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SCUTTLEBUTT 3403 - Thursday, August 11, 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: Vineyard Race and Ullman Sails. KIWIS TAKE FIRST MATCH RACE QUALIFIER Cascais, Portugal (August 10, 2010) - Following a two-hour postponement due to unusually light and fickle winds in Cascais at the America's Cup World Series, today's three seeding fleet races were packed with thrills and spills, the most dramatic of which was a start line collision between ORACLE Racing Coutts and the Kiwis. The three seeding fleet races were no less exciting than the final match. Team Korea continues to impress, finishing the day ranked third, while France's Energy Team is fourth. The day culminated with a one-on-one duel between Emirates Team New Zealand and the American defender, ORACLE Racing Spithill - the first match race of the America's Cup World Series. The race didn't disappoint with the lead passing back and forth until late in the match. Barker, the Kiwi skipper, stormed away off the starting line to lead at the first mark, only to see the American team find a shift on the opposite side of the race course. By the bottom gate, ETNZ was in the lead again. But approaching the halfway point of the race, there was an important cross between the two boats, which resulted in a classic match racing set piece, giving the advantage back to Spithill. The ping-pong battle continued on the second lap of the course until ETNZ was able to hook into a favorable wind shift and finally shake the ORACLE Racing boat for good. The Kiwis ended the afternoon with top points on the day, with Spithill settling for second place. "The guys on board are doing a fantastic job on crewing," Barker said. "Yes, you make mistakes and it's frustrating that you make them. And not that you are afraid, but these boats are very, very, hard on the crew. But there is an improvement since Auckland, we are getting more comfortable in the multihull environment." -- Read on: http://media.americascup.com/pressreleases/?id=189 Match Race Results Emirates Team New Zealand beat ORACLE Racing Spithill: 1-0 Seeding Fleet Race Results - (place, points) 1. Emirates Team NZ: 2, 4, 1 - 26 2. Oracle Racing Spithill: 1, 2, 4 - 26 3. Team Korea: 6, 3, 2 - 22 4. Energy Team: 3, 5, 3 - 22 5. Artemis Racing: 7, 1, 6 - 19 6. Oracle Racing Coutts: 9, 7, 5 - 13 7. Aleph: 5, 9, 7 - 13 8. China Team: 4, 8, 8 - 13 9. Green Comm Racing: 8, 6, 9 - 11 * The Match Race Qualifier Championship Series continues through Thursday and Friday. The Match Race Championship and Finals Series will be raced on Saturday. The grand finale, the AC World Series Cascais Championship Fleet Racing, is scheduled for Sunday. Cascais race program: http://tinyurl.com/2011-ACWS-Cascais Fan features: http://tinyurl.com/ACWS-fan-features CALENDAR: Following the inaugural America's Cup World Series event in Cascais, the second stop on the circuit will be Plymouth, England on September 10-18, followed by the final 2011 stop in San Diego, USA on November 12-20. LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC TEST EVENT Weymouth/Portland, GBR (August 10, 2011) - Day 9 of the series saw the wind howling and gusting up to 25 knots on Weymouth Bay. While Marit Bouwmeester (NED) has sealed the gold medal in the Laser Radial with the Medal Race still to go, Paige Railey (USA) is now hot on the heels of Evi Van Acker after the Belgian went 8-6 on the fifth day of Laser Radial sailing. Van Acker has 49 points and Railey is on 58 points ahead of the double points Medal Race on Friday. In the Laser, just two points separate Andrew Murdoch (NZL), Tom Slingsby (AUS) and Rutger van Schaardenburg (NED) with only the Medal Race to go. Ben Ainslie (GBR) extended his lead in the Finn after he recorded his third race win after eight races. Ainslie won Race 7 by a comfortable 51 second margin over Ivan Kljakovic Gaspic (CRO). The US Team turned in impressive results including two wins in the Laser Radial class by Railey. As the London 2012 Olympic Test Event reaches its final stretch over the next three days, US athletes who have already advanced to a medal race include Railey, plus Zach Railey (Finn), and Erin Maxwell and Isabelle Kinsolving Farrar (Women's 470). Racing in the Star class was abandoned today and Mark Mendelblatt and Brian Fatih will resume their series on Thursday. 