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SCUTTLEBUTT 2944 - Tuesday, October 6, 2009Scuttlebutt 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. Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Today's sponsors are APS, North Sails, and Speed & Smarts. TOM WHIDDEN: "WE PROBABLY NEED TWO GOVERNING BODIES" President and CEO of North Sails, Tom Whidden offers his views on the world yacht racing scene, and what he considers are some of the sport's key issues at the moment: * What is your view on the sport of sailing from a commercial standpoint? TOM WHIDDEN: "We've had 5-6 years of wonderful growth, which have allowed our company to increase its revenues by over 50%. All Classes have been strong, from Optimists to Olympic sailing, Farr 40's and bigger classes. Obviously, this year's global economy has hurt sailing. Europe was hit last fall; we started to suffer in January, with our revenues across the world down 10-15 %. But we've made a good come-back since the summer and things are starting to look better. North Sails is probably a good indicator of how the industry is doing." * And what about sailing from a sports point of view? TOM WHIDDEN: "Well, there are strong and weak areas. I'm just back from the Rolex Big Boats series and it doesn't get much better than this. The level is very high, there is a good potential for development, lots of interest. Dinghy sailing is going well too, but on the other hand middle sized boats seem to be suffering." * Is the sport of sailing managed correctly? What could be done to better the situation? TOM WHIDDEN: "Oh well, you are going to get me into trouble. Let's say that we can always do better. More seriously: it seems like the leaders in our sport have disparate goals. It is very hard to be in the position of the governing body - especially if there is a lack of leadership - because you have to deal with those conflicting interests." -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/1005c/file.htm#1 LESSONS LEARNED Scott Young is among a long list of outstanding sailors from Texas. After not having steered a boat in a competitive race since May, Scott and his team came within one point of winning the J-22 North American Championship held last week at Rush Creek Yacht Club outside of Dallas, Texas. Here is an excerpt from his wrap-up report: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Our disappointment was short lived though as we reflected on what had been an excellent regatta and we were very pleased with our hard fought 2nd in a very tough fleet. As I hope will always be the case, win or lose, I always try and come away with at least a few lessons learned. 1) Always sail with people you enjoy. Life is too short to not enjoy the people you race with. John Morran and Mark Salih are a couple of my oldest and best friends. I haven't laughed so hard in a long, long time! Sailboat racing is a game. Have fun and enjoy it with people you like. 2) The numbers don't lie! Even though the wind was quite shifty, there was usually an oscillating pattern to the shifts. Get your headings figured out and sail the lifted tack. Don't panic and chase shifts on the other side of the lake. Sail what you have and be patient. Usually, if you stay on the lifted tack, it will take you to the next shift. Never try and cross the lake looking for a shift. Sail YOUR breeze at all times and don't worry about what you can't control. 3) Re-emphasis on PATIENCE! There were many times in this regatta where we were not in great shape on the first weather leg. We just kept working the breeze we had and staying in phase. It was remarkable how much ground we were able to make up as a result of my less than stellar starting. 4) When I am rusty, usually the areas that I am weakest are starting and sailing downwind. Starting well is a function of confidence and time in the boat. Downwind sailing is function of feel and practice. I hadn't steered a boat in a competitive race since May and the lay-off definitely affected me in the first couple of races. Eventually we got it sorted out and felt we were getting better every race. Complete report: http://tinyurl.com/yedx3b6 IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL SALE OF THE YEAR What more can we say? In line with the Annapolis Boat Show we're running our Annual Boat Show Sale and just about everything at APS, "The World Leader in Outfitting Performance Sailors", is on sale! Need new foulies? Now is the time! Need a new Laser? Now is the time! Need new rigging? Now is the time! Whether you're coming to the Show or not you can save big across the board and do even better by combining our discounts with the special Fall deals that vendors like Gill, Velocitek, Atlantis, and Tacktick are also offering. Click here for Details: http://www.APSLTD.com TOP WOMEN'S TEAMS TO FACE OFF THIS WEEK Rochester, NY (October 5, 2009) - With less than two days until the start of US SAILING's Rolex International Women's Keelboat Championship, 35 teams representing five countries (Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands, South Africa, United States) and 15 U.S. states have gathered at host Rochester Yacht Club (RYC). Off the mouth of the Genesee River on Lake Ontario, four days of racing will take place, Oct. 7-10, under the leadership of Principal Race