SCUTTLEBUTT #213-- November 9 1998

VIVA LA DIFFERENCE

In September, Nick Trotman and Mike Mills were winning the 505 Worlds on the East Coast, while the ULDB 70 Taxi Dancer owned by Don Hughes and RP Richards was winning the Sled Class at the Big Boat Series in San Francisco. There is a lot of difference between a Reichel-Pugh 70 and a 505·but there was one common thread. Both boats had a full inventory of Ullman Sails. This is a great time for you to improve the performance of your boat--the Fall discounts still apply:

http://www.ullmansails.com/

LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON
>> From Glenn McCarthy -- I serve on the Safety-at-Sea Committee of US SAILING and would like to invite Mr. Yeager (Butt #211) and all sailors to attend the meetings, there is no "Ivory Tower", quite the reverse. Come out and speak your peace and get involved, where it counts.

When the PFD Prescription was written, the concept is thus, putting on a PFD at the start verifies that everyone on board has one, and it fits, since each one zips, straps, buttons ties and velcro's differently. If conditions are "dehydrating" like Mr. Yeager suggests, the Prescription has the allowance to set the PFD aside. Last wearing one at the finish assures that they stay handy and each crew knows where theirs is, should conditions change and warrant wearing them. It's hard to legislate common sense, yet that was clearly at work in the creation of the wording.

I am convinced that this Prescription would not have seen daylight 5 years ago, but with the USCG approving inflatables, this whole concept became a non-issue. Go buy a fanny pack inflatable with 35 pounds of flotation, save your, your crews and your loved ones lives. The darn things don't have a chance of working if they aren't worn.

>> From Chris Welsh -- To anyone who thinks the Whitbread is "one spotlight event", I went to Ullman Sails to hear the presentation by Mark Rudiger - It is not a spotlight event!!!! The videos and slides shown reinforced to me the incredible planning, teamwork, and 24 hour a day commitment it takes to win the Whitbread Race. No one pursuing a world championship can claim to have as much invested, as much ventured, or to have competed as long in conditions that move beyond the extreme.

I was left with impression that Cayard's Whitbread was raced with an intensity of a buoy race from the moment the decision was made to undertake the task until the final finish line. One day after hitting port between legs in the Southern Ocean the EF boat was back out to sea for 48 hours of offshore sail testing. This is Focus with a billboard sized capital F. Cayard's win was a supreme accomplishment.

>> From John Welty -- The Rolex goes to Cayard. Terry is going to win all those other races again next year. I agree with Mark Yeager, the whole USSA site is like looking at the little catalogs that came with my membership renewal.

>> Trevor Baylis -- As to who is Rolex's female choice...it'd have to be Betsy Alison. Although I think my wife (Tina Baylis) deserves it because she puts up with me crewing for her in our 49er -- which I'm told is not all peaches & cream.

>> From Andy Green -- Great choice of Cedar Point YC (for the St. Petersburg trophy). I was there with the two UK teams and we were looked after in the best possible way, the billeting was REALLY first class accommodations. The race organization was some of the best that I have seen with great boats and a very busy schedule. They probably ran in excess of 45 races a day.

PS Nick Trottman has clearly had an awesome year in events that are widely varying, a skill that Terry Hutchinson clearly also enjoys?

>> From Jeffrey Littell -- Having the ISAF approve the individual race committee members for a World Championship regatta sounds nice and in a few circumstances might be a good idea. However, how many major YC's around the USA would for even one second consider having an outsider come in and take over the race management for an event? Judging and umpiring are one thing, but R/C matters are another.

It looks to me that some at ISAF are desirous of having our sport become like professional golf and tennis. If so, I don't think YC's will be willing to take on the financial responsibilities to host an event, thereby making major changes to our sport. Perhaps it is inevitable, but I don't think I like it!

>> From Dobbs Davis -- A few words on Frank Whitton's views on IMS: His last note asked of the "powers to be...how it has an infinite number of ratings for boats based on predicted velocities and how just picking one that is close to race conditions is an order of magnitude better than IOR ever was and PHRF ever will be." Now, I'm not a 'power to be', but perhaps Frank is unfamiliar with the IMS' Performance Curve Scoring (PCS) method where a competitor's elapsed time is divided into the course's distance and model geometry (windward-leeward, ocean course, etc.) to arrive at an 'implied wind', where he who has the highest implied wind wins. PCS has been in use for several years now at most, if not all, major events, and is an objective method for determing results without subjective guesswork by race managers. The only drawbacks occur when the actual race deviates from the model (by wind shifts or current effects), but astute race managers have the ability to correct for that in the model.

