|
SCUTTLEBUTT 3790 - Thursday, March 7, 2013Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: APS and Ullman Sails. THE MOST COMPLETE SAILING EXPERIENCE OF THEIR LIVES By Kristen Berry, J World Annapolis (MD) While east coast sailors are preparing this week to dig out of another winter snowstorm, nine J World Annapolis clients are wondering just why they boarded the plane to leave the Caribbean behind. As part of J World's winter racing and cruising training programs, two teams competed in the 33rd running of the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta on March 1-3. After finishing 1st and 4th in the 13 boat Bareboat 4 division aboard Moorings 43.4's, the sting of sleet on sunkissed cheeks might be too much - if not for all the amazing memories. With only three days of racing scheduled - along with music, parties, sun and fun - the program kicked off with three days of race training, cruising and exploring in St. Barts. Most of the participants in this event came from cruising and daysailing backgrounds and were attracted to the healthy mix of experiences and the allure of some "real racing." Tuned up after the St. Barts training, the two teams match raced back to Simpson Bay. Stopping midway at the deserted Isle Fourchue for debriefing, snorkeling and a croissants and cheese lunch - the pace and expectation for this adventure was set. Three days of close racing (five teams held or shared first place) in incredible conditions, sandwiched between huge concert parties, and delicious crew dinners culminated in a final windy race where four boats had real shots at first place. The two J World boats battled one another for the pin and rounded the short windward leg in the top four. For the first time, the more than 200 registered boats shared the same race course. Excitement built as Gunboats traded tacks with Bareboats and big boats ducked cruising cats with dinghies on davits. After a long and windy battle J World Two finished more than three minutes ahead of the top pack and secured first place while J World One, finished in a very respectable fourth. We've identified that in order to keep our returning customers happy we have to continue to provide new opportunities for them to learn and experience performance sailing. The Heineken Regatta is a great example of a program that is perfectly tailored to customers that have done our racing and cruising programs and are looking for new challenges or "bucket list" events. The coolest thing is that we've done the Heineken Regatta before. We've done it with Grand Prix boats - and we will again - but the response from our clients has been that because we raced and cruised they felt that this was the most complete sailing experience of their lives. Serious fun! Facebook photos: http://tinyurl.com/JW-030613 Event website: http://www.heinekenregatta.com/ GET THE BALL BEARINGS ROLLING - 10% OFF HARKEN AT APS! Don't let those fouled up blocks and slippery cleats keep you from enjoying every opportunity to get on the water this spring. With 10% off all winches, blocks, cleats, and more, this month is the time to upgrade and replace. Need a little more to rock your boat? APS is including a free gift on all orders over $100. Document Cases, Transition Backpacks, Roll Top Bag all free with your purchase; you're benefitting in more ways than one this March. Get the scoop at http://bit.ly/APSdeals THE FUTURE OF CLUBS The following report comes from the Irish boating magazine Afloat, but the topic resonates far beyond their borders... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Managing this transition from sailing school pupil to active club sailor is increasingly complicated, and should be a major preoccupation for all clubs. "Sailing families" will have already adjusted their life-style and family budget. The group disparagingly known as "Oppie parents" (a group not limited to that particular class) will make great sacrifices, in both time and money, to take their children sailing. But a teenager who may be the only family member interested in sailing will face multiple obstacles. For the new-comer a sailing club can be an off-putting place. Not the least of these obstacles is the change in the way we allow our children to interact with other adults. Imagine, for instance, the child protection issues raised by any development of dinghy sailing based on young people crewing for adults. This was the traditional method for gaining experience and learning the game, many of us learned this way. Times have changed - I am not sure that many parents today would be happy about their child spending long hours with an un-vetted adult on a small boat, let alone spending a weekend away for an open meeting or championship. Assisting apprentice sailors in this passage from learner to participant is a process that may take as much time and effort as teaching sailing. Up to now we have assumed that if someone learns to sail they will become a full participant in an existing model of sailing club. Regrettably, there is considerable evidence that this is not happening. New sailors, young and old, need to be brought at their own pace in to our clubs. Doing this successfully will ensure the future of clubs, but will inevitably induce changes in the way clubs function. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/Afloat-030613 COMMENT: School will be out soon, which for many clubs is a time when they host their junior sailing programs. Perhaps it's a thought for another day, but I wonder if each club has identified the purpose(s) of their program. Are they to create youth champions or future members, or to provide only an outside activity for kids? It is an important question, as I suspect the proper approach and budget for each goal is quite different. - Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt MANLY DAY ON BISCAYNE BAY Miami, FL (March 6, 2013) - There was no shortage of drama today on Biscayne Bay for competitors racing in the 86th BACARDI Cup. As temperatures hit the high 70s on the third day of racing, the fourth race of the Star series got underway in 15 knots of breeze, and, with the black flag rule in effect, six boats were disqualified. Wind gusts over 25 knots contributed to 11 boats not finishing the day's single race, including two with broken masts. "Windy for sure today, 20 plus average," said Irish Olympian Peter O'Leary, who won the race. "Once we got going it was a proper Bacardi Cup regatta in which we stretched legs and hiked hard. The main challenge of the day was to stay in pressure and take advantage of the big breeze. We rounded the last mark in third and were able to beat the Italians on the line." Lars Grael and Mario Lagoa (BRA) finished third in the race allowing them to increase the point spread while continuing their hold on first place in the overall standings with 17 points. The Italian team of Diego Negri and Frithjof Kleen finished second in the race and are just nine points out of first. They are followed in the overall standings by 2003 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Augie Diaz (Miami, Fla.) and Arnis Baltins, who added a 22 to their previous finishes of 3-1-10 for 36 points. Racing for the Star class resumes on Friday, March 9, after the planned lay day. On Thursday, March 7, sailors in the Audi Melges 20, Melges 24 and Viper 640 classes, along with the J/70 class which makes its event debut, will get their first taste of competition on Biscayne Bay. Racing, for all classes, will conclude on Saturday, March 9. -- Full report and results: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=15317#15317 SAILING SHORTS * US Sailing, the national governing body of the sport, will take the lead in hosting a groundbreaking event on February 6-8, 2014 at the Hilton San Diego Resort. For the first time, the Sailing Leadership Forum will connect leaders from all aspects of our sport such as sail training and education, yacht club and sailing organization management, racing associations and organizations including one-design and handicap classes, race officials, and industry professionals. Registration opens in April, 2013. -- Details: http://media.ussailing.org/Latest_News/2013/SLF_2014.htm * In Sailing World's College Rankings (as of March 6, 2013), Charleston tops the coed poll with Georgetown in second. Yale edges Dartmouth for the first-place women's ranking, followed closely by Charleston in third. Twenty-one coaches voted in this poll: Boston College, Bowdoin, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Eckerd, Fordham, George Washington, Georgetown, Hawaii, Hobart/Wm. Smith, Miami (Fla.), MIT, Navy, Providence, Rhode Island, South Florida, Stanford, SUNY Maritime, UC San Diego, Washington College. -- Full ranking: http://tinyurl.com/SW-030613 * Miami, FL (March 6, 2013) - Niklas Zennstrom's Ran Racing are the new leaders of the Gasstra 52 World Championship after winning both races today. Ran Racing excelled in the stronger breezes, with puffy, gusty wind which peaking at 22kts in the first race and easing down to 12-13kts at times in the second as a frontal system moved through. Day 1's strong starter Azzurra is now in second position with Quantum Racing in third, but only three points separate Ran Racing from Quantum Racing at the top of the eight boat fleet. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/52SS-030613 * Forty-two boats are entered in the 139 nm Islands Race, starting in Los Angeles Harbor before rounding Catalina and San Clemente Islands and finishing in San Diego, CA. A late winter storm is predicted for the Friday start, with live race tracking provided to follow the fleet in the forecasted 20+ knot winds. -- Race website: http://www.islandsrace.com/ * Buzios, Brazil (March 6, 2013) - It was the final day of the RS:X World Championship, and after Lee El-Korsiz won the women's title a day in advance of the medal race, all eyes turned toward the men's fleet. Dutchman Dorian Von Rijsselberghe won the race, but it was not enough to overcome British Nick Dempsey's lead, thus assuring the Brit his second world title. Curiously, it is the inverted podium of the last Olympics when Dorian was gold and Nick silver in his homewaters in Weymouth. -- Event website: http://tinyurl.com/RSX-030313 * Muscat, Oman (March 6, 2013) - The pressure turned up a notch today at the halfway stage of the 2013 Extreme Sailing Series opening as the new faces for 2013 began delivering podium places in the Extreme 40 stadium. While the top three positions on day two have not changed, the three new skippers of Team Duqm Oman, Team Korea and GAC Pindar are pushing them relentlessly for the podium positions. Racing continues through March 8 with live streaming video available online. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/ESS-030613 * Online registration is now open and the Notice of Race for the Annapolis to Newport Race. This year marks the 34th running of the 475 mile biennial Annapolis-Newport Race run by the Annapolis Yacht Club (AYC) and New York Yacht Club (NYYC). The Annapolis to Newport race links two of the nation's oldest seaports and is one of the most historic and well-known U.S. East Coast blue water races. The race provides a contrast between the country's largest estuary, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean, creating an extremely challenging racing triathlon that combines elements of grand prix sailing, ocean sailing, and cruising. Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=15274 * The nomination period for the 2013 U.S. National Sailing Hall of Fame will end on April 1, 2013. To learn more about how to nominate and to submit your nomination using our online form, visit: http://www.nominate.nshof.org SAIL SOLUTIONS FOR THE RACER-CRUISER Many of us have a passion as much for the racecourse as for those weekends cruising with our families. Why not have a suit of sails that works for both?! Ullman Sails has a range of sails that meet the needs of a racer-cruiser. Consider the lightweight and low-stretch performance of FiberPath Dynamic or the great shape holding and durability of Endurance Tri-Axis Laminate. The best part: Our sails consultants personally work with you to choose the right cloth, construction and hardware so that your sails will match ALL of your passions on the water. Invest in your performance. http://www.ullmansails.com IS YOUR EVENT LISTED BELOW? Posting your event information on the free, self-serve Scuttlebutt Event Calendar tool is the easiest way to communicate to both sailors and sailing media. But don't stop there. If your event is listed below, please send us your race reports too: Mar 8-10 - J/105 Midwinter Championship - Seabrook, TX, USA Mar 8-10 - Port of L.A. Harbor Cup - San Pedro, CA, USA Mar 8-10 - Sunfish International Masters Championship - Tampa, FL, USA Mar 8-9 - The Islands Race - Newport Beach, CA, USA Mar 9-10 - Windmill Class Midwinter Championship - Clearwater, FL, USA Mar 11-15 - Flying Scot Midwinter Championships - Sarasota, FL, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Chris Mitchell, SKUD 18 designer: Thanks for your story about the SKUD 18 and its name (in Scuttlebutt 3787). The boat is actually 5.9m long, or 19'6", just enough to fit in a 20ft container. It's called an 18 to remind us that the hull below the water is pretty close to an 18ft skiff. Three SKUDs fit in a container. When I just Googled "definition of SKUD" it came up with this below... "a formation of vapoury clouds driven fast by the wind". I think that's a delightful comparison to our boat. I also remember back in 2005 when we first investigated the name that in a Scandinavian source it referred to the froth being blown along with waves, and a ship Skudding along before the waves. When that aligned with SK-Skiff and UD-Universal Design, we stopped looking for alternatives; thought it was perfect. Short and sharp and very descriptive. Internationally SKUD or scud has a nice meaning, whereas the urban dictionary seems to include a lot of contemporary American slang. But I suppose that's what an "urban" dictionary is supposed to do. -- Forum, read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=15316#15316 * From Jerome Fournier - San Diego: Just a quick note to regatta web designers: When armchair sailors log onto your regatta website they are first and foremost searching for the race results. It is so discouraging to log onto a website during the course of a multi-day event, search high and low for the results page and when you finally get there discover that the results are not there, are days old or, in the case of my current search, when finally found, formatted in such a way to make them incomprehensible. Regatta organizers need to contract with web designers that know sailing and know the importance of providing the world with the most current information about the racing that is occurring in some far off port. To the organizers of the Bacardi Cup, why is there no "Results" button on the top of the regatta homepage that leads one directly to the regatta results? The quest for the most up-to-date scores are the reason ESPN and other sports websites place them prominently on the first page. It is the information we all want to know. * From Derek K Bouwer: In reply to Scuttlebutt 3789 "Another Reason to Have Fun at Your Club", this is a point really dear to my heart as Club is a club because like-minded individual have come together in pursuit of their chosen sport and form a club. It is thus "Dao Facto" an exclusive organization funded and run by its very membership. I understand that in the present economic climate, clubs are struggling to keep afloat. But does this mean we must open the club to the public because they might be offended if they felt excluded? Why do they not then take up that sport and join? My club suffered a devastating fire in 2006; we lost membership of those not committed to the rebuilding of the club facilities. Then the club was opened to the public in a vain attempt to raise revenue. Then the membership fees were lowered to attract more members. How have we fared? Not so good... read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=15303#15303 * From Donald T. Rave, Jr: All this talk about millionaires and sailing reminds me of a plaque I have in my office which contains Chris Caswell's quote: "No more expensive way of going slowly has been invented by man than sailing". * From Kenneth Voss: The answer to the anchoring question (in Scuttlebutt 3789) will be more complicated depending on the wind conditions, and the anchor scope. Steel density is about 490 lbs/ft3 (to keep English units to make it easy for us to relate to). so a 30 lb anchor is about 0.06 ft3. This will displace 3.7 lbs of water, and in the absence of everything you say, the boat will float higher as it had to displace 0.48 ft3 of water to keep it floating in the boat. But assuming the purpose of the anchor is to keep the boat in one place, if there is wind, the anchor will be pulling on the boat to keep it in place. Since the anchor is pulling downward (depending on scope, wind strength and boat windage), the water will be forced to put slightly more upward buoyancy force to keep the boat from sinking, this will cause the boat to displace more water, thus raising the overall water level. So depending on the situation you might gain or lose by being anchored...for a 5:1 scope this is about 130 lbs of force on the anchor line, for a 10:1 scope more like 260 lbs. EDITOR'S NOTE: Professor Voss, a scientist at the University of Miami, wasn't the only one to offer an alternate answer. The others are posted here: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=15296 PREPARE FOR THE SHIFT The Scuttlebutt newsletter was launched in 1997, and the website followed in 2003. A lot has happened since then, and it is time for these two platforms to get a well needed makeover. Look for the newsletter to be more vibrant and the website to be more dynamic. This is going to be fun... prepare for the shift on Monday. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION If you were wondering where the U.S. Declaration of Independence was signed, it occurred at the bottom of the page. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Gowrie Group - Harken - North U - Grand Ambition - Gladstone's Long Beach - Block Island Race Week - North Sails - Waterline Systems - APS - Ullman Sails - Hall Spars & Rigging - Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
