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SCUTTLEBUTT 2886 - Wednesday, July 15, 2009Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors, providing a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus.Twitter updates: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Today's sponsors are North Sails and Harken. YOUR NAME HERE REGATTA By Dawn Riley Josh Gilliland, General Chairman of the Sea Scout Ship Gryphon, Redwood City, CA has come up with a brilliant idea. For the qualifier for the Koch Cup, the Sea Scout Championship, they have titled the regatta the "Your Name Here Regatta" which will be held at Sequoia Yacht Club in Redwood City, July 25th of this year. The idea is, the winner of this year’s event will not only get their name on the trophy and qualify for the Koch Cup later in the summer but they will also receive naming rights to the event. For example, The Jim Cool Regatta 2010, How cool is that! There used to be a time when in the established world of regattas that nearly every class had a World Championship, especially in America, home of apple pie and baseball and yes the "World Series". There were events such as the North America 40 World Championships held in Harbor Springs, MI. Not sure that there were even NA 40s outside of the Great Lakes let alone around the world. The rest of the world started laughing at and/or copying these regattas and the whole concept and honor of being an actual world champion was negated. Without any standards the 470 World Champion had the same title as the homemade Cocoanut Boat World Champion with a regatta held off of a beach at the Bitter End Yacht Club. Eventually, ISAF (at that time IYRU) stepped up and put some standards in place and required that World Championships are reasonably perceived to actually be a World Championship. -- Complete story: http://blog.dawnriley.com/?p=375 * ISAF Regulations, Rule 18: ISAF approval is required for any event that is described as a World Championship, uses the word "World" in the title of the event, or any of the promoters, organizers or any other organization officially connected with the event, represents or holds out in any way that the event is a World Championship or does the foregoing in such a way that the event is reasonably perceived to be a World Championship. -- http://www.sailing.org/tools/documents/2009ISAFRegsUpdatedMay-[7303].pdf TRANSPACIFIC YACHT RACE * Honolulu, HI (July 13, 2009) - It was even better than old times for Peter Tong, owner of the Santa Cruz 70, OEX. Tong beamed from ear to ear while he and his crew celebrated being the first of the legendary ULDB's to arrive on Transpac row. Tong is just one of the sled owners of today who took part in the most competitive, nearly one-design, racing in Transpac history. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/nxhetm * (July 14, 2009) - A special fraternity has developed among the Transpac kids. While the Morning Light kids were in the limelight in 2007, there were also the On the Edge of Destiny kids. Sean Doyle, Justin Doyle, Ted White, Roscoe Fowler and Cameron Biehl comprised the youngest team ever to race the Transpac. Their average age was just under 20 years old. The kids are back and they are sprinkled throughout the fleet. Owners such as Bill Turpin, Chip Megeath and Roy P. Disney R are happy to share the entire experience of sailing Transpac Race with young blood. The kids can be a little nervous at first, but by the time they hear their names called over Hawaii Yacht Club's PA system welcoming each and every member of the crew to Ala Wai, they have adjusted. They have made it. It's a rite of passage that they'll never forget and a bond that they share instantaneously with the other young sailors wearing the identifiable Hawaiian crew shirts, who are circulating around the Aloha welcome parties at Hawaii Yacht Club, Waikiki Yacht Club and Transpac row. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/krmnuf * At the 0600 roll call on July 14, 2009, 36 boats had finished and two had retired from the 47-boat fleet. -- Standings: http://tinyurl.com/ld4ry7 * While Neville Crighton enjoyed the record-setting Transpac performance aboard his 100-foot Alfa Romeo, the roll out of his new 70-foot Alfa Romeo, designed by Reichel-Pugh, was occurring at McConaghy's shed in China. -- Photos: http://tinyurl.com/SailWorld-7-14-09 RECYCLE YOUR SAILS & SAVE! Would you like to see your old sails recycled? From now through August 31, North Sails will pay for you to ship your old sail(s) to North's Recycling Center in Portsmouth, RI and as an added thank you, you will qualify for 25% savings toward your new sail purchase. (North America only, 50 feet LOA & under, restrictions apply, one design sails not included.) We will also send you a free tote bag made from recycled sail cloth by SEA BAGS, Inc! When 'thinking green' matters, head North: http://na.northsails.com/tabid/14647/Default.aspx OLYMPIC CHAMPIONSHIPS * (July 14, 2009; Day 4) - No wind for day four of the European Laser Radial Championship in Denmark, so no racing for the 96 competitors gathered for this event in Charlottenlund. With no change to the scores, Paige Railey (USA) continues to head the rankings, just a point ahead of reigning World Champion Sarah Steyaert (FRA) and Charlotte Dobson (GBR) who share equal points. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7817#7817 * Riva del Garda, Italy (July 14, 2009; Day 1) - Brits Dave Evans and Simon Hiscocks took the early lead of the 2009 49er Worlds held on Lake Garda, Italy in perfect conditions for skiff sailing. 87 teams were split into 3 flights and alternated racing on Lake Garda in Ora winds that began with 15-18 knots and slowly increased to 20 holding steady for the remainder of the day. Top North American is seventeenth place Erik Storck/ Trevor Moore with a 5-6-10. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=7814#7814 VOLVO YOUTH SAILING ISAF WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (July 14, 2009) - After three days of racing, one of which was abandoned due to strong winds, Tuesday was the lay day at the 2009 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship. The 39th edition of the Youth Worlds is taking place in the coastal town of Buzios, Brazil, in the Rio de Janeiro state which is midway through a bumper year of sailing, hosting the Volvo Ocean Race back in March/April and with the Laser 4.7 and Optimist Worlds still to come. It was a typical winter day for this charming Brazilian resort town, with bright sunshine, temperatures hovering a little above the 20C mark and not a cloud in the sky. This morning a Brazilian-style carnival was held for all the competitors, whilst this afternoon they are free to explore with most opting to head for one of the multitude of beaches in and around the town. Beginning on Wednesday, there will be remaining three days of competition which will decide the winners of the 2009 Volvo Youth Sailing ISAF World Championship seven events and the prestigious best-nation prize, the Volvo Trophy. France currently leads the Volvo Trophy standings, with last year's winner Great Britain in second place, and Italy in third. -- Race website: http://www.isafyouthworlds.com/editions/2009/index.php ALPINE RACING As the largest alpine lake in North America, Lake Tahoe in northern California is roughly 22 miles long and 12 miles wide, has a surface elevation of 6,225-feet, and is 1,645-feet deep, making it America's second-deepest lake. While the depth makes setting marks a challenge, the elevation can make lead to some weather issues too. The 45th Annual Trans Tahoe Regatta was held on Saturday with 37 boats starting shortly after noon in seven classes under warm, sunny skies with a 10-knot breeze. The 35-mile route ran from Tahoe City to Sugar Pine Point on the west shore, over to Deadman’s Point on the east shore, and back. Winds were forecast to rise two knots per hour and temperatures to remain steady. The Tahoe Yacht Club was well prepared for their summer classic, but it was not going to happen. -- Latitude 38, read on: http://tinyurl.com/l9pjyu SAILING SHORTS * (Corona del Mar, CA) - Balboa Yacht Club's 43rd Annual Governor's Cup International Junior Match Racing Championship will take place July 15-19, 2009 in twelve identical Gov Cup 21's, designed by Commodore Alan Andrews, and purchased by Balboa Yacht Club members. The Governor's Cup is an ISAF Grade 3 Match Racing Event, with entrant hailing from the United States, Australia, Bermuda, New Zealand, and the UK. Details at http://www.govcupracing.com * An Australian boatbuilder, found guilty of manslaughter in April because of faulty construction of a yacht that led to four deaths, was sentenced to three years of jail time on Friday. Alex Cittadini, the director and engineer at Applied Alloy Yachts, could serve the full sentence, but will not be eligible for parole for at least 18 months. Four crew members of the racing yacht Excalibur died after the boat's keel broke and it capsized in 2002. An inquest in 2005 found that the keel had been cut and re-welded during construction. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20090613144604ibinews.html * As part of the current deep restructuring of the French yard Jeanneau, its Spanish subsidiary Jeanneau Espana is being closed down after 28 years of activity. The market will now be run from the head office. -- IBI Magazine, read on: http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20090614103517ibinews.html * The U.S. federal government's stimulus package has turned out to be a boon for pleasure boaters, who too often must detour around shoaled channels and silted harbors. An estimated $1.9 billion of the $787 billion approved in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is earmarked for dredging. It's part of a $4.6 billion allocation to the Army Corps of Engineers to rehabilitate the nation's waterways, flood-control projects, hydroelectric power plants and Corps-managed lakes and recreation areas - and help put Americans back to work. -- Soundings Trade Only, read on: http://tinyurl.com/STO-7-14-09 PREMIUM