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SCUTTLEBUTT 1231 - January 2, 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. THE GERMAN CHALLENGE (Julie Ash recently did an interview with John Kostecki about plans for Germany to have a challenger in the Next America's Cup series. Here's an excerpt from that story in the New Zealand Herald.) "We just recently formed a company in Germany. Four of us, Ross Halcrow, Michael Richelson, myself and Michael Illbruck. We have a team of people in Germany looking for corporate money," said Kostecki, a former Olympic Soling silver medallist, who is also dabbling in a little bit of sailing in the Olympic Star class. "Obviously it is really going to depend on where the America's Cup ends up. Budgets can change significantly depending on where it goes." But he did admit it was a little daunting looking at the $190 million or so the likes of Oracle and Prada had available to them. "It makes it difficult, because to be successful these days you do have to spend a lot of money. But we are looking at that and trying to figure out what it is going to take to mount a winning challenge." - NZ Herald, Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sports/sportsstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3048017&thesection=sport&thesubsection=americascup&thesecondsubsection=challengers TILTING THE PLAYING FIELD The debut performance of Bob Oatley's canting ballast Reichel Pugh 60 Wild Oats at Australia's Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week 2002 caused headaches for Australian Yachting authorities and race organisers. Using the patented DynaYachts Canting Ballast, Twin Foil™ (CBTF) technology, Wild Oats canting ballast can tip the boat more than 20 degrees. A demonstration at the Hamilton Island marina showed just that. Australian sailing regulations, written primarily around water ballast, forbid systems that cant a vessel beyond 10 degrees. But this new technology has already tilted the playing field. Queensland Yachting authorities provided special dispensation for the Hahn Premium Hamilton Island series, sailed in protected waters inside the Great Barrier Reef in August. Wild Oats sailed under an IRC certificate, which seemed to underestimate the speed advantage she had and she won six races out of eight on IRC handicap. Many racing designers felt that her July 2003 IRC certificate would be revised to reduce her handicap advantage. However there was a widely held belief that Wild Oats would not receive further dispensations to allow her to race in open waters, unless her canting ballast system was in some way restricted. This was further reinforced when Wild Oats experienced problems in 30-knot winds during the Post-Hamilton delivery trip back to Sydney. The hydraulic system used to pump the ballast to windward for added stability failed and the ballast swung through to leeward, causing the yacht to take on an abnormal angle of heel. However designers used this incident along with a mass of additional engineering data, to underline the inherent safeness of the canting ballast concept in submissions to Yachting authorities and race organisers. Now the regulatory ground is clearly canting too. Tomorrow the revolutionary 60 footer will start in the Strathfield Pittwater to Coffs Harbour race, a 226-miler north along the New South Wales Coast and she will be able to use her full range of canting ballast. In a ruling confirmed by the Yachting Association of NSW on December 24th special dispensation now allows Wild Oats to sail in any category 7-4 races and for this specific category 2 offshore race, organised by the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Pittwater. The 2004 Strathfield Pittwater to Coffs race is clearly going to see more exciting boats with canting ballast systems. The maxi Z86 Class have already voted to embrace the use of canting ballast for their new 86-foot turbo-sled maxi boats. Roy Disney's new canting ballast Pyewacket is under construction at Cooksons Boatyard in Auckland, New Zealand and will be launched in September 2003. Work has also started on the new canting ballasted Morning Glory at McConaghy Boats in Sydney for delivery in the Australian spring. - Rob Kothe, Sail-World.com. There is much more to this story: http://www.sail-world.com/pittwatercoffs2003/ WEAPONS FOR THE MIDWINTER AND KEY WEST SAILING WARS! Padded Sailing Shorts/Long Pants with optional rear seat pads (optional knee pads for Longs), Kontrol Gloves with aggressive-gripped palm-wrap, Waterproof Gloves and Socks, High Collared SunBlocker Sailing Shirts, Floatable Waterproof Gear Bags, and Knee Sleeves are only some of the weapons SAILING ANGLES has to help you win this winter/spring's wind wars! New quick dry Shoreline Shorts are ideal, inexpensive team gear. Embroidery available. Team Discounts available with a minimum of 3. Order on line at www.sailingangles.com or by phone at 800-666-3616 or 305-661-7200. Key West Location: 700 Front Street. 