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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 573 - May 19, 2000IT'S NOT A RUMOUR ANYMORERussell Coutts and Brad Butterworth won't be sailing for Team New Zealand in the next America's Cup defence. The resignations were announced at a news conference in Auckland this afternoon. Butterworth was present but refused to answer questions from the media. Russell Coutts is overseas. New trustee Ralph Norris says the loss of experienced sailors of the calibre of Coutts and Butterworth is regrettable. But he says he's confident that New Zealand has enough talent to mount another successful defence in 2003. The conference also announced that Tom Schnackenberg and Dean Barker will be the new heads of the Trust. - NZ Herald, http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ac2000/ GUEST EDITORIAL - Peter Johnson Recent successful Antigua Race Week had it; popular Rolex regatta in the US Virgins had it; Americap half has it. What is it? Why time-on-time scoring, usually in the form of a TCF (time correction factor), which simply multiplies the elapsed time to give corrected time. Yet most racing in the US utilizes time -on-distance in the form of seconds per mile. The result? Moans and groans, which rise and fall over the handicap system be it IMS, PHRF or others. One could say that nations which play cricket use TCFs exclusively. Great Britain, where they have been used for over sixty years, Australia, New Zealand and. of course, the cricket-mad West Indies, initially Antigua and thence spread around the Caribbean circuit with the CSA rule. The beauty of TCFs is that they roll with the punches. A beat to windward which increases real distance gets corrected times in proportion, unlike seconds per mile for a fixed or nominated distance. Using a TCF, the distance does not even need to be known (useful when courses are shortened). As for IMS and its multiple scoring systems, these are largely time-on-time disguised as seconds per mile. The Royal Ocean Racing Club, London, recalculated IMS performance curve scoring results trying selected TCFs and found that the corrected time order was virtually the same. By the way, all time allowance systems, under any rating rule, are at the mercy of extremes of weather and chosen factors. TCFs, for instance, suffer in periods of flat calm, where time ticks away, but distances between boats do not change. Scoring at its best can only be practical and acceptable. Some ideal kind of fairness or perfection does not come into it. - Peter Johnson SPEED SAILING Owner Steve Fossett will probably must wait a little bit more to add a 16th ocean sailing record to his long list published by the World Sailing Speed Record Council annual book. Three days and half after her departure from New York, PlayStation had not reached yet the middle of the distance between Ambrose Light and Cape Lizard, the finishing line in Cornwall, UK. She had still 1558 miles to go. Until noon GMT Thurday, the average speed of the giant cat was a little bit above 15 knots. PlayStation had to head quite north during the past night, first to avoid the area of the dozen of huge icebergs located on the 44 W meridian. And mostly to be positioned at the top of the huge high standing in mid Atlantic. At 14.00 GMT Thursday, PlayStation was 1511 miles far from Lizard Cape. To beat the previous record, she should cross the line early afternoon next Sunday and deliver a quite impossible average speed of 21,50 kts with the next wind conditions. Steve Fossett, navigator Stan Honey as the meteorologist Chris Bedford already knew from the start that the weather pattern was far to be ideal to beat the French ten years old record, owned by Jet Services V, one of the most famous racing catamaran designed by Gilles Ollier. Ollier will have three sister-ships racing catamarans in the Bruno Peyron's event (the first launched on May 9 being Club Med for Grant Dalton with a first sail on May 19). Website: http://www.fossettchallenge.com/ STAR WORLDS - Report by Dave Gendell Annapolis MD - The fifth race of the Nautica 2000 Star Class World Championship was sailed today in a warm and boisterous 15-22 knot southerly. 