SCUTTLEBUTT No. 653 - September 25, 2000
OLYMPIC RACING
Sydney, Australia (Sept. 25, 2000) - Jonathan and Charlie McKee (both
Seattle, Wash.), won the Olympic bronze medal, the first sailing medal for
Team USA, after sailing a 16th and final race today in the 49er class. The
brothers won the race, their fourth such victory at the regatta, with an
extensive 1:26 lead on the fiercely competitive 17-boat fleet. After
high-fiving, they looked around to confirm Great Britain's race position: a
third that gave skipper Ian Barker and crew Simon Hiscocks the silver
medal. Finland's Thomas Johanson and Jyrki Jarvi had secured the gold after
15 races, and only Spain truly could have foiled the McKee brothers' medal
chances today.
Over eight competition days, finding the right wind lanes was key. The
McKees often referred to the races here on Sydney Harbour as tactical
rather than boatspeed-dependent, even though the 49er, a feisty high
performance dinghy making its Olympic debut, is known for its
lightning-fast pace.
In the Soling class, the American team of Jeff Madrigali (Novato, Calif.),
Craig Healy (Tiburon, Calif.) and Hartwell Jordan (Discovery Bay, Calif.)
lost all but one of their five races in Round Robin Two and were eliminated
from the regatta. "Not a good day for us," said Soling skipper Jeff
Madrigali, within seconds of stepping off his boat back at the dock. "We
didn't sail our potential. It was nothing in particular. You have to make
the right decision out there, and we didn't make enough of them to win the
races, so we're not advancing on."
USA's Tornado sailors John Lovell (New Orleans, La.) and Charlie Ogletree
(Newport Beach, Calif.) turned in a fourth-place finish in their class's
single race of the day and finished the 11-race series seventh overall.
Over the last three races, the team enjoyed single-digit finishes, which
they also turned in for the first five races. But races six through eight,
yielding points equal to finish positions of 10-11-11, hurt them in overall
scoring, as did a protest in race ten that turned a victory into a
disqualification. Anchored down with 17 points, it became one of two
throwouts for the team.
Going into today's last race of the Mistral Women's event, only three
points separated the top three sailors. Italy's Alessandra Sensini won gold
on a tiebreaker, while Germany's Amelie Lux and New Zealand's Barbara
Kendall took the silver and bronze medals, respectively. USA's Lanee Butler
(Aliso Viejo, Calif.) finished a solid fourth overall, her highest finish
in her third consecutive Olympic Regatta. "I'm probably the happiest
fourth-place finisher ever," said Butler, who finished 12th in today's
race. "I came in wanting to finish top-five, so anything better is icing on
the cake.
For Mistral Men's sailor Mike Gebhardt (Ft. Pierce, Fla.), today's races
were indeed his last in his Olympic career, which has seen him through
winning an '88 bronze medal, a '92 silver, and competing in the '96
Savannah Games. He finished 11th overall after turning in a 16-17 on the
final day of racing, and using the latter race as one of his two allowed
throwouts. "I think all the races I sailed were throwouts," said Gebhardt.
"This was the toughest Olympic Regatta I've sailed yet.
OTHER STANDINGS:
STAR: 1. BRA (19 points) 2. AUS (23) 3. ITA (25) 11. USA (32)
470 MEN: 1. AUS (36) 2. USA (41) 3 ARG (47)
470 WOMEN: 1. AUS (32) 2. GER (41) 3. USA (41)
For more information: http://www.ussailing.org/olympics/2000
THANKS DAVE
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THE RACE
Bruno Peyron took the opportunity of a press meeting organised to resume
the preparation of The Race, 100 days before the start in Barcelona:
1 - The Skippers meeting hold last week-end in Southampton allowed to
validate the participation agreements as well as to create a real "team
spirit" between the challengers, thanks to entry confirmation of 7 boats.
2 - The challengers : PlayStation : Steve Fossett will decide within the
very next days to lengthen or not his boat. Scheduled duration of the work
: 4, 5 weeks, aiming at changing the gravity centre of the boat and at
reequilibrate her width in relation to her future length.
Club Med will unveil her new bows around 28th September, before continuing
her training programme toward England and Portugal.
Code One, which lauching is scheduled around 9th October and Team Adventure
launched between 15 and 20th October, will benefit the changes of Grant
Dalton catamaran.
Former-Explorer of Bruno Peyron will also start under the name Polpharma
Warta. "I''m admiring the work realised by a team so extremely focused,
totally supported by whole Poland, devoted to the 3rd Millenium ". The boat
was totally renewed, with a new mast, new rigging, new fittings, etc
Millenium Challenge, former Enza from Peter Blake, will be launched end of
October, with a new mast, ordered by the skipper, the British Tony Bullimore.
Even if one or two challenges are still on study, the organisation decided
to focus its efforts on the 7 "giants" already entered.
