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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 569 - May 15, 2000AMERICA'S CUPNo announcements have been made, but a major restructuring at Prada may also be underway. There it's reported that German Frers has left and is suggesting to his son, Mani, that he ceases co-operation. Sources say that Prada coordinator, Laurent Esquier has recommended to Patrizio Bertelli that a completely new design team be recruited. Moreover, with the two Farr designed Young America's in Prada's stable, it could be that Bertelli would be courting the Farr office. Where then would Doug Peterson, arguably the most successful America's Cup designer of the current era, go? He is unlikely to want to work with Farr, and if Bertelli's choice lies with the designer of Young America and his total concept staff at Annapolis (which would have to move to Milan), there might be nowhere for Peterson to go. That, however, is unlikely and one can feel the offers being pushed his way. Peterson might take number cruncher David Egan with him, too, and that would provide a strong design team for anyone in the market. - Bob Fisher, Grand Prix Sailor Full story: http://www.sailingworld.com MORE AMERICA'S CUP (Yes, we know that a number of the 'Buttheads would prefer we shift the spotlight away from unsubstantiated AC rumors, but how do you ignore a yachting story in the New York Times? Here are two brief excerpts from Herb McCormick's piece in Sunday's issue?) * A source close to T.N.Z.'s inner circle says that the Kiwi skipper Russell Coutts has received substantial offers from multiple European-based syndicates. And Brad Butterworth, who has joined Coutts in the New Zealand team's administrative ranks, has fielded a seven-figure offer to plot onboard strategy for Prada. Neither of these stories is particularly surprising. Along with the legendary turn-of-the-century captain Charlie Barr, Coutts is the winningest cup skipper in history. And in the war of wits in the 5-0 Kiwi sweep of Prada, Butterworth clearly outmatched the Italian tactician Torben Grael, much to the disgust of the syndicate chief, Patrizio Bertelli. But it was surprising to hear persistent rumors that the T.N.Z. grinders Craig Monk and Andrew Taylor, and the mastman, Matthew Mason, were also in line for major paydays. Though all are unquestionably superb sailors, they do not fill glamour positions. In the National Football League and in the America's Cup, the men in the trenches do not earn quarterback paychecks. Such speculation has fueled the notion that a backer with an unlimited cash supply is behind a major challenge, and the spotlight was turned on the Seattle billionaire Craig McCaw, who earned his fortune in the cellular-phone business. McCaw, a yachtsman who contributed $500,000 to T.N.Z.'s 2000 defense fund and who docked his boat at Koch's cup compound in San Diego in 1995, seemed a likely candidate. But despite several reports to the contrary, a McCaw operative last week insisted that McCaw did not intend to field his own cup team. "It's been discussed but it's gone no further," said Gary Wright, a McCaw associate in charge of international projects, who is based in the United Kingdom. "We haven't put together anyone in a syndicate or made a challenge. There's absolutely no basis for lots of things being said in the press." * And there is no question that the Italians will continue to pursue talent from the international ranks. In addition to purchasing both boats sailed by the New York Yacht Club's Young America campaign in the last cup, Prada has scored a major coup by enlisting the services of the Hall Spars and ex-Young America marine engineer Scott Ferguson to oversee mast and spar development. Prada, which built six complete rigs for the recent cup, will keep Ferguson busy. - Herb McCormick, NY Times. There is much more to McCormick's story. To read it all: http://www.nytimes.com/library/sports/other/051400yac-newzealand.html STAR WORLDS (Sunday, 14 May 2000, Annapolis, MD, USA) The Nautica 2000 Star Class World Championship opened today in challenging, but gratifying, conditions. Shortly after noon, the fleet began a race in a 12 knot breeze just west of north and under sunny skies scrubbed clean by a powerful line of thunderstorms that raked the entire east coast overnight Saturday. The vast majority of the fleet started on the left side of the two part starting line, betraying a windshift that ultimately led to the abandonment of the contest. The bulk of the fleet was about one-third of the way up the leg when left-ward march of the 10-12 knot wind led to the unfurling of "November" flags and the sailors were called back to the starting box. After a second attempt on a more westerly axis was delayed by a General Recall, the first race of the six race series finally started cleanly at approximately 1:30 p.m., on an axis of 295. No team was better than Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl who thrived in the constantly changing conditions. Reynolds (Age: 44: San Diego) and Liljedahl (Age: 46, Miami) will represent the United States in the Star Class in Sydney this September at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games. Although they led at every mark--at times their lead over the second place boat was nearly two minutes--Reynolds and Liljedahl worked hard around the entire course to maintain their lead, and competing teams were on their heels at the finish. STANDING AFTER ONE RACE: 1. USA 7995 Mark Reynolds, Magnus Liljedahl 1.0 ; 2. SWE 7855 Mats Johansson, Leif Moller 2.0 ; 3. USA 7996 John MacCausland, Phil Trinter 3.0 ; 4. USA 7737 Eric Doyle, Tom Olsen 