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SCUTTLEBUTT 1792 - March 10, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. BASS STRAIT CONQUERED BY LASER DINGHY SAILOR One of the most ferocious pieces of water in the world was today conquered by Australian sailing Olympic Bronze medallist, Dr Michael Blackburn, who sailed his 4.2 metre Laser Dinghy from Stanley in Northern Tasmania 115 nautical miles to Tidal Beach in Norman Bay, near Wilson's Promontory, Victoria in 13.5 hours. The perfect weather window opened for the Sydney sailor, with winds of 15-20 knots powering his tiny craft, with pocket-handkerchief 7 square metres of sail 'I hoisted sail at 3:30 am. The first few hours before dawn was pretty hairy, I was planing downwind doing 8-9's, with no moon and no stars, a couple of times I put the bow in the water and filled the cockpit. First light was a little after 6am and it was a relief to see the waves were not as big as they seemed in the dark. .We knew we just had to be patient and wait for the right day and this was it. I always knew Lasers were fun down-wind, I reckon I caught a wave just about every 10 seconds for 13 and a half hours (4000+ waves). My average speed was 8.6 knots. Today has just been a blast.' 37-year-old Blackburn, who sailed in the Laser class at three Olympics, was a heartbreaking two points out of the medals in Atlanta, but won Bronze in Sydney. By 2004 he reached number one in the world rankings and again won selection but finished ninth. - Rob Kothe, www.Sail-World.com Blackburn's website: www.sailfitter.com CHEYENNE DISMASTED At 1200 GMT Steve Fossett's entry in Oryx Quest 2005, Cheyenne, skippered by David Scully was dismasted in heavy seas off the east coast of Argentina, about 200 miles north of the Falkland Islands. With the mast and all rigging overboard, and no other obvious damage, they are awaiting rescue from the Argentinean navy who have been alerted to their condition. The navy is not likely to reach them until 0200 hours GMT on March 10th. Because of the sea conditions, which David Scully described in a phone call to race head quarters as moderate, it is likely the navy will stand off until first light when they will be able to affect a safe rescue. Cheyenne will then be towed to the nearest port which will take another 24 hours minimum. David Scully has informed Steve Fossett, the owner of the boat, and has stated, "We are all safe which is the important thing! The good news is that we are now able to enjoy our first cooked meal in days." Steve Fossett told race HQ the lower shroud broke which caused the mast to buckle and come down. Cheyenne has now officially withdrawn from the race leaving just Doha 2006 and Daedalus still on the round the world race course. Standings: Doha 2006, 8844 miles to finish, 2. Deadalus 3257 miles to leader; Retired: Geronimo & Cheyenne. - www.oryxquest.com/ FOR THE RECORD Francis Joyon, plans to have his IDEC trimaran on stand-by for an attempt at the Atlantic record from April 10. Joyon is getting ready to rejoin his boat in Guadeloupe and the first journey lined up is the voyage to New York, where the boat is expected by the first week of April. The singlehanded record for the 2925 mile passage from New York to the Lizard is 7 days 2 hours 34 minutes 42 seconds set by Laurent Bourgnon aboard Primagaz in June 1994. Bourgnon also set the 24-hour single handed record of 540 miles during that passage. Joyon will be using the services of the meteorological expert Jean-Yves Bernot for his route planning. "The main difficulty is going to be that we have to go fast all the time," he explaned. The average speed is so high, that there's no time to hang around. The slightest weather hitch, the slightest hold up and the record is out of our grasp. The weather has to be just right over the six days." Hence the decision of the skipper of IDEC to carry out his attempt using the help of a router: "This is a vital tool, which is allowed within the framework of the record. The Atlantic is the time, which has the fastest average speed in single-handed sailing. The chances of beating it on one attempt are low, as all the attempts over the past ten years have failed. You really have to ensure luck is with you by using all the available means." SHOSHOLOZA (The cupinfo.com website interviewed Shosholoza's Sailing Manager Paul Standbridge and Skipper Geoff Meek about the syndicate's goal for first-ever African team to compete