49er sailors Erik Storck and Trevor Moore have withdrawn from racing due to an injury sustained by Storck earlier in the week. US Laser sailor Brad Funk turned in a 12th and 20th to end his Laser series in 14th overall. -- Full report: http://www.sailing.org/london2012/news/36463.php Canadian Sailing Team: http://tinyurl.com/CYA-080411 US Sailing Team AlphaGraphics: http://tinyurl.com/USSTAG-073111 BACKGROUND: The 2011 Weymouth and Portland International Regatta is designed to test the Olympic sailing venue and its operations in advance of the 2012 Games. Racing for the ten Olympic sailing events is August 2-13, where 325 entries representing 135 countries will compete across five courses on Portland Harbor and Weymouth Bay. Consistent with the Olympic Games, each country is allowed just one representative in each event. DON'T MISS OUT ON THIS YEAR'S VINEYARD RACE WEEKEND Take part in the East Coast classic, presented by Thomson Reuters and hosted by Stamford Yacht Club. Three courses to choose from: cruising division; multihull division; race tracking and post-race trophy party. Join Tom Whidden at our skippers' meeting. Start date: Sept. 2. Register today: http://www.stamfordyc.com/intraclub/query/catquery.html?doc_number=676 STADIUM SAILING TRENDING Chicago, IL (August 9, 2011) - Stadium sailing is coming to Chicago's Navy Pier Aug 12-14 with the Chicago Match Race Center's Grade 2 Invitational. CMRC's Grade 2 event has been upgraded considerably from last year as the stage is set for teams to compete right in front of one of Chicago's largest tourist attractions. CMRC is proud to also be partnering with Navy Pier's Taste of Tall Ships Festival, which attracted more than 100,000 visitors last year. The event itself features 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Anna Tunnicliffe (USA), World Match Race Tour Champion Bill Hardesty (USA) and Intercollegiate Champion Taylor Canfield (ISV) amongst the field of 10 international teams. This top-ranked talent will provide exciting match racing action for the crowds at Navy Pier, something that last year's Chicago Match Cup winner Mike Buckley (USA) appreciates in the new venue. "Sailors spend so many hours racing around the ocean far from the public eye. Stadium-style sailing finally allows the general public to relate to we yacht racers do," explained Buckley. Stadium sailing is at the forefront of bringing the sport to the general public through high visibility racing. This style has been successfully featured this year at the Oracle RC44 San Diego Cup and in Boston with the Extreme Sailing Series, and will be brought to San Francisco in the 34th America's Cup in 2013." "CMRC really understands the growing changes in our sport and has worked hard to create a venue that will help bring match racing to another level in the US," Buckley continued. Sailing Director and competitor Taylor Canfield and Program Director Tod Reynolds agree that CMRC is "moving ahead with the trends." -- Full story: http://tinyurl.com/3r3kvaf SAN FRANCISCO HANDS ITS BEST TO LASER MASTERS WORLDS San Francisco, CA (August 9, 2011) - Laser Masters from 27 countries trained this year in the biggest wind they could find in preparation for the 2011 Laser Masters Worlds on San Francisco Bay, hosted by the St Francis Yacht Club. On Tuesday, the third day of the event, the breeze did not disappoint. After a postponement due to lack of wind, racing commenced at noon and the shoot out began. Peter Vessella (USA) racing in the Standard Grand Masters came ashore with two bullets in his pocket and at top of the leader board. "The racing started in the mid teens and in the second race was up to 20 knots," Vessella said. "We had giant waves downwind - at least six to eight feet - it was incredible! Colin (Dibbs) caught a huge ferry boat wave and rode it all the way to the leeward mark into first." Unfortunately Dibbs (AUS) was OCS. In the second race with more wind, "we were hanging on for dear life but it was fun," Vessella added. He nailed a photo finish with Mark Bethwaite (AUS) winning by just a nose. In the Standard Apprentice Laser Fleet, Ben Richardson from Glouster, MA has a set of scores that most sailors would be envious of - five points after six races, with his dropped race a second. Richardson took second overall during the Heavy Weather Laser Slalom last week, besting Olympic Medalist Anna Tunnicliffe. Al Clark (CAN) moved down to the Radial from the Standard rig once he arrived in San Francisco. Why? "I go both ways," he said with a sideways grin. When he saw the forecast and the depth of talent in the Standard Master fleet, Clark, who had been here for the previous week coaching the