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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 565 - May 9, 2000AC RUMORSLONDON - Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates is part of a "secretive" American syndicate that has approached New Zealand's championship America's Cup team to race for the United States, the Observer newspaper reported. The syndicate wants the New Zealanders to sail under the Stars and Stripes for the next America's Cup in 2003. Team New Zealand's star helmsman Dean Barker said in Wellington, New Zealand, that he was offered a huge paycheck to jump ship to a Seattle syndicate, but turned down the offer. Barker said many of the 80-strong Team New Zealand squad of sailing crew, designers, shore support and sailmakers had also received lucrative offers, but most would not be tempted into switching national allegiances. "I won't consider it, no. I owe a lot to Team New Zealand, and it's the same for everyone else," Barker, 26, told Reuters. "I have been approached, but I definitely haven't spoken to Bill or anyone from his office," he said. The Observer said 20 of the team's 30 sailors have been offered a total of $200,000 with the promise of American citizenship if they switch sides, and that a total of about $35 million is available to lure the backbone of Team New Zealand. The Observer said Team New Zealand had been approached by Sean Reeves, a lawyer and former team adviser, offering $60,000 signing-on fees and $150,000 annual salaries, guaranteed for six years. The move is being made now so the crew could meet the two-year residency qualification for competing in 2003. - Seattle Post-Intelligencer News Service Full story: http://www.seattle-pi.com/sports/acup08.shtml CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: There are growing indications that many of these stories have homed in on the right town but the wrong billionaire. ISAF MID YEAR MEETING REPORT (Magnus Gravare sent the curmudgeon the following report written by the 49er Class Executive Secretary John Reed about the happenings at the ISAF mid-year meeting in Cyprus. We had hoped to learn something directly from the ISAF, but so far this is all we have.) Olympic spinnakers: Julian arrived with the redesigned national flag spinnakers, which now have SOCOG approval. These were well received and hopefully production will start by mid May. Our submission that there should be 2 national spinnakers for each competitor has been rejected by the Olympic Advisory Group, which I believe is a combined ISAF/SOCOG group. I understand the reason for this rejection is that, in having to make it a condition that competitors be required to purchase the second spinnaker, creates an entry fee, which is not permitted. Not making them mandatory would give an unfair advantage to those nations who can afford to purchase a second spinnaker. Both Julian and I tried to get this revisited but to no avail. The proposed procedure is that each competitor will be issued with his spinnaker in Sydney. There will be 5 nondescript spare spinnakers which will be afloat on the measurers boat. A competitor who damages a spinnaker can get permission for a replacement as a temporary measure, the damaged spinnaker having to be repaired and the replacement handed back in. The issue of "monopoly classes" and the Olympic Games. There was a detailed report by the Cliff Norbury Working Party which had been thoroughly researched and carefully reasoned. Suffice to say is that the primary conclusion was as follows: ".... the commercial arrangements for the building and supply of boats or sails should not be a consideration in the selection of classes used in the Olympic Regatta or other ISAF events like the World Youth Championships. We believe that there is no technical, cost or sporting interest reason to do so, with the exception of ISAF being satisfied with the continued security of supply of the boat and any monopoly item". The Working Party went on so recommend that the 2 decisions from Sydney (not to permit "monopoly classes" in the Oympic Games Regatta) should be rescinded. And, after a good natured debate, the Council did so with a very large majority. This was a credit to good sense and a tribute to Cliff and his Working Party. The new advertising code was adopted. Cat C allows the front 25% on each side of the hull for event advertising. Otherwise advertising on the boat is at the discretion of the competitor. So for events where the sponsor requires some advertising space on the sail, for example, this will have to be assigned by each competitor. There was a strong proposal for such a permanent assignment to be able to be administered by the Class Rules, but this was defeated. There is a provision in the rule for a MNA to introduce a licensing system for competitors under their jurisdiction to permit Cat C status. This will obviously vary from country to country, but needs taking into account as Cat C is mandatory for Olympic Classes. There was a view that the new advertising code was not perfect but it is a good step forward in removing the ISAF fee requirement. There is now no reason for event organisers to add Cat C fees to the entry fees for competitors. We can see how it works and then come back with submissions if improvements are desired. Selection of Olympic equipment. The Events Committee recommended that the decisions from Sydney be reconsidered. In particular they believe that the criteria for selection have not been observed by the nomination of 3 keelboat events, as this automatically means that one dinghy event has to be deleted. 