for the America's Cup. Here are a couple excerpts.) CI: How would you rate your chances? Standbridge: Our immediate goals were not that high. Day 1 sailing was to get the sails up and down, tacking and gybing. We were happy with our results in 2004, competing at a high level and beating one team in one Act. As for our goals, we want to pursue a professional challenge where we are aiming to be in the quarter-finals. CI: Early indications were you will be one of the first teams to build and sail a new boat. Standbridge: The new number for the new boat is confirmed. It is RSA 83 which is the next consecutive number for an IACC yacht. CI: Will you bring RSA-48 up to version 5 of the ACC rule? Standbridge: No, we will not. We do not have the time to take her out of the sailing programme to change her to Version 5 nor do we have the budget for that exercise. CI: Some say the weather off South Africa is not ideal for practice, for developing the potential of the team or boat. Standbridge: Table Bay is perhaps not the best place to tune an AC boat, but we have certainly made the most of it and we have no excuses with regards to the weather in Cape Town. I would suggest that it is not a particularly good testing venue because of its shifty and gusty conditions. Meek: As an area for single boat crew training, it is perfect as we are constantly battling the weather as well as doing tight maneuvers in changing winds. Complete interview: www.cupinfo.com/en/shoshointerview01-1.php MARION - BERMUDA & BUZZARDS BAY WEATHER ADVISORY! Catch the wind shift! Improve your inshore and offshore sailing skills. The comprehensive weather seminar on April 16th uses cutting edge graphics. Learn the theory at New Bedford's Whaling Museum. Combine weather & currents. Aboard or ashore from his office, Bill Biewenga, veteran ocean racer and weather router is also available to work with you, your crew, or club. Bill brings 340,000 ocean miles & 18 years of weather routing experience to each project. Review the full range of weather seminars - live & online. Email Bill at mailto:billbiewenga@compuserve.com or visit us at http://www.weather4sailors.com CONGRESSIONAL CUP The lineup for the 41st Congressional Cup, presented by Acura, sends an ominous message: Here come the Kiwis! Russell Coutts, Chris Dickson and Dean Barker---three of the best talents spawned by New Zealand's cradle of world-class match racers over two decades---will be among those going head to head in the Long Beach Yacht Club classic April 12-16. Their rivals, listed alphabetically with current ISAF international rankings and their clubs noted: - Scott Dickson (No. 37), LBYC representative and Chris Dickson's younger brother; - Chris Larson (No. 256), Annapolis, Md., Annapolis YC; - Chris Law (No. 51), England, the 1994 winner, representing South Africa's Royal Cape YC; - Staffan Lindberg (No. 12), Finland, - Lars Nordbjerg, (No. 9), Denmark, Skovshoved Sejlklub; - Philippe Presti (No. 6), France, Union Nationale pour la Course au Large; - Mathieu Richard (No. 4), France, APCC-Voile Sportive. Ed Baird, the 2004 Congressional Cup winner and current Swedish Match Tour leader, and Gavin Brady, a two-time winner plus a semifinalist the last three years, will not be competing because of their commitments to the America's Cup campaigns of Alinghi and BMW Oracle Racing, respectively. Chris Dickson, the latter team's CEO, will represent Larry Ellison's San Francisco-based team instead. Coutts has never sailed in the Congressional Cup but won the World Match Racing Championship event in the same Catalina 37 sloops on the same waters in 1996. - Rich Roberts, http://www.lbyc.org/ ORANGE II Orange II has made her way through the ridge of high pressure, which has been slowing her down off the Cape Verde Islands. Some 2500 miles from the island of Ushant, the maxi catamaran is making 15 knots headway towards the North West. She is not on a direct route towards the tip of Brittany, as there is still another hurdle ahead, the Azores high, which is unusually low down. In spite of a record bad day yesterday of just 166 miles, Bruno Peyron's crew still has a cracking lead of more than 9 days over Steve Fossett's record. "The weather's fabulous, there isn't much wind, but we're making do with what we have," Peyron said. "There's always the risk of getting held up again, as there's a low-pressure system to the north of the Azores and we're going to be getting out of this area