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SCUTTLEBUTT 1676 - September 27, 2004Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest 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. NEW SPEED RECORD Sailing at a blistering average speed of 25.44 knots, Frenchman Bruno Peyron and his crew on the maxi-catamaran Orange II broke the record for crossing the Mediterranean from Marseille, France to Carthage in Tunisia. Orange II sailed the 480 nautical miles in just 17 hours, 56 minutes, 13 seconds - 50 minutes better than the previous record set by Steve Fossett's PlayStation in May 2002. http://www.maxicatamaran-orange.com/ AUSSIE VOLVO OCEAN RACE SYNDICATE (The Daily Sail interviewed Australian VOR skipper Grant Wharington about his campaign. Here's a brief excerpt from their story.) Wharington expects all the new Volvo Ocean 70s to be at max when it comes to length, beam and sail area. "I don't think anyone will go narrow with these boats. They are all going to be maximum beam, because they are so overpowered with massive sail plans." To go with the canting keel he clearly likes the possibility of having a retractable canard/ daggerboard forward with a trim tab, but this is illegal - under the VO70 rules you can have a canard which lifts or has a trim tab, but not both (something which the race organizers would do well to review for the 2009 race). It seems the only solution to accompany the canting keel is to have twin asymmetric daggerboards as most Open 60s have. On the basis that the boats will have the maximum allowable beam, Wharington believes that all the VO70s will have twin rudders. "Two rudders are smaller than one and about the same weight or even a bit lighter. Once you add all the steering gear it is probably about the same weight, but it is a bit smaller [the total rudder area and the drag] and it gives you the benefit that if you hit something you still have one rudder left and if you put them round enough when the boat is heeled you can get at least 2/3 of one of the rudders out of the water." Again all very Open 60 thinking. Wharington also leads the pro-headsail furler camp. - The Daily Sail, full story: http://tinyurl.com/5c2oy LUNA ROSA Australian James Spithill will be Luna Rossa's helmsman for the Italian syndicate's challenge at the 2007 America's Cup sailing race in Valencia. Francesco De Angelis, the technical director of team Luna Rossa who skippered the Prada challenge in the two last America's Cup regattas, announced Spithill's appointment at a press conference in the port city of Genoa. The 24-year-old Australian, a former helmsman of challenger Seattle OneWorld in the last edition of the trophy won by Switzerland's Alinghi, is considered the world's No. 2 match-race sailor and heir to the crown of New Zealander Russell Coutts. Meanwhile Marco Tronchetti Provera, chairman of Telecom Italia and an avid sailor, announced that Italy's largest telephone company would support the Luna Rossa challenge by acquiring 49 per cent of the team from Prada, the Italian luxury goods group. The terms of the Telecom Italia investment were not disclosed, but it was known that the Italian telephone company would also pay an undisclosed sum as commercial sponsor to display its logos on Luna Rossa's sails. Prada's logo will be displayed on the boat hull. Excerpts from an associated press story posted on the Fox Sports website, http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,10873745-23210,00.html HAPPINESS IS... Skin that doesn't burn, butts that don't bruise and smiling unskinned knees. Sailing Angles protective activewear takes your enthusiasm for the sport seriously, and their gear protects you from your untamed desire to get out there and win without suffering the consequences. Pain is slow! Padded double seated sailing shorts and longs, UV blocking shirts, knee sleeves are just a few of the many great designs that can save your hide, plus help you get out front and stay there. Just ask gold medalist Kevin Burnham! Look for Sailing Angles products at APS, Layline, Team One, and http://www.sailingangles.com GBR CHALLENGE A successful end is near for protracted negotiations to secure substantial financial backing for a second consecutive British crack at the America's Cup in 2007. The stage is being set for confirmation of a multi-million-pound sponsorship for GBR Challenge and the sale by owner Peter Harrison of a stake in the team he backed with £22m in Auckland in 2002-03. Final details have still to be agreed, and a delay is necessary to allow the announcement in Doha, Qatar, Monday of the latest steps by the financially beleaguered Tracy Edwards to secure a round-the-world race in giant multihulls, scheduled to start next