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SCUTTLEBUTT 1925 -- September 16, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.GETTING THE PROGRAM CRANKED UP (Paul Cayard and the crew of the VO70 Black Pearl are off on the 2000 qualification passage required by the Volvo Ocean Race rules. This passage will play an important role in the boat's workup for 32,000 mile, 9-leg, round the world race which starts on November 5. Here are some excerpts from Cayard's early reports.) The goal of this 2000 mile sail is to test all these systems make adjustments that we can while we are out here and undoubtedly return to the dock with a long list of things to fix and work on. We also have our sail designer onboard, Steve Calder, so we will be looking at the sizing and shape of or first sail inventory and trying to decide on modifications for them. We have a sewing machine onboard and can make small adjustments even out here on the boat. We have pushed the boat a bit more in the past 24 hours. Last night we were heading north toward the east coast of Ireland and got a bit more wind than expected. The sea got rough and the boat started slamming so I decided to tack and reach off toward France and lighter winds as I did not want to put the boat through her first big structural test in the dark where visual inspection is much harder. Today in the light have been smashing around in the waves a bit more and all seems solid. This "2000 mile qualification race or passage" is required by the race organizers to make sure that each yacht has been thoroughly tested in ocean conditions before the start. The Race office is polling us every 15 minute just like they will during the race to produce the position reports that you will all read, so they are tracking us to make sure we do the 2000 miles. You don't have to go anywhere in particular so as we did 8 years ago on EF, we are using this period of time to test sails and sail combinations. We don't have the advantage of having a second boat to test against as we did in EF, boat nonetheless, we can acquire data that is very useful. Tomorrow with the north wind, we will look at our spinnakers and probably see some pretty high boat speeds. Winds are supposed to be around 25 to 30 knots so the boat will be doing about the same. My first impressions of this boat is that it s much more powerful that the 60's were. It is a bit daunting actually. It will take some good sail handling techniques to keep the maneuvers safe and efficient during the race. We have been learning a lot these first few days. In 24 hours time I will have a better idea if this thing is VOR 60 squared … or cubed. -- Paul Cayard, offshore on the Black Pearl MAKEOVER Preparations along the waterfront in Trapani continue at full pace. The America's Cup Park, the heart of the public area at the Louis Vuitton Acts, is taking shape, and much of the main street along the waterfront is being completely remodeled in anticipation of the event. The Trapani Louis Vuitton Acts conclude a 2005 racing season that has seen the Cup teams travel and compete in Valencia, Malmö and now Sicily. The America's Cup has never before been sailed for in Europe, and the roadshow has been very well received, introducing the event to fans across the continent who have enjoyed the competition and had a taste of the spirit of the America's Cup. The races in Trapani will also decide the 2005 America's Cup Class season championship, where the Defender, Alinghi, has built a convincing six-point lead over the next closest challenger, BMW ORACLE Racing. Emirates Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa are both one point further back with the two Trapani Acts left to sail. Racing is two weeks away, scheduled to begin on the 29th of September. -- http://www.americascup.com/en/ WISDOM FROM BEFORE THE MAST "[In America's Cup training] ... if we were concentrating on crew practice, we'd set up a windward-leeward course and just go around and around, mixing up the approaches and roundings, until everybody dropped dead. You keep it short enough so you don't get bored waiting for things to happen, but long enough so that the guys in the front can have a few minutes to discuss what went wrong or right on the last maneuver. You have to use a set mark, like a government mark, or you can't really develop your timing -- otherwise the guy in the back will see you're not ready, and he'll stretch what should be a minute out to a minute and 20 seconds. That doesn't help you figure out when to start setting up. Just pretend you're driving the boat yourself. If you can do that, you'll know what might happen at the weather mark. If you fall asleep on the beat and try to wake up two minutes before you get to the weather mark, you're going to be way behind." -- Scott Vogel, from a story posted on the Sailing World magazine website, full story: http://tinyurl.com/7aqng 6 OUT OF 7 VOLVO OCEAN RACE BOATS CHOOSE MUSTO It's Gore-Tex, extremely waterproof, breathable and durable. It provides maneuverability for high activity, high performance sailing. That's why 6 out of the 7 Volvo Ocean Race boats have chosen Musto. Musto's HPX foul weather gear will protect the teams from the elements whilst in the Southern Ocean, where