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SCUTTLEBUTT 3303 - Tuesday, March 22, 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: North U, North Sails, and Interlux. ONE LAST TIME American Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar is bright and articulate, and has been juggling a lot during her 470 Olympic campaign. She has been attending to law school, while her teammate Erin Maxwell was burning vacation days with her employer to keep up with their training and competition. They admit to shortchanging everything, but had to live this balance for the past three years. They never planned on training for the 2012 Olympics. But that all changed when they won the 2008 470 World Championship. To back up a little, Isabelle and Erin had just put everything they had into their 2008 Olympic campaign, but finished second in the 2007 U.S. Olympic Trials. Translation... they finished last. The loss left them wondering how good they were, and with the 2008 Worlds being held in Australia, only a few months away in January, it would give them an opportunity for closure. So they decided to go. "We were so disappointed to get second in the Trials because we thought we had gotten so much better with all of our preparation leading up to the Trials," said Isabelle. "And we wanted one last chance to prove to ourselves that we had in fact improved." And then they won the Worlds, something an American hadn't done in 17 years. "It was one of those magical situations where we had nothing to lose and everything to gain," said Isabelle. "We had already disappointed ourselves and all of our supporters by finishing second in the Trials, so there was really nothing to lose by going down there (to the Worlds). Either we finished not well, allowing people to think that we weren't meant to go to the Games, or we had a chance to redeem ourselves. So we went down there and went for it. We had about two and a half months between the Trials and the Worlds, providing us a chance to reflect on the racing decisions that we made, the mistakes that we made and how to improve on them." With no plans to continue, they both realized that maybe this was not the right time to stop. "After doing so well at the Worlds," said Isabelle, "it got us to thinking how we could have done it, we could have done really well, and that it was worth doing it again." And so they did, but the past three years have had a lot of sacrifices. With the U.S. team being selected this year, it was time for them to heighten their focus. Erin has now taken a leave of absence from work and Isabelle having finished school, so they are now in full time mode. "This is the moment we have been training for, and we are excited to get it done. But this is our last campaign. After this, it is on to success in other areas, and in other areas of sailing. This is such a tremendous sport. I am looking forward to racing F18s and cruising on my dad's 36-foot wooden sailboat, frostbiting... all the stuff that I haven't had time to do that I love about the sport." VIDEO: Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck videotaped his interview with Isabelle. If you have a young daughter who is enjoying the sport, you might share this with her. This link includes the above story and the complete video (7:11 minutes): http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/11/0321/ WINTER WEATHER ROLLS OUT RED CARPET Long Beach, CA (March 21, 2011) - A morning buffet of lightning, thunder, rain and sunshine welcomed some of the world's best sailors to the Long Beach Yacht Club's 47th Congressional Cup Monday. That was the weather preview for the week of the most prestigious Grade 1 match racing event in the United States that starts Tuesday with the first of two round robins leading to Saturday's championship sailoffs. Racing will start daily at 11:30 a.m. or later, as conditions permit. Francesco Bruni of Italy, ranked No. 8 in the world, is the defending champion, and he'll be going against three former winners---Dave Perry of the U.S. (1983, 1984), No. 36; Mathieu Richard of France (2007), No. 3, and Johnie Berntsson of Sweden (2009), No. 17---along with No. 5 Ian Williams of Great Britain, who won the 2007 ISAF Match Racing World Championship. Williams hasn't won the Congressional Cup but brings in a strong resume, mostly built after he shelved his law career. Second in a previous appearance, he said, "The fact that we're here is significant. I've been trying to come back for the last five or six years. It's a great regatta, and coming in second I feel like it's unfinished business. It's also a great start to the year...to get the team together, we get in a lot racing to jump-start our year." Williams' tactician this week is an American, Bill Hardesty, a San Diego native who is involved with building the program at the Chicago Match Racing Center. "We won a world championship together [in 2007] and three World [Match Racing] Tour regattas together," Williams said. Williams and Hardesty each noted the