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SCUTTLEBUTT 3189 - Friday, October 1, 2010Scuttlebutt 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: APS and Lewmar SAILING FAMILY OF THE YEAR Sailing is not just a life sport, but also a sport that can be done by all forms of people. Big or small, old or young, man or woman. Even family members. To recognize those families that participate in the sport of sailing, Scuttlebutt is launching the "SAILING FAMILY OF THE YEAR" award. The rules on who qualifies are loose. Family members may participate together or separately. Family members might be into competing, cruising, or supporting the sport in some capacity. Maybe not all members of a family are into sailing, but some are. Bottom line: if there are family members that participate in the sport, than that family is a qualified entrant for the SFOTY award. Can families be nominated by others? Absolutely! In fact, this could prove to be vital as sailing families are often humble families. The winning family will be outfitted in team gear courtesy of Atlantis WeatherGear and Camet International, along with receiving international recognition and commemorative trophies. Entry deadline is November 15, 2010. Enter here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/10/SFOTY/ THEIR MISSION BEGINS NEXT WEEK They want it back. And next week their mission begins. In Luderitz, Namibia, a ten hour drive from Cape Town, South Africa, the fastest kiters and windsurfers in the world will descend on this strip of sand for the 2010 edition of the Luderitz Speed Challenge to reclaim the outright world record set by the foiling multihull Hydroptere in 2009. The Luderitz Speed Challenge 2010 is to be held in Luderitz, Namibia, from October 4 to 31. This is the 4th edition of the event, which is held under the scrutiny of the World Speed Sailing Record Council (WSSRC) and the International Sailing Federation (ISAF). The challenge is to see who will set the fastest average speed over a 500-meter distance. The first edition of the Luderitz Speed Challenge in 2007 saw a number of impressive performances, and it was American Rob Douglas in 2008 that was the first kiter to claim the outright speed sailing record with 49.84 knots. Alex Caizergues (FRA) pushed the mark up to 50.57 knots during the same event, and improved it to 50.98 knots in 2009, just shy of the current outright record of 51.36 knots set by Hydroptere. The wind in Luderitz blows consistently, in the same direction, from August to March every year. It is accelerated by a funnel effect as it comes from the cold Atlantic Ocean waters, over the dry savannah of south Namibia, and into the Namibian desert. It is precisely in Luderitz that the wind, channeled through a range of high hills perfectly shaped to increase its speed, reaches the sand desert, which high daytime temperatures amplify by creating an additional low-pressure 'suction effect'. The result is extra strong winds, very regular in direction and strength. The run is situated at the bottom of a lagoon, and is very flat. A straight 700m long canal was dug this year, which is 10m wide and 50-100cm deep. This will ensure a longer period when runs can be done and the straight canal will result in better averages. When coupled with the wind direction, which crossing the run at around 140 degrees, sailors have the ideal wind angle to reach very high speeds. Rob Douglas, who leads his North American Speed Project (NASSP) team, plans to be pacesetter. "We are getting things squared away after landing in Luderitz after 60+ hrs of traveling from the States. Things here are going to get very interesting over the next few weeks. Modifications to the course could provide world record speeds. There is plenty of talk here but we will ride the course over the next few days and see. "Our team is here with Mike Gebhardt waiting for the green flag. We have new boards from Mike Zajicek and kites from Cabrinha, and as this is our third visit to Luderitz should increase our speeds this year as we push hard for a new outright world speed sailing title. The weather forecast looks good, so we will be ready for when the event starts on Monday." Promo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SYuplaIto4 Event website: http://luderitz-speed.com/ NASSP website: http://nassp.net/nassp/ IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN. Six days from now the world will descend upon the Capitol of Sailing. We at APS, "The World Leader in Outfitting Performance Sailors", have been waiting 358 days for this event. That's right; it's time for APS' Annual Annapolis Sailboat Show Sale! We'll be offering killer deals across the board at the Annapolis U.S. Sailboat Show, in our store, and online. So, whether you make it to Annapolis or not you can save huge on everything from boats to boots. But, hold your purchases because the sale doesn't start