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SCUTTLEBUTT 2100 - May 23, 2006Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.EMOTIONAL FAREWELL May 22, 2006 -- At 08.37 AM GMT Monday morning off the English coast near Falmouth, the body of Hans Horrevoets was transferred to a Royal Netherlands Naval frigate from ABN Amro Two. In winds of 25 knots, French skipper Seb Josse and his crew bid an emotional farewell to their much loved friend and tpeam mate, holding a minute’s silence as Hans was taken off ABN AMRO TWO in a RIB to the Dutch frigate, HNLMS Van Galen. His body will now be taken back to his home town of Terheijden, in the Netherlands for repatriation and a funeral with family and friends. The transfer was achieved without any problems and ABN Amro Two have now resumed racing en route to Portsmouth. Jan Berent Heukensfeldt Jansen, CEO of Team ABN Amro, will meet Hans in Holland and accompany him back to his partner and family, commented, “I have so much respect for Seb Josse and his crew for the mature and professional way they have handled all the events that have arisen on this dramatic leg. The seamanship displayed to recover Hans and then go to the rescue of fellow competitors is astounding. They are now continuing onto Portsmouth in the spirit of the race, as Hans would have wished.” Just prior to Hans Horrevoets being transferred off the boat, the crew of movistar also left ABN Amro Two and returned to shore in Falmouth. This transfer was completed at 8.15 GMT. Bouwe Bekking’s crew had been rescued by Seb Josse’s men when the Spanish boat was abandoned because of keel problems and deteriorating weather NEW CLUE IN VOLVO RACE DEATH Hans Horrevoets may not have been wearing a safety harness when he was killed in the New York-Portsmouth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race last week, the rescued crew of Movistar have suggested. "It's a tragedy, it really is," said (movistar) trimmer Peter Doriean. "It's impossible to be strapped up 100 per cent of the time. Throughout the history of racing people have always fallen off boats and they always will. Falling off a boat is not at the back of an ocean sailor's mind - it's at the front of it, all the time." Sailors in this race have been more fearful than ever. The sheer speed of the Volvo 70 class and their tendency to plant mast-deep into waves upwind and downwind, means tons of water come across the deck. Moving on hands and knees is common practice as is "short stropping" to limit the travel of the safety-harness tether. "Even when you've got your harness on, people have broken arms, or had their faces cut open," Doriean added. "The boat goes through the waves as well as jumping across them so you're getting a 30-knot wall of water hitting you. It throws you all over the place." When Horrevoets was swept overboard, movistar was one of the competitors diverted to assist. But the actions of Josse's crew, notably British navigator Simon Fisher, allowed ABN Amro Two to recover Horrevoets' body in 40 minutes. -- Excerpts from a story by Tim Jeffery in the Daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/jsd37 THE MOST TRAUMATIC LEG ENDS After a wild Atlantic crossing, the Australian entry, Brunel, skippered by Britain’s Matt Humphries, crossed the finish line in Portsmouth, UK, this Monday at 1016 GMT, 1116 local time, after 10 days, 17 hours, 16 minutes and 32 seconds at sea. The last hours of this leg have been particularly testing for this crew who have had some breakages onboard which have prevented them from sailing at full speed, although they have been pressing as hard as possible in order to keep in front of the storm which has been creeping up on them. Steering has been reduced to one wheel only, although a temporary repair was made, and the crew have been wearing their yellow survival suits for the final 48 hours. ABN Amro Two crossed the finish line in leg 7 of the Volvo Ocean Race at 1908 GMT, scoring two points and finishing in sixth position. The young crew of international sailors, led by French skipper Sébastien Josse, wanted to finish the leg for Hans Horrevoets, their Dutch crew member who sadly died in the early hours of Thursday May 18. In a show of support and compassion, the boat was welcomed by hundreds of well wishers including the entire Volvo Ocean Race team of sailors, race officials, families and friends. As the boat arrived to huge applause at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth there were emotional scenes as the tired sailors were finally reunited with friends and loved ones after what must have been one of the most difficult legs in the history of the race. This has been one of the most traumatic legs of the Volvo Ocean Race, and of the Whitbread race too for that matter. Lives have been lost before, boats have been abandoned, but never before in the full glare of modern mass, global, communications. -- http://www.volvooceanrace.org OVERALL POINTS STANDINGS 1. ABN Amro One, 81 2. Pirates of the Caribbean, 