Congressional Cup's hospitable appeal to competitors. "This is kind of on an upper scale, with all the [club member] volunteers," Hardesty said. Perry added, "Instead of one person holding the door for you, there's a bunch of people holding the door." Also, crews don't need to share boats. The sturdy Catalina 37s they race are 21 years old but there is one for everybody, plus a spare. "That's one of the great things about the event," Williams said. "You get a lot of sailing." -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11511#11511 LIVE UPDATES: Audio commentary of the races will be available on the race website, with racing expected from 12:00 pm until 4:30 pm PST (-7 Hrs UTC). Video will be available at the end of each day. Details: http://www.thecongressionalcup.com/live-feed/ NOT TOO LATE Nine stops remain as the North U Tactics Seminar Tour rolls on, teaching your rivals how to beat you with better positioning, better risk assessment, and a boatload of boat-on-boat tricks. Fight back. Find out when the tour is coming to your town and sign up. Top instructors, multi-media curriculum, a take-home Seminar-on-CD, and US Sailing member discounts, plus a free Tactics Tour Long Sleeve T to the first 20 registrations at each location. Learn more: http://www.northu.com HELP WANTED: WOMEN NEED NOT APPLY By Elaine Bunting, Yachting World I think it's great news that the Argo Challenge America's Cup team is planning a campaign combining sailors and athletes with physical disabilities. But the idea that professional sailing is progressive or doffs its cap in any meaningful way to equality is an absolute fantasy. On the contrary, pro yacht racing is light years behind almost every other business you could think of. It's one of the last remaining corners of the western world where dinosaurs still roam the earth. If disabled sailors get to race in the America's Cup, fantastic. They'll have done a sight better than women. No-one seems to think it strange or wrong that there are hardly any openings at the top level for women sailors. Indeed, eyes roll if you even raise the issue. Those who think 'so what?' may forget that we are talking about professional careers here, an area where normal employment practices and laws ought to apply. Yet opportunities for women to progress in sailing are in scandalously short supply. Only a talented handful can make a name and a living in the specially ring-fenced area of Olympic sailing. With individual sponsorship an even smaller number have managed to do a solo race such as the Vendee Globe. In this toughest of events women have proved themselves the equal - or better - of male rivals. But afterwards are they invited to be a part of a top echelon team, a Volvo Ocean Race crew, say, or an America's Cup crew? Not a chance. Even an Olympic Gold Medallist wouldn't get a look in. This isn't a glass ceiling, it's a huge, super-strength carbon flbre watertight bulkhead. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/YW-032111 TWELVE METRE SAILING: COMMON THREADS OF 100 YEARS By John Burnham, Boats.com For yacht-racing history buffs, this new book, The Twelve Metre Class, is a feast that won't stop feeding. It takes longer to review a two-book set than a single publication, especially one as packed with detail as The Twelve Metre Class. I've proven that, since it was November when I borrowed the set from Jan Slee, president of the International Twelve Metre Association. Luigi Lang and Jan were the prime motivators in producing this epic history of a sailboat-racing class that is unlike any other. Not only has the class survived - and revived - more than once over its 100-plus years, but 12s have also been a racing class in the Olympics, a key part of the solution to early ineffective rating rules, and the pivotal player in the reshaping of the modern America's Cup. Somebody has to be a driver to pull off a book project that has exhaustive and yet never-quite-complete detail. I can appreciate what the Luigi, Jan, and co-author Dyer Jones have produced: these books are pretty special if you're any kind of a student of sailing's past. -- Read on: http://features.boats.com HUNGER MAKES FOR CLEVERER DECISIONS (March 21, 2011, Day 79) - Working hard to maintain pressure on race leaders Virbac-Paprec 3, MAPFRE co-skipper Iker Martinez (ESP) is pleased with their Doldrums crossing and now needs to wait patiently for any opportunities. One such opportunity may come in the form of a high pressure system set to form off the Azores which could raise tactical questions for the lead duo of whether, and when, to make a break for the African shore. For Martinez and Xabi Fernandez the race home cannot come quickly enough: the pair admitted that they are running low on both fuel and diesel, but took solace in a Spanish proverb that hunger is said to make you make cleverer decisions! -- Event website: http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com Race Tracker: http://tracking.barcelonaworldrace.org Standings (top 5 of 14 as of 