February. The same sponsor, believed to be HSBC, is to finance that as part of a plan to become involved in the development of leisure facilities in the gas- and oil-rich sheikhdom. - Excerpt from a story by Stuart Alexander in the Independent. Full story: http://sport.independent.co.uk/general/story.jsp?story=565848 EMIRATES TEAM NEW ZEALAND The second Emirates Team New Zealand race boat, NZL-81, landed safely in Valencia early in the afternoon on Friday after a long trip from Auckland, New Zealand. The boat is a replacement for NZL-82, which was seriously damaged in a storm in Marseille after Act 1. The logistical hurdles for bringing NZL-81 to Spain in time for the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts 2 and 3 were immense. There are very few transport mechanisms for boats of this size, especially to take them halfway around the planet, but the Short Belfast aircraft operated by Heavy Lift Cargo Airline, was up to the task. The loading of NZL-81 in Auckland, New Zealand, into the cargo hold of the plane took over four hours, with the boat having just millimetres of clearance in height and along each side. The aircraft has a limited range, and was forced to stop five times for refuelling, in Darwin, Singapore, Colombo, Dubai, and Crete.- www.americascup.com BELL MUMM 30 WORLDS Toronto, Canada - An Australian team coming from way Down Under to win in North America took on a new meaning in the Bell Mumm 30 World Championship, but it's becoming routine for Richard Perini and his crew. While most eyes were watching whether hometown favorite Fred Sherratt's frontrunning Steadfast, with Andy Roy as skipper, could fight off Tom Ritter's Tramp from Michigan and the Kahns, father and son, from California and Hawaii on the fourth and final day Friday, the issue became a Foreign Affair. That's the name of Perini's boat from Sydney that won the class at Key West in 2002 and 2003 and arose from fifth place here to bite all the contenders with a runaway flourish in the last race. Pending the outcome of some protests, that left Foreign Affair three points ahead of Steadfast, four ahead of 15-year-old Shark Kahn's Pegasus 20 and five ahead of Tramp. Nelson Stephenson, the Mumm 30 World Council president from Connecticut, was fifth with TeamBOLD. On the final day, Steadfast struggled to 11th and 13th places, leaving the door wide open to Perini for the 49-year-old businessman's first class world title in five tries. Overall, he scored two firsts and three seconds in the nine races and seemed a popular winner as one rival after another came by his boat to congratulate him. "There were six boats that could have won it today," Perini said, "which is a tribute to the depth of this class. We went into today 13 points behind the leader, so we just said we weren't going to give up, that's not an insurmountable lead." - Rich Roberts More information and photos: www.mumm30rcyc.com and www.mumm30.org CUSTOM COLOR DRY SUITS FOR $395 Team One Newport has a new signature dry suit built by OS Systems and you can choose your own colors. Great for a special Holiday gift or College and High School teams! Email martha@team1newport.com or call 800-VIP-GEAR (800-847-4327) for the particulars! Be sure to check out the website for the latest from Henri-Lloyd, Gill, Musto, Kaenon, Harken, Railriders, Camet, Sailing Angles and more. Check out the specials page! http://team1newport.com MELGES 24 NAs In a tense and tricky final race on Lake St Claire, Detroit, California's Argyle Campbell and his crew of Don Jesberg, Robert Kinney and Aaron Serenis aboard "Rock & Roll" became the Melges 24 North American Champions. Overall Argyle Campbell scored 21 in the 29-boat fleetto win by 3 points from Britain's John Pollard on 24, with Brian Porter third on 29. Tom Freytag was fourth with 34 and led the Corinthian Division (all amateur crews) by 9 points from Chuck Holzman on 43 with Travis Weisleder on 41 and Joe Woods on 65. Two attempts had to be made to complete the final race of the series with the first eventually running out of time after the wind died off completely. By 1230 a moderately stable 4 knots had filled in from 180 and the fleet was underway again on a much shortened 0.6 mile course. - Fiona Brown, www.melges24.com/news/main.asp?news_id=360 INTERNATIONAL C CLASS CATAMARAN CHAMPIONSHIP In the Finals of the International C Class Catamaran championship, Cogito beat Patient Lady in the first race by six minutes. The second race told a similar story. In pre-start maneuvers with the wind building to about 6, Patient Lady got caught in irons and Cogito crossed the starting line with over a minute lead, and won the race and the championship by almost three minutes. Clearly Cogito is a significantly