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SCUTTLEBUTT 1802 - March 24, 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. FORMULA 1 AT SEA The America's Cup and Formula 1 have a great deal in common and it is not surprising that over the years there has been a considerable amount of crossover between the two sports. The last event in Auckland featured not only former F1 engineers working for the teams but also a number of people working on the organizational side of the business. Challenger of Record Management, which organized the Louis Vuitton Cup, the contest to choose who takes on the America's Cup defender was chaired by Luca Birindelli, a lawyer who was one of Enzo Ferrari's counsels and represented the Italian team in mnay negotiations back in the 1980s and 1990s. One of his chief assistants was Suzanne Radbone, who was the team manager of Team Lotus back in the early 1990s. In addition the hospitality for the Cup was run by Thomas Ehman, formerly West's chief representative in F1. In the run-up to the next America's Cup in Valencia, Spain much has changed with a new organization called America's Cup Management taking over the running of both competitions. As part of the restructuring a Challenger Commission has been created and Ehman has been named chairman and he has used his experience in F1 to try to change the way in which the challenger is chosen by proposing a system of time trials which are not dissimilar to Formula 1 rather than the traditional knock-out competition which meant that some teams did not last long in the competition. The idea is to give sponsors more coverage and thus help the smaller teams raise money. The sports may be different but it seems the arguments are pretty much the same. - GrandPrix.com, www.grandprix.com/ns/ns14458.html INSIGHT The amazing thing about Michael Blackburn's "conquering" the Bass Strait isn't that he sailed single-handed across the Bass Strait - that's been done before - it's that he averaged 8.6 knots. No, Blackburn didn't pick the Bass Straits because of daring-do, but because it's one of the few places in the world where you could pull this off. A Laser's maximum flat water boatspeed is only 4.8 knots. To go faster you have to hitch a ride on a wave. The more and the bigger the better, but that's not all. You also need plenty of wind, Olympic level technique, and you have to be fit - incredibly fit. Starting off South America, the sea and the wind roil uninhibited by land for some 12,000 miles until they reach the Bass Strait. There, they meet strong currents between the Antarctic driven Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea (think Tasmanian Devil). The Bass Strait is to Australians and Tasmanians as Niagra Falls is to Canadians and Americans or the English Channel is to the English and French. The seas in the Bass Strait are tall and have a short wave length with steep backs. Enter Michael Blackburn. It's three in the morning on 9 March 2005: hand-held GPS, analogue compass, inflatable PFD with tether, strobe light, flares, satellite phone, EPIRBs, VHF radio, light sticks, bananas, chocolate bars, carbohydrate gels, Sustagen, Powerade, Red Bull, Coke, sunscreen stick, bottle of water to splash salt off face. Blackburn said, "I started sailing at 3:30 am with no moon or stars. It was pitch black and I couldn't see a thing." Michael Blackburn is 34-years old and has a PhD in Human Movement Studies. He's 5'10" tall and weighs 176 pounds. I chatted about Michael with US Finn sailor Brian Boyd. Brian told me that Blackburn was known to be the fittest sailor in the world and there is little doubt that he and Robert Scheidt are far and away the best in heavy air. - Excerpts from a story by Alden Bugley, full story: http://tinyurl.com/6ecdq SERIOUS TRAINING PROGRAM Making best use of the 227 days left to start the Round the World Race, the Spanish Telefonica MoviStar Volvo Ocean Race team said goodbye to Australia and set off in their intensive trans-oceanic training program. In this first session, the team will clock in a total of 8.100 nautical miles in their journey from Australia to Brazil. The new VO70 leaves Newcastle to tackle the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006, stopping briefly at Wellington (New Zealand). Just two hours after reaching port, they will set off towards the challenging fourth leg of the race, travelling through the rough waters and winds of Cape Horn towards Brazil. "In recreating the route, we're taking on the same type of conditions we expect in February and March next year. We'll be testing all the technical mechanisms and the greatest number of sails possible, getting to know the boat and the way she performs in this important leg of the race," cites Bouwe Bekking, skipper of the MoviStar in the Volvo Ocean Race. "The testing needs to be done now to maximize