I think we all agree that IOR produced some pretty beastly boats, but IMS boats are light years better, and it's too bad that problems in the IMS have been so poorly managed by the ORC. Certainly there must be a need for a scientifically based measurement handicap system that reflects a boat's changing performance in changing conditions. Why is that so difficult for people to grasp? Is the single-number, locally (and often politically)-controlled PHRF system really that preferable? I agree, John Wright should be here to defend Americap and IMS...

>> From Peter Huston -- In as much as NYYC/Young American has announced that they have signed yet another top flight technician from the world of aerospace, will they then soon announce that they will be doing research on old sailors during the Cup and that they have signed John Glenn ·and are negotiating with the curmudgeon?

'99 MAXI ONE DESIGN CHAMPIONSHIP
Pierre Fehlmann announced a new 1999 World Championship series for the Maxi One Design, a new ISAF Recognized Class. There will be a total of eight races in the series, starting on May 14 (North Sea Race) and ending after the Fastnet on August 9. Prize money of CHF 1 million ($740,000 USD) is set to attract the top skippers and crews. All yachts are chartered. The prize money is shared between the top three contestants in the classifications, with CHF 600,000 first prize and CHF 300,000 and CHF 100,000 to the second and third places respectively.

For further information: pierrefehlmann@compuserve.com

ISAF CONFERENCE
(Conference notes by Bob Fisher found on the ISAF website. This is NOT official -- if anything upsets you, don't blame the ISAF -- it's Bob's fault. 'Butt will post the official ISAF conference summary either tomorrow or Wednesday.)

PEACE HAS BEEN DECLARED
The war is finally over. The ISAF and the ORC have kissed and made up and are now the firmest of friends. Hans Zuiderbaan, the charman of the Offshore Racing Council announced to the ISAF Council that the initiative to bring theORC under the wing of the federation was now complete.

To an attentive audience he said that the letter of intent to merge with the ISAF had been drafted. It is something of a personal triumph for Zuiderbaan who, when he took over as chairman of the ORC, joined a group which was seriously animous to any form of union with the ISAF. Zuiderbaan realized that there was little point in the ORC being out on a limb and entered fruitful discussions with ISAF President Paul Henderson and the result of these together with his diplomatic handling of the ORC has resulted in a union which strengthens the federation as the world body of sailing.

WAR BREAKS OUT
It was halfway through a long afternoon at the final council meeting when Mary Pera, the vice chairman of the Racing Rules Committee, was presenting the recommendations to the ISAF Council that one item was suddenly removed from a series of 52 submissions. It was one submitted by US Sailing and concerned Rule 16 (changing course). The American federation had suggested that the changing course, Appendix C2.2 and Appendix D 1.1 needed change. The Racing Rules Committee had rejected this, eleven of them voting against it, with only 2 in favor. A similar submission two years ago was lost by only one vote which Mrs. Pera pointed out indicated a big change of heart in favor of the new rule by the Racing Rules Committee. The US delegation, Tom Ehman and Pease Glaser, fought hard and had this submission removed from the block voting of the recommendation to the council. And when it was voted upon separately had spoken eloquently and strongly about the possibility of collisions that might occur if the rule was to be retained in its present status. The vote of the Council was 14 for rejecting any change, and 14 (including President Paul Henderson) against with 9 abstentions.

Without, under Robert's Rules of Order, a further casting vote, Paul Henderson suggested that therefore this submission be returned to the Racing Rules Committee with an expression of concern from the Council.

MORE ISAF CONFERENCE
The following is another special "non-official" report to the 'Butt-heads from the just concluded ISAF Annual Conference in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Canadian Steve Tupper reporting:

THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE -- Recommended that Council create regulations defining which groups will use the different levels of advertising. All major professional events (America's Cup, Volvo round the world race, etc) will be Category C and the ISAF Executive will individually negotiate fees. The International and Recognized Classes will be able to define either A (totally restricted) or C (open). However if they select C they will be able to set levels of restriction within it. This will mean that a regatta organizer will have to decide if it wants the type of advertising used by a class before hosting its event. This will answer one of the major problems that sailors have in not knowing what events will allow what type of advertising. Event Organizers will probably be able to charge an extra fee to compensate them for providing the place for this advertising to be displayed. Local events will be able to specify A advertising only. This may exclude the elite sailor from local events but not likely.