towering seas, temperatures below zero, and 60-knot winds are the norm - not forgetting the icebergs, which are an ever-present danger. You don't need to race a Volvo Open 70 to experience Musto. Give it a try next time - check out http://www.musto.com/usa for product information and a store finder. ISAF MATCH RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Calpe, Spain -- Today the breeze was light again, reaching 7-8 knots for the first start helping to create conditions where the boat that wins the start and takes an early lead controls the race. After the third flight the wind had dropped to about 4 knots which sent the Race Committee searching for the breeze all around the Bay of Calpe until 18:00 hours. Finally the first start of the fourth flight could get under way just a stones throw from the beach. Due to the problems with boats experienced yesterday that reduced the fleet to four, the program is behind schedule with eight flights still to be raced. Commenting on the days racing Paolo Cian said: "We won a Grade 1 event in Italy in July with those boats, the Tom 28, so we are very confident. We are just in the round robin, so it's still early to talk about finals or semifinals. About my absence from the America's Cup, when there are three Italian teams challenging, I only can say that two of those teams, +39 and Luna Rossa, preferred to have non Italians at the helm, so what else can I say?" Round Robin Standings: - Paolo Cian (ITA) - 6 pts/ 6 matches - Sébastian Col (FRA) - 5 pts/8 matches - James Spithill (AUS) - 5 pts/4 matches - Ian Williams (GBR) - 4 pts/6 matches - Mathieu Richard (FRA) - 4 pts/6 matches - Eugeniy Neugodnikov (RUS) -4 pts/8 matches - Ed Baird (USA) - 3 pt/7 matches - Peter Gilmour (AUS) - 3 pts/7 matches - Staffan Lindberg (FIN) - 3 pts/7 matches - Bjorn Hansen (SWE) - 3 pts/8 matches - Philippe Presti (FRA) - 2 pts/5 matches - Santiago Lopez-Vazquez (ESP) - 1 pt/9 matches CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar BASILICA J/24 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Weymouth, UK - There was a lot of crash and burn on Day 4 of the Basilica J/24 World Championship. Strong winds (18+ building to 25 knots) from the west, with building seas sent the fleet rocking and rolling around the race course. The shreds of sails, broken rudder, mangled bow pulpit, broken tiller, and another boat holed provided Princess Anne with lots to view as she watched the racing, met with teams on the dock, and participated in the daily prize giving. Max Skelly on Murder Picture (USA), one of the leading contenders through the week, was an early carnage victim. After sailing to a strong second position to Ian Southworth's Enchidna (GBR), Murder Picture's rudder exploded on the 2nd downwind. The lost rudder cost Murder Picture a strong finish in Race #7 and sent them back to the dock for the balance of the day. Race #8's wild conditions created more breakdowns and woolly conditions. Wednesday's strong finisher, Luigi Ravioli sailing Fiamma Gialla (ITA), was involved in an incident with Jobs for the Boys, Sean Kirkjian (AUS), sending the Australian boat back to the hoist with a hole, and the Italians looking for a new bow pulpit and jib. Few boats escaped the day without breakdowns or at least a broach. One boat turtled their boat, requiring two crew scramble to right it. Fortunately, there were no known serious injuries to any of the crew, but the damage to the boats created a very large shopping list back at the dock. The search was on for masts, rudders, forestays, tillers, and lots of new sails. The final race of the Basilica J/24 World Championship will be sailed on Friday, September 16th. The weather forecast calls for more extreme conditions. -- Nancy Zangerle Provisional Standings -- 8 races with one discard: 1. Jigalo, Anthony Kotoun, (ISV) 34 points 2. Bruschetta, Mauricio Santa Cruz, (BRA) 38 points 3. Fiamma Gialla, Luigi Ravioli, (ITA) 49 points 4. Gekko, Tomomi Hatakeyama, (JPN) 58 points 5. Echidna, Ian Southworth, 72 points 10. Team Tarheel, Peter Bream, (USA) 83 points For full results: www.j24-weymouth.com NEWS BRIEFS * Finally there is some racing to report at the Finn Gold Cup in Moscow. Five races were sailed Thursday in the qualification series, two for the yellow flight and three for the green flight. A 2nd and 10th for Ben Ainslie (GBR) is enough to hold the series with 6 points from Emilios Papathanasious (GRE) on 10 points and Marin Misura (CRO) on 17 points. The sailors had it all. Flat calms, flat out planes and hard hiking beats. The qualification series ends on Friday with Gold Cup racing beginning Saturday. -- www.finngoldcup2005.ru * Some people just eat ice cream and throw away the sticks. Not Robert McDonald. This American who is living in the Netherlands has an enthusiasm for the unthinkable and incredible. His latest world record attempt is no exception. A former Hollywood self-styled independent stuntman and world record holder, 'Captain Rob' is using 15,000,000 recycled and imperfect OLA ice cream sticks to construct a 15 meter (50 feet) long, hand-made authentic replica Viking ship. When ready, it will be the world's largest sculpture made from ice-cream sticks, as potentially recognized by Guinness World