faster boat driven by a skipper with hundreds of hours sailing Class C catamarans. During rigging for the Petit Final, Team Invictus suffered major damage to the hulls of their catamaran and have been forced to withdraw - conceding to Australia. Final results: 1. Cogito. Helm Duncan McLane / Crew Steve CLark 2. Patient Lady 6, Helm Lars Gluck /Crew Stan Schreyerer 3. Australia. Helm Gavin Colby / Crew Darren Smith 4. Team Invictus. Helm John Downey / Crew Paul Larson Event website: http://cclasscats.com/ NEWS BRIEFS * This Wednesday the U.S. Championship of Champions regatta brings together 20 of this year's one-design National or North American champions who will compete in JY15s for US Sailing's Jack Brown Trophy at the Raritan YC in Perth Amboy, NJ. This year it appears that the event will be a family affair: seven teams are made up of family combinations such as father-son, father-daughter, and a pair of brothers. One of the most unique combinations is the Fast family - 13-year-old Nathan (Blue Jay class) will be the skipper, with his father, Carl, as crew. - www.ussailing.org/championships/CofC * Kevin Farrar from the host Fishers Island YC clinched the International One Design World Championships with a day to spare and sat out the final race on Friday. Penny Simmons of Bermuda won that race to take second place in the championship, five points ahead of Bill Widnall of Marblehead, Mass in what was essentially a light air regatta. - http://fi.iodworlds.com/ * Adam Barboza sailed a nearly perfect series of matches to sweep his team of Gary Baron, Somers Kempe and Jesse DeCouto to a decisive first place victory in the Bacardi Cup match race series and earn the right to represent Bermuda in the Investor's Guaranty presentation of the King Edward VII Gold Cup October 16th-24th in Bermuda. In the Petite Finals, defending Bermuda Women's Match Race champion Paula Lewin swept two races from Pete Ramesdale. - www.rbyc.bm OFFSHORE EXPERIENCE Bill Biewenga, veteran ocean racer and weather router is available to coach you, your crew, speak at your club, or provide professional delivery of your yacht. Bill brings 320,000 ocean miles and 17 years of weather routing experience to each project. For information, email billbiewenga@compuserve.com or visit http://www.weather4sailors.com 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 Dieter Loibner (In response to Michael Craddock's note in 'Butt 1675): Let's hope that "rock star" was deliberately (and cleverly) chosen to describe "yacht racing athletes" of a certain kind for the precise reasons Mr. Craddock mentioned: astronomic bar tabs, trashed hotel rooms and colorful criminal records. Anything wrong with that? * From Kim Apel: I think the "rock star" metaphor as applied to a few sailors is apt, because celebrity sailors, like musical "rock stars" tend to: 1) be rare, i.e. near the top of a mercilessly competitive pyramid; 2) have a high opinion of themselves; 3) attract fawning admiration and bitter envy; 4) live a glamorous lifestyle (travel to beautiful destinations, first class accommodations) in the name of work, doing what others must limit to scarce leisure time; 5) have vastly higher incomes than the wannbes trying to eke out a living in a tough business; 6) be financially supported by mega-rich sponsors; 7) be considered only as good as their last big victory/hit recording; 8) be subject to media scrutiny and public criticism. * From Mark Eustis: Michael Craddock has asked we find a name other than "rock star" for high-level yacht racing athletes...fair enough, let's hear some suggestions. As for the "legacy of astronomic bar tabs, trashed hotel rooms and colorful criminal records" I miss the SORC too. * From Tom Goddard (edited to our 250-word limit): Watching sailing on television isn't boring - it is the lame commentary that goes along with it that puts people to sleep. If golf can be made interesting, then the America's Cup should be easy. Talk about the weather, the boats, the sails, the carbon, the titanium, the computers, the keels, the bulbs, measuring in the equipment, who is suing who, how everything has changed in the class in the last 10 years - talk to umpires, designers, builders, shore team, sailmakers, engineers, laminators, welders, turners and fitters, weathermen, coaches, strategists, trimmers, bowmen, navigators, and on and on. American television still seems to be caught with their pants down when the race is postponed. We haven't seen this before in the last 16 years of covering the race, so we haven't planned for it and what are we going to do now? New Zealand TV had the cup on live from 10 in the morning to 4 or 5 in the afternoon every day, and seemed to be able to maintain interest most of