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SCUTTLEBUTT 1296 - March 28, 2003Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American emphasis. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. FEEDING FRENZY Geneva, March 27 - To date, more than sixty sites from around the world have expressed their interest in hosting the next America's Cup regatta to the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG). Under the terms of the newly issued Protocol for the 32nd America's Cup, AC Management Ltd will assist the SNG with the organization of the event. One of its responsibilities is to select the host site for the America's Cup. To ensure the success of this process, ACM has brought in experts specialized in the organization of sporting events on an international scale. The person in charge of the selection process, Michel Bonnefous, explains: "We have identified eight sites and sent them a request for additional technical information concerning meteorology, facilities and infrastructure." Those sites are Barcelona, Lisbon, Marseille, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Sardinia - Porto Cervo, Tuscany - Elba, and Valencia The selection committee will use the data provided by those eight sites to help them select the four finalists for hosting the 32nd America's Cup. The announcement of those four candidate sites will be made in the month of May. Those four sites will then have to provide a complete application dossier. The choice of the site for the next America's Cup regatta will be communicated before 15 December 2003. As Michel Bonnefous explains: "After having carried off the America's Cup, we are getting ready for a new challenge. For the first time, the America's Cup will take place in Europe. This is the beginning of a great adventure and I am happy to be building the foundations of this historic event." - AC Management Ltd ALTER CUP Twenty teams have qualified to race for the Alter Cup at US Sailing's Multihull Championship held April 5-11 in Clearwater, Florida, hosted by the Clearwater Community Sailing Center and the Clearwater Yacht Club. This year's event will be sailed in ten brand-new, factory-supplied Bimare Javelin 2 F18HT catamarans. Among the racers are defending champion Matt Struble, sailing with W.F. Oliver, Worrell 1000 Champions Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston, Hobie 18 National Champion Ken Marshack, and Tommy Bahama Sailing Team Nigel Pitt and Alex Shafer. Ten of the U.S. Multihull Championship teams have been selected by competition in their US Sailing's Area qualification events. Six more teams are attending as national champions in the top catamaran classes including the Olympic catamaran. The defending national champion along with three teams chosen based on resume round out the field of 20. Originally, the selection of teams was based on open Area eliminations, the committee decided to reinvigorate the championship by allocating spots to the major Multihull classes in addition to the Area entries. Randy Smyth has won the event four times, while Carlton Tucker is a three-time winner. - Marlieke de Lange Eaton, www.clearwatercommunitysailing.org, www.clwyc.org and www.ussailing.org. ILLBRUCK TESTED Ever wonder which breakthrough developments from events like the Volvo Ocean Race will make their way to your boat? Wonder no more. Now's your chance to realize and benefit from one, Gill's new Ocean Racer line of gear. Developed and tested by the illbruck Challenge, Gill's end result is a new line ideal for the most arduous ocean/offshore racing, providing full foul-weather protection and high breathability without any compromise in durability. Check out Gill's Ocean Racer gear available at Annapolis Performance Sailing and featured this week on APS' Hot New Items page, your source for the latest innovations: http://www.apsltd.com/scuttlebutt.asp REASON PREVAILS The Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron committee voted unanimously to retain Russell Coutts and Brad Butterworth as members. Life member John Street had asked that they be expelled for joining Swiss syndicate Alinghi. - NZ Herald, www.nzherald.co.nz/ AROUND ALONE At midday Friday, Salvador time, Alan Paris on BTC Velocity was 260 miles from the finish sailing with light winds from behind. For the only Around Alone competitor still at sea, it's frustratingly slow, but Paris is not one to complain. He knows he will get to Brazil eventually and when he does he can look forward to his longest stretch on land since the race started. Unless the wind gods are particularly unkind, he should have over two weeks to spend with his wife and young son. "We will just wait until he gets here," Becky Paris said, "and when he does we will have a great time until he leaves again." It has been like that since the start and Becky and son Tucker have learned to take it in stride. Missing from the line-up this stopover is Chloe Stamm. She is home with her very pregnant mother, and her father who has taken a brief vacation to before the last leg. In the other stopovers Chloe has become a fixture on board all the boats swinging from the rigging and taking showers from any available hose. Also missing is Tate Van Liew