Officer Hank Stuart and the RYC Race Committee. The biennial regatta, celebrating its 13th anniversary of offering women of all abilities the opportunity for top-level competition, features evening social activities and culminates with the traditional Rolex gala and awards presentation where the Bengt Julin Trophy and a Rolex timepiece will be awarded to the winning boat's skipper. The second place team at the 2007 Rolex IWKC was lead by RYC's team skippered by Cory Sertl, who has competed in the regatta 10 times, winning twice - as crew for Betsy Alison in the inaugural event in Newport in 1985 and as skipper in 2001 in Annapolis, Md. A 1988 Olympian and two-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year, Sertl kept her 2007 team together and set her sights on this year's title. Together with crew Amy Moran, Annemarie Cook and Jane Mastrandrea, they will be focused not only on doing well in the regatta but also on one other team in particular, the team that two of their daughters are part of. Moran's daughter Merritt, a RYC sail instructor and high school sailor will helm an entry including two high school sailors, Sertl's daughter Katja, and Julie Wiesner, with top-level bow person Martha Parker and 10-year-old Bridget Lawless, the youngest skipper in the history of the event, rounding out the five-person team. -- Read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/1005/ TIME RUNNING OUT ON WILLIAMS Team Pindar's reigning double ISAF World Match Racing Tour Champion, Ian Williams, heads to Bermuda this week for the penultimate event of the 2009 season - the Argo Group Gold Cup - in need of a strong finish to keep his title hopes alive. The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club will play host to 24 teams, including the top eight skippers on the World Tour, who will each be striving to lift the historic 102 year-old King Edward VII Gold Cup and a share of the $100,000 prize fund. Williams, who is in fifth place on 70-points (18 points behind Mirsky) commented, 'We will be giving it our absolute all this week. To stand any chance of retaining the title, we have to close the gap (on current leader Torvar Mirsky and Adam Minoprio). Mathematically, it's all still possible but we're running out of events. It's shaping up to be a very exciting finale and a lot rests on what happens this week. Racing in Hamilton Harbour is always special - it's great to be back.' Racing begins on Tuesday 6 October, with the unique format of three groups of eight competing in the round robin phase. The top two teams from each group, plus the top two from a 'repecharge' round robin will then progress to the quarter finals on Friday, followed by the semi-finals on Saturday. The final and petit-final will take place on Sunday October 11. -- http://www.bermudagoldcup.com FISHY TALES FROM THE MINI TRANSAT? By Elaine Bunting, Yachting World The Mini Transat set off from Madeira (Portugal) this weekend on the second and major leg across the Atlantic to Brazil amid a controversy that has caused upset in this otherwise harmonious fleet. As I reported from the start in La Rochelle (France), over a third of the fleet mistakenly rounded the wrong turning mark before heading out to sea. Most realised their mistake and returned to beat back to the correct mark a mile or so further upwind, but some did not. Those who didn't were in due course protested by the race committee and should have been subject to a whopping 24-hour penalty. In such a close run fleet, this is more than enough to affect the outcome of the entire race. But in Madeira last week it was announced that the race committee had dropped the protest, claiming that it had been filed - no, let's get this right, they had filed it - too late. -- Read on: http://www.yachtingworld.com/yw/blog/20090905121623blog_elaine_bunting.html WHEN PERFORMANCE MATTERS. Three of the four class winners at the 12M Worlds, held in Newport, RI, raced with complete North Sails inventories. Congratulations to 'Kiwi Magic' who won the Grand Prix division; 'American Eagle' who won the Traditional Division and 'Gleam' who won the Vintage Division. Six races over four days provided spectacular race viewing, especially on the last day with all 17 boats finishing downwind in Newport harbor! Congratulations and thank you to everyone for a very memorable event! When performance matters, the choice is clear: http://na.northsails.com BRAZIL FOR 2016 OLYMPICS The selection by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to be the host city of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in 2016 came after a strong vote, with Rio de Janeiro receiving 66 votes compared to Madrid's 32 in the final round of voting. Marina da Gloria in Guanabara Bay is the proposed venue for the 2016 Olympic Sailing Competition. The Bay is already well known as a world-class sailing venue: earlier this year it was a stopover venue for the Volvo Ocean Race; whilst in 2007 it was the sailing venue for the Pan American Games. Next year the Star class visits Rio for their World Championship battle. Brazil has a proud record in Olympic sailing; in fact sailing is one of the nation's most successful Olympic sports. Torben Grael is the only sailor to have won five Olympic medals, whilst Robert Scheidt is only one behind with two