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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 697 - November 27, 2000WHO IS STEVE FOSSETT?(John Gregg did an extensive interview with Steve Fossett, the skipper of the maxi-catamaran, PlayStation for the West Marine website. Here's just a taste of that story.) "Setting a record is a special thing to do, because to me it's much more important than winning a race. Because if you've set the record, you've done it better, or faster than anybody else ever has. And so they are achievements." - Steve Fossett There are two things you should know about Steve Fossett: First up, he eats determination for breakfast; Second, he must have the most understanding wife in the world. Peggy Fossett has been married to Steve for 33 years and during the second half of their marriage she has seen her husband transform himself from Midwest businessman billionaire to a world renown adventurer. Whether it's ballooning, mountain climbing, dog sled racing in Alaska, swimming the English Channel, motor or ocean racing, Steve Fossett is always up for a challenge. At a time in his life when many of his contemporaries are trying to shave a few strokes off their golf game, or looking for the remote control, Fossett, 56, is getting ready to race the 125-foot catamaran PlayStation around the world. Oh, did I mention he also holds a number of aviation records for piloting his own jet plane? Two of Fossett's most impressive records include: the Fastest US Coast-to-Coast flight (E-W) Jacksonville, FL., to San Diego, CA. 3h 29m 5s, average speed 593.01 mph (954.35 kph), set on September 18 of this year. Followed by the Fastest Round Trip Coast-to-Coast-to-Coast in 7hrs 41m 15s, with an average Speed of 537.62 mph (865.21 kph). You guessed it; he also set that record on September 18th. Needless to say, this isn't the guy you want on your bumper if you're stuck on the San Diego freeway. Between 1994 and '98, Fossett was in the headlines again for his ballooning exploits when he made five of the 6 longest flights in that sport's history. Although Fossett was unable to achieve a successful global circumnavigation, his record setting performances in the Solo Spirit balloons are remarkable. Fossett achieved the first crossings of Asia, the South Atlantic Ocean, and the Indian Ocean and the first Solo Flight across the Pacific Ocean. Fossett has an appetite for life that also includes sailing. In a relatively short period of time, Fossett has set 10 World Records, including the 24-Hour Record and fastest Pacific Ocean crossings both with crew and solo. - John Gregg, West Marine website To read Gregg's interview with Fossett: http://www.westmarine.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ExecMacro/news.d2w/report?artic le=nws_sailing64.inc AMERICA'S CUP Press Release - Auckland Chamber of Commerce CEO, Michael Barnett, has expressed concern over the time taken to accept challenges for the next America's Cup. "A recent survey highlighted the enormous economic benefit the Auckland region gained from the last America's Cup and if that is to be repeated we need to ensure we have as many challenges as possible. A Swiss entry is still waiting for an arbitration panel to rule on the whether its challenge is accepted. The greater the number of challenges the better. Not only does it improve the regatta but it also allows New Zealand businesses to develop links with overseas markets such as Switzerland. "If we delay acceptances, other potential challenges may see it as a return to the old days of legal arguments as it was with the New York Yacht Club and the big boat challenge, and this may deter them from entering. "Like most New Zealanders we want to see the battle on the water, not in the courtroom, and enjoy as a region the considerable benefits a successful America's Cup brings," concluded Mr. Barnett. - Michael Barnett, Auckland Chamber of Commerce. 505 /FD WORLDS Durban, South Africa, (61 boats) - The 2000 505 Worlds ended much in the same way it began - with no racing due to high wind and surf. It's too bad, because we were all looking forward to an epic battle between Martin and Bergstrom for the championship. Krister Bergtrom is now the first 5-time 505 world champion, surpassing the legendary Peter Colcough in the record books. Bergstrom is one of those guys who loves the development aspect of the 505. His centerboard was the smallest of any competitor, and thus offered the least resistance. However, it takes supreme skill to drive a 505 with such a small board. If the 505 class decides to go with a bigger spinnaker next year, Bergstrom will be one of the sailors on the cutting edge of development. Bergstrom's fifth title didn't come easy, and it's been 10 years since his last world championship win. He had actually been foiled once in 1995 by Mike Martin and Howard Hamlin, who passed Bergstrom on the last race of the worlds to prevent him from winning that regatta. Then, in 1996, Bergstrom fouled the rabbit at the start of the last race and was forced to retire causing another loss. "I like making the 505 go fast in all wind and sea conditions", said Bergstrom, "but I like it best when its windy". Bergstrom, and crew, Thomas Moss, were simply faster upwind than everyone in the breeze. - Jesse Falsone Flying Dutchman Worlds - Final results: 1. AUS Ian McCrossin / James Cooke (6.00) 2. GER Hans-Peter Schwarz / Roland Kirst (7.00) 3. GBR John Best / James