who thinks of all the skippers as kindly uncles (and aunt!). Dad Brad is back in the US and the whole gang will return to Brazil in time for the start of Leg 5. Only Tim Kent will miss seeing his kids this stopover. "It's about money, as in we don't have enough to pay for air tickets as well as food for the last leg," Tim said. Children have become integral to this event and they are quickly learning about life on the road. - Excerpts from a story by Brian Hancock on the Around Alone website. Full story: www.aroundalone.com/raceviewer/archive/ SAILING SHORTS * The Alinghi team will be in Zurich for the weekend on the third leg of its Swiss tour, according to Alinghi's Web site. Fans will be able to admire the coveted America's Cup trophy and try their hand on the famous Match Race simulator -- an electronic game that allows the public to test drive an America's Cup Class yacht on a match racing course. The team will also hold autograph sessions Friday through Sunday. - CNN.com/Inside Sailing website, full story: www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/sailing/03/27/ac.trophy.tour/index.html * More than 90 boats have entered the 30th International Rolex Regatta in St. Thomas, USVI that starts today. Its catamaran roster has been dramatically expanded by 8-10 U.S. teams that will be competing in the event for the first time. The teams have impressive credentials and are led by the husband-and-wife team of Jay and Pease Glaser (Long Beach, Calif.), who will be sailing a Nacra F 18. The bulk of the fleet will be comprised of mid-size boats ranging from 24 to 45 feet, with large contingent IC-24s rounding things out. Winners in each of the classes will be awarded a Rolex timepiece. - www.rolexcupregatta.com * Over the past seven years, Pacific Sail Expo®, which comes to Oakland from April 23 to April 27. has grown to become the largest all-sail boat show on the West Coast. This year, the show will have more than 300 exhibitors coming from Asia, Europe, and 30 U.S. states. Two replica sail-training vessels will add an historic element to the fleet of new boats. They are the 103' Hawaiian Chieftain--a 1988-launched replica of a 1790s northern European trading ship--and the recently launched 110' brigantine Irving Johnson. - Cynthia Goss, www.sailamerica.com FOR THE RECORD (Here's the latest report from Great America II attempting to set a record for the Hong Kong to New York run.) The equatorial sun high above was causing the formation of big dark squall clouds that just grew and sat there. By early afternoon, none of the squalls were moving and neither was Great American II. It was time for Rich Wilson to go swimming and complete the cleaning of the bottom of the two outer pontoon hulls. Rich was scrubbing away at the bow of the starboard pontoon with me standing above holding his safety tether, when I saw a three foot long golden brown colored sea snake swimming rapidly out from under the main hull to see what's happening. I yelled "sea snake" and Rich Wilson swam like Tarzan dragging me along until he reached the stern where he quickly boarded. The sea snake wandered off, probably for fatter prey. In some regions these animals are poisonous; we are not sure about this one, but didn't want to experiment. - Rich du Moulin, www.sitesalive.com LAYLINE POSTS STRESS TEST RESULTS: 12-STRAND LINES As usual, "Crazy Walt" let curiosity get the better of him and wasted some more days playing - ahem, working - on the stressing bench quantifying what he has been seeing on the water. Click, and come on down (http://www.layline.com/llf/llpages/htmlp2/page2.htm). Check out the raw data; make your own conclusions. This information, matched with your needs and our advice, will help you be certain that your gear is working as planned and your expectations of performance are accurate. Accuracy, measurability, and repeatability equal speed. Layline helps make speed happen. 1(800) 542-5463. SURVEY Scuttlebutt readers have never been short of opinions, and it is always a struggle to determine which letters deserve to be published. Beginning next week, the Scuttlebutt website will introduce a new survey tool so that we can find out exactly how the 'Buttheads feel. Each week we will raise a question in the newsletter, and provide a link to the website for you to cast your vote. Results are updated automatically, and we will announce the final count the following week. If you have any survey question ideas, please send them to info@sailingscuttlebutt.com. LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) (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 or a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Olin Stephens: Because Bill Mavrogiannis was such an important player on the old S&S team and gave me so many reasons for thanks, I hope I can say now, publicly and with sincere appreciation. "Thank you, Bill for your friendship and for all you did to make S&S boats what they were. So long, Olin" * From Dean Hubbard I don't have kids but I pass along all the educational related sailing websites that appear in Scuttlebutt to one of the guys here in the office whose wife home-schools their two boys. We live in Florida where the parents tell me the education