55 3. Brasil 1, 48 3. movistar, 48 5 ABN Amro Two, 45 6. Ericsson Racing Team, 43.5 7. Brunel, 7 NAMES YOU CAN TRUST Now, when you see JK3 think Sail California-San Diego, your best choice in performance and cruising sailboats. JK3 Nautical Enterprises, Inc. has been doing business as Sail California-San Diego since opening in 1999, specializing in performance yacht sales and services, and becoming one of the top J/Boat dealers in the U.S. John, Ken, and Jeff are highly motivated to help you find the boat that will fit your needs. Check out our newest sail and power brands and brokerage boats at http://www.jk3yachts.com SALVAGE The fate of the Spanish Volvo Ocean Race yacht, Movistar, which was abandoned in the Atlantic on Sunday, was unclear last night after two electronic position beacons left operating on board stopped sending signals. The ten-strong crew got off the Volvo Ocean 70, which is valued at €5 million (about £3.4m / US$6.4m), at a position about 300 miles southwest of Land’s End after structural failure around the keel left her in danger of sinking. The crew were picked up by ABN Amro Two, another boat in the race, which dropped them off in Falmouth yesterday, before continuing to the leg seven finish off Portsmouth, where she was due last night. Bouwe Bekking, the Movistar skipper, said that when he got off the stricken boat the keel was so “wobbly” that he feared that the two pumps left working might quickly become overwhelmed by the volume of water flooding in. He said the Argos and Satcom C beacons had stopped transmitting at about 10pm on Sunday, indicating that power from the batteries that were driving the pumps had ceased. “There is a big question mark over the boat,” Bekking said. With Movistar left to fend for herself in winds of more than 50 knots and ten metre-high seas, she may have sunk. However, a more likely scenario is that the keel has dropped out of the boat, causing her to flip over, which would allow Movistar to remain afloat. Her fate may not be known for several days, with salvage attempts not expected to begin until at least today or tomorrow. -- Edward Gorman, the Times, full story: http://tinyurl.com/e4wos MAJOR ATTRACTION A new record was set at the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 11 on Sunday - 59 233 people poured into Port America's Cup, the most ever in a single day at the host city of the 32nd America's Cup. That pushes the total for the 10 days of Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts 10 & 11 up to 263 873. Over 400 journalists were accredited to the media centre with over 300 more involved in the television production for the host broadcaster and various rights-holders. 45 hours of live coverage were produced with over 300 hours of live coverage of the racing guaranteed around the world. Coverage of the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts on the official website, www.americascup.com was also popular. Featuring news, features, photos, results, and live updates in four languages, along with audio commentary in English and Spanish, the site received 2 649 958 page views and 302 306 visitors. Average unique visitors per day totalled 19 957. All of these numbers are up an average of 20% from the last Act in Trapani. -- http://www.americascup.com OVERVIEW OF ACTS 10 AND 11 -- Peter Isler (Monday, May 22, 2006) Nothing is better than real racing to put the crews under pressure and on a very steep learning curve. All the teams will have benefited from these Acts. There is no doubt that the Acts help us accelerate the learning process. True, it puts cards on the table that would not have been revealed at this stage in previous campaigns, but in BMW Oracle Racing we felt that the gains outweighed the losses. The other teams were able to check in on our new boat, so we gave away a little, but we learned far more. It is interesting to note how much all the teams - even those with older generation boats, with the possible exception of China Team - have raised their game. We are seeing a high level of competition through the fleet and the performance deltas have shrunk dramatically, especially in the light and moderate winds we've experienced this year (not much sign of the fabled 15+ knot Valenciano sea breeze yet). This suggests we are probably nearing the point of very low further returns from the current America's Cup class after five generations in the Cup. During the first couple of Cup campaigns, the difference between the "fast" boats and the fleet average was over 2 minutes around the race track. Those days are over, even between teams racing new boats against the previous generation. The performance of Alinghi in these Acts continues to highlight how good that team is, and how good SUI 75 is. Hopefully their new boat (which should soon be sailing) is not any faster! - Peter Isler, Navigator, BMW Oracle Racing Team, http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/06/pi0522/ QUOTE / UNQUOTE "The biggest thing we have learnt in the