until next Tuesday so here's a sneak peak at the deals: http://bit.ly/9eeClJ IN POSITION TO WIN Have you ever been in position to win a World Championship going into the last day? Here Scott Nixon describes the experience: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The 2010 Melges 32 Worlds are now over and after a red-eye flight back to the East Coast I have had some time to reflect on last week's regatta in San Francisco. Saturday was the last day of sailing and a real heartbreaker for our team on the Rougarou. The normal San Fran westerly was nowhere in sight when we left the dock in the morning. With a 2:30 pm cut-off, the St. Francis YC and the regatta PRO had to move quickly to run the final two races in a light-filling, northwesterly breeze of around 6-10 knots. We left the dock in third overall, which is respectable but not really our goal for this event. The B-lin Italian team held a six-point lead, Full Throttle and the Porter brothers were only two ahead of us, and the Star team was only a few behind us, so the championship was still in reach of four teams. It was a great place to be as we were under the radar all week and still had a chance at winning the event on the last day. Our goal for the first race on Saturday was simple...to start well and get out front and ahead of our three competitors and try and make up the points we needed to win. The race started with a square line and light air so the start would be paramount. We set up middle boat with the goal of going straight and protecting the top left. To my surprise Full Throttle tried to start directly above us on the line. We quickly went in high mode and forced them to tack out in traffic. We had a good first beat to round just outside the top two boats and then ground them down on the next two legs as we did a better job protecting the favored left side as the westerly tried to sneak in from the Golden Gate Bridge. We rounded the last windward mark with a nice lead and then sailed cleanly to win the race by a nice margin. Once we finished it was spinnaker down and a bit of number crunching to get the finishes of the fleet. B-lin and Full Throttle had some nice comebacks as they were not always in the top ten, as they finished 9, 4. Star had a good one as well and took a 5. This put our group even closer together, only one point out of the championship behind Full Throttle, and the Italians one point behind us in third. Still a great place to be as it looked like the wind was going to hold long enough for a quick start before the time expired. -- Read on: http://tinyurl.com/D1D-093010 Final results: http://tinyurl.com/2010-M32-Worlds IT'S GONNA BE BIG Newport, former home of the America's Cup, remains a busy venue. The winged catamarans of the International C-Class Championship were there, and the ISAF Women's Match Race World Championship was just there too. And coming next week will be the 2010 J/80 World Championship on October 4-8. Hosted by Ida Lewis Yacht Club and Sail Newport, this promises to be one of the most competitive J/80 events to date. Sixty-six boats from nine countries are currently registered including boats from Argentina, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and USA. Seven past World Champions are participating. During the event the fleet will be headquartered downtown at the Newport Yachting Center, located on America's Cup Avenue, just steps from Newport's favorite restaurants and watering holes. Outside of a strong US contingent, the Spanish J/80 Class is showing up in force with ten sailing teams. Amongst them are 2010 J/80 European Champion Carlos Martinez sailing PERALEJA GOLF from Santiago, past World Champions Jose Maria Torcida sailing Team ECC VIVIENDAS from Cantabria, Rayco Tabares on HOTEL PRINCESSA YAIZA from Las Palmas, and Ignacio Camino Rodriguez on NEXTEL ENGINEERING from Cantabria. In fact six of the top ten teams at the 2010 Europeans (Lake Garda, Italy) are competing. Other top European teams include Tom Whitmore (the J/80 Swedish Champion), Federico Rajolas of Italy, Thomas Klok of Denmark, Jurgen Waldeim of Germany and Bruno Trouble from France. The American fleet is the deepest it's ever been and well tuned up after a busy nine month USA Tour including the recent North American Championship. Teams from 12 different states are represented. While all eyes will be on past World and North American Champions Jay Lutz/Gary Kamins (Houston, TX), Glenn Darden (Ft Worth, TX), and Kerry Klingler (Larchmont, NY), they will be pushed hard by other top ranked teams including John Storck on RUMOR (2010 North American Champion), Terry Flynn & Scott Young (Annapolis NOOD Champion), Chip Johns (Marion, MA), Allan Terhune (Arnold, MD) and Bruno Pasquinelli (Dallas, TX). Event website: http://www.j80worlds2010.org/ WHO IS BETTER - UK OR USA? The month of October is Championship of Champions month for the top one design