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 Robert Baker (re 'The Sydney Hobart international jury had initially ruled Valheru's protest invalid because it did not hail "protest" at the time and did not raise the red flag at the earliest opportunity.'): Surely the time has come for the ISAF to give better guidelines to protest committees who are all too quick to rule a protest invalid when a flag or hail is a few seconds late. Armchair protest committee members can have little idea the stress caused to skipper and crew involved in such a collission - and the requirement to fly a flag and hail at the appropriate time is absurd. What is the purpose of a hail and flag anyway. I've always thought it is to ensure the other yacht is made aware of the intent to protest and has therefore sufficient time and information to decide whether to take an alternative penalty. Clearly the other yacht had both in this case. When that is evident by the information provided, no protest should be thrown out on the technicality of the timing of a hail or flag display. Let's give some reasonable guidelines to committees to avoid this situation which is all to prevalent throughout the lesser ranks of sailing. * From Zvi Ziblat (ISR): The disqualification of "Loki" in the Hobart race is disturbing. One would think that persons investing so much money and time in such a project would respect RRS 44.1 and the "basic principals." And we ridicule the AC rules . . . * From Gregory Scott Kingston: I find it somewhat amusing to hear a billionaire complaining of unfair advantages that Team New Zealand may have by clever use of brain power. If the recent implied glue sticks to the possibility that Alinghi are in some manner behind the New York case looking into funding, I will be no longer amused but appalled! The implication seems as though, money when stifled by talent immediately resorts to what money can buy; litigation. Rather than accept the possibility that they may have spent some of their millions going in the wrong direction, the suggestion now seems as though they want to substantiate the spending by application of litigation to amend the words to take "intent" as the precedent, rather than the words themselves. The world has got itself into one hell of a mess when we have used this in relation to words from religious text and I think we will find ourselves in a similar quagmire if it is applied here. On a second point, If the folks in New Zealand have figured out how to host the event and not go broke in the process, I think that rather than finding a way of penalizing them, we should all be applauding. In both cases, It seems as though the lowest common denominator is in effect no matter what the scale, one dollar or one million. Dumb it down, rather than move it forward. * From Helen C. Johnstone: It was refreshing to read Peter Cullman's comments in butt' #1230 comparing the "diametric opposite characteristics" of our sport between the amusing soap opera taking place in the America's Cup and the courage and team spirit of the individuals toughing it out in the Around the World Alone Race. Maybe I am a bit biased because Brad Van Liew, who is currently winning class 2 on his yacht Tommy Hilfiger Freedom of America, is my cousin. The individuals in the Around the World Alone Race are a true example of the Corinithian Spirit that still exists in the sailing world today as they race around the globe for the coveted prize. The beauty of these individuals is that they have shown complete and utter respect and concern for one another by going out of their way to assist one another in any way they can. If you tune in to the www.aroundalone.com website you will experience first-hand the real character and heart of the team spirit in what is ironically an individual vs. individual competition. BRUCE FARR (Angus Phillips has done a comprehensive story in the Washington Post about Bruce Farr's involvement in America's Cup campaigns, with a special focuses on the boats he's designed for Larry Ellison's Oracle BMW Racing program. Here's a brief excerpt.) While Oracle is less radical than previous Farr designs, other designers here agree it's unique in the fleet -- narrower at the waterline than others, wider on deck, with a graceful, swooping deck line. "It's certainly the most interesting of the challengers," said Team New Zealand design coordinator Tom Schnackenberg. Interestingly, the radical design breakthrough of this Cup appears to be Schnackenberg's, not Farr's. Both Oracle and Alinghi are trying to copy the radical "Kiwi Clip-On," a horizontal second skin Team New Zealand apparently has attached to stern sections of their boats to increase waterline length, and thus speed. Many here believe the success of the two challengers depends on which can make the best "silly stern," as detractors call it, by Jan. 11 when they take to the water again. For his part, Farr is devoting more time to overseeing this Cup campaign than he has in years. He was criticized in 2000 for not keeping a closer eye on Young America when construction problems led to its breakup. Farr says that campaign was underfunded and he couldn't afford to abandon the rest of his trade to focus on it. This time, with Ellison's millions at the ready, money is no obstacle. Farr flew