last couple of acts is that the new boats have similar speeds in these conditions and we seem to be going at the same sort of speed. We’re pretty happy with where we sit and we’re pretty happy that the strong teams have spent one of their boats and seem to be going at the same speed as we are.” -- Ed Baird, Alinghi helmsman during Act 10 and 11. CAMET PORTO CERVO SHORTS Give your crew a modern twist on the classic look! These canvas shorts provide the protection you need while maintaining the comfort and feel of our original sailing shorts. With attention to detail, these shorts have become the contemporary look on yachts all over the world. The Camet Porto Cervo Shorts are made from 9-ounce brushed, soft cotton canvas. Enjoy their relaxed fit with plain front, zipper fly, belt loops, two deep side pockets, and two stitched rear pockets with Velcro closures. Their design includes a double seat for protection and gusseted crotch for full range of motion. http://www.camet.com PARLIER SMASHES 24 HOUR RECORD (Following is an excerpt from a story posted on thedailysail subscription website on Monday.) Today Yves Parlier sailing his radical 'hydro-foiler' catamaran Médiatis Région Aquitaine smashed the singlehanded 24 hour record. Parlier set off his solo attempt to break Francis Joyon's outright solo 24 hour record of 543 miles at midday yesterday and over the course of the following 24 hours he sailed a very impressive 585 miles (awaiting, of course, ratification) at an average of 24.33 knots. This is an improvement of 45 miles over the previous record for a 60ft multihull - Laurent Bourgnon's time set during his solo transatlantic record in 1994 (and for a long time faster than any fully crew records). This record is the first real prize for Parlier since he launched his radical catamaran with its twin rigs, one mounted in each hull and its unusual stepped hulls, a shape taken from sea plane underbellies back in January 2004. Médiatis Région Aquitainehas already covered 597.81 miles in 24 hours fully crewed. ABN Amro Two's fully crewed Volvo Open 70 record at present stands at 562.96 miles in 24 hours. Alex Thomson's solo Open 60 24 hour record stands at 468.82 miles. -- http://thedailysail.com BUSY ATLANTIC SEASON The 2006 Atlantic hurricane season is expected to be an active one, with up to 10 of the big storms, the National Hurricane Center announced Monday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that four to six of those hurricanes could reach Category 3 strength or higher -- with maximum sustained winds topping 111 mph. NOAA predicts 13 to 16 named storms this season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. Eight to 10 of those storms are expected to reach hurricane strength. (Watch how close that came to an earlier prediction -- 3:12) A storm gets a name when it reaches tropical storm strength, with maximum sustained winds of 39 mph. It becomes a hurricane when its winds reach 74 mph. NOAA administrator, retired Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, said that warmer sea surface temperatures, low wind shear and other wind conditions are favorable to hurricane development. Wind shear, which is a change in air movement at different heights, can block the formation of hurricanes or make them weaker. Lautenbacher said that it was too early to predict how many storms would make landfall, but said that "it is statistically within reason to assume that two to four hurricanes could affect the United States." -- CNN.com, full story: http://tinyurl.com/j3qca BREITLING MEDCUP Being free of America’s Cup commitments means that while many of the America’s Cup sailors he will face this week have been slugging it out in Valencia at Louis Vuitton Acts 10 and 11, three times America’s Cup winner Russell Coutts has been able to devote the last few days ensuring that George Andreadis and Jaime Yllera’s brand new Botin & Carkeek designed TP52 is in optimum shape to start tomorrow’s Yacht Club Punta Ala Trophy, the opening regatta of the Breitling MedCup TP52 circuit. Looking relaxed as he attended tonight’s skippers’ briefing Coutts explained: "We got here on the 16th so we have managed to do five days of sailing here. We have checked through all the sails and checked as much of the equipment as possible as we can and I really think we are in pretty reasonable shape. This will probably be the best racing of this style of competition of the last 15, probably 20 years. The competition is going to be pretty tough. All the boats are pretty well crewed. It’ll be a matter of trying to stay consistent or as consistent as possible". Coutts finished second last year in the Reichel-Pugh designed Lexus. The co-owners went to Botin & Carkeek for a next generation development of their 2005 Breitling MedCup series winning design Pisco Sour. "The boat is a little narrower and a little flatter underneath. A lot of the new generation boats seem to have gone that way, looking around", explains Coutts who helms Lexus. -- Excerpt from a