am so sorry that because of my work I missed what I hear was the most magnificent sailing day in many a recent memory. I am also so sorry that King Harbor Yacht Club has chosen not to redress our yacht VICKI simply because the crew did not show up at their club. Per the rules, they submitted their protest in writing, dropped off 3 exhausted sailors and went home to contemplate the day's events. Two other yachts received time - one received 22 minutes. How does it then follow that Vicki should be denied a mere 37 minutes to drop sails, return to the scene and save 3 men's lives in those conditions? That's not only appalling, it is a flagrant violation of the rules.

There are no finer gentlemen is yachting than my husband, Al Schultz and my friends Ben Mitchell and Mark Olsen. They are all also prolific winners and I guarantee you that a trophy from the King Harbor Yacht Club is the last thing on their minds. Respect, gratitude and dignity are.

-- From Jocelyn Wilson - We too requested redress from the SBYC/KHYC race committee after turning Bay Wolf around to aid an overturned cat. Like good Corinthian sailors, and though we were rocketing along at 14+ knots we pulled down our sails, radioed the RC and motored back towards the cat. The boat was about a mile upwind (on a SCZ 50 it's ugly). After circling around the abandoned boat for awhile and talking to the CG, we found out that the crew had been rescued by Vicki.

After being released to return to the race course by the CG, we radioed the RC with our position and continued racing. We filed for redress with the above info included and were denied redress by the Protest committee because we "did not attend a protest meeting" held the next morning.

After reading the racing rules we found that the protest committee can make a determination based on the facts submitted, without the attendance of the filer. Is it right to deny redress of some sort, to boats that are complying with rule 1.1?

-- From Richard du Moulin, Larchmont, NY - I am a member of Larchmont YC here in New York, and also serve as Chairman of the Storm Trysail Club's Safety at Sea Committee. One of our key activities is to sponsor annual Junior Safety at Sea Seminars, held at Larchmont and Annapolis. Over 700 junior sailors have gone thru our classroom and on-the-water training. We try to inject a love of big boat blue-water sailing and sportsmanship.

The Vicki situation touches on all this. Without knowing the details, there seems to be no question that Vicki deserves redress. Assuming the Committee notified all competitors that the meeting was taking place, Vicki should have been there. But even if the crew were busy drinking to their own heroism (well-deserved), the Committee could have postponed finalizing results until they were located, even if they had to search the bars.

The fact of the rescue was not in dispute; only the details were missing. From the point of view of an Easterner, the Committee's rush to judgement seems like "Western Justice." (No offense intended.) The rules dictate that Vicki receive redress; sportsmanship dictates that the Committee seek out the facts even if it takes a little extra time.

-- From Don Becker - Regarding Mark Folkman's response, I seem to remember that Dennis Conner requested redress in a Newport to Ensenada race for dropping off a crew member before the finish. It didn't seem to bother that protest committee that DC didn't show up, they gave him redress and he won his class.

I think someone to represent "Vicki" or a witness could have been found to attend the hearing by means other than "calling" five times in a 4-hour period. Even if no one could be found, the committee granted redress in at least two other hearings. (It's interesting to note that the protest committee knew that the time requested would have the result of giving "Vicki" first place.) Therefore, by denying any redress at all the protest committee certainly has brought the sport into disrepute. I should think they should be falling all over themselves to reopen the hearing.

-- From Dave Millett - I suggest that Mark Folkman and his committee move quickly to salvage the reputation of Santa Barbara and King Harbor Yacht Clubs and to avoid an appeal hearing which they will surely lose. A protest or redress committee may open re open a hearing based on significant new facts coming to light without a competitor request.

-- From Larry Weaver - Stephen Bailey in Butt 623 is absolutely correct! The new rules reintroduce much of the ambiguity that had been squeezed out by 40 years of incremental refinements, and leave all of us who race a good deal less certain of when we're right and when we're wrong. As a result, few of us feel confident about filing or defending a protest. Perhaps this damping of tactical competition was what the rules makers had in mind, but I - at least - feel a lot has been lost from a great game.

