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SCUTTLEBUTT 1772 - February 9, 2005Scuttlebutt is a digest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing, whining and personal attacks for elsewhere. A PROPER WELCOME Every foot of Falmouth's waterfront was filled with people this morning, and all the streets right up the hill behind. All the way round to Pendennis Point, at the entrance and, further still, along the beaches, they crowded two- and three-deep. There were thousands more afloat on the water in every imaginable craft, suitable or unsuitable. Ellen MacArthur made history in Falmouth in a feat that not only ranks with Britain's great sailing achievements, but ended in a spectacle that has never been seen in the UK since those pioneering days of Robin Knox-Johnston and Chay Blyth over 30 years ago. There were people paddling kayaks out to sea and rowing rubber dinghies, and all of them jostling perilously with big motoboats and RIBs. Falmouth Coastguard, from their eyrie right above the entrance, must have been having kittens. At least every lifeboat, tug and police launch was out too. The TV crews were here in such force that the entire rear of the museum was a cortege of satellite and outside broadcast vans, something unheard of in UK sailing. Besides them were 300 other accredited journalists, all of whose main questions were: how does this achievement rank and what will you do next? To those repeated questions the answers were the same: her feats and those before can't be compared in any meaningful way, but being faster the voyage was definitely more stressful; and she intends to do more sailing in B&Q, including another transatlantic record attempt. - Elaine Bunting/Yachting World, full story: www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20050108160317ywnews.html Images of the arrival of Ellen MacArthur in Falmouth: www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/05/ellen-rtw/ ELLEN The e-mails sent by Ellen MacArthur to her shore crew during the closing stages of her ultimately successful world record attempt had suggested an individual about to lose her grip on reality. But the rosy-cheeked, energetic individual who bounded on to the stage at a lecture theatre at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth, yesterday afternoon, seemed a picture of physical and mental health. Taking a seat on a black leather sofa - useful practice for the chat shows that loom in her immediate future, the newly-created Dame Ellen recalled that she had napped on that precise piece of furniture shortly before departing for the record attempt. Sleep tends to feature in most conversations with the solo sailor just now. MacArthur has been criticized by some uncharitable souls within the sailing community for whingeing, but yesterday she was upbeat, even when recalling the worst moments of her 71-day circumnavigation. Smiling, she said: "I don't think I can ever manage to communicate how difficult it has been. I know that sounds like a throwaway remark but believe me, it was hard. To come here now and look at it all in the past is amazing." Another discovery was imminent: her elevation to Damehood. "There was an e-mail sent to the boat this morning with the news," she said. "I didn't believe it. Nothing can prepare you for that. All of this is just the most extraordinary experience. My head is spinning and there's a lot of things going on I can't deal with." Dame Ellen will be back at sea soon. Everything seems somehow simpler out there. - Excerpts from a story by Tim Jeffery in The Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/4qnk4 WHAT'S NEXT? Ellen will be staying in Falmouth for the next few days, completing a tiring round of TV interviews tonight, filming for an ITN 30 minute feature tomorrow, as well as getting lots of sleep compared with the past couple of months! On Friday she will fly to France to visit the Castorama team at their HQ in Lille, followed by a Thalassa French TV appearance in Marseilles...and then time for some days off! Adjusting to life back on land, after nearly 72 days alone at sea, is a fairly brutal process. The trimaran B&Q will remain in Falmouth for the next 3 or 4 days as the shore team led by Oli Allard will re-install the boat's engine - removed to save kilograms of weight before Ellen departed. Ellen looked after B&Q well. To most observers she has come back as good as new, and by Ellen's own admission sometimes she looks after the boat better than herself! Breaking the non-stop round the world record is clearly not the end of Ellen's record attempts. In Tuesday's press conference Ellen said it was not emotionally difficult to get off B&Q today because "… there are lots of records out there to try for. The trans-Atlantic record is almost certainly something I'll try for," she said. - www.teamellen.com/ IT'S NO MYTH Two giants of sailing, Tom