Bruno Peyron : "These 7 maxi-catamarans will tell the story we're all
dreaming of for now 7 years".
3 - The programme : First meeting of the fleet, the prologue of The Race/
La Course du Millenaire will be organised the 15, 16 and 17 december in
Monaco, a 24 hours lap and a race of 300/350 miles between Monaco and
Barcelona.
4 - Trials : The challengers will be proposed a 6th trial course : round
the British Islands. Record to beat hold by Steve Fossett, on Lakota : 5
days, 21 hours, 5 m, 27'. If not, they will have to show the Race committee
a course of around 2500 miles, validated by a log-book transmitted by
Inmarsat.
5 - Official venue of Finish: After Barcelona and Monaco, Marseille is now
joining the list of the famous official venues of the event. A press
meeting will be organised on the old Marseille Harbour, next 3 October,
presenting the social events related to the arrival of The Race in the
Phocean city.
Race website: http://www.therace.org
LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net)
Letters selected to be printed are edited for clarity, space (250 words
max) or to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a
chat room - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot
and don't whine if others disagree.
-- From Peter Jones - If we may, lets hearken back to the issue of how
many, or which, classes should be included in the Olympic Games. After
watching a lot of swimming and gymnastics (including Jenny Thompson with
her nine medals, mostly from relays) I am inclined to wonder why the
Olympic Committee is so chintzy with medals for sailing. Perhaps we should
push for team competitions and come up with a scheme for an "all-around "
competition, separate of course and potentially with different competitors.
On the other hand, maybe the Committee should scale back on some of the
other sports so they are in a position to be more generous with us.
-- From David Barrow (edited dramatically to our 250-word limit) - Over the
many years I have been involved in yacht racing I have seen many changes
and can't help thinking that we continually make life to hard for
ourselves. Over the past 70 or so years the design has evolved at a pace
the class itself has determined and now it is still up to date, sometimes,
it has been a bit behind the times, and sometimes a design leader, but
always at a pace dictated by the owners.
Now, if we had Peter Isler's 25 to 60 foot classes, with 5-foot increments,
with simple restrictions then what would develop. Although the rapid
development of one design is praiseworthy I feel sure that there are many
owners, designers who still would like to put their personal stamp on the
boat they are sailing.
A simple rule with length, beam, sail area, sensible displacement, and
material/construction restrictions against, for example, titanium and other
expensive products would allow the various boat sizes to evolve into the
best dsign. Freak boats would find it hard to compete over a seasons series
and, possibly, we would see an evolution such as happened with the IOR 50's.
Some would say that the IRM rule fulfills some of the above criteria, and
with the advent of exciting yachts, like Shakermaker, and Roaring Meg, in
the UK this year, 30-35 footer's which were nipping at the heels of the
Farr 40's in the Solent this summer. It is possibly a move in the right
direction
-- From Skip Ely - I enjoy racing against the likes of Dennis Connors, Ed
Baird and lots of my friends are "pros". However I am recently somewhat
dissallusioned with where the sport is going. It is alot less "fun" putting
together and sailing with a crew who requires some form of compensation to
sail. It turns out that this compensation goes to some of those who are
"amateurs" as well. Mr Bainton suggests in Scuttlebutt 651 that if you
don't want pros sailing that you go to a silver shop and buy your trophy. I
suggest that if you pay your crew that is exactly what you are doing. I
find it a lot more fun to sail with people who are on our boat because they
want to be, not because they are at work. The classes and regattas in which
we compete restrict the boat owner from receiving compensation from
sponsors (I have relationships with several companies who would buy our
sails if we put their logo on them). The owners are restricted from
receiving compensation, why shouldn't the crew be as well. It's easy to
restrict logoed spinnakers, it's much more difficult to regulate crew
compensation, but isn't sailing still a corintian sport? Maybe it's the
compensation that should be restricted and not the caliber of sailor - Most
of us are doing this for fun!
-- From Steve Wright - For me, Peter Isler, is the best spokesman in
competitive sailing today. I concur with his "King for a Day" observations,
with one exception.
I agree that racing with the pros IS the quickest way to improve both a
class and individual sailing abilities, not to mention a heap of fun. As a
beginning sailor ten years ago, I found the pros encouraging, tireless
teachers. The dynamic changes, however, once you start "knocking on the
door" and it becomes apparent that for you to win, you must also race forty
weekends a year in multiple classes. Most amateurs can't convince their
boss it is good for company profits to take off racing sailboats.
Keep the pros in the sport. Let owners start classes where they can be
king, as they wish, and give them the headache of enforcing the rules. The
rest of us will keep sending our checks to the pros for products, and keep
on racing for the fun of it.
-- From Alan Lambert - Pros and Sailing? Stop the fussing. When you get out
of College you hope to get paid for the things you've learned. Why should
it be any different if the skill that is learned over the same period of
time is sailing.