system is glorified day care so the SitesAlive! news as well as the other sailing related webucational events (Volvo Ocean Race, etc.) are well worth the little time it takes to click on the link. You never know to what a kid will suddenly, and forever, take an interest. I hope other 'Buttheads will pass on to their acquaintances with school-age children the occasional sailing weblinks that offer first rate fun curriculum for the small sailors, marine biologists, navigators, historians, meteorologists, and hula designers-to-be. * From Rand Milton: One excellent remedy to combat sea sickness is the Scopolamine patch. I always wear one for long distance racing and have never felt ill even in the worst of conditions. And this comes from someone who gets motion sickness reading a book in a moving car! We had a "newbie" on my watch in the last Bermuda Race who claimed he never got sea sick and refused to wear the patch. He was useless for the first 48 hours until he finally had one placed on, and then he started to feel better a few hours later. Needless to say, he boarded a plane home shortly after arriving in Bermuda claiming he'll never ocean race again. Since the patch affects people differently, I suggest that it be tried before to make sure there aren't adverse reactions. * From Andrew Burton: During the ten years I had a business doing offshore sail training I had the opportunity to do some research on seasickness. The most telling demonstration of how to beat it occurred one November as I was taking 54 people on 9 different boats offshore from Newport. We were delayed by bad weather for 3 days. Every night we thought we'd have a window to leave the next day so everyone was assiduous about taking their medication of choice each day. On doing the skipper's debriefing in Bermuda 5 days later, it turned out that only one of the nearly 40 crewmembers who went offshore for the first time ever was sick. Experience tells me that normally at least half would have been down for the count for minimum of a day or two. Getting the medication into their system well before departure stopped the majority from getting sick on a rather rough passage. Also it didn't matter whether the medication was the Trans -Derm patch, Dramamine, Bonine, or Stugeron --- all were effective when they were taken well in advance of departure. * From Paul Swanson: In regards to the sea sickness topic I have found that eating sweet foods like dried Apricots come up as well as they go down. You are not left with the horrible taste in your mouth as well so it's a pleasure to throw up. Could be worthwhile if you can feel seasickness coming on. * From C. D. Coulsen: The PFD debate never ceases to amaze me. Once when working as a labourer on a building site I was told that the only way you get better at digging holes was digging holes. It is funny how people don't think that rule applies to sailing boats. Nowdays people turn up for long races without having sailed any more than around the cans in the previous year. It is not an accident that the delivery crews or those who sail heaps always move around the boat more freely especially at night. So if you don't regularly sail longer passages and just turn out for the "big event" ask yourself the question "do you feel lucky or will someone want the body back" This issue has very little to do with giving in to authority and everything to do with individual responsibility and doing the right thing by the owner of the boat who at the end of the day who carries great responsibility and accountability. CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: Just because we published this letter does not mean the PFD thread has been reopened - it's still officially dead. * From James F. Stone Jr.: I have been following with great interest the thread of conversation over the last few days on the topic of corporate sponsorship in sailing. I can understand the Corinthian attitude of wanting to keep branding off the boats, but this is a "necessary evil" to be able to fund campaigns at the highest level. Our firm is actively seeking corporate partnership to field a team for the next VOR. At that level, campaign costs are estimated to be anywhere from $10- 15 million, and this cost could easily rise. Finding these dollars is quite difficult, and as our contemporaries in the world of the AC know, finding an individual with the ability to do it on their own is even more difficult. Even those guys had to have help from the corporate world. Our sport has an international following, and this following grows every day. The accessibility of the Internet and other media avenues is creating the ability for a corporate partner to gain a substantial Return on Investment through this medium. The pictures we see and the stories we read, influence sailors on every level. From the club racer, who aspires to greater sailing projects, to the professional sailor in the VOR, all benefit as a result of corporate sponsorship and the opportunities it affords. Without sponsorship and the ability to move our sport and its technology forward, we all lose. THE CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM Why do we put suits in a garment bag and put garments in a suitcase? |