golds and two silvers. At Beijing 2008 Fernanda Oliveira and Isabel Swan became the first female Brazilian sailors to win an Olympic medal. Brazil also had hosted this year's Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship nearby in Buzios, Brazil in July. -- http://www.sailing.org/29938.php "THE REAL DIFFERENCE WAS UP, NOT DOWN" Times are tough now for the America's Cup, which makes memories from the "good ole days" that much sweeter. Continuing the recent Scuttlebutt thread about Australia II and the curiosity over her winged keel, here is a note from one of her crew, Will Baillieu, grinder onboard KA6 in 1983: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Ah yes, the summer of '83. It was fun. Australia II was different, but the real difference was up, not down. Few comments are made these days about our radical, vertical cut kevlar sails and our kevlar running rigging. We also sported a carbon fibre boom. These were firsts. Liberty still sported wire sheets. Have a look at the pictures. Yes, we had a radical keel but it was a handful at times, particularly dragging those wings downwind. The reason for the sailing world's obsession with our keel? Some green plastic sheet attached to a plywood screen. We decided to hide it away for effect. It was a huge distraction for the opposition and the source of great amusement for us. We knew we had the best prepared 12 metre yacht ever. Steve Ward built a perfect boat. The crew worked tirelessly to make sure she was perfectly fair and slick. AII's bottom was perfection. Even today, 26 years later, in a museum, she is perfection. We had wonderful sails, streets ahead of any other boat. We had a total of only 13 sailing crew, including only 2 reserves. Our team was tight, and we didn't party. We trained hard. Australian crews had always been popular in Newport, as long as they partied. We were there to win. Someone had to do it. -- Read on: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8373#8373 SAILING SHORTS * New Orleans, LA (October 4, 2009) - Thirty-two entrants participated in the 2009 Finn U.S. Nationals at Southern Yacht Club, which just last month celebrated the grand opening of their new clubhouse following the destruction in 2005 from Hurricane Katrina. Zach Railey did some destruction of his own, stringing together a 2-(DSQ)-1-1-1-1-1-1 to handily win the event over runner-up Bryan Boyd and third place Andy Kern, who captured the top ranked masters position. -- Final results: http://www.southernyachtclub.org/images/stories/final_results.pdf * Long Beach, CA (October 4, 2009) - The International 14 North American Championship was hosted by Alamitos Bay Yacht Club, where Kris Bundy and Jamie Hanseler from Seattle, WA beat out 21 other teams for the title. Complete results and video at http://www.abyc.org/event.cfm?id=360 * The 2009 Canadian Yachting Association National Qualifying Regatta took place last weekend at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. The Laser class was won by Luke Ramsay, with Jen Spalding dominating the Laser Radial fleet while Adam Roberts and Oliver Bone won the 470 event. -- http://tinyurl.com/y8cmove * Tommy Wharton, a National Team Coach with the Canadian Yachting Association since May 2005, is to take up the role of Lead Talent Development Manager with the Canadian Sports Centre in Ontario. Tommy has provided coaching support to members of the Canadian SailingTeam (particularly the Laser and Laser Radial Olympic Classes), at many World Championships, the 2007 Pan American Games and both the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/yb89r2m * TEAMORIGIN, the British America's Cup sailing team, confirmed its entry in the new Louis Vuitton Trophy regatta to be held in Nice, France. This event, the first of a set of match race regattas, to be sailed in America's Cup Class yachts, kicks off in Nice in five weeks time (7-22 November 2009) where eight teams from seven nations have so far entered and are expected to compete. The Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas then plan to move on to events in four other venues around the world in 2010. -- http://teamorigin.com/en * The 2009 TP52 World Championships begin Wednesday on the waters off Palma de Mallorca, with up to 11 races to be completed by Sunday, including Friday's scheduled coastal race. The absence of Emirates Team New Zealand, recently crowned Audi MedCup Champions, leaves the field open with any one of three or four boats having shown over this season that they have the boatspeed and the skills to win the title. Seeking to defend their 2008 World Championship title is Quantum Racing, which recently finished second in the MedCup. -- http://www.tp52worldchampionship.org/2009/home/ 107 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR RACE RESULTS During the past 15 years we have published 107 issues of Speed & Smarts, the world's most popular racing newsletter. Each issue is packed with tips to help you sail faster and smarter. And almost all issues are still available in Paper or PDF format. To see the list or place an order: http://www.speedandsmarts.com/BackIssues/Issues REPORTS FROM THE PERSIAN GULF * Ras Al Khaimah has issued a statement dismissing concerns from BMW-Oracle about its safety as the venue for the 33rd America's Cup in February 2010. "The UAE and specifically Ras Al Khaimah is an extremely safe venue for the America's Cup," said Dr Khater Massaad, CEO of RAK Investment Authority, the government agency responsible for the emirate's economic development. "The Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah has peaceful and friendly relations with all of its neighbours," he added. His comments come after the US team BMW-Oracle on Friday rejected the Gulf emirate as the venue for its duel with America's Cup defender Alinghi, describing it as "illegitimate and unsafe" due to its proximity to Iran. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/y93b8wg * Alinghi V, the new yacht saddled with the responsibility of keeping the America's Cup in the Swiss hands of multi-billionaire businessman Ernesto Bertarelli, should be sailing on Gulf waters before the end of next week. Officials of the defending team who will be based in Al Hamra, Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), for the next four months in advance of the three-race series between February 8 to 12, would not specify their exact UAE launch date as extensive checks are being carried out on the gigantic catamaran. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/ydfxnuu SAILING PHOTOS When you go search online for 'sailing photos', the Scuttlebutt website is the top ranked listing. Here are some recent additions: * Three hundred Optimist sailors attended the Atlantic Coast Championships in Larchmont, NY, but Mother Nature pulled a no-show and failed to deliver any wind. Photos by Maureen C. Koeppel: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/09/1005/ * The Sonar World Championship is added to a long list of world events held this year in the U.S., and that were also included on Scuttlebutt. Photos by Leighton O'Connor: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/09/1005b/ * Even though the Swan 45 Worlds were a month ago, these photos from the event are now on the Scuttlebutt website after the Swan 45 Class President pleaded for their inclusion, saying that Scuttlebutt hosted "the most important gallery on the internet." Flattery works, plus great imagery from Carlo Borlenghi and Stefano Gattini: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/09/1005a/ LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Please submit your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, 'The Curmudgeon'). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Ken Legler: Congrats to Bill Bentsen on winning the ISAF Beppe Croce Award. Bill was our race management mentor at Association Island, NY, 1974-76. It was an honor to work for Bill, an Olympic Champion, race management expert, and word smith at this rural US SAILING Center near the Olympic sailing site of Kingston, Ontario. Who better to be a lead writer in the massive rules re-write of 1996. In my opinion, the current rules are ingenious for simplicity and avoiding collisions. Thank you Bill Bentsen. * From Bob Colpitts: As a sailor who began in the fifties and then experienced the sailing boom of the seventies and eighties, I must observe that in the peak years, there were an awfully lot of people sailing who really never should have been (still are, I might add). A growth in prosperity fed romantic notions about life under sail that was both escapist and intoxicating, and resulted in a flood to the sport that was unsustainable. Add to that changing demographics witnessed by a drift to more sedentary activities as our population grows older, and I think you have the real reason for the decline in sailing. The wind and water will always be there, and true devotees will continue to sail. The universe is unfolding as it should. => Curmudgeon's Comments: Post additional comments here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/09/saving-sailing.html * From Michael W. Fortenbaugh: There are places in this country where sailing is growing. Figure out where these are and find out why. * From Chris Boome, San Francisco, CA: I enjoyed watching the Moths sail at the Gorge last year, but think we sometimes go a bit overboard with how new some of these ideas really are; check the "Monitor" out from 1957: http://tinyurl.com/yc8yodl * From Ian Latham, Atlanta, GA: I never knew Tom Blackaller personally, but like everyone, heard of him as a sailing standout. Your timely memorial was fabulous, and very moving. You tap into the core of sailing. => Curmudgeon's Comment: Here's a link for images of Tom Blackaller and the tribute: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/blog/2009/09/tom-blackaller.html WIN AN OPTIMUM TIME WATCH Did you have a mentor that helped you in the sport? Was there someone that took you under their wing, helped with your learning and opened some doors for you? Scuttlebutt will raffle off three Optimum Time watches on October 6, 2009 (noon PT) to anyone who posts who their mentor was. Either send your submission to the Scuttlebutt Editor, or post in Forum: Email: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=8302#8302 CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS "A pilot who doesn't have any fear probably isn't flying his plane to its maximum." - Jon McBride, astronaut Special thanks to APS, North Sails, and Speed & Smarts. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