the learning process doing them at any other time would mean drastically different conditions, required efforts and results," notes Pedro Campos, general manager of the Spanish project. The initial sailing tests carried out in Australia have proven the correct functioning of all systems, allowing the VO70 MoviStar to start its first transoceanic journey. "The best way to guarantee the operation of the boat is to test it out under the same conditions that we'll find during the race itself," continues Bekking. "We've got valuable time on our hands and will use it to make all needed adjustments and put the boat in top form. Each mile we cover is a valuable step in building real-life team experience and knowledge of the boat, something we can only get through sailing, sailing and more sailing." - www.movistar.com/vela AMERICA'S CUP Team Capitalia becomes the third Italian Challenger for the 32nd America's Cup, presenting its team in a public ceremony in Naples. Distinguished by an 'all-Italian' sailing team, the team formerly known as Mascalzone Latino has high expectations for its campaign. This is the second consecutive challenge for the team led by Italian shipping and ferry service magnate Vincenzo Onorato. Representing the Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia, Team Capitalia has an ITA-72 from the 2002 campaign in Auckland, and has just acquired the two Stars & Stripes boats, USA-66 and USA-77, from Team Dennis Conner. The new team will be led on the water by skipper and tactician Vasco Vascotto, a newcomer to the America's Cup squad, who will rely on helmsman Flavio Favini to steer the boat. Favini was tactician in the last Mascalzone Latino campaign. The team will begin training for the Valencia Louis Vuitton Acts 4 & 5 (on 16-26 June) from its base on the Island of Elba, before coming to Valencia later this spring for its first taste of racing in the 32nd America's Cup. There are now three Italian challengers for the 32nd America's Cup, along with a pair of Louis Vuitton Acts scheduled in Italy at the end of the 2005 season, the Trapani Louis Vuitton Acts 8 & 9, beginning on the 29 September. - www.sailing.org/default.asp?ID=j19Fhyp1~ WHAT ARE SAILORS WEARING THIS SAILING SEASON??? Of course, a Mount Gay Rum hat and also the new line of Mount Gay Rum gear offered by Lands' End Business Outfitters. Call 800-490-6402 today to place an order or call and request a Mount Gay Rum apparel catalog to check out the fleece items, jackets, polos, outrigger shirts, and much more. All with the legendary Mount Gay Rum logo! Apparel for the boat and beyond!! Genuine moments, genuine rum and now genuine gear! BONE OF CONTENTION (Part Two of The Daily Sail's interview with America's Cup, Challenger Commission Chairman Tom Ehman discusses more problems and concerns of the challengers. Here's a brief excerpt.) Tom Ehman says that their biggest bone of contention with America's Cup Management at present is over the joint weather program. New in the Protocol for the 2007 America's Cup, was for Challengers and Defender alike to use one centralised weather program, the cost of which would be shared between the defender and the challengers alike. This was a great idea and well received among the Challengers as it would not only level the playing field for large and small teams, but would reduce costs and would also cut down on the number of weather boats bobbing around on the waters off Valencia. However in ACM's implementation of the weather program, the Challenger Commission feel they have been steamrollered. Alinghi's proposal, accepted by ACM, has been to place 20 weather buoys over Valencia's two racing areas. "We scratched our head and said 'why spend 3 million Euros, doing this enormously expensive program and put these buoys all over the place? And then it finally occurred to us what this does for Alinghi: We are out racing in our Challenger selection series and they have weather buoys all over the course. In the past all they had was the Go Virtual GPS data from the TV and internet show, but they didn't have both pieces of the puzzle [the boat telemetry and the on course weather info]. They didn't have the wind conditions local to our boats and you need both to make a good performance profile." - The Daily Sail subscription website, www.thedailysail.com CABO SAN LUCAS RACE After a 'honking' spinnaker ride down Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, 21 of the 43 starters had finished the 800 mile Newport Beach to Cabo San Lucas Race by 0800 Wednesday morning. For those boats still on the race course, weather conditions remain excellent with moderate seas, wall-to-wall sun and WNW winds of 15-20 knots. Doug Baker's Alan Andrews-designed Magnitude 80 appears to have broken Blondie's elapsed time record by approximately 8.5 hrs. The smaller boats continue to dominate on