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SCUTTLEBUTT 3306 - Friday, March 25, 2011Scuttlebutt 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. Website: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/scuttbutt Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sailingscuttlebutt RSS: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/rss/index.xml Today's sponsors: IYRS and JK3 Nautical Enterprises. NATIONAL SAILING HALL OF FAME SETS FIRST ANNUAL INDUCTION Annapolis, MD (March 24, 2011) - NASCAR has Charlotte, Rock and Roll has Cleveland, and one can hardly watch sports on TV without hearing about Hall of Fame inductees in basketball (Springfield), baseball (Cooperstown) and tennis (Newport). Now sailing will, too. The National Sailing Center & Hall of Fame (NSHOF) is set to honor its first class of inductees on October 23, 2011, during ceremonies scheduled to take place at San Diego Yacht Club in California. The undertaking to recognize Americans who have made outstanding contributions to the sport of sailing is central to the mission of the NSHOF which was formed in 2005 and has already completed phase one of its plan to establish a permanent facility on the historic waterfront of Annapolis, Maryland. Having progressed from concept to property acquisition to the establishment of an educational program, the National Sailing Center & Hall of Fame is now taking steps to determine the first 15 inductees with the confirmation of its selection process. Nominations will be accepted from the general public for candidates who are American citizens, who are 45 years of age and up, and who have made significant impact on the growth and development of the sport in the U.S. in categories such as design, racing, cruising, coaching and administration, among others. Non-citizens may be included if they have also had an impact on the sport in the U.S., and posthumous nominations will also be accepted. Induction By-Laws & Rules The nomination period will run from April 1 through June 1, with the inductees for 2011 determined by late August. Through 2013, the number of inductees will not exceed 15; thereafter it will not exceed five. Details on how to submit a nomination will be available next week. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11539 BRAINSTORMING: Let’s get the blood flowing on this to think of some deserving individuals. Post your idea(s) now on either the Forum or Facebook, and all submissions will be eligible to win an Optimum Time 122 sailing watch from Ocean Racing. Random drawing will be held on Tuesday, March 29th. Here are the links: Forum: http://tinyurl.com/Nominate-in-forum Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/Nominate-in-facebook IT’S ALL ON FOR FINAL SLOT Long Beach, CA (March 24, 2011) - Forget first place; Friday will be all about fourth and who makes the semifinals of the 47th Congressional Cup. Two former winners - Italy's Francesco Bruni, winner of 14 of 15 round robin races, and France's Mathieu Richard (12-3) - and Great Britain's Ian Williams (11-4) are locked into Saturday's sailoffs with the only winning records after 15 of 18 matches. For the moment, Finland's Staffan Lindberg, ranked 19th in the world, is alone in fourth place, but 2009 winner Johnie Berntsson, Sweden; Simone Ferrarese, Italy, and the 1983-1984 winner Dave Perry, USA, are pushing his transom at 6-9 each. Berntsson, especially, has been struggling with inconsistency, still fighting the rust of no racing since November. If Bruni, the defending champion, stays alone on top, he'll have the privilege of choosing which of the other three he meets in the semifinals. "It isn't really a big thing," Bruni, said. "If you look at the last five years the guy who picked his opponent lost 70 per cent of the time. I don't want to think about it now." Thursday's breeze was light to moderate from the south but only slightly shifty, unlike Wednesday. As for Friday, fears of a heavy storm with wind and rain eased with later reports that had the system in central California veering east over Nevada instead of south into Southern California. Racing concludes Saturday. The total purse is $40,000, with $10,000 for the winner. Standings after 15 of 18 flights 1. Francesco Bruni, Italy, 14-1 2. Mathieu Richard, France, 12-3 3. Ian Williams, Great Britain, 11-4 4. Staffan Lindberg, Finland, 7-8 5. Johnie Berntsson, Sweden, 6-9 5. Simone Ferrarese, Italy, 6-9 5. Dave Perry, USA, 6-9 8. Evgeny Neugodnikov, Russia, 5-10 9. Taylor Canfield, U.S. Virgin Islands, 4-11 9. Phil Robertson, New Zealand, 4-11 Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11542#11542 LIVE UPDATES: Live video is available during the races and the press conference, with T2P producing a highlight video at the end of each day: http://www.thecongressionalcup.com/live-feed/ CORRECTION: In Scuttlebutt 3305, Taylor Canfield was listed as a student at Boston University. Wrong! He is now a senior at Boston College. Additionally, the event website had an error in the results for Ian Williams from Wednesday. He went 3-2 (not 2-3) which kept his team tied for second with Mathieu Richard at 9-2. BUSY SPRING AT IYRS This spring there is a full calendar of activity at IYRS in Rhode Island. While students are finishing up their building and restoration projects for graduation day in June, there are lots of reasons to visit the school during its busiest time of the year: open houses, lectures on great boats and great adventures, and an open invitation