20:01:03) 1. Virbac-Paprec 3, Jean Pierre Dick/Loick Peyron (FRA/FRA), 2518 nm DTF 2. Mapfre, Iker Martinez/Xabi Fernandez (ESP/ESP), 204.7 nm DTL 3. Renault, Pachi Rivero/Antonio Piris (ESP/ESP), 889.6 nm DTL 4. Estrella Damm Sailing Team,Alex Pella/Pepe Rives (ESP/ESP),1161.6 nm DTL 5. Neutrogena, Boris Herrmann/Ryan Breymaier (GER/USA), 1174.9 nm DTL 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 POWER IN NUMBERS Congratulations to the following North Sails-powered boats for winning their respective classes at the Sperry Top-Sider San Diego NOOD Regatta this past weekend: 'Aimant de Fille' (Beneteau 36.7); Dennis Martinelli (Bucaneer 18); Brad Ruetenik (I-14); Pat Toole (J/24); Jeff Coppens (Lightning); Kjeld Hestehave (Etchells) and Ian Wareham (Soling). 'Aimant de Fille', owned by Steven Ernest, was also the overall regatta winner and raced with a new North 3Di mainsail. If you want a faster sail, we've got your number: http://www.na.northsails.com EAST & WEST: North Sails & Southern Spars have partnered with Sailing Weather Service to provide free weather forecasts for the Charleston Race Week in the east (April 14-17) or the Newport-Ensenada Race in the west (April 15 - 17). To sign up, visit the North Sails online weather center (and check out our new web site!) http://www.na.northsails.com/tabid/7240/Default.aspx SAILING SHORTS * (March 21, 2011) - The confluence of 8-12 foot swells and 30-knot headwinds for the 29-boat fleet heading south in the 800-mile Newport Harbor Yacht Club Cabo Race 2011 is far from what the travel agent had promised. With the illusion of surfing down sunny swells completely shattered, nine entrants have now dropped out, many doing so before getting too far south of San Diego. The least willing among the group was Hap Fauth's IRC 69 Bella Mente which broke its mast. Ed Feo's Andrews 45 Locomotion is the current boat for boat leader, with 211.3 nm to the finish as of 17:01 PDT. -- http://www.nhyccaborace.com/nhyccaborace/Home.html * (March 20, 2011) - The second stop for the 2011 Snipe Winter Circuit took the flock south in Florida from the Midwinters in Clearwater to Miami for the 45th Don Q Rum Regatta. After Argentineans Luis Soubie and Diego Lipszyc stumbled at the first event with two OCS scores (but still finishing fifth), they sailed a much cleaner series (2,1,1,1,6) to beat out Midwinters winner Augie Diaz and Kathleen Tocke who finished in 2nd (6,3,2,4,7). Forty-nine teams from eight countries competed in the event. The migration now takes off for Nassau in the beautiful Bahamas for a week of sailing and relaxation with eight races in two regattas. -- http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11456 * (March 20, 2011) - The San Diego Sperry Top-Sider NOOD hosted 19 classes over three course locations, with 175 boats competing at either Mission Bay, Coronado, or San Diego ocean course. Winter storms tilted the typically consistent Southern California coastal conditions, providing rain, calms, and 20+ knot busters. Judges deemed the crew of Steve Ernest's Beneteau 36.7 Aimant de Fille, who dominated the eight boat class with five firsts and two seconds, as the overall event winner. Full results: http://tinyurl.com/NOOD-032111 * New Orleans, LA (March 20, 2011) - Southern Yacht Club hosted the 2011 Southern Nichols Cup, a masters 3 on 3 team racing event in Flying Scots for skippers over 45 and crew over 40. Southern Yacht Club won the event, defeating six other teams including Buccaneer Yacht Club of Mobile Alabama in second and New York Yacht Club in third. Other teams participating were Bay Waveland Yacht Club, Boston Yacht Club, American Yacht Club, and Royal Thames Yacht Club. Light winds prevailed for the first two days, however, perfect conditions prevailed on Sunday. Details: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=11509 * (March 21, 2011; Day 52; 23:00 UTC) - While Thomas Coville is finding good speed in the North Atlantic, his longer route to avoid a light air bubble has him losing distance on the solo round the world record that he is seeking. Coville is now 590 nm behind the pace set by record holder Francis Joyon, and with 2952 nm to the finish, must arrive at Ushant, France by March 28th to establish a new standard. -- http://www.sodebo-voile.com/ * (March 21, 2011) - J&D Acquisitions said it filed a lawsuit against the SeeDealerCost.com website, alleging that the use of its contractual and proprietary pricing information "will damage our brands and our dealers and we will not stand for it." The SeeDealerCost.com site, which launched last week, lists many builders by name. Of the J&D Acquisition brands, only Larson has its own link on the site. -- Soundings, full story: http://tinyurl.com/TOT-032111 FREE CLASSIFIED ADS The Scuttlebutt Classified Ads provide a marketplace for private parties to buy and sell, or for businesses to post job openings. Here are recent ads: * Wanted: ICOM M503 and/or DSC 100 for SRC Trainer * Lead Sailing Instructor Position * Launch operator