Hill's Titan 12 (Reichel/Pugh 75) and Makoto Uematsu's Esmeralda (TP 52) scorched into Jamaica, with Titan breaking the Pineapple Cup record by more than 12 hours. Esmeralda was just 5 hours behind, also breaking the record and correcting to first. Very different boats, very similar approaches to racing, starting with a complete carbon package from Hall Spars & Rigging. At Hall, we study all the elements of your boat and crew and create a meticulous spar and rigging package to help you achieve the most Herculean of dreams. http://www.hallspars.com IT TAKES A TEAM For the (Team Ellen) shoreside team headed by Project Manager and 'punchbag' Mark Turner, the overwhelming feeling in Falmouth was one of relief. "We don't have to watch the clock ticking remorselessly away and my phone can finally be switched off," said Turner straight after she crossed the finish line, "it's been a momentous voyage and she'll come back to Falmouth to a hero's welcome. As for the future I can't say but there are still some speed records out there that we'll look at when the time is right." Team Ellen is a formidable set-up with fitness specialists, doctors, psychologists, fellow round the world yachtsmen and the inevitable sales and marketing gurus to maximize her exposure. The yacht itself was an open cheque book design by Cornishman Nigel Irens and funded by the Kingfisher group using their home-ware company B&Q as the sponsorship vehicle. Their returns since backing Macarthur in the 2002 Vendee Globe single-handed monohull race, where she finished second, have been enormous and this latest £4 million project left no stone unturned. Remarkably she suffered little gear damage throughout her voyage, a testament to the carbon fibre workings and significant recent advances made in yacht construction and design over the past ten years. The boat was designed completely around the diminutive Macarthur who stands a mere 5ft 4in with all the control lines and winches geared to her power to weight ratio. The yacht itself is capable of speeds in excess of 35 knots and its type is revered as the hardest to sail with minor lapses in concentration punished by the most extreme consequences. A capsize could have proven fatal and throughout the voyage Macarthur was forced to back off, often sailing with little or no sail set to reign in the power. Where she goes from here is anyone's guess with the greatest blue-water classic record now safely under her belt and an astonishing time of 71 days 14 hours 18 minutes and 33 seconds set in stone as the benchmark time for single-handed round the world sailing. Experts predict that it could be ten or twenty years before that time is bettered. - Magnus Wheatley, Financial Times, full story: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/80fa2170-79c6-11d9-ba2a-00000e2511c8.html TRIVIA QUESTION Who was the first woman to sail around the world non-stop and unassisted? (Answer below) PINEAPPLE CUP MONTEGO BAY RACE With the entire fleet of 16 boats safely in port after a record-breaking Pineapple Cup Montego Bay Race, the smallest boat in the fleet has ended up correcting out in scoring as the overall winner. Stuart Hebb's (Coral Gables, Fla.) Aerodyne 38' Thin Ice finished the 810 mile course from Fort Lauderdale to Jamaica shortly after 7a.m. Tuesday morning, approximately three days and seven hours after it started and the next day after most of the larger boats had finished. The eight-man Thin Ice team, which also won its class (PHRF B), included 2004 470 Men's class Olympic Gold Medallist Kevin Burnham (Miami) and Olympians Sven and Kalle Coster, brothers from The Netherlands who are also 470 sailors. Tom Hill's Puerto Rican entry Titan 12, which finished the race yesterday, will go down in the books as the race's new record holder. The Reichel/ Puch 75 shaved almost 13 hours off the previous record set in 2003 by Zephyrus V for a new benchmark of 2 days, 10 hours, 24 minutes and 42 seconds. According to Titan 12's tactician Peter Isler (San Diego, Calif.), the wind blew hard out of the north, at 22-30 knots for the first 200 miles. The boat was sailing under a double reef and with a #4 headsail. "Tom Hill is over the moon. You can retire from this race after this one," Isler joked. "It is the best we'll ever have." - Media Pro Int'l Class Winners IRC: Titan 12, R/P 75', Tom Hill, San Juan, Puerto Rico, TP-52: Esmeralda, Makoto Uematsu, Japan PHRF A: Ptarmigan, N/M 52', Larry Dickie, Greenwich, Conn. PHRF B: Thin Ice, Aerodyne 38', Stuart Hebb, Coral Gables, Fla. Overall Winner (PHRF Scoring): Thin Ice For race results and more information, visit www.montegobayrace.com ORYX QUEST 2005 It's early days yet, but the catamaran/trimaran debate is in full rage. Multihull aficionados around the world are lining up behind their own preconceived ideas of which configuration is right for a long race around the world. Only