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SCUTTLEBUTT 3362 - Tuesday, June 14, 2011Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors,providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: North Sails, Morris Yachts, and LaserPerformance. BATTLING BACK FROM HEARTBREAK "My dad said missing the 2008 Olympics would be either the best thing that ever happened to my sailing or the worst," said Paige Railey, U.S. Sailing AlphaGraphics' brightest hope for an Olympic medal in the women's Laser Radial division. Laser Radial, women's single-handed dinghy sailing, debuted as an Olympic sport in 2008 and is one of 10 sailing classes that will be contested at the 2012 London Games. A solo division, Laser Radial is generally sailed by women because its smaller sail favors lighter athletes. In 2008, Railey lost the Laser Radial trials to Anna Tunnicliffe, who went on the win gold at the Beijing Games. "I was the favorite going into the trails in 2007, but I let the pressure get to me and I caved before I even got there," said Railey, now 24. "I didn't know how to handle the stress and didn't perform the way I should have. After I lost the trials, I felt like I'd been a huge failure because I didn't succeed in my goal of being a young sailor at the Olympics." But battling back from the heartbreak of missing the 2008 Games has made Railey a more mature sailor, and rejuvenated her passion for the sport. "It's easy to lose sight of why you're doing this when you're constantly on the water and it's cold and raining and you're just like, bleh. But over time, I decided I'm not going to let this defeat define me," she said. With that peace of mind, she began to enjoy sailing again. Heading into 2012, the seascape has changed. Tunnicliffe is now training to represent the U.S. in a different division: women's Elliott 6m match racing, a three-person boat that she's sailing with Molly Vandemoer and Debbie Capozzi. Tunnicliffe's switch means both she and Railey have new opportunities, according to Railey's coach, Luther Carpenter. "In 2008, we had two real talents and one sat on the bench at the Olympics. We've made an effort to see what classes we could move people around to so that no one would have to sit this one out," Carpenter said. That should mean mostly smooth sailing ahead for Railey in her quest to qualify. Except that smooth sailing is seldom the case for an Olympic hopeful. At the very least, said Carpenter, who has been coaching U.S. Sailing AlphaGraphics' women's solo classes for 20 years, "Anna being in the other class allows Paige to stay focused and on target with what she's doing. Paige is one of the top four sailors in the world in her class. She's very talented." Of course, talent will only takes an athlete so far, so Railey has been training hard, too. She lifts weights, sails and does cardio at the gym, which amounts to a full-time job requiring anywhere from eight to 12 hours per day depending on the length of her sessions on the water. -- ESPN, read on: http://tinyurl.com/ESPN-061311 TECHNOLOGY: Paige provides details regarding a photo she had posted on Facebook following a work out. "The black apparatus that I am wearing on my legs and arms are compression pants/arms developed by the company called Normatec. Basically it's all about the increase/decrease of blood flow into the limbs thus resulting in a faster recovery. Our team is giving them a whirl and so far they are working great!" Photo: http://tinyurl.com/FB-PR-061311 SAN FRANCISCO SHORT OF CASH FOR PLANNING 2013 REGATTA America's Cup organizers have netted only a fraction of the funds The City needs this year to plan the massive 2013 yacht race, but officials said as soon as they receive their tax-exempt status, the money will start flowing. If it doesn't, San Francisco taxpayers will be on the hook. Some $12 million is budgeted in the coming fiscal year for the Mayor's Office of Economic and Workforce Development to conduct environmental planning and get necessary state and federal permits. Yet the nonprofit responsible for offsetting The City's $32 million in costs has only $2 million on hand to mitigate the bill. If the America's Cup Organizing Committee can't come up with the other $10 million, it would have to come from San Francisco's general fund, which is dedicated to basic city services such as police, fire protection and road construction. A big selling point of the America's Cup was that it would provide a huge boost for the local economy while presumably coming at no cost to taxpayers. Kyri McClellan, executive director of the America's Cup Organizing Committee, said the tax-exempt approval is expected in August. After that, she predicted, donors will become more comfortable writing seven-figure checks and the committee should raise the remaining millions by October or November, when final impact reports are filed under the California Environmental Quality Act. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/SFE-061311 VALUE: The value of the event is connected to the number of participating teams and the fans that flock to watch them. When 15 teams originally submitted entries, optimism was high as it exceeded expectations, but astute observers knew there was a big difference between providing an initial $25,000 entry fee and funding a 30-100 million dollar campaign. The event has twice reduced the funding demands in hopes of sustaining its entry count, and will finally declare this Wednesday the lineup of teams that will be participating in the 34th America's Cup. PAINFUL: Four-time America's Cup champion Russell Coutts, the CEO of Oracle Racing, capsized his 45-foot catamaran on San Francisco Bay on Monday during a practice race against skipper Jimmy Spithill as part of a media day. Grinder Shannon Falcone was thrown through the wing sail and examined by paramedics on the dock and taken for precautionary X-rays. Coutts' boat went head-over-heels and came to rest on its side. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/AP-061311 DISAPPOINTMENT: The Argo Challenge, which is focused on promoting the disabled community, is striking out in its efforts to work with the 34th America's Cup. The group first desired to enter the America's Cup, and then hoped to partner with the event to communicate and demonstrate the abilities and technological advancements of the disabled community. But that plan broke down last week during negotiations with the America's Cup Event Authority concerning sponsorship and licensing revenue. Said Executive Director Christian Giannini, "The Argo Challenge will continue on, and might still participate with one of the challenger teams based on a recent unsolicited request, but we are first digesting this hard fought and disappointing outcome." CONGRATULATIONS JASON CARROLL/ARGO & BILL HARDESTY/USA-979 Congratulations to Jason Carroll and crew on 'Argo' for handily winning the 2011 Melges 32 National Championship in Rye, NY this past weekend. Nine of the 12 Melges 32s racing were powered by North Class Sail Development sail inventories including four of the top five. Congrats also to Bill Hardesty and crew for winning the 2011 Etchells World Championship in San Diego, CA, where nine of the top ten boats raced with North sails. When performance counts, the choice is clear: http://na.northsails.com ONE DESIGN CLASS HANDICAP SYSTEM By Steve Pyatt Whilst most one-design sailors participate for the level playing field that class competition provides, some classes also use personal handicaps to encourage those further down in the rankings. The Zephyr class in New Zealand is an old Des Townson design, and amid its resurgence with several Olympians and AC guys getting them, we have developed a simple handicapping system that is keeping everyone engaged. Rather than a system using time-on-time personal handicaps and a race committee to take finish times, our system is based on seeding all sailors from recent performance. This is easier to do than establishing time differentials (requires observations over a variety of conditions) as everyone knows their place in the 'pecking order'. When scoring the regatta, each team's overall place is then compared to the seeding to provide a difference (delta). The sailor with the largest negative delta is the handicap winner (i.e. has achieved a result further above their 'usual' place in the fleet than anyone else). Any ties are broken in favour of the highest ranked of those with equal deltas overall. The seeding approach has many advantages over the time based systems: - It is far simpler and easier to set up than establishing time differentials. - It is very quick and easy to calculate results. - It means that the top guys can't win on handicap however far ahead they are (the top seed would have to do better than win the regatta.impossible), which is what it is all about ( i.e. encouraging mid fleet competitors). - It means that sailors who obtain a huge time differential when the fleet spreads out don't dominate the handicap results. - It rewards those who genuinely have a good regatta but aren't up in the main prizes. When we hosted the Auckland Championship, the winner was eight places above their seeding whist the majority of the fleet were on or within a place of 'Par'. By finishing seventh overall, they won on handicap. Here is the scorecard: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12037 SAILING TO COMMEMORATE TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF 9/11 When Sail Newport (of Newport, RI) originally organized Sail For Pride three weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it was a direct response to the tragic events of that day. Scott Murray of Newport was one of the event's founders, along with Mick Harvey of Newport and Brad Read of Middletown. "Right after 9/11, being in the sailing business," Murray said, "I came up with the idea of doing a yacht race to raise some money for all of the people who were affected." Approximately 180 boats participated in the first race. The money that was raised went to the Widow's and Children's Charities, an organization created to the support the families of those who were lost on Sept. 11. The fleet has averaged 70 to 80 boats in subsequent years, but this year Murray is hoping for as many as 150 boats. "We're hoping we can get a really big turnout and some major fundraising," Murray said. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the historic day, Sail Newport has once again organized a Sail For Pride race to take place on Sept. 11. Boats of over 22 feet in length have been invited to sail the race's 18-mile course, which begins outside of Newport Harbor, takes sailors on a circumnavigation of Conanicut Island and returns to the harbor for the finish. The first Sail For Pride race was held in October 2001 and the event has been held every year since, albeit under a different name. "After the first year we changed the name of the event to Sail For Hope," Murray said. "The idea for that was that 'Hope' was the state motto and our idea was to help more local charities." To date, more than $800,000 has been raised to support humanitarian causes. -- Jamestown Press, read on: http://tinyurl.com/JP-061311 FROM PROJECT TO PROSPECT No way! No way!" shouted Scott Bruesewitz, stomping up to the podium to accept the award for first-place overall at the 2011 Sperry Top-Sider Chicago NOOD, which includes an invitation to compete at the NOOD Championship regatta in the British Virgin Islands come November. "You've got to be kidding me!" NOOD winners are always happy campers, but Bruesewitz takes the cake. He was over the top, high on life, in utter disbelief. "I figured there was no way," says the skipper of the Mt. Gay 30 REDRUM, which came out on top of a PHRF 3 division in which a mere 4 points separated the top four boats - sequentially, Jack Amedio's Farr 395 Chaos, Mitchell Padnos' J/124 Sufficient Reason, and Robert McManus' J/130 Edge. "We've won the NOODs a few times before in the Tartan Ten, and I thought we might've had a chance then, but we really weren't expecting it this year." How REDRUM came to win the Chicago NOOD is something of a saga. Bruesewitz has been working on boats at Milwaukee's Harborside Yacht Center since 1972. In his spare time, he buys beater T-10s, whips them into racing shape, and flips them. He once restored a T-10 that had a three-foot tree growing out of the deck. The buyer of that boat called Bruesewitz a few years ago and said, "You like projects? I've got a project for you!" There was a partially built Mt. Gay 30 up for grabs at Rhode Island's New England Boatworks, and it didn't take long for Bruesewitz to show up with his trailer. "It was just a deck and hull skin. No keel. No rudder. A mast, but no rigging. And a bunch of parts. We showed up Thanksgiving weekend, and when we strapped it to the trailer, the boat would squeeze in and out like a beach ball, bowing this way and that. There was no structure. Twenty-six ratchet straps later, we're driving down the highway to Milwaukee." Bruesewitz brought REDRUM to a vacant manufacturing warehouse in Milwaukee. "The space had overhead cranes, so were were able to go up and down fitting the bulkheads," says the 55-year-old. "I hired Jeff Van Gorkum (of Van Gorkum Yacht Design) to help me with the project. He has a Mt. Gay 30, and he knew just what to do. He was like, 'What do you want to do with the boat?' And I was like, 'I want a rocketship. I want a 30-footer that will do 20 knots.' -- Sailing World, read on: http://tinyurl.com/SW-061311 DON'T MISS THE MORRIS YACHTS BOAT SHOW, JULY 29-31 You've been studying the Morris Brokerage listings all spring, now is your chance to see them. Morris Yachts will host the seventh annual Morris Boat Show at their service yard in Northeast Harbor, Maine, July 29-31. This event will showcase a variety Morris Yachts from the latest M-Series daysailers to worthy blue water cruisers to classic Justines and other Morris yachts. Do not miss this once a year opportunity to board the widest selection of Morris Yachts. Show hours 10-6 on Friday and Saturday; 10-4 on Sunday. Click here for current brokerage list: http://www.morrisyachts.com/brokerage or a call 1-207-244-5509 INDUSTRY VOWS FIGHT ON STYRENE DESIGNATION The U.S. styrene industry will "contest vigorously" the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' listing of styrene in its 12th Report on Carcinogens, Jack Snyder, executive director of the Styrene Information and Research Center, said in a statement. "The designation is completely unjustified by the latest science and resulted from a flawed process that focuses on only those data that support a cancer concern," Snyder said. The comments come in response to Friday's announcement that styrene is one of eight substances newly listed in the report. On May 26, the Styrene Information and Research Center notified the Health and Human Services legal counsel of its