corrected time. Peregrine, Simon Garland's Hobie 33, was just 32 miles from the finish at the 0800 roll call, and was leading the overall standings on corrected time by three and a half hours. Class winners and leaders: Class A: Scout Spirit, R/P 78, Bill Turpin; Class B: Mongoose, SC 70, Dennis Conner; Class C: Reinrag 2, J/125, Tom Garnier; Class D: Tabasco, 1D35, John Wylie; Class E: Peregrine, Hobie 33, Simon Garland. - www.nhyc.org TROFEO PRINCESA SOFIA The 36 Trofeo SAR Princesa Sofía - Madrid 2012 had a good day of racing in which the wind clocked from S to SW and increased in strength from 6 to 12 knots as the day went on - allowing most classes to complete three races. In the Laser Radial class, Paige Railey stumbled a bit with a 26-5-8, but still has a six point lead over Great Britain's Charlotte Dobson with Penny Mountford, also from Great Britain, just five points further back. Tania Elias Calles from Mexico is in fifth place, 25 points behind Railey. The Mikee Anderson-Mitterling/Dave Hughes (USA) team lies 14th in the 45 boat Men's 470 class- www.trofeoprincesasofia.org CALENDAR OF MAJOR EVENTS (Sponsored by West Marine) Events listed at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar ISAF MATCH RACE RANKINGS Ed Baird (USA) continues to dominate the ISAF Open Match Race Rankings and has now retained the top spot for eight months since winning his second consecutive ISAF Match Racing World Championship in Russia back in July. Victory in last week's ISAF Grade 1 Marseille International Match Race has extended his lead over Australian Peter Gilmour by 151 points. Neither Gilmour nor his fellow countryman, James Spithill have made any move in the latest rankings. As a result fourth placed Frenchman Mathieu Richard has closed the gap on them thanks to his second place in Marseille. Two events have counted toward this release of the ISAF World Match Race Rankings for the women's teams. Both are ISAF Grade 3 events and they are the JPMorgan Fleming Women's Winter Challenge which took place in Sunbury, Great Britain and the Harken Women's International Match Racing Regatta in Sydney, Australia. The top five places in the rankings remain secure with Marie Bjorling (SWE) holding on to the number one position ahead of Claire Leroy (FRA). Leyroy has closed the gap on Bjorling and whilst she has added victory at the JPMorgan Fleming Women's Challenge to her already impressive list of results, it is the rotating rankings calculation that has boosted her points. Third overall is Lotte Meldgaared Pedersen (DEN) and snapping at her heels are Jenny Axhede (SWE) and Nina Braestrup (DEN) in fourth and fifth respectively. - www.sailing.org/matchrace/mrranking.asp CYCLONE COMING FAST All eyes on board Doha 2006 in the Oryx Quest 2005 RTW race are fixed firmly on a serious weather situation to their north. Tropical storm Hennie has been upgraded to Cyclone Hennie and the storm is on a collision course with the boat. At present there is no immediate danger. The storm is more than a 1,000 miles due north, but it's track is likely to intersect with that of the Qatari cat and with both entities moving at a good clip towards each other, they could close the distance in a couple of days. Doha 2006 is 4281 miles from the finish line with Daedalus 2907 miles astern. - www.oryxquest.com/ SALVAGE EFFORTS Salvage crews have been unable to free a grounded $4 million sailing ship off Oxnard. A tugboat line snapped today while trying to haul the (tall ship) "Irving Johnson" from the shallows. The rope broke as high tide began receding, increasing drag and tension on the line. After pumping water from the ship, salvagers plan to make another attempt to pull it five miles to Ventura Harbor during high tide tomorrow (Thursday) morning. The two-masted brigantine hit a sandbar while entering Channel Islands Harbor Monday afternoon in stormy seas. Twenty passengers and crew members were rescued after they fell or jumped into the chilly waters. Three were treated for hypothermia. Heavy swells then pushed the 90-foot-long vessel shoreward. - AP, http://tinyurl.com/42xu3 Curmudgeon's Comment: The Irving Johnson was commissioned in 2003 and designed for educational programs for at-risk and other youth. It is built to last 100 years, according to an institute official. WINGS WIN'S SAN DIEGO NOOD! Dennis and Sharon Case's J/105 "Wings" flying Ullman Sails emerged victorious in the competitive 22-boat J/105 class. In fact, the next six J/105's also recognized the need for speed and flew Ullman Sails. First in the J/24 class, Deke Klatt, followed by Susan Taylor/Werner Horn, also took the Ullman Sails speed advantage. Other first place Ullman Sails customers: David Voss' Farr 40 captured the Fast 40 division as did Kyra Sweda in the Holder 20 class. For the "Fastest Sails on the Planet" and new "FiberPath" sails, visit