time will tell which design is best suited for long offshore ocean racing, but for now the scale is tipped slightly in favor of the trimaran. There are some definite reasons for the better performance of Geronimo, especially in the light conditions, as Paul Larsen on board Doha 2006 speculated. "A pleasant surprise has come with dawns early light. Geronimo is sitting just a couple of miles off our port side," he wrote. "Surely this should be the conditions where the big trimaran should benefit. Light upwind conditions have always favoured comparable trimarans over catamarans. Every boat is a compromise designed to give the best overall average in a hugely varied range of conditions. Light and upwind is one of those conditions that should be to Geronimo's liking. The main reason for this is that they have less boat in the water in these conditions as the majority of their weight is sitting on the central hull whilst the catamarans are sitting squarely on two hulls." - Brian Hancock Oryx Quest 2006 Leaderboard: 1. Geronimo, 22049 miles to finish; 2. Doha 2006, 1 mile behind leader; 3. Cheyenne, 4 mbl; 4. Daedalus, 24 mbl. - www.oryxquest.com B&G DECKMAN FOR WINDOWS USA SEMINAR Look to attend the B&G Deckman for Windows USA Seminar on Saturday March 5th at the San Mateo, CA Marriott (650-653-6000). B&G's Deckman for Windows is the leading tactical and routing software program used by the world's top racing yachts. Come and see how Deckman can improve the performance of your boat and navigation. This is an excellent opportunity to learn the optimum use of the program from the developer himself, Dr. Graeme Winn, who is coming from the UK just to teach this one seminar only in the US, so don't miss it! Register online at: http://www.protechmarine.com VENDEE GLOBE Tuesday saw the arrival of a further two competitors in this Vendée Globe. Swiss skipper Dominique Wavre was the first to arrive in the chilly early hours of this morning on Temenos to take a deserved fourth. He was followed around six hours later by the youngest skipper of the fleet, Sébastien Josse. It was at 0515 GMT this Tuesday 8th February 2005 that the 60 foot monohull Temenos skippered by Dominique Wavre crossed the finish line of the Vendée Globe 2004, a single-handed race, without stopovers and without assistance departing and finishing in Les Sables d'Olonne (France). The race time to make the 23,680 miles is 92 days 17 hours and 13 minutes and 20 seconds at an average theoretical speed across the course of 10.64 knots. At lunch time it was the turn of Sébastien Josse who made the finish at 1204 GMT under clear blue skies, and a temptingly warm sun. VMI's race time is 93 days 00 hours and 02 minutes and 10 seconds at an average theoretical speed across the course of 10.61 knots. There are now eight competitors still out racing. British skipper Conrad Humphreys (Hellomoto) is 2136.9 miles from the finish averaging 12.7 knots at 1500 GMT and American skipper Bruce Schwab (Ocean Planet) is 630 miles behind him averaging 8.9 knots. Complete standings: www.vendeeglobe.fr/uk/ I-14 WORLDS The International 14s are in New Zealand from around the globe for their 2005 world championships. Eleven 40-foot containers have arrived in Takapuna from the wharves of Auckland, and from them have emerged dozens of the sleek 14-foot racing dinghys, One boat also arrived by air-freight and the rest are New Zealanders. The day started slowly off Takapuna Beach, with winds less than 5 knots leaving the Team racers almost adrift in the Hauraki Gulf. The water was like glass for as far as the eye could see, but by 3:00 p.m. the southwesterly filled in, and some spectacular racing was enjoyed. Team racing, which pits two 4-boat teams against each other in a round robin format, started Tuesday. The seven competing teams include two from Great Britain, and one each from Australia, USA, Japan, Canada and New Zealand. The last race finished at about 7:30 pm, with the placings after Round One as follows: Australia: 6 wins - 0 loss Great Britain A: 5 wins - 1 loss USA: 4 wins - 2 losses Canada: 3 wins - 3 losses Great Britain B: 2 wins - 4 losses New Zealand: 1 win - 5 losses Japan: 0 wins - 6 losses For full results, go to the www.takapunaboating.org.nz TRIVIA ANSWER Australian Kay Cottee was the first woman to sail around the world non-stop and unassisted, taking 189 days in 1988. - http://www.boatingoz.com.au/news05/0203a.htm QUOTE / UNQUOTE I hope that through what I am doing at the moment, through be determined about the goal, can show people that things can be possible, it doesn't always go your way but it can be possible. - Ellen MacArthur WEATHER BUZZ Observe. Verify. Diagnose. Formulate. Predict. We're ready with proven experience to help your team sort through the buzz. Try our exclusive high-resolution GRIB wind and current data in your navigation software. Sailing Weather Services -- complete meteorological training and support for competitive sailors worldwide. mailto:info@sailwx.com or http://www.sailwx.com IN MEMORIAM Sydney Harwood Rogers passed away on Friday February 4, 2005 in Mystic, CT. Syd had lived in Stonington, CT since 1987. He had lived in Darien, CT from 1952 to 1987. Syd was a passionate sailor. In 1927, he was conscripted to serve as crew aboard his brother's 12-foot sailboat, thus beginning a lifelong obsession with the sea. He raced his own Beetle Cat in Buzzards Bay, MA and taught sailing on Long Island Sound and in Blue Hill, ME. He made transatlantic passages, sailed 12 Bermuda Races, six Southern Ocean Racing Circuits, the 1967 Admiral's Cup and served as chairman of the 1968 Bermuda Race. Active on the Stonington Harbor Management Commission, Syd was a founding member of the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club. He was a member of the Wadawanuck Club, the Cruising Club of America, the New York Yacht Club, the Herreshoff Museum, Mystic Seaport Museum, and the New Bedford Whaling Museum. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, February 12, 2005 at the Calvary Episcopal Church in Stonington. In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the Sydney H. Rogers Community Sailing Program. This is an educational program dedicated in Syd's honor designed to promote instruction in seamanship, sportsmanship and safety in boating activities in the Stonington community. Checks can be made payable to SHYC - Sydney H. Rogers Community Sailing Program, c/o Stonington Harbor Yacht Club P.O. Box 87, Stonington, CT 06378. 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. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Magnus Wheatley: Bruno Peyron sailing fully crewed around the world is a total waste of time. Why isn't he man enough to race in the Oryx Quest and put his petty differences with Tracy Edwards aside? It looks like a boy's trip out on an extended stag night; racing against the clock fully crewed and fully paid by the sponsors. What Ellen's just done is where it's really at ... the Jules Verne is a meaningless throw-back to the 1990's and big-cat racing has moved on and left Peyron stuck in a time warp. If I were the marketing gurus at Orange I'd have insisted that he raced against the other multis in the Oryx Quest or pulled that sponsorship. I'm not interested, I don't buy the 'because it's there' rubbish and I wish Scuttlebutt would drop the coverage. * From Peter Johnstone: I thought Francis Joyon's singlehanded round the world record would stand for years. Coaxing a giant multi around the world at those speeds solo is truly impressive. Congrats to Ellen for smashing the record just a year or so later. 71 days. I cannot imagine the stress she must have felt to aim for such a fast time. And then to persist and succeed. In my opinion, this record is the pinnacle of sailing achievement. Pure adventure. Woman and machine against nature and Murphy's Law. What a great story of grit and determination. No politics, sleaze, outsize egos, or rumor. Just the real thing. Ellen, and the prior record holder Joyon, are the best kind of heros for our sport. * From Laurie Fullerton: It is a great day when Ellen MacArthur breaks the world speed record for circumnavigating the globe particularly because she speaks so often and so honestly to young people around the world. I feel honored to have met Ellen MacArthur during the single-handed Transat race from Plymouth, England to Boston, Mass. in June 2004. She was an organizer with Offshore Challenges during that event and sailed in Boston harbor with city youth from the Courageous Sailing Center of Boston one day. She picked a few young crewmates and a 16-year old girl from a less-than stellar Boston neighborhood sailed on a Rhodes-19 with Ellen during a round the buoy race. After the race, the 16-year old said with a huge smile, "I have told my parents I want to sail around the world and they say that it is not possible for me and I should not do it. But, Ellen just said that I could." And, she just might thanks to her hero and mine - Ellen MacArthur. You Go, Girl. * From Bob Pierce: It's pretty interesting to analyze the race results for the just concluded Pineapple Cup, also known as the Miami-Montego Bay race. I see that the IRC results show that the Swan 45 Goombay Smash corrected out to almost 15½ hours behind the sled Titan 12, but the PHRF results say the corrected time difference was only 4 hours 24 minutes. The IRC corrected times also say that Donnybrook was almost 11½ hours behind Titan while PHRF says that she was about 3½ hours behind. How can two rules give such different results for only 80 some hours of racing? CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS One of the indications of growing up is when you realize a $6.00 bottle of wine is not "pretty good stuff." |