story posted on Valencia Sailing, full story: http://valenciasailing.blogspot.com/ SAILING SHORTS * Ed Baird: Opti to Alinghi, sailing’s consummate pro is now playing on http://www.t20.tv. * The Orange Sailing Team is lining up for some more records: Bruno Peyron and the crew of the maxi-catamaran Orange II are about to tackle the prestigious North Atlantic crewed record. Already the holder of the round the world record, Orange II will be trying to smash the record the American Steve Fossett has held since October 2001 of 4 days, 17 hours, 28 minutes and 06 seconds. After spending a week in New York, the giant Orange II has headed off towards Newport to put the final touches to her preparation. -- http://www.orange-sailing-team.com * On May 20th and 21st 2006 a fleet of IRC, J-44 and PHRF yachts participated in the Second Annual Jamie Boeckel Memorial Regatta at the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club. The Jamie Boeckel Memorial Foundation (http://www.jamieboeckel.org/) was established in 2002 shortly after the sudden and tragic passing Jamie, in a yacht racing accident while performing Bowman duties aboard Blue Yankee on Long Island Sound. In the last two years the Fund has helped sponsor Safety at Sea Seminars and has distributed over 600 life jackets to boating and sailing centers. Regatta results: http://www.seawanhaka.org * Photographer Chris Ray submitted photos to Scuttlebutt from the Stone Cup last weekend in San Francisco, where after a late start with shifty winds and threatening skies, the sun poked out and the Bay’s predictable winds emerged. Lots of action with some spin-outs: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/06/0522/ * The Yachting Universe website has posted a photo specials on Dee Caffari’s arrival: http://tinyurl.com/jmf95 BERMUDA BOUND? This June the Newport to Bermuda Race will celebrate its 100th anniversary and to commemorate the once-in-a-lifetime experience, CCA has commissioned an original painting "100 Years of the Bermuda Race" by John MacGowan. Immortalizing the classic St. David’s Lighthouse finish, the image is now available as a limited-edition print. http://www.johnmacgowan.com EIGHT BELLS A writer and boat-builder in Thomasville, Georgia, and Dog Island, Florida, Robb White died May 16, 2006. He was born June 4, 1941. He graduated from Thomasville High School and served in the United States Navy from 1960-1963. He attended Florida State University and graduated in biology from Valdosta State College. He taught science in Jefferson County for 10 years. He is survived by his wife, Jane, his sons and daughters-in-law, Wes and Erin White and Sam and Pam White, their children, Rosalie, Will, Neil, Rebecca Jane, Claudia, and Allison, and his sisters Barbara and June. At Robb’s request, after cremation his family will lay him to rest without ceremony. -- http://www.robbwhite.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree. And please save your bashing, and personal attacks for elsewhere. For those that prefer a Forum, you can post your thoughts at the Scuttlebutt website: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi) * From Senet Bischoff: (re ISAF World Sailing Games): The winning Team Racing team was: Danny Pletsch, Carrie Howe, Caleb Silsby, and Paige Hannon. This team was one of the two US teams selected at this February's qualifier for the ISAF Games, hosted by St. Pete YC and the University of South Florida. The US's 1-3-4 at the ISAF Games comes shortly after a USA 1-2 at the Wilson Trophy in West Kirby England and a USA 1-2 at the Team Racing Worlds held at NYYC in Newport, RI last September. * From Mark Eustis: We should remember Hans Horrevoets as Formula One fans remember Ayrton Senna, as climbers do Mallory, and as the sea knows Tabarly. Bless him and his kin, he's sailing with the angels. * From Oscar Gallo: About the late Hans Horrevoets, I have no doubt he would wanted to have the crew sail on, compete and do well. I am originally from Flanders, Belgium where the culture and language are really Dutch. As a youngster, I recall so many songs about " Matroozen." sailors who were taken by the sea. But no matter what, the fishermen bravely went out there again and again into the brutal North Sea ... to feed us. So - Tot Ziens, Hans ( farewell ). * From Jonothan Saunders: All great congratulations for Dee Caffari 's solo voyage. Simply amazing task. Please consider to remember as you have with Chichester and Knox-Johnson ,that, John Guzzwell was the first Englishman to solo-circumnavigate. From Victoria, Canada and return. * From Michael Blunt: What are the chances of Mike Sanderson letting the Moviestar crew use abn 1 to finish the race? Seeing as Mike and crew have already won in the points race, it would allow for a competitive team to stay in the race. CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Deja moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before. Special thanks to JK3 Nautical Enterprises, Camet Intl, and John MacGowan |