SHADES - NO PREMIUM PRICE TAG Treat yourself to premium polarized shades without the premium price tag - in an independent review of 25 pairs only two brands received perfect optical clarity "sharpness" scores, and Harken was one of them. Harken lenses also received one of the best scores on eyeball navigation for spotting distant shoals, buoys, and bottom features (Practical Sailor, July 2009). At only half the price of pairs they outperformed, Harken sunglasses are the smart sailor's choice. Find out more at http://www.harkensailinggear.com THE CUP IS BACK IN COURT (July 14, 2009) - At Golden Gate Yacht Club's request (GGYC is the designated club of BMW Oracle Racing, the Challenger of Record for the 33rd America's Cup), today the Supreme Court of the State of New York issued an order directing the club of defender Alinghi, Société Nautique de Genève (SNG), to show cause why it should not be held in contempt of court for failing to comply with the America's Cup Deed of Gift by denying GGYC its rights, as the next America's Cup challenger of record, as detailed in the Order and Judgment. The court scheduled a hearing for Tuesday, July 21 at 10 a.m. Specifically, to date SNG has refused to affirm its sailing regulations and rules to GGYC as required by the Deed. To make matters worse, SNG said that it may change the rules in the future without GGYC's consent, including the rules governing construction of the competing vessels. Further, it has entered into a secret agreement with the International Sailing Federation (ISAF), the organization which will have a central role in selecting match officials and sailing jury. -- Complete announcement: http://tinyurl.com/mhdseb * SNG statement: http://tinyurl.com/lraj6m IT'S ABOUT POWER...STORED POWER Perhaps the disclosure of the event rules under which the 33rd America's Cup would be run was deemed a non-issue. Normally, the Notice of Race for an event does not contain anything too earth shattering. However, this is the America's Cup, and around every turn there are landmines. When the Deed of Gift says the event must be run using the defender club's "rules and regulations", the BMW Oracle Racing (BOR) team determined that would be those rules used in the club's annual regatta (which is another stipulation of the Deed). At the time of the challenge in 2007, the SNG annual regatta used the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) without any significant changes. Same again in 2008. But for 2009, the SNG annual regatta modified the RRS to delete Rule 51 and 52, which are the rules that prohibit movable ballast and non-manual power. Stored power...that is what all the fuss is about. Alinghi wants to use it, but is not yet ready to disclose the rules that would permit it. Too much time would give BOR the opportunity to create their own system. The fact is that Alinghi, because she is a catamaran, may have to use stored power to be competitive. Here are some comments on the subject from esteemed multihull sailor and designer Pete Melvin: "On the Alinghi cat, it appears that they are going with hydraulic winches and some hydraulic cylinders for other controls such as shrouds, forestays, and possibly mainsheet. "I have done some quick weight calculations and think that if you added an internal combustion engine, hydraulic fluid reservoir and fluid, hydraulic pump, and hydraulic control system and piping but then eliminated winch pedestals and six 200 lb grinders, that you would save about 400 lb. A downside to this (stored power system) is that the weight of the grinders is movable, whereas the weight of the hydraulics is fixed. You can always add more bodies to increase righting moment. "Having powered winches is more important on a cat with Alinghi's configuration because a lot of the sheets and control lines need to be lead to the windward side. You end up with some winch and hardware redundancy since this hardware needs to be located on both sides of the boat. Then there is the issue with space to place pedestals and grinders. With powered winches, you save the cockpit or deck space and associated structural weight that would be needed to support pedestals and grinders." -- Scuttlebutt, read on: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/09/0714 LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Please submit your comments to the Scuttlebutt editor (aka, "The Curmudgeon"). Published letters must include writer's name and be no longer than 250 words (letter might be edited for clarity or simplicity). One letter per subject, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- To submit a Letter: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- To post on the Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Art Bandy, Forespar: In reading Daria Blackwell's comments on their two lightning strikes (in Scuttlebutt 2884), Daria makes an unsubstantiated statement; "We learned that if we had had plastic thru-hulls like on some newer boats, they probably would have melted and the boat might have sunk." Plastic thru-hulls are non-conductive. The