2000 U.S. Olympic representatives Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl (USA 7995) used the sunny afternoon to extend their lead over the 112 boat fleet that has assembled in Annapolis, America's Sailing Capital, to contest the ultimate championship of the Star Class. The Annapolis YC Race Committee started the day's first sequence at Noon in 15 knots of breeze which had established itself from the southern quadrant, reinforced by a low to the northwest and a Bermuda High offshore. The southerly wind axis provides the Chesapeake's longest fetch and, predictably, a swell had developed in the racing area well before the regatta arrived on the course. Perhaps equally as predictable, the day's first sequence resulted in a General Recall. With the unique shape of the 114-year-old Thomas Point Lighthouse standing sentinel in the haze nearby, the fleet was recalled and started cleanly, again under the Black Flag, in short order. A solid windy and wavy day is also a good thing to have on the slate at a World Championship-especially late in the week-as success in these conditions requires an extra dose of physical and mental stamina, precisely the qualities every champion of the Star Class possesses (in fact Thursday's top three finishers all have earned the right to fly the Gold Star). The German-flagged duo of Marc Pickel and Thomas Auracher led the pack at the first mark rounding but were soon overtaken by Reynolds/Liljedahl who won Sunday's race and carry two thirds on their card after discarding a 22 they picked up in Tuesday's seabreeze-flavored romp. The hard luck story of the day belonged to Canadians Ross MacDonald and Kai Bjorn who were solidly in second overall entering Thursday's race. The duo, who are here to earn the right to represent Canada at the Sydney games, were in the process of turning a 720 (assigned after the on-the-water jury flagged them for a kinetics violation), when they inverted their mast and damaged their spreaders to the point where they were forced to retire from the race. Despite the difficulties in Race #5, MacDonald and Bjorn retain their second place position on the overall score sheet and hold a three point lead over Gavin Brady and Jamie Gale. Brady/Gale, sailing for the right to represent their native New Zealand in September's Olympics, sailed to a 13 today, continuing their amazing ascension to the top of what many call the world's most difficult one design class. The final race of the Nautica 200 Star Class World Championship Regatta is scheduled to begin at Noon Friday. Saturday, May 20 is held as a reserve day. - - Dave Gendell STANDINGS - five races with one discard: 1. USA 7995 Reynolds/Liljedahl 1-3-[22]-3-1 8 points ; 2. CAN 7876 MacDonald/Bjorn 16-2-6-2-[DNF] 26; 3. NZL 7939 Brady/Gale 5-1-10-[52]-13 29 ; 4. IRL 7763 Mansfield/O'Brien 10-17-11-[30]-6 44 ; 5. GBR 7953 Walker/Covell 6-[60]-8-18-15 47; 6. ESP 7937 Van Der Ploeg/Trujillo 14-[16]-14-9-11 48 ; 7. USA 7425 Schofield/Schofield, Jr. 7-6-15-21-[64] 49; 8. ITA 7879 D'Ali/Colandinno 11-5-[31]-13-22 51 ; 9. NED 7981 Neeleman/Schrier 17-9-16-[26]-9 51; 10. GER 7954 Hoesch/Fendt 15-19-19-8-[25] 61 Website: http://www.annapolisyc.com/starworlds2000/ LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) and to exclude personal attacks or irresponsible statements. This is not a chat room. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if people disagree. -- From Greg Anders - Mark Hermann, Morgan Larson and the fans of women's match racing have only scratched the surface of the complicated mess known as Olympic Sailing. At its 1999 Annual Meeting, the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Events committee adopted criteria for the selection of events and equipment for the Olympic Regatta: 1. Must allow athletes around the world, of different size and weight, male and female, to participate. 2. Must achieve the IOC objective of a minimum of 30% participation for women. 3. Must give the best sailors in each country the opportunity to participate in readily accessible equipment. 4. Must combine both traditional and modern events and classes, to reflect, display and promote competitive sailing. Women's keelboat was added to help increase the number of women. This will cost the men an event, because the total number of events and sailors will not increase. The problem now is how to make best use of the men's events. I agree with Mark Hermann, the 470 needs to go. The main argument for the 470 is that it is for smaller sailors. The 49er covers the same weight range but also offers a modern high performance design. In a perfect world, we could have several single and double-handed dinghies to cover all weight ranges and sailing styles. Until then we have to make do with a broad sample. -- From Steve Thompson -I have been reading with interest the responses to James Nichols comments about the lack of a suitable one-design keel boat for women. I don't want to get into the politics of what boat is or isn't suitable but would like to point out to your readers that we are in the process of developing such a boat in New Zealand that is ideally suited for women's racing. We have built a prototype in Auckland and have trialed it extensively since launching early this year. The boat is a great compromise between a dingy and keel boat and gives an exhilarating ride in all conditions. It has a carbon mast with a mainsail