your nearest Ullman Sails loft or online at http://www.ullmansails.com NEWS BRIEFS * More than 600 sailors from 22 nations have already registered to compete in the 23rd Lake Garda Optimist Meeting this weekend and there is still time for more to register. Optimist sailors from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Spain, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Switzerland, Sweden, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and the United States will be taking to the waters of Lake Garda for the annual Easter regatta which will take place from March 24-27. - Event website: http://tinyurl.com/5c3lu * On May 17th at Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf, Sydney, two of the world's great yachting rivals, Dennis Conner and Alan Bond will spearhead a black tie dinner to raise money to restore some of the Sydney Heritage Fleet's grand old dames of the sea. With these two on board, no doubt the tales will be taller than the ships! All proceeds raised are going to the Sydney Heritage Fleet's restoration projects. - Karen McLeod, www.sail-world.com * Racing was possible on only two of the three first days of the Optimist South Americans at San Isidro Buenos Aires. Day one was ultra-light; day two 15-18 knots and no wind on day three. A total of six races have been sailed. Local knowledge of the currents on the river Plate seems to have been of no advantage, with Peru and Ecuador occupying six of the top ten places. Individual racing is now interrupted for the team racing championship on Wednesday and will resume on Friday. 172 sailors from 14 countries are participating. - http://sudam2005.cnsi.com.ar/fotos/index.htm 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 Peter Huston: While it's always nice to see large companies make a significant commitment to the sport via sponsorship of a team or event, I really wonder about this deal with the Volvo Ocean Race and Disney. Typically, when a deal of this sort is made, it is the sponsor who makes the announcement, not the event organizer. Other than a very small mention on the VOR site by Disney Studio Chairman Dick Cook, there is hardly anything that suggests Disney is rock solid behind this team. And from a marketing point of view, while the audience for this movie and related products is global, there is a disconnect between the market that follows the VOR and industry standard marketing practices for blockbuster movies. Simply put, there are many other more cost efficient ways to generate gross rating points so that the greatest number of butts are put in seats on opening weekend. Even if Disney is putting up $7 million, that would be a massive chunk of a marketing budget, even for a blockbuster. * From Alun James: Disney stars getting cotton sheets and custom menus on a Volvo boat, can you imagine it? This on a yacht where you can help with the cooking while sitting on the head - I hope their menus don't get too "custom".Team spirit is fostered through shared adversity, parity is everything. * From Douglass Sisk: In response to the expected furor over a major media conglomerate perhaps sponsoring the US entry into the Volvo Ocean Race: Why not? There is constant carping about the lack of sponsorship in our sport, now there is carping when there IS some sponsorship. And who cares if there's a celebrity on board? It's not like the "regular sailors" don't know about it in advance and agree to it. I might also suspect the general level of provisioning might be raised a tad as well. Finally, remember no matter who's sleeping in the "Hollywood berth" he or she still is out in the middle of the ocean in whatever conditions nature provides. * From Andrew Troup (re Having cake and eating it too): There are versions of this in many languages, for instance the French have a saying which clearly originates from a time when every peasant either had, or coveted, a house cow: "Avoir le beurre et l'argent du beurre" (having the butter, and the money for the butter) but my favourite is the Italian variation: (by implication, happiness is): "A full barrel and a drunk wife" * From David Tew: The cake proverb reminded me of the old saw about the woman who tried to ingratiate herself with a proper Bostonian lady by saying, "Where did you get that lovely hat?" The Brahmin replied thus, looking down her nose, "We have them." * From Cameron McIntyre: Apparently as of 12:30 PST March 23 the tall ship Irving Johnson was still aground south of the Channel Islands Harbor entrance. My limited inside intelligence (or rumor) alludes to infighting regarding liability claims and responsibilities as the reason she still sits in the surf with 22 knot winds. If this is the case, it is a shameful situation. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION The advantage of exercising every day is that you die healthier. |