Cole (11.00) 4. NED Bas Van Der Pol / Marc Van Der Pol (12.00) 5. NED Harold Wijgers / Niels Kamphuis (22.00) Event web site: http://www.mscworlds2000.co.za/ SOLING UPDATE The recent Soling Class North American Championships were won using a new prototype spinnaker fabric. AIRX-650N is the latest addition to Bainbridge Internationals revolutionary range of spinnaker fabrics and sets new standards in one-design cloth technology. Having proven itself on the racetrack (AIRX-650N was also used by the 2nd and 3rd placed J24's at this years World Championships) production batches are now being made and will be available from your Sailmaker soon. For more details visit http://wwww.sailcloth.com VENDEE GLOBE - By Philippe Jeantot The Saint-Helen high pressure system seems to be lower than usual. Its center is located around 30 South and 10 West. To avoid it, the competitors will have to go further down before turning to the East. Yves Parlier (Aquitaine Innovations) still leading the race has gone through 10 South. He still has more than a thousand miles to sail to reach this point, roughly three days. Until then the centre of the high pressure has time to move and oblige the skippers to modify their strategy to turn left earlier. The leading boats don't have any more South Easterly winds and with the Eastern lift the competitors are now beam reaching with 15 to 20 knots of wind. It is ideal conditions. Yves Parlier was telling us this morning : "I am doing 14-15 knots! I am eating the miles and I am happy. I am on a beam reach, the boat is sailing really well and the sea is calmer. I am doing some maintenance." The conditions should remain steady for a few days. The boats are fast without suffering. It's a good time to prepare the boats for the hard weeks to come as the same great conditions will not happen again before long. Standings: 1. Aquitaine Innovations, Yves Parlier, 2. PRB, Michel Desjoyeaux (+69 miles) 3. Sill Matines & La Potagere, Roland Jourdain (+132m) 4.Whirlpool, Catherine Chabaud (+136m) 5. Kingfisher, Ellen MacArthur (+159m) Website: http://www.vendeeglobe.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed may be edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a bulletin board or a chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. -- From Mark Reynolds - Laurence Mead is right - we need to continually work toward making our sport stronger and encourage young sailors. I'm age 44 and Magnus at 46. It's true we are closer to 50 than 30, but with track and rowing athletes winning gold's in their mid to late 30's, I don't see why it shouldn't be done in sailing a few years later. As a youngster I looked up to local Star World Champions and Olympians Dennis Conner and Lowell North and was inspired to try out for the Olympics first in the FD and then in the Star. I took Lowell's 1964 Bronze medal to share in 3rd grade. Hopefully I can help inspire the next generation to take up sailing and strive to be the best at whatever they do. Optimists in the Olympics? I don't think we want sailing to be like women's gymnastics. If you are looking to make the sport stronger, the Star is a good class to look to as an example of how to do it right. The Star has sailors in 42 countries (not 20). In the 2000 Worlds there were 9 different countries in top 10 with a total of 29 countries represented. A look at the current ISAF international ranking list shows the Star with the 3rd highest number of ranked sailors, only the Laser and Men's Mistral have more. There are at least twice as many ranked teams than the 49er, Finn, Soling and Tornado. -- Zach de Beer - The latest AC structural failure is adding to the pile of the last 12 months. Sailing sport has become a structural laboratory. Good engineers are using good analysis tools I assume so what we are seeing is engineers and maybe syndicate leaders pushing the envelope, this is done by reducing reserve factors of safety without the benefit of full scale structural testing. I find it in excusable that this happens. It is amateurish. The Emperor with the least clothes wins. MORE AMERICA'S CUP There are reports coming from across the Tasman that Australian representation in the next America's Cup is looking shaky. Sydney businessman Michael Jones admits his Australiafirst syndicate has less than a 50 per cent chance of having a yacht on the start line for the challengers series in 2002. Jones says his problem is raising funds and the team has only reached 30 per cent of its goal. Syd Fischer's Young Australia has made no public move towards kick-starting its campaign after fielding a youthful crew in the last regatta. - NZ Herald, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/irnstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=31870&newsection=5&newsubsection= THE NEW RULE BOOK The final versions of the Advertising, Eligibility and Anti- Doping Codes approved by the ISAF November meetings have now been published. All three codes can be downloaded now in PDF format from: www.sailing.org/regulations/isafcodes.html GIFTS EVEN A CURMUDGEON WOULD LIKE We haven't seen the Curmudgeon's gift list, but there's a good chance he'd find something he liked at INTERNATIONAL CREW. Our nautical gifts, gift baskets, Christmas cards, ornaments, and home decor items are the perfect gifts for the sailor or boater who has everything. For a complimentary catalog, E-mail sales@internationalcrew.com, or call toll-free, 888-891-6601, or