in fits and starts. However, it's not quite as messy as it was." At 0050 GMT on Thursday Orange II had covered 24,026 nm at an average speed of 22.4 knots, having sailed 257 nm in the previous 24 hours. Orange II is now 3036 ahead of the absolute record held by Steve Fossett's Cheyenne with 2426 nm to go. - www.maxicatamaran-orange.com/ THE STARS Mark Mendelblatt of St. Petersburg, FL and crew Mark Strube of West Palm Beach, FL have moved into first place overall after finishing first and fourth in Wednesday's back to back races at the 2005 Bacardi Cup for Star boats. Day 3 of racing was cancelled because of small craft warnings and the race was made up today. "It was shift, windy and crazy out there today," said Mendelblatt. "Stars are a lot more complicated than Lasers," said Mendelblatt, who sailed a Laser in the 2004 Olympics and took Silver at the World Laser Championships. Standings after four races (68 boats): 1. Mark Mendelblatt, Mark Strube, USA, 12 pts 2. Vince Brun, Doug Brophy, USA, 27 3. Peter Bromby, Rick Peters, BER, 30 4. Rick Merriman, Brad Nichol, USA, 31 5. Afonso Domingos, Bernardo Santos, POR, 40 6. 8045 Augie Diaz, Bob Schofield, USA, 40 7. George Szabo, Christian Finnsgard, USA, 44 Complete results: www.starclass.org/search2.cgi?Action=results CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar STERN SCOOP At the February meeting of the AC 32 Challenger Commission it was unanimously agreed to send a letter to the Valencia Port Authorities concerning the implementation of the ACM "Met Data Service." For over a year the Challengers have objected to ACM's acceptance of Alinghi's recommendation to spend Euro 3,000,000 to place 20 weather buoys in the racing areas. The Challengers believe that this large number of weather buoys will, for technical reasons, give a competitive advantage to Alinghi, is unnecessarily expensive, and will constitute a hazard to navigation. This latter point is the reason for our letter to the Port, which was faxed February 21. - www.challengercommission.com/ ULLMAN SAILS WINS 2005 J24 MIDWINTER CHAMPIONSHIPS Congratulations to Max Skelley and his crew Chris Crockett, Doug Fisher, Jeff Linton and Tim Hodgkiss for winning the J/24 Midwinter Championships. Max flew a full inventory of Ullman Sails to lead the 45 boat fleet wire to wire with four firsts, and posted 7 top ten finishes in the 9-race championship hosted by Davis Island Yacht Club in Tampa, FL. Ullman Sails consistently delivers championship performance and service to our customers who demand the "Fastest Sails on the Planet." For new FibrePath technology, contact your nearest Ullman Sails loft and visit http://www.ullmansails.com PHASE TWO Thirty-four thousand hours after starting work last June the new VO 70 MoviStar begun its first training sessions. "This is just another step in our preparation for the 50.000 miles the MoviStar will cover during the Volvo Ocean Race's competition and training," notes Pedro Campos. "Today marks the start of a new phase of activity continues the general manager of the project optimizing all technical aspects before launching into training on the open sea en route from Australia to Spain." The countdown has now begun, ticking away at numerous tests designed principally to observe the sails configurations as well as the team members. "At this second stage of the project our objective is to make sure everything works smoothly and properly," notes skipper Bouwe Bekking. We'll also start to engage the human side of the operation, putting each person at their post on the boat." The last phase of the preparation followed by another of six months after arriving in Galicia will begin with the boat's sail to Brazil, broken by a short 24 hour stop in Wellington (New Zealand). This segment will reproduce the exact route of the fourth and perhaps most difficult leg of the Volvo Ocean Race, traveling through Cape Horn, up the Eastern coast of South America and over to Rio de Janeiro. - www.movistar.com/vela 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 not 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.) * From V.J. Chigas: Am I the only person who thinks picking the weather before a long race like the Chicago-Mac is goofy? There is a current commercial being played here in Chicago for the most accurate weatherperson in town. I believe he got it right 115 days during the year. Any Lake Michigan sailor will admit the conditions can vary significantly on the same course on the same day. I hope that theory is re considered. * From Scott Truesdell: A look at Ellen MacArthur's sails after her record breaking Around the World passage pretty much says it all: the sails looked brand new. I followed her record passage every single day and I don't think I remember any mention of sail failures. 