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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 801 - April 25, 2001Scuttlebutt is a digest of yacht racing news of major significance; commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome.
THE PREZ SAYS - Paul Henderson, ISAF President Sailing is a participatory sport which encompasses an incredible spectrum not only in type of craft, Windsurfing to America's Cup and everything in between, but also in the level of expertise of the competitors. Sailing also attracts reasonably intelligent people all of whom have opinions based on whatever experience they have learned on their waters. ISAF's challenge is to get their head out of any individual boat and endeavor to look at the total picture providing services to and protecting sailors. There is also the unpleasant ISAF task of assessing penalties and enforcing them.
ISAF has been able to isolate the Drug Testing by the following: Having explained all the above the final requirement of this government endeavor is that: "If any Sailor is caught cheating by using performance enhancing drugs ISAF and any other sport must have the structure to ban them from all aspects of sport." ISAF Eligibility Code now ensures ISAF can meet this requirement. If ISAF has made a mistake it is in not communicating the story properly and having a chart which separates the jurisdiction and therefore the penalties inherent in the Medical, Eligibility, Advertising, Codes from the Right -of -Way Rules. These issues are very difficult and all the Codes are in reaction to outside pressures from other agencies such as governments with regard to the Medical Code, America's Cup which petitioned ISAF to allow advertising and Eligibility which came originally from Olympics because of the professional/amateur issue, plus the nationalism designation, plus the Drug penalties imposed by governments. The reaction that the "Codes" negatively impacts the local racing scene must be clarified as they should not. The corollary of this is that the local racing scene must understand that ISAF must administer the sport reacting to the needs for uniformity in international regulations which impact Sailing and sailors. - Paul Henderson
RED, WHITE AND BLUE
ORACLE RACING Don't believe everything you read. A spokesman for Oracle racing told us today: "Chris (Dickson) is still with the syndicate and we are looking forward to working with him - he is still very much with us." This message was reinforced by syndicate CEO, Bill Erkelens who was adamant in confirming that what he called the "afterguard" - Cayard and Dickson - were still firmly in place. Erkelens went on, "We have over 100 people working in our company and four people have left. That is just normal operating of a business." Suggesting that the rumours had been fuelled by unsubstantiated reports on a number of web sites, Erkelens confessed, "I have been a little frustrated by other people's comments that comment on speculation from somebody else". - Peter Bentley, madforsailing website. Full story: www.madforsailing.com
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON * From Dean M. Brenner: (edited to 250-words) To Scott Truesdell and the other like-minded conspiracy theorists, I say "listen to yourselves... please!" I am 32 years, and I am on the Board of Directors at US Sailing. For 9 of the last 12 months I have been unemployed (willingly, mind you, but unemployed nonetheless). I am not a retired "geezer". I do not have significant discretionary income. I go to US Sailing meetings. (They are never "week-long"... quite to the contrary, Thursday through Sunday is standard.) In fact, for the last meeting in Charlotte, I drove - from Massachusetts. 15 hours each way, in an attempt to save a few bucks. And I shared a room with a buddy in an attempt to make it more affordable. I could go on about all the anti-US Sailing opinions expressed in Scuttlebutt that are clearly based on little fact, but 250 words is the limit. The phone company did NOT kill Kennedy. NASA DID in fact land on the moon in 1969. The Easter Island Statues were NOT placed there by aliens. And no one at US Sailing is trying to kill the sport with extreme prejudice. Just for once... read your messages to Scuttlebutt before you hit send! Listen to yourself! Or even better... come to the next US Sailing meeting. I'll pick you up on my way. And you will have me as a captive audience for 26 hours and you'll have all the time in the world to explain to me what REALLY happened at Waco. * From Hugh Elliot: Tom Donlan made some good points and formulated the problem in a different light. Scott Truesdell's remarks, however, indicate a gross misunderstanding of what really goes on at U.S. SAILING and of the type of people involved. Not everyone is comfortably retired or the possessor of a box-car sized trust fund. I, for one, have spent most of the past four years as Chairman of U.S. Sailing's Committee on Sailors with Special Needs while simultaneously scratching a living as a small business consultant. I am intensely aware that the time (6 - 8 hours a week) and money (enough to buy a suit of sails each year) could have profitably been used elsewhere. As a sailor for forty years, I have made a commitment to give back something to the sport of sailing and to help others improve their sailing skills. As the workload declines in my final year as Chairman, I am now becoming involved - as a volunteer - with a Community/Adaptive Sailing Program. Then there is the time and money required to chase a 2004 Paralympic Gold Medal. I will, however, still find the time and money to be involved with U.S. Sailing although on a reduced scale. * From Stephen Hunter: It sounds like President Henderson plans to throw away the keys once he and the fellow members of the ISAF board have got this "membership issue" locked up. It is time to open up some avenues of escape, at least we have to have room for choice before we have lost total control of this "membership issue" and it's ramifications. The Rule becomes without membership for all you cannot play. Even being a member through Scuttleboat gives little solace if the rules of the game are not being written for the masses, but are the result of the wishes of those who want total control of our recreational sport. The individual National authorities have to reflect the wishes of their constituents and vote against the enforcement of this Rule. If the ISAF has a problem controlling the behavior of a few select athletes let them do it in some other manner rather than at the expense of the club racer by demanding all his crew be