shop on-line: www.internationalcrew.com. QUOTE / UNQUOTE * "It is a setback to our program. We have two boats in Auckland and the reason for that is that we want to be sailing two boats. After this, we are not going to be sailing two boats for a while. The time that USA-61 is off the water, we will spend doing other things. It is not time lost, it is time reallocated. Exactly what broke, or why we don't know at this stage. We are in touch with the designers and all the relevant people and we are making every effort to get to the bottom of it." - Oracle Racing's skipper Chris Dickson to Ivor Wilkins for a story on the Quokka Sailing website, http://www.quokkasailing.com/stories/11/SLQ_1122_capsize_WFC.html * "When it comes to split factions, special interests and political infighting, the sailing federation has few equals. And in recent years, the complicated debate over which boats and disciplines should constitute the 11 separate Olympic sailing events, which are allocated by the International Olympic Committee, has been intense and free-wheeling." - NY Times boating columnist Herb McCormick from his story in Sunday's issue dealing with the decision to drop match racing from the 2004 Olympics, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/26/sports/26BOAT.html AWARDS US SAILING honored the Rescuing Crew on Alcoholics Alluvus with the Arthur B. Hanson Rescue Medal for their heroic measures in helping fellow sailors in plight. Past President Lynn G. Stedman, Jr. presented the award to Scott Giles, Terri Mangile, Dave Nantais, and Dave McPherson, for their quick action, coordinating immediate recovery, rendering assistance to sailors in need, and preparing and clearing the waterway of hazards to navigation. During the final race of the Inter-Lake Yachting Association's Bay Week at Put-in-Bay, OH on Lake Erie, on August 2, 2000, seven boats of the seventy-four-boat fleet were still racing or had just finished. A microcell impaled these boats with devastating consequences. Winds blew 70 knots in the 15-minute storm, sinking three of the twenty-four foot Crescent class boats and a Lindenburg 22. Alcoholics Alluvus, a Columbia 26 owned by Scott Giles, was forced by the sudden wind to round up colliding into the capsized Jazzy, the Lindenburg 22, simultaneously seeing their three crew in PFD's, in the water. They threw lines and two crew hung on. The third crewmember, wearing a PFD, was left behind. Alcoholics Alluvus dragged the victims for quite some time while they fought to bring down their sails. Finally, the two climbed up Alcoholics Alluvus' ladder. Three new victims, from the Crescent Nuts, were spotted and none were wearing PFD's. A passing powerboat was instructed by Captain Giles to affect the rescue of the third victim from the Lindenburg 22. Turning to Nuts, Alcoholics Alluvus retrieved the three victims. Again, three more victims were spotted. This time from the Crescent Blue Moon. This time, the Columbia was getting crowded and they retrieved one, while the aforementioned powerboat retrieved the remaining two victims. With all souls recovered and no injuries, Alcoholics Alluvus went around to the sunken boats' mast tips that were sticking up out of the water and tied pennants with fenders on them for identification. - Penny Piva Rego More information: www.ussailing.org MATCH RACING * St. Petersburg, Fla. (November 26, 2000) - With black skies, pouring rain and no sign of wind for the better part of the afternoon, organizers officially cancelled today's racing at the Rolex 2000 ISAF Women's World Match Racing Championship. "It's only a slight delay in the schedule. We have a half-day of racing to make up," said Event Co-Chair Pat Seidenspinner (St. Petersburg, Fla.). "It's very doable to complete a full round in one day, but it will take a lot of stamina by the teams." The top-eight seeded skippers and teams get a bye from racing until Tuesday, when the second round is tentatively scheduled to begin. The quarterfinal round will follow later in the week, with the final round scheduled for Saturday, December 2. The winning skipper of the Rolex 2000 ISAF Women's World Match Racing Championship will be awarded a Rolex timepiece. - Dana Paxton Digital photos by Dan Nerney will be posted each day: www.spyc.org * Sydney, AUSTRALIA, 26th November - The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron crew of Michael Dunstan, Peter Salt and Andrew Hutchinson have won the 2000 Harken International Youth Match Race Regatta, defeating early favourites, the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, 2-0 today in a sparkling 15 kt. sea breeze. The Cruising Yacht Club similarly claimed 3rd place from host Club, Royal Prince Alfred. Dunstans team were runners up in New Zealand's Coke Cup earlier this year and showed this pedigree clearly. Final results (ISAF Grade 3 match racing event): 1. Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, 2 Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, 3 Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, 4 Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, 5 Gold Coast Yacht Club, 6 Royal Yachting Association, 7 Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, 8 Royal Perth Yacht Club, 9 Mission Bay Yacht Club, 10 Fukuoka Yacht Club, 11 Circolo Della Vella Erix, 12 Bucklands Beach Yacht Club - www.rpayc.com.au THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you're crunchy and taste good with ketchup. |