Olympic Classes will remain the way they are until after the 2000 Olympics as they have a contract with ISAF covering advertising. Several including 49er will probably ask to change to the new regulation and allow their sailors to display more advertising.

All other sailing, non International and Recognized classes and non class (PHRF) will stay the same for the time being but we should anticipate a change to a program allowing the individual to decide the level of use of advertising. As above organizers of local events will be able to specify category A.

It is felt that this change of advertising reflects the similar programs in most other sports and will enable those at the elite levels to use advertising they need to fund their programs.

After considering reorganization it was decided to keep virtually the same committee structure for the next two years.

ISAF will explore an eligibility code similar to the US Sailing one which grade sailors at three levels ranging from totally amateur to professional. This will be highly debated before a final decision is taken.

RACING RULES COMMITTEE -- There were three very minor changes to the RRS that will take effect immediately. All other submissions are in effect delayed to the preparation of the 2001 - 2004 Rule Book. A US Sailing submission to implement a no "hunting" rule was rejected by the Rules Committee and then debated at Council. It was voted on and nearly passed with a tie vote. The decision was then to send it to a study group. There is clearly a big split around the world in relation to the significance of this problem. Canada's Submission of a Case for the Appeals Manual dealing with this subject was rejected.

MATCH RACING COMMITTEE -- There will be a Women's Match Racing Worlds in Italy in late October 1999 and at the Eastern Yacht Club in Marblehead in July of 2000. There will be a 1999 Men's Match Racing Championship in either the US or Dubai and the 2000 one will be in Croatia. They made a strong recommendation that their not be any combined fleet match events in the 2004 Olympics.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY-- There was no election for President. Paul Henderson will lead us all over the next two years. A very closely contested election was held for the seven Vice President positions those elected are; George Andreadis GRE Fernando Bolin ESP David Kellett AUS Nucci Novi Ceppellini ITA Goran Petersson SWE Ken Ryan IRL Ding Schoonmaker USA

The next Annual meeting will be held in Sydney Australia November 6 - 12, 1999.

LMSRF CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
The Lake Michigan Sailing Federation recently released the results of its season 1998 "Championship Series'. The LMSRF series are season long affairs. Included are events such as: Queens Cup, Chicago to Mac, NOOD regatta, Verve Cup, Harbor Springs etc.

In the inaugural season for the new One Design 35, Robert Hughes Heartbreaker scored a 4 point win over David Bowen's Hippy Chick. The J/35 series was won by William Newman's Aftershock, with Copernicus 2nd. Revelation was the top J/105. 2nd by 4 points was En Garde. Winner of the PHRF series was Guy Heistand's Gauntlet. A mere 1 point back was Joel Krisoff's Pronto. The IMS fleet winner was Fred Pipin's V-Max. In 2nd was Thomas Neill's Nitemare. The T-10 fleet also had a close contest for the top spot. First was Rick Strillky's US, with 13 points. Only 1 point back was Water Works owned by Lillie/Snyder. Michael Leland's EIR was the Mumm 30 winner, followed by Thomas Papanek's Fuzzy Logic. -- Courtesy of the Torresen Sailing Site

For complete results please visit: http://www.torresen.com

AROUND ALONE
Following J.P. Mouligne's first place in Class II Friday, Mike Garside crossed the Cape Town finish line at 0316 Greenwich Mean Time Saturday to grab second, just ahead of Brad Van Liew at 0443 GMT. Garside had mounted a furious comeback to erase a several-hundred-mile deficit, and ultimately overtook Van Liew in the trip's last 36 hours. "I was [inshore of Van Liew] and I didn't think I'd be able to hold on," he said. "I was counting on a southeast breeze to come off the land and it did. At that point I was able to skid up towards the finish line."

Garside's heroics came at the tail end of a wild last week at sea: "I had a blizzard about three days ago. The whole boat was covered in snow. We'd been surfing along on one long surf, making 24 knots for a half hour. And I didn't bring my bloody gloves!" -- Herb McCormick

Curmudgeon's comment: There are still seven Around Alone boats out at sea -- two of which have more than 2000 miles to go. They're going to have to hustle in order to make it to Cape Town for the December 5 start of the next leg.

Event Website http://www.aroundalone.com

THE CURMUDGEON COUNSEL
Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you are going.