4.0 ; 5. NZL 7939 Gavin Brady, Jamie Gale 5.0 ; 6. GBR 7953 Ian Walker, Mark Covell 6.0 ; 7. USA 7425 Douglas Schofield, Robert Schofield, Jr. 7.0 ; 8. BRZ 7875 Torben Grael, Marcelo Ferreia 8.0 ; 9. BER 7988 Peter Bromby, Lee White 9.0 ; 10. IRL 7763 Mark Mansfield, David O'Brien 10.0; Complete story and results: http://www.annapolisyc.com/starworlds2000 CODE GREEN Skipper Steve Fossett and his 10 man crew aboard the 105-foot maxi-catamaran PlayStation depart Sundat from New York - their target is both the 10-year old TransAtlantic sailing record and an important major trans-ocean test - for what is already the world's fastest ocean-going sailboat (580.23 nautical miles in 24 Hours - March 1999) - prior to her 'round the world and other records sailing programme 2000-2002. The current TransAtlantic record of six days, 13 hours, three minutes and 32 seconds is held by Frenchman Serge Madec (Jet Services V - 1990). The original 1905 record of 12 days, by the schooner Atlantic, stood for 75 years. Between 1980 and 1990 it was broken seven times. Since 1990 nearly 20 attempts have been made on this exceptional mark. The team will set off from New York's Chelsea Piers and navigate down the Hudson to take the starting gun at Ambrose Light outside of New York Harbour, setting course for The Lizard in Cornwall, UK. Website: http://www.fossettchallenge.com/ WORRELL 1000 LEG 6 - The shore crews made it to the finish just in time to greet the boats this evening as the fleet smashed the course record for leg 6. A 15 to 18 knot South/Southeasterly breeze clocked steadily to the Southwest propelling Randy Smyth and Matt Struble of Team Blockade Runner to a huge Victory. Team Blockade Runner completed the 80.3 mile course in just 4 hours and 28 minutes. Smyth was fully adrenalized at the finish, "the GPS said 20-21 miles per hour the whole way. We were just eating up the beach, we could have gone all the way to Virginia Beach tonight!" The victory built a large cushion for Smyth. Brett Dryland and Rod Waterhouse of Team Rudee's flipped over early in the leg, then broke their centerboard righting the boat. The Aussies finished the leg 5th, slipping 32 minutes behind Smyth and Struble. The English team of William Sunnucks and Mark Self finished second, followed by Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston of Alexander's on the Bay and Team Tybee, sailed by Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce. The Dutch team of Gerard Loos and Mischa Heemskerk had a rough leg, dropping out of the leader pack to 5th overall, nearly an hour and a half off the pace. - Zack Leonard Curmudgeon's Comment: There was lot of carnage on Leg 6. If you're into horror stories, you really should check out this URL: http://www.worrell1000.com/archive2000/da5-14-00-a.html STANDINGS AFTER SIX LEGS: 1. Blockade Runner Beach Resort Randy L. Smyth & Matt H. Struble 2. Rudee's Rest. Brett A. Dryland &Rod J. Waterhouse; (Behind leader - 00:31:12) 3. Alexander's on the Bay, (Brian J. Lambert & Jamie B. Livingston, 01:19:07 4 Tybee Island, Stephen G. "Steve" Lohmayer &Kenneth A. "Kenny" Pierce, 1:20:02 5. Holland 01:29:03 Event website: http://www.worrell1000.com/ 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 Morgan Larson -- I can't believe that the ISAF and IOC would take another leap backwards when it comes to sailing in the Olympic Games. Women's match racing and the other "keel boat" classes such as the Star and Soling are great racing but isn't this pretty boring sailing? These slow, lumbersom boats with not always fit athletes pale in comparison to a high speed skiff like the 49er. I've never been to the Olympic's myself yet it has been my major goal for the last 10 years and in my mind this is the pinnacle of our sport and for athletes the world over. What a joke it would be if the 49er was removed after only 1 Olympiad. 49er's have: the most exciting class, fittest athletes, most dynamic sailing, largest competitive weight range and most media coverage. You don't see Star racing while aboard a United Airlines flight do you? If sailing is going to make a step forward we should have a female skiff or catamaran class and a singlehanded skiff as well. You don't see young kids calling up the local Soling fleet asking for a ride but they sure are beating down the doors of anyone who has a 29er (small skiff). I see young 29er sailors out sailing after school instead of playing video games! These are our future 49er Olympic Team members and if you take fun fast sailing out of the Olympics the sport will die... -- From Bruce Parsons (With regard to the note of Frank Whitton and their experience of Americap) - We have tried to get this system for use here in Newfoundland. It looks good to me as it has two factors in it, time on time and time on distance, as it were. My old materials prof used to say that with a three parameter algorithm you could fit any data. We have a wide range of boats here, from J24 to C&C 61 with Etchells, C&C's and lots of other stuff all thrown together and we have long felt a fleet result was meaningless under PHRF with a 200 point spread in boats. But when we tried in 99 to get this information to use here, we were told that US Sailing would not allow it to be used outside the US. Is this really the case, and couldn't we somehow extend this info to your northern neighbours? I would also like to hear how it is working out where it is used. -- From Tucker Strasser (re From Frank Whitton - USER FRIENDLY measurement rule) - Frank states that US Sailing is working on a measurement rule called Americap II. I consider any measurement rule, IMS, PHRF, MORC, Americap II, no different from