Canadian 4.7 Laser kids in the Laser Youth World Championship, thought the better of it and put up his Radial rig. Now he's feeling that was a good call, as he too was at the top of the front page yesterday with three points after four races. Competitors take a lay day on Wednesday before returning to battle in the big breeze on Thursday for three more days of world-class Laser sailing. -- Results: http://www.sflaserworlds.com/page/Laser-Masters-Worlds FASTNET FIRST TRIAL RUN FOR GROUPAMA 4 On August 10, Groupama 4, Franck Cammas and his men leave Lorient, France bound for Cowes in the UK, where they'll take the start of the 44th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race, which is due to set off on Sunday, August 14. It will be the first opportunity for the French team to do battle with two of the six other Volvo Open 70 entries in the next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race. Among the numerous rules to which the Volvo Open 70s are subjected, there is one which forbids carrying out speed trials with other boats. In this way, for the past year and a half, Franck Cammas and his crew have had to make do with racing against the clock. However, after 150 days of training, the time for the first confrontation is upon them! On 14 August 2011, Groupama sailing team will be in Cowes (Isle of Wight) on the start line for the legendary Rolex Fastnet Race. Groupama 4 will be among two other Volvo Open 70s: Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing Team and Team Sanya registered to race. A total of 300 boats are expected to participate in this year's Fastnet. The skipper of Groupama 4 is very curious to see how the boat and her crew perform when racing. "Our main aim is to do battle with the other two boats registered in the Volvo Ocean Race," Cammas said. "The Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team project got going late in the day but they have what it takes to succeed. The skipper, Ian Walker, is very experienced and his crew comprises some real professionals. Team Sanya only recently declared its entry but we'd best keep an eye on them: the crew led by Mike Sanderson is one of the most qualified. Their boat (the former Telefonica Blue) is renowned for being very fast in light air." -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/4x587ot NOT IN OUR BACK YARD San Francisco, CA (August 10, 2011) - Environmental groups say they plan to raise red flags about environmental impacts of the America's Cup sailing event during a hearing Thursday at San Francisco City Hall. The San Francisco Planning Commission will give the public an opportunity to comment on a draft environmental impact report published by the city last month regarding the regatta. Comments can also be submitted in writing. "We were disappointed in the draft EIR," said Deb Self, executive director of the nonprofit San Francisco Baykeeper, who is helping coordinate environmental groups as they deal with the city regarding the regatta. "We hear the city is committed to doing the right thing, but they have a long way to go between now and when the final report comes out. They've got reams of comments from us, and they just have to raise the bar." In a press release, the 30 groups warned of water and air-quality impacts and other side effects of an event that could draw hundreds of thousands of people to area shorelines. Ken Coren, vice president of the Dolphin Club, a swimming and boating association located in Aquatic Park, raised concerns about the event's impact on the thousands of swimmers and rowers who use the area regularly. "It's just not appropriate use this historic maritime park for super yachts and a floating video jumbotron," he said in the press release. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/4yxv2cr * The planning commission meeting begins at noon in Room 400 in San Francisco's City Hall. The America's Cup item is expected to be heard around 1 p.m. but be warned, it could go for several hours. The draft EIR report can be downloaded here: http://www.sfplanning.org/index.aspx?page=1828 PROMOTE YOUR EVENT Is your event listed on the Scuttlebutt Event Calendar? This free, self-serve tool gets your event in front of an active sailing audience. Sponsored by West Marine, this calendar also gets your event on the radar of the sailing media. These are some of the events listed on the calendar: Aug 11-14 - IRC North American Championship - Toronto, Ontario, Canada Aug 13-21 - Nantucket Race Week - Nantucket, MA, USA Aug 13-17 - RIPS