What am I thinking! Sailing takes much longer to master than a Masters
Degree! The pros should always look for amateurs to inspire. I still
believe that most sailors, given the opportunity, would love to have a
"pro" on board.
Frankly, some of the very people attacking Peter's comments are pros
themselves. Peter seems to be more vocal about his ideas on the sport (like
them or not at least he talks about them), but do you think the same
responses would come if Vince Brun or D.C. voiced them?
INSIDE THE OLYMPICS
The 27th Olympic Games may be remembered for many things - world records,
peacetime logistical planning - but it will surely be a benchmark in the
struggle between those who hold intellectual property rights in sporting
events and those seeking to cover sports, especially for the ever-expanding
universe of news outlets on the Internet.
Concerned that the power of the Internet could eventually undermine the
economic foundation of the modern Olympic movement, the Olympic committee
is going to great lengths to control how and where the images and accounts
of the Sydney extravaganza reach the public. The committee's actions echo
what is happening in other areas of sports, as both amateur and
professional teams and leagues aggressively invoke their property rights to
control how and by whom events are covered.
Most of the committee's attention is focused on the Web. Here, streaming
video - still in its infancy - may eventually attain both the technical
quality and reach to cut into television audiences. This could, in turn,
dilute the value of the most valuable asset of the Olympics: broadcasting
rights. The Web could also spawn a horde of virtual storefronts where those
with no rights to Olympic trademarks piggyback on the Olympic name to hawk
their wares without returning anything to the nonprofit committee, which
supports the athletes and the Games.
The prospects are worrisome enough to make Olympic officials take a hard
line now. No athlete diaries or online chats. No streaming video of events
- even months-old replays of the Australian Olympic swimming trials, as the
Australian site www.ninemsn.com.au discovered. No use of the Olympic rings
to promote news organizations' own Olympic coverage.
Two months before the Games began, the committee filed a lawsuit in federal
court in northern Virginia to dislodge 1,800 so-called cybersquatters, who
had registered domain names using terms owned by the I.O.C. Names of the
defendants took up 40 pages. The lawsuit is pending. - Felicity Barringer,
New York Times
Full story: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/25/technology/25WEB.html
PRINCE OF WALES
Balboa YC - Watch Hill Yacht Club, Westerly Rhode Island, repeated as the
defending team for the prestigious "Prince of Wales Bowl" which is the
ROLEX National Match Racing Championship of US SAILING.
The Watch Hill Yacht Club had a repeat crew of Mason Woodworth, Skipper and
crew members Dean Brenner and Randy Shore who battled from second place
going into the fourth day of racing which was the final three races of the
18 races double round robin venue. In fact in winning both in 1999 and 2000
they had come from behind positions on the last day. In the end they beat
Seattle Yacht Club on the final day to win 15 out of the 18 races.
Seattle Y.C. lead on day three after 15 races with 13 victories and were
favored on the final day but lost its last three races, including a head to
head with Watch Hill Y.C. and matches with the two southern California
teams from Newport Harbor Yacht Club (Scott Mason, Skipper) and UC Irvine
Sailing Association (John Pinckney, Skipper). Because of these three
losses, Seattle finished in a second place tie with Pequot Y.C. from
Southport, CT. That tie was broken under US SAILING rules which gave silver
medals to Pequot Y.C. and bronze medals to Seattle Y.C.
Pequot crew was lead by the famed America's Cup tactician of "America 3"
(1992) and "Heart of America" (1996), David Dellenbaugh who resides in
Easton, CT. Seattle Y.C. skipper was Dalton Bergan who recent fame is ICYRA
College Sailor of the year 2000 and college All-American for 1999 and 2000.
All three top skippers are rumored to be having instrumental roles in the
America's Cup syndication's for 2003. In essence, the top three and most of
the other teams possessed considerable championship credentials.
The breezes over four days was light to mostly moderate. The first day was
the best with steady 12 to 15 knots. In addition to a regatta, US SAILING
conducted an eight-hour seminar on Tuesday, September 19th with 12 aspiring
new umpires. That evening, Senior US SAILING Judge Tom Farquhar and
seasoned skipper, David Dellenbaugh conducted a one hour chalk talk seminar
that was professionally video taped for inclusion on the Balboa Yacht
Club's and US SAILING's web sites. From there, it may be downloaded for the
benefit of all match-racing sailors and on water umpires.
Event website: http://balboayachtclub.com
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GALVESTON BAY NOOD
Seabrook (Texas) - On the opening day of the Sailing World NOOD (National
Offshore One-Design) Regatta on Galveston Bay--hosted September 22-24 by
the Lakewood Yacht Club--60-degree windshifts, breeze that ranged from
light zephyrs to 18-knot gusts, and heavy-rain squalls rolled over the 135
boats competing at this three-day event. With more of the same type of
weather predicted for the remainder of the regatta, competitors were ready
for a series where big shifts in wind velocity and direction would be the
wild cards they'd need to play to earn a top standing in this national
sailing series.