-- From Clark E. Chapin (edited to our 250-word limit) - I must take issue with Stephen Bailey's opinions regarding the state of rules observance and knowledge under the current rules. I started racing only a year before Bailey in 1968 and although I may have THOUGHT I understood the rules soon thereafter, the confusing array of appeals interpreting similar incidents, the confusing arrangement and wording of the rules in those days, and the incidence of protests makes it pretty obvious that few people understood the rules.

In 1997, I both attended and conducted seminars on the (then) new rules and my overall impression, based upon the questions posed, was that concentrating on the rule changes was a misplaced effort - few of the attendees understood the old rules. Far better to teach the new rules as a fresh start. The ordering of the rules so that the sections that all competitors must know are at the front of the book and the more subtle or less often used rules are toward the back makes the book much more user-friendly.

Protests are less likely today not because competitors are more confused - that should make infringements and protest more likely - but for two reasons: The rules are easier to understand and the rule makers changed the game slightly to make contact less likely. The ISAF and US SAILING Rules Committees succeeded admirably in creating a set of rules that retained much of the previous content but rearranged and reworded them in a much better fashion.

-- From Jim Champ - There are four ways to race boats, and ALL have advantages:
BOX RULE - The supreme challenge, requiring a project that masters all aspects of the sport, not merely sailing a boat round the racecourse. R&D costs can be high, although at the dinghy end of the spectrum that I'm familiar with the development classes are often cheaper to run than the one designs because the boats are properly engineered and durable. Another disadvantage is that boats are developed purely for speed round the track, with other considerations nowhere.

ONE DESIGN - Seeks to eliminate all design differences by having identical boats. This leads to an arms race in replacing gear because this is a no- risk way of buying boat speed. Thus it can become expensive. Another problem is that you may be having great racing, but the boat isn't much fun to sail or has obvious faults.

MEASURED AND EMPIRICAL HANDICAP SYSTEMS - Both seek to eliminate design differences. You can sail the boat you like and still have fair racing. The biggest issue handicapping empirically is gathering fair data, leading to disputes about handicaps. The biggest disadvantage of measuring is that owners want a boat that exploits the rule to gain an advantage. This causes problems, notably at the last Admiral's Cup. Many problems with IMS seem to me to be that it is required to BOTH give advanced design a performance benefit and equably handicap any boat, and those aims are mutually exclusive.

WOMEN'S MATCH RACING
The Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC) of US SAILING, national governing body for the sport, is soliciting U.S. women sailors to apply for entry to the Rolex 2000 ISAF Women's World Match Racing Championship. Host St. Petersburg Yacht Club (St. Petersburg, Fla.) will conduct 218 matches over seven days for 24 all-women teams of four. Racing, in Sonars, will be on Tampa Bay between November 25-December 2.

To determine the automatic U.S. entrant, the OSC is requesting that interested skippers submit a sailing resume by August 31, 2000, via email to: olympics@ussailing.org; or fax to 401.683.0840, attention Katie Richardson. The OSC has appointed a three-person panel consisting of one member each from US SAILING's Board of Directors, OSC and Women's Committee to review the resumes. A decision will be made on Monday, September 11, and the chosen skipper will then have seven days to accept and pay the $1,000 entry fee before the slot is offered to the next skipper. Resumes should emphasize match racing experience, sailing results from the last two years, as well as any campaign plans for the 2004 Olympics. - Jan Harley

For additional information: http://www.spyc.org
Event schedules and general information: http://www.sailingsource.com/wimra

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INDUSTRY NEWS
ASSA ABLOY - The world's leading lock group, will participate in the Volvo Ocean Race to support the integration process of 100 companies worldwide and to develop the ASSA ABLOY corporate identity. - http://www.assaabloy.se / http://www.VolvoOceanRace.org

THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL
Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values