to join us on “Launch Day” in early June, when students splash the projects they’ve spent the past year working on from the school docks. Check our calendar for more on upcoming events: http://www.iyrs.org/NewsEvents/EventsCalendar/tabid/164/Default.aspx OPENING THE DOOR TO THE NEXT GENERATION For the Volvo Ocean Race, which starts on October 29th, Clause 6.1.3 in the Notice of Race states: For all legs and in-port races a boat shall have on board at least 3 crew members, not including the Media Crew Member, who shall be born on or after 1 September 1980. This rule is at the heart of our ongoing series on under 30-year-old sailors in the Volvo Ocean Race The rule has been changed to include a third person under 30 for this edition, making it possible for more young sailors to be involved. New Zealander Adam Minoprio will be competing this year in his first Volvo Ocean Race onboard CAMPER. He's only 25 years old, but Adam already has a long list of sailing achievements and started competing in world level championships at the age of 12. His biggest success so far has been in the 2009 World Match Racing Tour, which he won with his team BlackMatch. But the age rule likely opened the door to Adam for this race. “I think it’s probably the most important rule, because the older and more experienced guys have been doing it since they were under 30 and they’re still doing it now,” said Minoprio. “There probably wouldn’t be that much opportunity for people of my age to get on the boats without it. But in the future, when the older guys retire, there wouldn’t be any young blood to fill their spots. So it’s good to have these positions to keep a healthy turnover of sailors and help improve the image of the sport with the younger people involved. In tennis, rugby, or soccer, they all reach the peak around their 20s, and in sailing I would have already reached my peak. But to know that most people in sailing reach their peak in their late 30s is a good thing because I still have a long way to go.” Sailing has always been a part of Adam’s family tradition and he has been sailing longer than he can remember. When he was seven he began racing and by the time he was 10, he was already competing at the top level in New Zealand. Adam was Optimist National champion for three years in a row before going on to the P-Class and later joining the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Youth Training Programme from 2002-06. In 2005 he and his colleagues from the training programme formed BlackMatch Racing and have been competing ever since. - Complete report: http://tinyurl.com/VOR-032411 STEALTH MODE (March 24, 2011, Day 82) - ‘Let’s play!’ commented leaders Loick Peyron and Jean-Pierre Dick (FRA) from Virbac-Paprec 3 this morning as they entered ‘stealth’ mode at 1000hrs (UTC). Their position or rankings will not be visible for 36 hours, ensuring that their movements will remain hidden from view by the fleet and nearest rivals MAPFRE with co-skippers Iker Martinez/Xabi Fernandez (ESP/ESP). Tactically the forthcoming upwind section of Atlantic raises an interesting dilemma for the front-runners, and particularly for MAPFRE, 244 miles behind in this morning’s 0500hrs position report. The Azores High is expanding east-west across the north Atlantic, creating a large obstacle on the way to the Mediterranean. Whilst taking a westerly route looks like an unworkable tactic given the considerable extra mileage involved, the issue of when to tack east to avoid the centre of the anticyclone remains uncertain.-- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/BWR-032411 Race Tracker: http://tracking.barcelonaworldrace.org Full Rankings: http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org/en/ranking BACKGROUND: This is the second edition of the non-stop Barcelona World Race, the only double-handed race around the world. Fourteen teams are competing on Open 60s which started December 31st and is expected to finish by late March. The 25,000 nautical mile course is from Barcelona to Barcelona via three capes: Good Hope, Leeuwin and Horn, Cook Strait, putting Antarctica to starboard. Race website: http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org UNFURLING THE OPPORTUNITIES Scuttlebutt colleague Michelle Slade helped this week to organize an event for the San Francisco area sailing industry and community to help consider the opportunities that will exist due to the 34th America’s Cup . Here are some excerpts that Keynote speaker Gary Jobson provided: * “First, I applaud this group for making this program happen. The fact that you got 150+ people to show up here on a Tuesday afternoon and take some time out of your working life tells me this city is already engaged. Having said that, it’s very important to spend some time and study what has happened in the past, in other sporting events including sailing - the Olympics, the Whitbread, the Volvo, America’s Cup - what has happened in the past? They all have things we can learn from and talk about.” * “You have a lot of wonderful yacht clubs here in the Bay Area and I suggest that different yacht clubs adopt different teams and be accommodating particularly to the overseas teams - let them have a home and get them involved here in your racing and regattas.” * “Celebrity tie-ins - when the celebrities show up it adds to the cool factor. Presidents have always been involved in the Cup somehow - President Obama had Larry Ellison and the Team to the White House on June 30 last