But competitors' worries were for naught: steady, teen-strength breeze and
prime sailing conditions moved onto Galveston Bay for the remaining two
days of this event. Winners in 16 classes were crowned on Sunday night,
September 24, at Lakewood YC. Five classes used this event to compete for
national and regional championships.
The steadier winds that blew on the second and third days of this event put
a higher premium on skill, compared to the wild luck of being in the right
place at the right time in Friday's changeable conditions. Many class
leaders vowed that a conservative, middle-of-the-road tactical game was
their key to staying in the front of the class. - Cynthia Goss
Winners in the bigger classes: ETCHELLS (14 boats) 1) W. Yandell Rogers
III, Houston, TX, Baby Doll; J/22 (17 boats) 1) Bonner Cordelle, Austin,
TX, SLO POKE; J/80 (17 boats) National Championships 1) Roland Arthur,
Roanoke, TX, Wild Thang; SOLING (9 boats) Southern Regional Championships
1) Richard Kinney/Dolan, Greenfield, WI, Spouse Sabbatical; ULTIMATE 20 (9
boats) National Championships 1) Kent Morrow, Anacortes, WA, Mad Dog; J/24
(9 boats) 1) Robert Todd Lant, The Woodlands, TX, White Lighthing.
Complete results: http://www.sailingworld.com
BIG BOAT SERIES
St Francis YC - This year there are 116 boats competing in nine different
classes - the largest fleet ever at the Big Boat Series. Esmerelda
(2-3-2-2-2-2-2), with Ken Read driving and Terry Hutchinson calling the
shots, sailed a great regatta and won Class A without even winning a single
race. Scratch boat, Pendragon 4 (3-5-5-4-3-1-1), locked up second place
with a final race 1st place finish today. Bob Garvie's Bulleye
(6-1-3-1-1-5-6) ended up in third place.
High 5 (3-2-1-3-5-4-3) controlled the Class B fleet throughout the entire
regatta and ended up winning overall. Jim Kilroy, Samba Pa Ti (3-5-1-1-5)
returned to defend his 1999 victory in the Farr 40 fleet, winning again
this year. Peter Stoneberg's, Shadow (2-2-3-12-3), with Paul Cayard sailing
as tactician, sailed a great race today and ended up in second place.
Groovederci (9-6-2-7-1) secured third place with a bullet in today's race.
Heartbreaker (1-8-2-2-10) retained its lead on the 1D35 fleet. Tabasco
(5-5-7-4-1) ended up in second place, with Windquest (8-3-5-3-8) holding
onto third. Bill Turpid's Santa Cruz 52, Ingrid (2-1-3-2-4-1-2), won the
fight for first place in the Santa Cruz fleet.
Eclipse (2-3-2-1-8-1-4) again won the Express 37 class. J-Bird
(3-2-1-1-1-1-2) locking up a first place victory with four bullets in seven
races. The 32-boat J/105 class needed five restarts before finally getting
its final race. Wind Dance (2-4-3-12-13-4-5) won the class.
Complete results:
http://www.stfyc.com/race-office/2000race/2000_bbs_RESULTS.htm
HIGH TECH
NEWPORT, R.I., USA (September 25, 2000) - When the 73 international teams
in town for the MFS Regatta J/24 World Championship leave the Sail Newport
dock this morning for the first of this week's nine scheduled races, an
additional team will follow their every move. Led by Sail Newport Webmaster
Will Harris (Newport, R.I.) a group of on-land and on-the-water technical
experts will provide live analysis of the 20th annual regatta at
www.sailnewport.org/worlds. Using software specifically designed for the
event, viewers of www.sailnewport.org/worlds will be able to track each
boat from the start of each race around the windward and leeward marks, and
then to the finish line. Boats will be tracked with an assigned unique
color code. "We wanted a way to give people the chance to experience this
regatta without having to go out on the water, "said Harris. "Viewers can
follow each race as it happens with the boat positioning information, as
well as live commentary which will be posted via on-the-water reporters."
All information posted will be unofficial, although official results will
be posted to the website.
The MFS Regatta J/24 World Championship is scheduled September 25-29, 2000,
and takes place on the waters of Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound in
Newport, Rhode Island, USA. Hosted by Ida Lewis Yacht Club, Sail Newport
and Fleet 50 of the International J/24 Class Association, the regatta has
drawn over 300 sailors from the U.S. and Canada, Australia, Chile, Ireland,
Bermuda, Great Britain, Sweden, Peru, Argentina, Italy, Japan and The
Netherlands, all vying for the coveted World Championship Trophy. - Dana
Paxton
THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION
Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
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