intent to seek a preliminary injunction if styrene was listed. Styrene, used in the building of fiberglass boats, is listed as "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen based on limited evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in humans, sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity from studies in experimental animals and supporting data on mechanisms of carcinogenesis." Snyder said research from European Union regulators determined that styrene does not represent a human cancer concern. EU scientists reviewed the full styrene database, weighing all of the available data in reaching their conclusion, he added. -- Soundings, full report: http://tinyurl.com/Soundings-061311 SAILING SHORTS * The Skandia Sail for Gold Regatta last week was the penultimate regatta of the ISAF Sailing World Cup series, with Kieler Woche in Kiel, Germany on June 18-22 as the final regatta of the seven event tour. This is third edition of the ISAF series which will be the primary international ranking circuit for Olympic and Paralympic athletes following the 2012 Games. The top position for four of the 13 events has been secured. Leading the Women's Match Race event is Anna Tunnicliffe (USA) with only a one point lead over Sally Barkow (USA). Claire Leroy (FRA) trails Tunnicliffe by three points in third. -- Full report: http://www.sailing.org/news/36091.php * A specially-designed 55,000 square meter 'Destination Village' is being built in Abu Dhabi to host the Volvo Ocean Race fleet and the fans expected to descend on the UAE capital following the second race leg from Cape Town, SA. The size of eight football pitches, the village will open free-of-charge to the public daily from December 30 this year to January 14, next year. The fleet is expected to finish the 5430 nm leg by January 1, 2012, and more than 100,000 visitors are expected. -- Full report: http://volvooceanrace.com/news/Prime-location-for-Abu-Dhabi-stopover/3139 * West Marine has announced the recipients of their annual Marine Conservation Grants program. Grants for a total amount of $30,000 are being awarded to non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. who are working to "improve and protect marine habitat," which is part of West Marine's mission. This year's grant recipients are located in Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland and California. Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=12039 * Tuscany, Italy (June 13, 2011) - Amidst a picturesque pinewood forest on the shores of the Mediterranean, the 2011 Finn World Master Championship began today for the 273 competitors representing 28 countries. There are four categories of sailors: Master (40-49), Grand Master (50-59), Grand Grand Master (60-69) and Legend (70+). The defending World Masters Champion is Michael Maier (CZE), who is currently tied for the lead with Allen Burrell (GBR). -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/Finn-061311 CALLING ALL LASER SAILORS The summer sailing season is here. Are you ready? LaserPerformance and your local dealer are stocked and ready to supply all your class approved equipment. Upgrade to the new GRP foils, Harken ball bearing boom/traveler blocks or the new friction pad. Visit http://na.laserperformance.com/home or locate your local authorized dealer: http://na.laserperformance.com/dealer-locator FREE CLASSIFIED ADS The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. Here are recent ads: For Sale - * 24-foot Pearson Lark * 24-foot sloop designed/built by Christian Dahl Now Hiring - * Queen's Sailing Team Head Coach * Sailors for the Sea - Seeks Full Time Program Specialist starting July 1 View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Bill Pentleton: Dr. Hugh Chandler will be celebrating his 80th birthday this week. Hugh has raced a string of "Scherherazades" (intentionally misspelled) on the eastern coast of the U.S. for close to 45 years. Hugh is a highly respected orthopedic surgeon who is a stroke survivor, although he is without speech and suffers from right side neglect which seriously effects his mobility. Regardless, Hugh still races "Scherherazade," driving upwind whenever it is not blowing over 15 since he can sit while driving. His wife Betsy, no spring chicken, drives downwind. She also makes sure that the boat is kept race ready and on the starting line. They have cut back on the schedule this year but still manage to race 3 days a week on average. Hugh's continued good humor and perseverance have been an example for us all. Good on ya Hugh. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION To maintain a healthy level of insanity, specify that your drive-through order is 'to go'. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Quantum Sails - BIC Sport - North Sails - Gowrie Group LaserPerformance - APS - Morris Yachts - US SAILING Ullman Sails - IYRS - Gladstone's Long Beach - USSTAG - Harken Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