1. If the Finn is deleted, there is no dinghy event for heavy male athletes. 2. If the Laser is deleted, the most popular dinghy class in the World will be eliminated 3. If the 470 is deleted there will be no dinghy event for light and Asian men. 4. If the 49er is deleted, the only modern dinghy event will be lost. Their proposal is therefore that there should be two keelboat events, Keelboat Match racing for women and keelboat fleet racing for men, with the dinghy slate as present. Because this was an un-agendered item, Council could take no decision. So, it will be considered and voted upon at the very first meeting at the Edinburgh November Conference to enable the selection of the Classes to proceed later in the schedule. I will be pleased to try and enlarge on any of these items if you want further information. Concerning our Class Rule proposals, these are being considered under the "emergency rule change" procedures by being put before a small working party. From our observations, there appear to be no obstructions to their adoption. But we can't say for certain that they are through at the present time. We should know soon however. - John Reed TORNADO EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP (Special report from the lone American entry - Charlie Ogletree and John Lovell) Alassio, Italy - Today was day two of the Tornado European Championships. Today was just as crazy as the first day. We started the day in 12th place overall, hoping to move up in the standings. Race one was started in 8-11 knots. We had a great start to round the first mark in 8th. We stayed that way throughout the race and on the final beat the wind completely died and shifted 60 degrees. After some moments of high stress, the race committee abandoned the race. The fleet sailed to the beach where we had pasta while we waited for the wind to settle. After an hour we went out again for a race. This time we started in about 6-8 knots and a relatively steady direction. This would quickly change and the race became as crazy as the others with big shifts and velocity changes. We had another great start and sailed a conservative race to finish 12th. This finish moved us up four places in the standings to place us at 8th overall. The conditions appear to be the same for the remainder of the regatta. Everyone has inconsistent finishes except for the top three. Solid conservative sailing should continue to work. RESULTS (60 boats): 1. Andreas Hagara/Moser-Austria, 2-2-2, 6 points; 2. Bundock/Forbes-Australia, 4-6-3, 13 points; 3. Roman Hagara/Hans Peter Steiacher (Austria), 12-1-1, 14 points; 4. Gaebler/Schwall-Germania, 1-14-5, 20 points; 5. Leon/Ballester-Spain, 3-5-19, 27 points; 6. Styles/May-Great Britain, 8-19-6, 33 points; 7. Sach/sach-Germany, 10-10-20, 40 points; 8. Lovell/Ogletree (USA), 14-15-12, 41 points. Complete standings: http://www.alassio.it/cnam LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) or 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 David Munge - Trenter Ellis says the Cup should be returned to the RYS in Cowes, also as a POM, I have to say the right place is with who won it. The UK can not even fund a single International Match Race. The Royal Lymington have just cancelled the last grade one in the UK due to the lack of sponsors. All we have now is the Chernikeef sponsored Nation Match Racing, which encourages a continuos stream of good sailors, with no other domestic events at the end of the pipeline. We therefore have to rely on other countruies indulgence. -- From Peter Huston - Allan Johnston seems to think that America is obsessed with the America's Cup. Obviously, given the pathetic TV ratings on ESPN, we are not. It's just a sailboat race, and a boring one at that. As for all this talk that the America's Cup is a display of technical supremacy by one country over others - when New Zealand and their 70 million sheep put a man on the moon, then I'll be impressed with their technology. -- From Brian Trotta - As a journalist myself, the most astounding thing about the Observer's report that Bill Gates is trying to buy TNZ is that nowhere in the story does reporter Bob Fisher say where he got this information. He just states it as fact that Gates is the guy. There's no confirmation or even non-denial denials from anyone anywhere in the story, particularly Gates. It appears, though it's hard to tell, that Fisher spoke to Brad Butterworth, but he doesn't attribute the main premise of his story to the TNZ tactician. Fisher also has Laurie Davidson and Sean Reeves getting big offers, but doesn't tell the reader how he knows this, even on a "sources familiar with the negotiations said'' basis. -- From Skip Coggin - I was interested, and distressed, to read what I assume at this point are unsubstantiated rumors about wealthy people like Craig McGaw and Bill Gates "buying" key components of the NZ America's Cup team to bring back the Cup to the U.S. Tim Jeffery of the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph characterized