year.” * “Promote alternative activities for visitors…three days of watching races and you may like to go do something else, or at least your spouse may want to - wine country, Monterey - whatever.” Full report and video: http://tinyurl.com/SailBlast-032411 CRUISE FAST WITH JK3 NAUTICAL ENTERPRISES If you find you're slowing down around the buoys, but not willing to sacrifice speed for comfort on your weekend sails to the islands, JK3 has a boat to suit your needs. Available at JK3 is the J/Boats Flagship, the luxurious J/65 Maitri, fully equipped for long distance cruising. With a long, lean profile and low wetted surface, the J/65 reaches speeds of 9 to 10 knots with ease. Also available is the J/160 NovaKane, unique among yachts over 50 feet in performance and ease of handling - both upwind and down. If you're looking for something a little smaller, check out one of our J/130s, J/124, J/120, or J/109's. For more information go to http://www.jk3yachts.com SAILING SHORTS * With the entry deadline of 31st March fast approaching, two more teams have been accepted as competitors for the 34th America's Cup. Formal, public announcements by these two teams, revealing their identities, nationalities and plans are expected as early as next week. There are now ten accepted entries, with these two competitors for the America's Cup join ranks with Aleph-Equipe De France (France), Artemis Racing (Sweden), Emirates Team New Zealand (New Zealand), Energy Team (France), Mascalzone Latino (Italy), ORACLE Racing (USA), Team Australia, and one other undisclosed team. -- http://www.americascup.com/news/and-then-there-were-10_72 * Rhode Island needs to spend about $500,000 to host the new America's Cup World Series race this September in Newport. Stokes said state officials are working to finalize an agreement to bring the sailing event to Rhode Island. The race planned for Sept. 17 to Sept. 25 would be one of several World Series races around the world leading up to the 2013 America's Cup in San Francisco. -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/Newport-032411 * The 52 year old man who died when his boat capsized off the coast of Denia (Spain) on Wednesday has been named as the Swedish sailing coach Don Nordqvist, who had been in Dénia for the past month at the invitation of the Nautical Club and the Town Hall. He had come over from Sweden with a group of students from a sports school in his home country. The tragic accident happened when Mr Nordqvist’s small boat turned over in stormy seas after he sailed out to check if sea conditions were suitable for training. -- Full story: http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_29770.shtml * Austin, TX (March 20, 2011) - Local Austin sailor Ryan Harden won the 2011 J/24 Texas State Championship with an impressive display of sailing, never crossing the finish line outside of the top two over the six race series. Harden topped a competitive fleet that included 3-time J/24 World Champion, Mauricio Santa Cruz, and perennial Southwest Circuit Champion (and Harden's 25-year older brother) Bob Harden. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11541 * The ISAF World Sailing Rankings for 23 March 2011 have been released, with the next release to be on 13 April 2011 and will include the Trofeo SAR Princess Sofia Mapfre in Spain. The U.S. team fills the keelboat ranks, holding down three of the top ten slots in both the Star and the Women’s Match Race events. -- Full report: http://www.sailing.org/news/35611.php * (March 24, 2011; Day 55; 22:00 UTC) - The solo round the world record that Thomas Coville and the 105-foot trimaran Sodebo had sought to take from current holder Francis Joyon is all but out of reach for the Frenchman. With Coville now 988.6 nm behind the record pace, he remains 2441 nm from the finish in Ushant, France, and would have needed to arrive by March 28th to establish a new standard. -- http://www.sodebo-voile.com/ * Two hurricane names in the Atlantic were retired from the official name rotation by the World Meteorological Organization's hurricane committee because of the deaths and damage they caused in 2010. The names Igor and Tomas in the Atlantic would have appeared again in 2016, but will no longer be used. In their place will be Ian and Tobias. Other recently retired hurricane names include: Paloma, Ike and Gustav (2008); Dean, Noel and Felix (2007); and Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma (2005). -- Soundings, full report: http://tinyurl.com/TOT-032411 COUNTDOWN TO APRIL FOOLS There is just over one week until the April Fools edition of Scuttlebutt is published. This edition for April 1st is completely written by Scuttlebutt readers who are empowered to seek out all sectors of the sport... and have a little fun with it. The more unique, yet plausible, the better chance the story will be selected. Some suggestions: - The unseaworthy design trends seen in offshore racing - The libel and slander lawsuit against Sailing Anarchy - Piracy in the Indian Ocean - Professional vs. Amateur sailing There are many topics if you look through past issues of Scuttlebutt. The submission deadline is March 30th. Send stories to editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include Texas, Colorado, Australia, New York, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Massachusetts, and India. Here are this week’s photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/11/0325/ SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK Double gold medalist Shirley Robertson (GBR) hosts Mainsail, a CNN monthly program devoted to the sailing world. In March she traveled to the DN European Championships in Estonia where she immersed herself in the world of ice yachting. Hard water sailing sees machines blast over freezing lakes at speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour, which proves to be an area of the sport that is new to Shirley. Follow her excitement through three well produced segments as she reports on the determination of 'ice sailors' and attempts hard water sailing for the first time. Thanks to Manfred Schreiber for sharing these videos. Click here to view: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/11/0325/ SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: mailto:editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com GUEST COMMENTARY Scuttlebutt strongly encourages feedback from the Scuttlebutt community. Either submit comments by email or post them on the Forum. Submitted comments chosen to be published in the newsletter may be limited to 250 words. Authors may have one published submission per subject, and should save their bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. Email: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Tom Arthur, New Zealand: I was interested to read Peter Wilson’s article in issue 3302, titled Fundamental Principal and am glad to see this issue highlighted. As a dinghy sailor and also a radio controlled yacht sailor this problem is particularly bad in RC yachting in my location. Although it is far more difficult to ascertain infringements when several RC yachts are trying to round marks than when sitting in the boat, there are still lots of occasions when blatant non-compliance of the rules takes place. In our club it has reached the stage where some of the members who insist on sailing to the rules, have split off to sail with likeminded sailors because the friction generated trying to get the non-rules sailors to comply is too hard. We have decided to leave them to sail as they wish so we can enjoy our sport in peace. I see this problem as the biggest one our club faces and it has had the result of a loose segregation with one group of rules compliant sailors sailing in officially administered racing on the weekends and another group who sail mid-week where rules compliance is more relaxed. Interestingly the latter group outnumbers the former which is a concern. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Peter’s report and published letters are in the Scuttlebutt Forum where additional comments can be added: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11523 * From R. Geoffrey Newbury: (re, start/finish line restriction) It's hard to understand why any PRO would do this to a fleet. It's been about 25 years since I've seen this done in my sailing area. It is impossible to believe that anyone who reached the level of being a PRO was ignorant of the effect of that decision. There is no reason for it at all in a single fleet situation. In fact, it takes more work to write the SI's to restrict the start line when it is no longer a start line and not yet a finish line. You have to *properly* make the ends, marks of the course on intermediate legs, AND set a leeward mark. So it can only be "reasonable" to consider doing this is a multi-fleet start. And why bother? Same number of marks to deal with. It messes up the run for the early fleets and the start for the late starters, some of whom may not yet be racing and subject to the Rules. The PRO should move the start line to leeward and set the leeward mark or gate well to weather of the line. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: This thread is also in the Scuttlebutt Forum where additional comments can be added: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11530 * From PaulK: (re, women in sailing, Scuttlebutt 3303) Lou makes a valid point (in Scuttlebutt 3305), though he may not have written it explicitly: women go where they are appreciated and valued. There are many women on college sailing teams. There are not many women professional sailors. College sailors aren't paid, but they are appreciated and valued. Professional sailors? Are lots of them pulling in 6-figure salaries? If YOU had a choice between making 30% less than a relatively poorly paid guy to run a boat full of the ... scratching types mentioned earlier, (women ARE paid less than men in most jobs), or a job where you knew there was a chance for long-term fulfillment and better pay, surrounded by people you enjoyed being with, which would you choose? A sailing job loses out every time. Trying to attract women for the money in sailing isn't going to work. As Lou has found, women are attracted to sailing because they like to sail and they find people who value their skills and company. Even if it doesn't pay. -- http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11521#11521 => Curmudgeon’s Comment: I think Paul is saying that women are smarter than men. As if we needed the reminder CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION Stability is achieved when you spend all your time doing nothing but reporting on the nothing you are doing. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Kaenon Polarized - Gowrie Group - North U North Sails - Interlux - APS - Quantum Sails - J Boats Hall Spars & Rigging - Ullman Sails - IYRS - JK3 Nautical Enterprises Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