any one design class. That said why is US Sailing devoting our resources, even with the use of volunteers, to develop this class. They should not and do not do this for any one-design class. This new class should be developed, managed by the people who want it, much like PHRF was done in Southern California. I would hate to see the amount of mail sent to this forum if US Sailing tried to develop, manage a one design class. The problem with any new measurement rule is if your boat rates well under that rule you will use it, if your boat rates bad under that rule you will use the other system. This splits the fleets, fewer boats in each division with a large rating gap between boats, making both systems inefficient. -- From Walter Jacquemin - Perhaps James Nichols should observe our women's keelboat match racing event June 16-18. The 8 contestants from the U.S. and Canada will be Hannah Swett, Suzy Leech, Sharon Seymour, Colleen Cooke, Jody Swanson, Sandy Hayes, Elizabeth Baylis and Karen Lynch. They will sail Ynglings on Lake Huron, and the boats will handle perfectly with 3 women on the boat! http://www.sailingsource.com/yngling/description.html -- From Michael McCann - If what George says is true - that there are federal laws which prevent a foreign built boat being used for PR (and worse still that the Coast Guard and Customs actually enforce these laws) - it is a bit rich from the country that holds itself out to be in favour of free trade. I doubt if there are any such rules in the EU! MORE STAR WORLDS (Angus Phillips had two stories in Sunday's Washington Post about the Star Worlds. Here are a couple of excerpts, along with links to the full stories.) * No, that isn't a convention of Big Ten offensive linemen wandering around Annapolis. It's the gathering of beef for the Nautica Star World Championships. * The one thing all these brilliant helmsmen need to keep their Stars powered in even a mild blow is a hulking but nimble crewman, heavy enough at 275 pounds or so to hold the boat flat against the strength of the wind, clever enough to handle a maze of strings to keep the sails trimmed properly and agile enough to hang over the side by their feet in gusts yet instantly pop back when the wind goes light or control lines need attention. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62943-2000May13.html * Gavin Brady of Annapolis is using the Worlds as a springboard in his bid to sail at the Olympics in Sydney. If he can finish in the top 20 in Annapolis, it should qualify him and crewman Jamie Gale for one of eight remaining Star slots in the Games. Just 17 nations get to send Stars to Sydney, and nine spots are taken, including the U.S. team of Mark Reynolds and Magnus Liljedahl. Brady and Gale hope to carve out a spot to represent their homeland, New Zealand. But 20th in the Worlds is no small order for the two transplanted Kiwis who climbed in a Star for the first time in February after finishing America's Cup duties in Auckland, New Zealand. Brady was strategist for Paul Cayard on AmericaOne; Gale was a crewman on the New York Yacht Club's entry, Young America. * Brady said the biggest thing he has learned from his crash course in Stars is how to settle for less than perfection. "It's a mini-keelboat, just like an America's Cup boat with a lot of the same controls. But we have two people to do the work instead of 16. There's not enough hands to do everything. You look up at the mainsail after you round a mark and think, 'Sheesh! That's terrible.' But if you look behind, it's better than 80 percent of the others. We realized that with two guys, you're lucky to get it 75 percent right." Brady said there are no Star boats in New Zealand, a nation that largely invents its own one-design sailboat classes and eschews costly international classes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62955-2000May13.html HERE COMES THE JUDGE Need a judge or race officer for your next regatta? Easy, just go to: http://ussailing.org/judges/judge_search.htm STARTING LINE LESSONS (Following is a brief excerpt from a story sailing coach Zack Leonard wrote for the Sailnet website about getting off the starting line.) Good starting begins with the KISS principle-keep it simple, stupid. The key to consistent starting is to prioritize properly the essential goals of the start. We've all fought for the pin when it's favored by 10 degrees, but the risk-reward equation of that behavior rarely pays off. To start well consistently, sailors need to learn to avoid the clustered territory and hunt for good clean lanes. I have three goals at every start: 1. I want to be moving at full speed, on the line, with clear air for the immediately foreseeable future. 2. I want to be sailing toward the favored side of the course with a wide lane of clear air. 3. I want to start as close to the favored end of the line as safety and logic allow. Most sailors are surprised by how far down on the priority list the favored end is. The favored end, of course, is that end of the starting line that is farther upwind. In a race with no windshifts and no current disparities anywhere on the course, a boat starting at the favored end will sail less distance to the windward mark than a boat starting at the unfavored end. Of course it's unlikely that any of us will ever see a racecourse like that. . - Zack Leonard, SailNet website Full story: http://www.sailnet.com/collections/racing/index.cfm?articleid=leonar006 CALENDAR May 27-28, CBYC - DPYC Around Catalina Race - http://www.dpyc.org/race/cat00.htm THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION When everything's coming your way, you're probably in the wrong lane. |