26,000+ miles of wind and UV. Improve on that. * From Phil Smithies (edited to our 250-word limit): At the moment there are only two boats completed for the Volvo Ocean Race, a couple nearly finished , and one or two more still looking to finalize sponsorship and start building and the race is due to start in November. Considering the loss of keels recently, once the domain of the Open 60s, now happening all to frequently, is it a wise thing to send completely untried 70 foot race boats into the Southern Ocean where rescue is at best almost impossible. If these boats were fixed keel I would not worry as much , but it must be obvious that swing keels are still in there development stage , and I am sure that they will be perfected one day, but they still need more development. Antigua, Cork Week, Transpac , that is one thing , but to send fully crewed untested boats into the wildest waters on the planet is, I think , extremely foolhardy. If the boats had been used for a year or so and been tested mechanically, OK, but these highly powered machines are expected to arrive at the start line with little sea time on them and expected to be pushed to the limits again, racing around the cans fine - Southern Ocean untried -a bad idea. I hope I am totally wrong . * From David Searle (re curmudgeon's observation about a skinny female): Now let's be fair here. There is a skinny male inside me, too. But I shut him up with beer. * From Jean Quest: Given the flack you've received lately about inappropriate Curmudgeon Observations, I can only hope you meant this as a joke--albeit one in very poor taste. And even if you did, it's not very funny. When are we gonna see an Observation about how over-weight men can't see their dickey-doos, or think with the little head instead of the big head, or any other derogatory comments about men? Given the image bias in our culture and its correlation to so many young women with life-threatening eating disorders, many of whom are sailing crew starving and/or over-exercising to try and compete with their male counterparts, this comment is in totally bad taste. * From Linda Frederick: I'm so glad it wasn't just me. Dave Bandstra's letter struck me as quite the funniest thing I've read since the no-joke announcement that Kinky Friedman is running for governor of Texas. But yesterday's outraged responses made me wonder if I had simply misunderstood, perhaps from being a new "Scuttlebutt" reader. Worse, I had the gnawing fear that my years of devotion to Monty Python might have seriously impaired my perceptions and judgment. What a relief, your readers seem like my kind of people. * From Halsey Bullen: Guy Gurney's recollection of Eric Twiname's unpublished play reminds me of the fine Whitbread-inspired novel Great Circle, by Sam Llewellyn, author of several sea-related mystery-adventure novels. It was published in hardcover and paperback, but now seems to be out of print. * From Gregory Scott Kingston: On at least one occasion, I have read a letter in Butt relating to what I consider a wonderful aspect of our sport, the ability to display our shortcomings in the midst of some of the best sailors on the planet. For the most part, simply being willing to get a boat, yourself and crew to a regatta venue and paying the entrance fee, may be all that's required to get you on the start line with some "big names" in the game. That is something very few other activities can lay claim to. Once on the course, the glaring evidence of those shortcomings may cause some to chuckle in wonder. As Butt is a sailing forum, it is no surprise that while we are amused and enlightened by the contributions of some the finest sailing practitioner's and journalists, we are also presented from time to time with some short sighted considerations of what has been published. This week is an example. It is for all of these reasons that I love to participate. It is like the water we sail on, open to all comers. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION My mother taught me 'irony' as she explained, "Keep crying and I'll give you something to cry about." |