members. * From Larry Butchart: Two points - I think people should keep in mind on the whole handicapping issue. My first point is there will never be one system to make all sailors happy. Those in the market of building, or buying a grand prix racer, are going to do it with only one thing in mind... winning. I know if I was going to spend a half-million plus on a yacht, I'd expect to win. Therefore, no matter what handicap system you come up with, designers are going to do every thing they can to find the smallest loop hole in it. A handicap based on plugging these loopholes, is way beyond the needs of us sailors who buy new or used production boats, where racing is maybe only part of the reason for our choice of boats. And wouldn't you all agree that this constitutes 70 to 90 % of boats our there racing? My second point would be that no matter what system you use, there will be a percentage of racers who are never happy unless they win all the time. What frustrates most fleet sailors, is the guy who usually wins, until one guy comes along that beats him, then demands a re-rate. The average fleet racer is pretty happy I think, with his lot in life. What would truly be divine is to see all the whiners forced into one-design! * From Glenn T. McCarthy: I am always amused at the arguments on handicapping. Mine is better than yours, no it's not, yes it is, no it's not, etc. All of us expend so much energy bashing on each others favorite handicapping system, pointing out its defects and touting our systems benefits, we all miss the point. The point is, we should figure out how to take all of this energy, stop preaching to the choir (that's what we are doing isn't it?) and try to figure out how to take all systems benefits and deliver them to all of those non-racing boats sitting in the harbors around the country on race day. Lord knows that we spend too much energy arguing amongst ourselves, and hardly any energy trying to deliver the gospel to the non-believers. How do we re-direct all of this pent-up energy to get more boats on the starting line? * From Richard Hazelton: The right of way rules and other rules that keep people from hitting each other are necessary for safety and to put people on the same page in certain conditions. The rest of the rules are for those people who don't, and won't, stop at anything to win a race. All this hassle about ratings and eligibility has nothing to do with sailing, it's politics and economics. Rating rules were designed for club racing. Since many people had different boats for use other than racing, it was a way to get them to all enjoy racing on the same course. The self-proclaimed serious competitors that use ratings at a high level are not looking for even racing. If they were they'd all decide on a boat, race it for two or three years, then get another. No, they want to design a boat to a rating system to get that "unfair" advantage over the other guy, to make it a designers contest to see who can beat the rule. Hmmmm sounds like the America's Cup. No difference. Maybe we need two sets of rules; one for those of us who want to enjoy club racing and bring new people into the sport and another for those that have to push everything over the limit in order to win. Let the latter argue about all this stuff and keep the basic rules simple and open for the vast majority of sailors not racing on an "elite" level. The tail is wagging the dog. * From Larry Law (edited to our 250-word limit) - Time for a "what's right about sailing" break. The annual CISA Clinic in Long Beach was again a phenominal event for youth sailing. For those of you not aware of this event, CISA holds an annual advanced racing clinic for young sailors. CISA is a four day "boot camp" that brings together some of the best young sailors in the country and a wide variety of the finest coaches to train on and off the water in what is best described as a butt kicking experience - about 140 sailors. The sailors train for 3 days in; Lasers, Radials, Flying Juniors, Club 420's, 29er's and the Europe Dinghy. The sailors start at 8am, train on the water - often with only a soggy lunch break on their boats - and find their way back to the docks around 4-4:30pm. They meet with coaches, de-brief in a lively exchange of verbal and video critiques. The sailors are fed and then there are speakers that keep the sailors occupied until 9pm or so. They're spent, but can't wait for the next day. The fourth day is race day, intense, individual classes competition. A key person in this equation is Tim Hogan, the "pit boss" of So Cal youth sailing. His dedication to and love of the sport and the kids is tireless. I also want to extend a "Magic Kindom" size thank you to Roy Disney who has generously committed a half million dollars in support of youth sailing.
VOLVO OCEAN RACE
CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS * May 4-6: The Annapolis NOOD Regatta, Annapolis Yacht Club. Some 225 boats from 21 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada will compete in and 16 one-design classes. - www.sailingworld.com * June 14, 2003: DaimlerChrysler North Atlantic Challenge -An IRC race from New York to Germany for racers, cruiser/racers and cruisers with transatlantic ambitions. The race is open to seaworthy racing and cruising monohull vessels, not less than 40 feet LOA. - www.dcnac.org/eng/index.html
STEINER 7X50 NAVIGATOR BINOCULARS - $399.00!
JUNIOR OLYMPICS Regional events:
May 19-20: Lake Lanier SC, Atlanta, GA
Compete information: www.ussailing.org/youth/racing/jo
REMEMBER WHEN Jack Sutphen, who first raced in an America's Cup in 1974, said the sport has changed much during its 150-year history. He remembers the days when all the team members were volunteers. Those were also the days team members wore a suit and tie when they sat down to dinner, instead of the khaki shorts and T-shirts so prevalent today, he said. "Team members would get together for a couple of months and train and that was it," Sutphen said. No longer. "It's become a much more professional and full-time operation," he said. While the America's Cup has always been a rich person's sport, Sutphen said, it takes even more money to compete nowadays. While these changes may have been inevitable, they have also taken some of the romance and simplicity out of the sport, Sutphen said. "Along with an increased professionalism has come a decrease in loyalty," he said, both by the members to their team and the team to its members. "It's become a sport where you race for the highest bidder." - John Scheibe Full story: www.staronline.com
QUOTE / UNQUOTE - Ken Read
THE CURMUDGEON'S COUNSEL |