Records. -- www.seaheartship.com * The Western Long Island Sound lived up to its reputation with two light air races on Day 3 of the Mallory and Adams trophies hosted by American Yacht Club. Zachary Fanberg mastered the tricky conditions of the day with a 1, 2 finish which launched him into first place, followed closely (1 point behind) by Kenny Wolfe. Josh Goldman rounds out the top three. On the women's side, Joni Palmer has a 9 point comfortable lead with a 2, 4 finish and a three-way tie for second place between Kirsten Cummings, Anne Mooney and Theresa Brooks. -- http://www.americanyc.com/sailing/racing/2005/AdamsMallory/index.html * North Sails has partnered with expert meteorologist Chris Bedford and his team at Sailing Weather Services to provide FREE weather forecasts for the Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship from September 18-23, 2005 in Annapolis, MD. Detailed forecasts will be emailed to subscribers each morning by 0730 local time. Sailors can sign up for forecasts by logging on to the North Sails Weather Center: http://na.northsails.com/ew/ew_main.taf * US Sailing and Mount Gay Rum, Official Rum for US Sailing, announced today that they have extended and expanded their partnership. The new agreement runs through December 2006 and includes the expansion of US Sailing's Mount Gay Rum Speaker Series to include a wide range of topics that will appeal to racing and cruising sailors. Mount Gay also supports more than 160 regattas worldwide every year with about 100 in the U.S. alone. -- http://www.ussailing.org/ VPC MAKES BOAT SHOW DEBUT Project VPC, the hybrid sheet for performance cruisers and club racers, will be launched by New England Ropes at the Newport International Boat Show September 15-19, 2005. This supple durable sheet and halyard features a tough polyester jacket over a coated composite core of Vectran and MFP. The result is a lighter weight higher tensile alternative to polyester and all other blended lines. For more information or to sample the latest in the hybrid rope category, please stop by Booth #D13-14 at the show. http://www.neropes.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is neither a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere.) * From Magnus Wheatley: Regrettably the coverage of the AC on SKY in the UK is abysmal with awful helicopter footage, a commentator who doesn't know his mast from his elbow and interviews with such non-luminaries as Peter Reggio and Chris Dickson. However before I'm classed in the Angus Phillips category there is light at the end of the tunnel. Next year we should start seeing some proper gloves-off racing as the syndicates' new boats come into the fray. Now we're talking! Watching a load of old, knackered boats trundling around Mickey Mouse courses with old knackered crews is no spectacle and the Acts have been a complete publicity stunt. But just wait until the skirts go back up and all those millions of hours of R&D come to the water, then we've got an America's Cup and all the intrigue can begin. And I also hope that we start seeing these highly paid sailors living up to their billing and start producing some decent boat-handling and tactics on the water - so far they've been nothing short of diabolical and for all those monthly pay cheques in the high thousands, I hope the AC sailors sit down and start taking a long hard look at themselves, read a few manuals and get somewhere near to Coutts's performance in the last Cup. I also hope that the 'Acts' are just as they are described, a pure act for the public and that after Trapani they become the 'real deals'... I'm not holding my breath though! * From Peter Commette: Jan Visser's idea (Butt 1924) of using some of the funds we are donating for hurricane relief to help yacht clubs "return to the fabric of the land" appealed to me. I had ideas of helping disenfranchised personnel or members get back on their feet, the donations possibly being used to purchase Optis for some kids. The possibilities were limitless. So I spoke with Ron Richards, the president of the Gulf Yachting Association Foundation, the charity that Ms. Visser suggested to help return these yacht clubs to the fabric of the land. At this time, the Gulf Yachting Association Foundation has no plans to use any of its funds for hurricane relief. The interest from their endowment is used, for example, to pay for Mallory entry fees for that area's Mallory participants, and donations are used only to grow the endowment. However, Mr. Richards very much liked the idea of using specially earmarked funds for hurricane relief to the various yacht club members of the GYA, and he will immediately look into setting up a plan. For now, send your hurricane relief money elsewhere. * From Chris Ericksen: Thanks for reporting the dismasting of the "Pride of Baltimore II" in 'Butt 1924. Those of us who are training-ship and tallship aficionados remember with sadness the sinking of the first "Pride of Baltimore" back in 1986 with the loss of four of the 12 souls aboard. Thank God the only loss in this case was the rig and not the entire vessel. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION "Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet." -- Robin Williams |