Craig McGaw as a "keen yachtsman." I wonder what Mr. Jeffrey's definition is of a yachtsman? Is Craig actually going to helm his hundred metre yacht? Has he ever raced in dinghies? My definition of a keen yachtsman is someone who has done it a lot, in a variety of different classes, and loves the sport and its traditions. And Bill Gates was described as someone with no sailing background. If the administrators of the Deed of the Cup are going to allow people in any country to "buy" the America's Cup, then as one writer to your column suggested, they ought to award the Cup to the person who shows up at the starting line with the most money. Call it the "Financial Cup" and many of us "keen sailors" will transfer our interests to another sport. -- From Bill Cook - Aren't we all getting a little silly with all this speculation about the cup? Presumably there will be an announcement sometime - maybe we could wait until then to get too excited about it. CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: It would sure be difficult to simply ignore what major worldwide non-yachting media considers a significant story. WORRELL 1000 The racers have left the beach at the 18th running of the Worrell 1000. The breaze is southeast at 10 knots and the fleet reached easily through the short chop by the shore. Surf was not an issue at the start. Small manageable waves made for a fast start as shore crews pushed their teams off the beach and watched the 20 foot beach cats reach away doing twelve knots with skippers and crews fully powered on the trapeze. The breeze appeared to be far enough south that spinnakers would be an option once the fleet had reached out clear of the shore. The start at the Worrell 1000 is like no other sailboat race. The beach is sectioned off into 20 foot gates. Each boat is assigned a gate based on a drawing at the skippers meeting. The gates to the North are advantaged as they are closer to the eventual finish. In the subsequent days of racing the gates will be reassigned based on the finishing positions from the previous day. The winners will be assigned the advantaged northernmost gates as a bonus for their performance. The start is a cross between a horse race, a stock car race, and a bob-sled race. The gates are reminiscent of horse races where the gates fly open at the start and the horses rush out looking to establish a lead by the first turn. The advantage seeded to the northern gates is like pole position in a stock car race. The fastest qualifier gets the cat-bird seat and the other competitors have to knock off the leader to gain the advantage. Today history repeated itself - at high speeds - as 5 time Worrell 1000 Champion Randy Smyth and crew Matt Struble, sailing for Blockade Runner Beach Resort, won the first leg of the Worrell 1000 by 42 seconds over the Dutch team of Gerard Loos and Mischa Heemskerk. It appears that Smyth's elapsed time of 4 hours 39 minutes and 5 seconds will be a new record for the 80.7 mile leg. Loos squeezed ahead of Brett Dryland and Rod Waterhouse of Australia (representing team Rudee's Restaurand) by calling a perfect layline to the finish. The first leg saw a small squall rip through the fleet, causing capsizes, some equipment damage and injuries to several competitors. The fleet reached out of Fort Lauderdale at 10 AM and diverged quickly with some boats heading offshore for the current boost offered by the Gulf Stream. Smyth stayed in closer to shore while Paul Van Dyke went farthest off shore. The inshore path seemed to work for Smyth until the squall hit the fleet. Smyth experienced problems with a twisted mainsheet system as the breeze built to 30 knots and went over as Struble attempted to untangle the mess. The two spent several minutes in the water, but then got the boat upright and regained the lead sailing in close to shore all the way to the finish. The Dutch and Australians were nip and tuck into the finish when Loos made an excellent layline call to the finish line from almost a mile off the beach to surf into the finish full speed under spinnaker. To the uninitiated the finish was awesome. Two Orange flags were held up 50 feet apart in the surf line. As the cats approached the beach the crews kept the chutes flying while they pulled up both centerboards. The skippers stayed out on the wire and drove the boats up the beach at 12 knots while the rudders kicked up with impact on the sand. The best crews tripped the halyard just as the boat came to rest 30 feet up the beach. Then the skippers unhooked from the trapeze and ran around to the leeward side of the boat where they helped the shore crew gather the huge assymetrical spinnaker without letting a thread hit the sand! Seven minutes after the lead pack finished Steve Lohmayer and Kenny Pierce of Team Tybee crossed the line, followed four minutes later by Alexander's on the Bay, sailed by Brian Lambert and Jamie Livingston. Another tight pack of four boats finished 7 minutes later. The English team of William Sunnucks and Will Self pulled into sixth with an excellent layline call, edging out Kevin Smith and Glenn Holmes of First Response, Jeff Sonnenklar and Lou Adiano of Mobil and the husband/wife team of Scott and Dior Hubel representing Premier Shutters. Tomorrow the Worrell 1000 will restart as leg two kicks off