to New Zealand in November and has been here most of the time since. Often he shares an apartment with skipper and fellow Kiwi Dickson, a move Ellison says he championed "to put the two most intense guys in the same room and see what happens." - Angus Phillips, The Washington Post, full story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60422-2002Dec31.html WHAT MAKES OCKAM BETTER? You've probably heard that the Ockam system is the best; but what makes it better? Each week we'll detail the differences in Scuttlebutt. For starters, Ockam has a more intuitive and logical interface whether performing calibrations, setting up displays, or controlling the system from displays or software. The same logic applies to Ockam's physical layout: a single coax cable carrying power and data. This "daisy chain" cabling is much cleaner and measurably lighter than the multiple wire, back and forth wiring scheme of other systems. For more information, visit www.ockam.com TEAM DENNIS CONNER (Sean McNeill reviewed the Team Dennis Conner campaign for a story on the Louis Vuitton website. Here are two excerpts.) According to Bill Trenkle, the post mortem on Team Dennis Conner's campaign at Louis Vuitton Cup 2003 is easy to assess. "When you look at our campaign, we probably had the shortest amount of time on the water," said Trenkle, the President of Dennis Conner Sports. "That was necessitated by cash flow. When we got the money determined when we could begin our sailing program. But that didn't leave time for problems." * Primary among them was the lack of cash up front. That meant that Team Dennis Conner was one of the last to gear up for Auckland and one of the last to arrive on site, which put them on the back foot from the start. Then there was the sinking of the team's second America's Cup Class sloop, USA-77, off Long Beach, Calif., as the team wound up its training. The team launched USA-77, a Reichel/Pugh design, in late May and sailed it for less than two months before it sank on July 23. Then a delay in shipping a new bow section for the boat to Auckland meant the team's primary race boat wouldn't sail again for about three months. "We didn't have the time to give up in September by not having our second boat," Trenkle said. "We couldn't even sail against another competitor because if we wrecked 66, we'd be out of the event. We couldn't do in house practise. Our programme was just too short to handle that." Their sailing programme commenced in earnest last February when they took delivery of USA-66. After just a few days sailing, USA-66's tune-up time was interrupted when its millennium rig broke. Uncharacteristic of a Conner-led team, there was some substandard crew work on the water. Helmsman Ken Read's performance in the pre-start was an Achilles heel. Stars & Stripes rounded a leeward mark without the genoa sheets attached to the sail. As a final punctuation, their spinnaker grazed the last windward mark of their last race. They were just 21 seconds behind OneWorld at the time, but the penalty for touching a mark is a 270-degree turn, which killed any chance of extending their quarter final repechage match against the rival American team. It all added up to the earliest exit from America's Cup competition ever for Conner, the four-time winner. - Sean McNeill, LVC website, full story: http://www.louisvuittoncup.yahoo.com/story1587.html AROUND ALONE The Around Alone leaders are making short work of the Great Australian Bight as Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group Armor lux and Thierry Dubois on Solidaires reel off day after day of 300 plus miles. Wednesday morning Bernard had less than 2000 miles to go to the finish in Tauranga and was rapidly closing on the west coast of Tasmania. At the back of Class 1 Bruce Schwab on Ocean Planet is having troubles of his own. Bruce's earlier gybe to the north did not pay the dividends he hoped it would and he is now playing catch-up, a game that has caused him to push his boat a little too hard and as a result he has damaged part of his boom vang arrangement. To deal with the situation, Schwab has had to drop his mainsail and is currently sailing under headsails alone while he figures out a jury rig for the vang. - Brian Hancock STANDINGS 2200 UTC January 1 CLASS 1: 1. Bobst Group-Armor Lux, Bernard Stamm, 1852 miles from finish; 2. Solidaires, Thierry Dubois, 307 miles behind leader; 3. Hexagon, Graham Dalton, 561 mbl, 4. Tiscali, Simone Bianchetti, 683 mbl; 5. Pindar, Emma Richards, 761 mbl; 6. Ocean Planet, Bruce Schwab, 982 mbl. CLASS 2: 1. Tommy Hilfiger, Brad Van Liew, 3119 miles from finish; 2. Everest Horizontal, Tim Kent, 490 mbl. 3. Spirit of Canada, Derek Hatfield, 619 mbl; 4. Spirit of yukoh, Kojiro Shiraishi, 730 mbl, BTC Velocity, Alan Paris, 1137 mbl. - www.aroundalone.com CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS June 27-29: North Sails Race Week, Long Beach, California. PHRF and one-design class including the Farr 40 and J/105 Pacific Coast Championships. - www.premiere-racing.com THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS Laughing stock: cattle with a sense of humor. |