the time The Tour de France bike race isn't exactly a thrill a minute, and yet that was good TV because you had three guys commentating who were interested, knowledgeable, and realized that in the end it was just a bunch of guys riding their bikes and it was supposed to be fun! They spent half their time laughing rather than talking, and it was fun. * From John W. Bergan (In response to the string about Sailing on TV and in support of Gary Jobson's letter in 1671): Simply put, in the history of American television, the coverage of sailing in the Olympics by Gary Jobson and NBC was unprecedented. Cheers to Gary and his team for their hard work and cheers to sailing fans who are capable of programming their VCRs/ Tivos. I agree with an assessment made in the coverage of Olympic Sailing, our love/passion is exemplary for its sportsmanship. * From Wayne Kennedy, Wellington NZ: I am still wondering why it is that we are trying so hard to get more exposure for our sport? As sailors, all we have to do is each of us commit to taking someone new (as in never sailed before) out on the water each month over any summer and we will increase the interest in our sport far greater than TV can. I suspect that the real driver for more TV excitement is linked to getting more sponsorship dollars which in turn will only flow to a select few and probably do little for local sailing clubs around the world. And none of us should lose sight of the biggest pleasure in sailing ... it's the participation at whatever level we can afford. A few years ago I was organizing a local regatta the same weekend that Team NZ was bringing two of the AC boats to our city with a guest crew to challenge Russell. Going up against such an attraction seemed folly to me but more than one yacht owner said to me I'd rather be out there racing against my fellow yachties than watching others doing it ... I'm sorry but trying to make yachting an exciting spectacle is missing the boat ... finding ways to get new people out on the water should be the real driver. That will lead to more people in our club houses and more interest in sailing generally. Surely such a movement would be the real catalyst for change. * From August "Gus" Miller, WEF Director (re Paul Doughty's 'Optimist Commentary' in Scuttlebutt 1668; edited to our 250 word limit): The 300 eleven year olds that will be sailing as part of their academic curriculum are from the Bermuda Waterwise program. This Waterwise educational tool is for all Bermuda's Middle School children who would never otherwise have a chance to learn. Everything they study in their classes is related to the Waterwise theme. They calculate, experiment, write, draw, sing, study and play the culture of seamanship. Swimming, paddling, rescues, CPR and the fundamentals of being under sail are practiced at school before they ever go on the water. When they do hit the water, they are supervised closely but go solo, completely on their own. For everything they either do or don't do, there is an immediate response that they have to deal with. Experience shows that after completing Waterwise, their academics and deportment show substantial improvement. It is an educational experience they will never forget. Bermuda Waterwise started in 1999 as collaboration between the Bermuda Sailing Association, the Bermuda Ministry of Education, the Bermuda Ministry of Youth Development, Sport and Recreation and the US/NZL based Waterwise Educational Foundation (WEF). In the spring of 2000 came the pilot group of 20 children. It has been growing ever since. With Waterwise, Bermuda's children will regain their great maritime heritage. A portion of each student group develops a gift for sailing, and from them will come Bermuda's future Peter Brombys, Malcolm Smiths and Shorty Triminghams. WEF is currently working on similar but culturally different Waterwise programs on all five continents. * From: Adam Bovill: Just wanted to throw my support out there for Team Racing in the Olympics. Team racing is wonderful fun, both as a participant and as a spectator. It brings some great aspects to racing, not only does it test how well an individual boat can be sailed, but it tests how well 3 sets of boats can work together. Additionally, it would give people another image of sailing, with all the excitement of last minute conversions from losing combinations to winning ones... and some collisions... people love collisions and drama... why do you think Nascar is so popular? The suggestion that I've seen and like the best is having the three crews be: male, female and co-ed. Maybe do it in 470's. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION "Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken." -Warren Buffet |