sailors in the UK and the USA. The UK has their Endeavour Championship (Oct. 1-3) where 30 National Champions of selected fleets compete against each other in the Topper Xenon. And the USA has its Championship of Champions regatta (Oct. 13-16) which has invited 20 National, North American or World Champion American skippers to face off in Ideal 18s. And now, according to Bitter End Yacht Club event director John Glynn, his resort in the British Virgin Islands wants to bring together the winners of the UK and the USA events to see who is the best of the best. "The BEYC would like to cordially invite the winner of these two championships to the upcoming 2010 Pro Am Regatta," said Glynn. "We will provide accommodations & meals for the winning skipper and one companion from each event, and entry into the Pro Am, where they will line up with Russell Coutts, Paul Cayard, Ken Read, Peter Holmberg, Anna Tunnicliffe, and Zach Railey. Who will mix it up best, the US or UK representative?" Okay, the gauntlet is thrown. And this is an immensely sweet deal. The Bitter End Yacht Club is the Caribbean's premiere luxury water sports resort, located on the island of Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands. The barefoot elegance that characterizes this island outpost is why Bitter End is regularly hailed as one of the top full service resorts in the world. The 2010 Pro Am regatta is Oct. 30-Nov. 6. So who will grab the gauntlet? Contact John Glynn for details: jglynn@beyc.com U.K. (Oct. 1-3) - http://royalcorinthian.co.uk/endeavour-championship U.S. (Oct. 13-16) - http://championships.ussailing.org/Adult/CofC.htm BEYC (Oct. 30-Nov. 6, 2010) - http://www.beyc.com/index.php/proam.html LEWMAR TO LAUNCH EVO RANGE OF WINCHES Lewmar will be launching the EVO Range of winches at the forthcoming U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD. Featuring the trusted performance of a Lewmar winch, tool-free servicing, and 'Fast Fit' installation, Lewmar are so confident about the quality of the EVO winch that they are backing it up with a 7-year warranty. Available in multiple styles and finishes, the EVO winch will take pride of place on Land Space Stand #64. Come and meet the Lewmar Team for a preview, or click on http://www.lewmar.com WHAT ARE WE SELLING? Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban knows a bit about sport and quite a lot about TV. A few weeks ago on his blog, Cuban talked about how sports might be affected by changes in TV. Given the America's Cup focus on television, it's worth publishing some of the comments here. While sailing doesn't have a business model that relies on ticket sales, Cuban argues that the experience, not the product is the most important part of sport. In other words, the number of hulls doesn't matter. The strength of the wind doesn't matter. The location doesn't matter. "We are in the business of selling fun and unique experiences." "Think back to the first professional sporting event you ever went to. It was probably a parent taking you to the game. What do you remember? Do you remember the score? A home run? A jump shot? A pass play? Or do you remember who you were with? I remember being with my dad at a Pirates game. My dad and my uncle at a Steelers game. Think about your fondest memories at a sporting event. Again, what do you remember? Hanging with your buddies? A first date? A last date? How you felt after the team won or loss? A business partner or customer? Or the score? I'm guessing it's not the score. "We in the sports business don't sell the game, we sell unique, emotional experiences. We are not in the business of selling basketball. We are in the business of selling fun and unique experiences. I say it to our people at the Mavs at all time, I want a Mavs game to be more like a great wedding than anything else. -- Yacht Sponsorship, read on: http://tinyurl.com/YS-093010 SAILING SHORTS * The Sailing World college rankings as of Sept. 29, 2010 finds the Eagles of Boston College are still flying high atop both the coed and women' standings, but the coed scores are tightening with four other schools receiving first-place votes. Full rankings here: http://tinyurl.com/SW-093010 * Porto Rotondo, Italy (September 30, 2010) - Day One of the Farr 40 European Championship 2010 saw the ten competing yachts complete two windward-leeward races in light and tricky conditions. Jim Richardson's Barking Mad (USA) with Hamish Pepper on tactics leads the provisional overall classification with a further three race days ahead and as many as eight more races to be run. Behind Richardson is Plenty (USA) - owned by Alex Roepers and with Chris Larson calling tactics - on equal points with Massimo Mezzaroma’s Nerone (ITA) in third. Racing continues through Sunday 3rd October. -- Full report: http://forum.sailingscuttlebutt.