and no jib and has an asymmetric spinnaker for downwind. The boat itself has rounded sections with flare on the deck. The boat is weight sensitive and likes a crew of around 225kg (500lb) and can be sailed with a crew of 2-4 depending on weight. There is plenty of room in the open cockpit, the spinnaker is retrieved into a chute and the bow prod retracts as well. We are in the process of finalising the mould details before committing to full production. For more information refer to our web site at http://www.tboat.com/T590design.html -- From Bob Fisher - Magnus Gravare may hold with what was said at the Mid-Term Meetings in Cyprus, but what I wrote was gleaned from the opinions of several of the people who were there. True the ISAF agreed a method of voting the classes for 2004 when they meet in November, but they have done that in the past and reversed their ideas at the last minute. I still feel that there will be a battle between keelboats and dinghies when oush comes to shove. -- From Watt Duffy - United Airlines has donated 2.5 million air miles to the US sailing team, why do the US sailing team SAILORS still have to buy plane tickets to events around the World? It seems to me that the Sailors should be the only ones to use those miles. The money saved on tickets could be better spent on needed coaching, sails and parts. A long campaign can age boats and sails. -- John Fradkin - All of these rumors about big money American syndicates attempting to buy Kiwi sailors in an attempt to win the next America's Cup remind me of National Enquirer headlines. It's kind of fun to read them when you're bored at the supermarket check stand line, but there's just no reason to believe them ! I think many people have lost sight of the fact that the America's Cup is primarily a design contest and not a sailing contest. The sailors matter a little, but in a best of 7 series, the fastest boat usually wins even if the other boat is better sailed. Remember 1983. The Kiwis did outsail the Italians this time, but that shouldn't be the big story. They probably would have won even if they had made some mistakes as they had the faster boat. Lets give kudos to the Kiwi sailors, but even more kudos to the Kiwi designers especially the brain trust who came up with that innovative rig. Although we'll never really know, I think that weird mast was probably responsible for most of the speed differential between the two boats. How did they ever keep that thing a secret until the very end ? WORRELL 1000 - Zack Leonard Brett Dryland and Rod Waterhouse of Rudee's Restaurant edged out Randy Smyth and Matt Struble of Blockade Runner to win Leg 10 of the Worrell 1000 by 51 seconds. Smyth and Struble seem content to protect their 32 minute overall lead by staying close to Dryland and Waterhouse on each leg. The leg started in a 10 knot Southerly and the fleet reached down the beach to Cape Lookout. The reach was tight, but the Aussies and Dutch managed to carry the chute while the rest of the fleet chose to sail with 2 sails. Rudee's led Smyth and the Dutch by a short margin at the cape, but Smyth ducked inside Dryland and Waterhouse at the point and took the lead. After Cape Lookout the shore turned left about 40 degrees and the leg turned into a run. Smyth and Dryland gybed into the shore while the Dutch split yet again and sailed off-shore looking for a big gain. After 4 or 5 gybes into the shore the breeze strengthened to 18 knots and shifted to the right. The added velocity allowed the fleet to lay the finish at Hatteras. The Aussies outspeeded Smyth on the long fetch to the finish to win the leg. Smyth felt that Dryland and Waterhouse locked into the fast settings for the stronger breeze quicker than he did, but the Aussies thought it was all positioning. "It got tighter and windier and we were above them, it's that simple," said Waterhouse. The complex currents and shallow water of this region produced a short, steep chop that was tough sledding in the small beach cats. The (third place) Dutch team felt that they were too heavy to be fast in today's conditions. "There was big surf today, but we needed it to be windier to be fast," said Heemskerk. The leaders all felt that the fastest running set-up was with the skipper on the hull at the rear beam, and the crew on the trapeze behind the skipper. It took careful helming to keep the bows up today, but the fleet registered fewer capsizes than they did on earlier legs, showing an improvement in the new boats. - Zack Leonard Website: http://www.worrell1000.com/ EUROPE 1 NEW MAN STAR Amongst the 90-odd boats lining up to participate in the Europe 1 NEW Man STAR will be a staggering 25 Class One 60-Foot Monohulls. This will be the largest ever fleet of these 'Greyhounds of the Oceans' ever assembled on a startline. This 