Canadian Race Week - Pender Island, BC, Canada Aug 14 - Rolex Fastnet Race - Cowes, Plymouth, United Kingdom Aug 14-18 - U.S. Youth Sailing Championship - Newport, RI, USA View all the events at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/calendar BIG WINS IN SANTA BARBARA-KING HARBOR RACE In the 86-boat fleet of the Santa Barbara to King Harbor Race 2011, Ullman Sails' customers sealed three class wins and multiple podium finishes! Congratulations to Dave Baker's Schock 34PC "Lulu" who won PHRF Class C and John Staff's Viper 830 "Plankton" who secured first overall in Sprit ULDB both fully powered by Ullman Sails. In the J/105 class, John Noble's "Escapade"* won the 81nm race by just seven minutes, followed by Thomas Bollay's "Armida" in second and Chuck Spear's "Twelve Bar Blues" in third place. Gary Winton on J/120 "Shenanigans" sealed 2nd overall in Sprit PHRF. *Partial inventory. http://www.ullmansails.com SAILING SHORTS * Cowes, GBR (August 10, 2011) - Extreme', 'dangerous' and 'on the edge' - these were the skipper's descriptions of the conditions that led to cancelation of Day 5, Act 5 in Cowes for the first time in the circuit's history. On the water the wind was blowing a steady 25-28 knots, combined with a strong tide, and several boats competing in Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week were to be seen in the distance limping back to port with broken masts. -- Full report: http://tinyurl.com/4399dat * La Salle, MI (August 10, 2011) - 3 races were sailed in 15-18 knots on day 4 of the 2011 Lightning North American Championships hosted by North Cape Yacht Club. Ched Proctor, Jamie Ewing and Meredith Killion sailed consistently with 4, 5, 3 finishes lead in the Championship Division with 13 total points. Defending Champions, David Starck sailing with his wife Jody and Ian Jones recovered from a premature start in the second race of the day and posted finishes of 3, 3, 5, sitting 5 points behind Team Proctor. Racing continues Thursday. -- Full results: http://www.lightningclass.org * US SAILING has released the Top Ten Women and Open Match sailors based on the August 4, 2011 ISAF Ranking lists: Top Women - 1. Anna Tunnicliffe, 2. Sally Barkow, 3. Genny Tulloch. Open Rankings - 1. Bill Hardesty, 2. Dave Perry, 3. Donald Wilson. CORRECTION Blog posts for Olympic Laser sailor Brad Funk can be found at http://www.funksailing.com. An incorrect url was provided in Scuttlebutt 3402. 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 Paul Henderson (re Scuttlebutt 3402): The bible of Sailing when I was 10 yrs old now over 60 years ago was H.A. Calahan's Learning to Sail. Chapter XXVII Rules of the The Road-Right of Way. "Here lies the body of Michael O'Day, Who died maintaining the right-of-way; He was right-dead-right as he sailed along But he is just as dead as if he'd been wrong." Does not matter whether the sailboat hits the supertanker or the supertanker hits the sailboat, it is bad for the sailboat. * From George Morris: Ahhh the joys of retirement! Another three hours frittered away this afternoon watching the superb coverage of the Cascais regatta. The commentary, however, was unbelievably awful. I think most people lose the will to live after about twenty minutes of an Australian (or New Zealand) commentator but the nadir must have been 'Artemis is the goddess of hunting in Swedish'. Neither commentator seemed able to tell which boat was in front or why during the match race. Geordie, the on the water commentator, did have a good feel for things but we need a clear convention for what we mean by 'the right' of the course. Is it looking upwind or down? And the atmospheric shots of the beach where 'hundreds of people are enjoying the view of the yachts'; it was quite apparent that the hundreds of people on the beach were taking no notice of the yachts whatsoever. It is going to be hard to bring match racing to the masses so in the meantime may we assume that those watching do know what a tack and a gybe are and pitch the commentary at an appropriate level? * From Ken Katz: Thanks to Scuttlebutt this morning I found the AC channel on You Tube as George Morris indicated in his letter in Scuttlebutt 3402. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION The more vital your research, the less people will understand it. SPONSORS THIS WEEK Vineyard Race - Point Loma Outfitting - North Sails - APS LaserPerformance - Ullman Sails - Gowrie Group - Quantum Sails Need stuff? Look here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