wanted, Old Greenwich, CT * J/42 for sale in NJ (Bermuda Race veteran) * Race-ready J/24 for sale * Soling & trailer for sale View/post ads here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum/classified_ads EFFECTIVE ANTIFOULING WITHOUT THE COPPER? BELIEVE IT. Interlux Pacifica Plus is the first high performance, copper-free antifouling paint that uses a controlled biocide release mechanism to combat fouling and Biolux Technology to control slime. Available in clean, crisp, bright colors including blue, black and red. Manufactured and for sale in the USA only. Get more info at http://www.yachtpaint.com/usa 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 David P. Bishop: I have not noticed the trend noted in Peter Wilson's article (in Scuttlebutt 3302) to the extent that he has, but my sailing is limited to adult, primarily amateur events, where it is not as much a trend as an ongoing situation. Of the possible causes he noted the primary one is the fourth. Why miss the party to protest someone when the outcome doesn't affect your standings? In the San Diego NOOD this weekend, the boat I was crewing on was fouled twice, once with minor contact, but the owner chose not to protest as it was not worth the hassle, and would not affect our abysmal standings. The problem with this approach is that in many cases, the protest room is the only way some people learn the rules. In both of our cases, the protested boat believed, or at least claimed they believed, they had rights that they did not. One possible solution to this problem would be a second category of protest, the Educational Protest. This would be a protest hearing without penalty conducted in public as part of the party, with visual aids on a large screen if available and raucous commentary from the public invited. The rules could be explained, the offending party gently pilloried, and no one would have to miss out on the social activities. * From Rob Britton: Peter Wilson may not remember that 40 years ago many of us became yacht racers because it was such an "elitist" sport that the players enforced their own rules. The reality then was that only a complete fool would invest so much time and money, and then cheat to win a pickle dish. Of course nobody got paid in those days and the penalty for breaking a rule was to sail directly home. Gentlemen and ladies of the time were humiliated to be seen as cheaters, and would err on the side of caution, lest they lose the respect of their competitors. In the time of USYRU and "Corinthian" Yacht Racing, I do not remember rule compliance as an issue. Attempts to expand the market by dummying down the rules and penalties have not been helpful. The values that made yacht racing great are not "common", they are Nobel, and we should return to them before we must arm umpires with cameras and Yacht Club guards with nightsticks. * From Howard Paul: I must disagree with Mr Twohy's remarks (in Scuttlebutt 3302) as in my opinion he really doesn't get golf or sailing as it relates to selling the product. I live in the Bay Area and have raced for decades and am a golfer. The two sports are actually very similar. The technology in golf is immense. The balls, irons, wedges, putters, and of course the driver. What professional golf has been successful in is selling that and what Golfers can do with that technology. They talk in great detail about every shot and have taught the sport to people who in many cases don't play. They put faces and stories to the players. During Tiger Wood's heyday the ratings went through the roof when he played! Sailing on the other hand is just as technical and just as compelling. The powers that be just haven't been able to sell it to the public. Perhaps it is because a lot of what we hear is about the America's Cup which has so much money involved that there are so few players. I have watched the America's Cup because I understand what is going on. I understand the technology. But if I didn't all I would see is two boats going through the water and at the beginning trying to go backwards no less. Talk about paint drying! When the perception is this is more about a business then about the sport you have already lost the battle. => Curmudgeon's Comment: In fairness to Patrick Twohy, he writes for a business publication, and has noticed that his audience is very interested in the America's Cup. He also agrees that limiting the story to people who already like sailing would be a mistake, and that leveraging the technology and the personalities in the America's Cup are key to broadening the event's interest. He also suggested dropping the arcane language that sailors use to describe what they do. Recalling what Steve Martin once said about the French, "They have a different word for everything." -- http://tinyurl.com/ACUP-032011 CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Creativity is no substitute for knowing what you're 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? 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