'Race Within a Race' has great significance as the Europe 1 New Man STAR is the only qualifier for this winter1s Vendee Globe singlehanded non-stop round the world race. The first 20 boats in this class to cross the finish line in Newport will be the only boats accepted as entries for the Vendee Globe. But the Europe 1 New Man STAR is a historically significant race in its own right. Sailed over the father of all singlehanded offshore courses, the legend of this race and the explosion of shorthanded racing, in France in particular, was based on the performance of two-time winner Eric Tabarly in 1964 and again in 1976 on board successive Pen Duick monohulls. The current record for a monohull has been held since 1992 by Yves Parlier (Cacolac Aquitaine) and stands at 14 days and six hours, compared to Sir Francis Chichester1s time in the first race in 1960 (Gipsy Moth III) - a mammoth 40 days 12 hours and 30 minutes. Among the pretenders to this year1s title, and perhaps a new record time, are several veterans of the last Vendee Globe such as Catherine Chabaud (Whirlpool - Europe 2), Herve Laurent (Enif), Marc Thiercelin (Active Wear), Thierry Dubois (Solidaires), Eric Dumont (Un Univers de Services) and Yves Parlier (Aquitaine Innovations). Another strong contender is the man who rescued Isabelle Austissier in a dramatic Southern Ocean incident in the most recent Around Alone Race, the Italian Giovanni Soldini (Fila). He will make the Europe 1 New Man STAR his last singlehanded voyage in a monohull, a new multihull is currently being built for him for next season. Other Open 60-Foot Monohull skippers will be seeking a " second chance " in the Europe 1 New Man STAR. Both Mike Golding (Group 4) and Marc Thiercelin (Active Wear) led the most recent Around Alone at some stage only to be eliminated because of equipment failure along the route, a similar fate befell another Around Alone entry, Josh Hall (Gartmore) who will be sailing the Europe 1 New Man STAR with a new sponsor. But the above entries will have to watch out for the next generation of singlehanded skippers pushing through. Six recent graduates of the highly competitive Figaro-Beneteau One Design class have acquired new Open 60-Foot Monohulls and they will all be keen to show the old hands what they know after years of racing identical 30-Foot monohulls. Amongst them is two-time La Solitaire du Figaro winner Michel Desjoyeaux, whose new PRB sailed for the first time this weekend, as well as Roland Jourdain (Sill Beurre Le Gall), Thomas Coville (Sodebo-Savourons la Vie), Joe Seeten (Nord Pas de Calais - Chocolats du Monde), Dominique Wavre (Union Banque Populaire) and Ronan Guerin (Zen). Another new-comer to the fleet is the young and talented Briton Ellen MacArthur. A veteran of several Atlantic crossings and most recently a semi-circumnavigation in her new boat Kingfisher, Ellen has accumulated more miles on the water than anyone else this year. The Europe 1 New Man STAR will be her first real test in solid competition. But whereas the Vendee Globe is a marathon-style event where just finishing the course intact is a crowning achievement, the Europe 1 New Man STAR will likely be sailed by most of the above in sprint mode - that is to say, pushing really hard, running for days without sleep and chancing all kinds of routeing options to gain an edge. In fact it is highly likely with so many competitive boats and so much at stake in this class, that multiple close finishes will occur in Newport next month. - Marcus Hutchinson, http://www.europe1newmanstar.com/ MINI RACE BOATS The activities of the American Model Yachting Association extend even farther the opportunities to take part in ISAF/US Sailing compliant competition for skippers of all ages, sizes and interests. With over 20 individual classes of radio controlled model sailing yachts, skippers can pick from high tech formula classes, a series of one-designs, multihull activities, or revisit the golden age of vintage model yachting. Boats vary from 30" to 90" LOA and with many sizes in between. But all are ailed from shore using hand held transmitters and governed by the ISAF Racing Rules of Sailing. Sanctioned clubs are to be found in virtually every major city, and a full schedule of local, regional and national championship regattas exists. Individual clubs carry out programs for disabled skippers, youth programs and construction seminars. A comprehensive quarterly journal, MODEL YACHTING, is a major benefit of membership. - Rod Carr, Region 6 Director and East Coast 12 Meter Class Secretary Further information: http://www.AMYA.org THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS There is always a lot to be thankful for, if you take the time to look. I'm sitting here thinking how nice it is that wrinkles don't hurt. |