at 10 AM. We'll have a report on the start then jump in the car to meet the racers at the finish in Cocoa Beach, FL. Race officials, support teams and spectators are going to have to drive a little faster if tomorrow's race is as fast as today's leg. Many of the pit crews arrived at the finish red-faced and ashamed as their teams sipped cold beers on the beach and ribbed them about having to unrig themselves. - Zack Leonard Read Leonard's full story: http://www.worrell1000.com/ MORE CATAMARAN STUFF Bikini-clad women will guide Grant Dalton's new monster catamaran through the Southern Ocean on his latest round-the-world venture. The multihull was launched in France revealing a sexy paint job meant to bring good luck to the crew, who set off in the non-stop The Race on December 31. Fitting with the boat's name sponsor, Club Med, the images of a scantily clothed blonde woman grace the two bows of the boat in the tradition of olden day figureheads supposed to bring ocean travellers good fortune. When the boat is under sail, she springs up again - 18m high on the jib. "I've got no idea who she is - she hasn't even got a face," Dalton said. "But it's appropriate. The figurehead is part of our nautical past." The boat alone is an attention-seizer. At 33.5m long (110 feet) and 17.5m wide (58 feet) , it would squeeze inside the fence around an average tennis court. There are very few home comforts, even though the 13-man crew will be on board for around 70 days. "Just because it's big, it doesn't mean you get any luxuries," said Dalton, who is used to spartan boats from his long Whitbread career. The walls inside the hulls are devoid of paint, the shower is a cold-water hose connected to the head (toilet). But most important, the boat has been built to have a better chance of survival if catastrophe strikes. If one of the hulls is holed, or breaks off, the other has been set up identically to hold the crew until help arrives. "Each hull is its own cell, with its own galley, water-maker, electrics and communication system," Dalton said. If the hull flips upside down, aerials will poke up through a hatch on the bottom to let rescuers know where they are. - Suzanne McFadden, NZ Herald Full story: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=136686&thesection=sport&t hesubsection=general INDUSTRY NEWS * PORTSMOUTH, R.I. - To meet a growing demand for small sailboats, Vanguard Sailboats Inc., manufacturer of the industry-leading Sunfish and Laser sailboats, has begun production on the first series of U.S.-made Picos. The Pico, which was previously imported from the United Kingdom, combines the design of a high-performance sailboat with a rotomolded thermo-plastic hull to create a responsive, durable craft ideal for the recreational sailor. The Pico's hulls will be manufactured by Hardigg Industries, the nation's top rotomolding manufacturer, based in South Deerfield, Mass. Sailing is enjoying a recent resurgence in popularity. According to a 1999 North American Sailing Industry Study, national production of sailboats under 11 feet rose 62 percent last year, and the number of sailboats under 20 feet rose 18 percent. The study, which surveyed 162 sailboat manufacturers, predicts a 34 percent increase in production for 2000. - Andy Sauer * Commodore Hugo van Kretschmar announced today that three times world Laser Champion and SOGOG Sailing Event Manager Glenn Bourke will join the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia as Chief Executive Officer, immediately after the Olympics. - Peter Campbell * Sailing Billboards, which owns several America's Cup yachts, announced that it is completely refurbishing NZL 20 and will offer it for charter November 1st in New Zealand. NZL 20 is the red race yacht for the New Zealand Challenge in 1992 with the revolutionary Tandem Keel. The charterer will be able to use the time in NZ as a familiarity exercise for sailing and racing in Auckland conditions. - John Sweeney, info@sailingbillboards.com * SailNet.com, an Internet start-up company located in Charleston, S.C., will sponsor the 2000 U.S. Olympic Men's 470 sailing campaign of Paul Foerster and Robert 'Bob' Merrick. Foerster and Merrick will compete in the 470 Class in Sydney, Australia, this summer. CODE RED New York, NY - PlayStation and her crew are back on standby for a TransAtlantic record attempt. Favourable wind conditions at both ends of the attempt have not appeared, preventing any departure in the next 7 days. The crew are continuing their ocean testing runs out of New York and are hoping for more departure opportunities to develop soon after this week. Website: http://www.fossettchallenge.com/ SAILING NEWS Another good source of sailing news just popped up on the web. Sail magazine has taken an aggressive approach to sailing news and is posting regular news updates on their slick new website. There are lots of other neat things there too: http://www.sailmag.com/html/Briefing.html COMING SOON A second 1D48 is coming to Southern California. Andy Rose and Lew Beery have become partners on hull #5, to be called "It's OK." The boat will get to SoCal in plenty of time for big June regattas. THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS You will never hear a father say on his deathbed, "I wish I had spent more time at the office." |