lightning discharge would see them the same way it sees fiberglass. The fiberglass hull does not superheat to temperatures high enough to melt thru-hulls. If that were the case, there would be a lot of partially melted fiberglass boats around! Bronze thru-hulls are conductive. There have been cases when the bronze thru-hulls have been "blown" out of hulls by the discharge of the lighting. This is understandable as the tremendous energy would heat the metal to temperatures that would cause failure of the sealant and heat up the resin in the fiberglass laminate causing catastrophic failure of the fiberglass immediately around the thru-hull. From my perspective, having sold a few hundred thousand polymer thru-hulls in the last 25 years, there has never been a case of any plastic thru-hulls being melted in a lightning strike. Further, Daria states the opinion that the lightning dissipater attracted the lightning strike. Static dissipaters, if overwhelmed with enough static energy, become lightning rods in the same way as trees, power-poles or any other object that generates streamers. This theory is demonstrated in Dr. Ewen Thompsons work that was attached to your "Lightning Protection" story in Scuttlebutt #2883. * From Rob Weiland, TP52 Class Manager (re, story in Scuttlebutt 2885) It is not illegal to gather weather info and it is not illegal to transfer this info to the boats when not racing. However, to avoid the expense and stress of having professional weather teams on boats, shore, or even in the air we decided to stop this (in the MedCup circuit) from Cagliari onwards. The idea is that on race days, from 1 hour before the sceduled 1st start till the finish of the final race of the day, all competitors related tenders shall not carry any functioning wind equipment, whether hand held or installed, as well as that any other method of on location weather spotting, other than by the crews on the competing yachts, and communicating this information in any way to the competitors is forbidden. I like to point out that this is supported by the competitors. When I saw the Quantum video during the Alicante event it made me laugh. It clearly was intended to wind people up. But all good jokes have a serious side, so we feel it is better to deal with this. -- http://tinyurl.com/ValenciaSailing-7-14-09 * From Ted Beier: (re, report in Scuttlebutt 2884) I hope the Coast Guard cites the Maersk Kure for not keeping a proper watch and not showing the proper red and green side lights. Her behavior seems exceedingly reckless in a coastal area where numerous pleasure boats are apt to be. * From Skip Allan: (re, TransPac story in Scuttlebutt 2885) Lynn Fitzpatrick's claim that RELENTESS holding off SAMBA PA TI by 21 seconds was "the closest finish in Transpac history" is in error. In 1955 KAWAMEE beat MARIE AMELIE across the line by 4 seconds. A photo of this spectacular overlapped finish can be found on page 230 of the hardbound Transpac Yearbook. => Curmudgeon's Comment: There is also the small issue of RELENTLESS starting six days before SAMBA PA TI. * From Mark Gannon: (re, longest freshwater races from Scuttlebutt 2885) Last year the GLSS (Great Lakes Singlehanded Society) had a "Super Mac and Back", making it the longest by double! I believe that 5 finished - 2 that started from Chicago and three that started from Port Huron. -- http://www.solosailor.org * From Steve Rudner: Just for the record - The Trans-Superior Race from Whitefish Bay to Duluth - held every other year is 338 nautical miles, making it longer than either the Chicago-Mac (289nm) or the Port Huron-Mac (259nm) but not the Super Mac (490nm). => Curmudgeon's Comment: Since the Super Mac and the Trans-Superior Race are not held every year, the longest, ANNUALLY held, freshwater race is still the Lake Ontario 300 (nm). * From Stuart Streuli, Newport, RI: Without opening (re-opening?) the never-ending debate on which town should be called America's Sailing Capital. I have to respond to Jim Hayes comments in 'Butt 2885. Firstly, Newport regularly hosted state legislative sessions (with a handful of other cities) until 1900 when Providence was named the state capital. Secondly, Hayes couldn't be more wrong when he says there is little sailing in Newport outside of the summer. I am a co-captain of Laser Fleet 413, and we only sail in the winter. We sailed 22 Sundays from Nov. 2, 2008 to April 19, 2009. We missed one day because of too much wind, one day because of too little, and one day because of Easter. We held 112 races, with an average fleet of just under 30 boats. 116 sailors raced at least one Sunday. In addition there's regular Turnabout frostbiting at Newport YC, the local high school and college sailing teams, Sail Newport's annual Sail For Hope in early October, and some others I know I'm missing. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION And now, the Superstore unequaled in size, unmatched in variety, and unrivaled inconvenience. Special thanks to North Sails and Harken. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