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=10591 * US SAILING's Olympic Sailing Committee (OSC) has finalized the selection procedures for the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Team - Sailing in the three events selected for the 2012 Paralympic Regatta, set for August 29-September 9, 2012 in Weymouth/Portland, England. Athletes will have the opportunity to qualify based on their combined performance at two international events: 2012 IFDS World Championship, in Port Charlotte, Fla., scheduled for January 8-16, 2012, and US SAILING's 2012 Rolex Miami OCR, in Miami, Fla., scheduled for January 22-28, 2012. Details here: http://tinyurl.com/USSTAG-093010 PHOTOS OF THE WEEK Some of the random photos from the sport received this week at Scuttlebutt include floating islands, costume parties, logo diligence, fashionably fat, a lack of consensus, that sinking feeling, big and bold, and coming or going. Here are this week's photos: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/10/1001/ SEND US YOUR PHOTOS: If you have images to share for the Photos of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com VIDEO OF THE WEEK Ever wonder who the first person was to look at a cow and say, I'll just squeeze those dangly things and drink whatever comes out? Or how about the first person to see an egg come from a chicken's butt and think, I'll bet that would be good to eat? Perhaps they were the same kind of people that thought it would be neat combine kite sailing and skateboarding: kite skating. They say curiosity killed the cat, so you can imagine what it must be like to take a full sailing kite, strap on an all-terrain skateboard and pull aerial stunts in an open field. Hmm, let's try jumping the basketball hoop. Or how about we get air, drop our board, slip into another one our buddy is holding, and then nail a landing. Footage is edited from an aerial camera and a ground based camera to provide the full experience. Click here for this week's video: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/media/10/1001 BONUS 1: The Extreme 40 catamaran class provides the best view of what the next America's Cup will look like. When you combine a fleet of high speed boats with high wind, collisions and control problems, it makes for a heck of a show. As for how it will work with just two match racing boats remains to be seen. Here is a selection of videos from the Extreme Sailing Series event last week in Italy: http://www.extremesailingseries.com/video/trapani/ BONUS 2: If you have been to the U.S. Sailboat Show in Annapolis, MD, then you know how many boats they have in the water, and you can imagine what a fiasco it must be to maneuver them all in place. Here is time lapse footage of the boats being moved out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfOl6lcrhL8 BONUS 3: The eighth stop on the ISAF World Match Racing Tour will be in Bermuda next week, where up to 24 teams will vie for piece of the $100,000 prize purse. Here is a preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1yVrrXvmKI BONUS 4: Videographer Vince Casalaina produced this segment on the Rolex Big Boat Series, hosted annually in early September by the St. Francis Yacht Club on San Francisco Bay. Vince takes a look at the event thirty years ago, showing the changes that have occurred over the years. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhgYpNH_eoI SEND US YOUR VIDEOS: If you have clips to share for the Video of the Week, send them to the Scuttlebutt editor: 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 are 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 Geoffrey Emanuel, Southlake, Texas: The choice of multihulls is entirely in keeping with AC traditions. Every boat built for the America's Cup, including the original cup winner, was, at a minimum, a major advancement over the status quo yacht design, if not a radical departure from the norm of the era. Examples include the 144 foot Reliance, the 1903 defender, labeled at the time a "racing freak." She featured a ballasted rudder, dual speed winches below decks and a cork-decked aluminum hull. Ranger was considered a "radical departure" for the J-Boat era in the 1930s, a class which as a group advanced nearly every aspect of naval architecture, yacht construction and sail handling systems. If the America's Cup doesn't continue to foster revolution in yacht design, what other event would? * From Les Abberley, 12/US-26 '74: (re, Ken Guyer’s letter in #3186) What is the America's Cup? Judging from your scathing Butt guest commentary, spare me a moment, and please consider historical fact. Back in the day, when goods needed delivery overseas, it was all about boat speed. First to market, got highest price. Even the harbor pilot's boats raced to beat the others to the cargo ship. Billionaires owned these ships that carried the goods manufactured by other billionaires, who sold the goods to other billionaires who distributed them. When a London tea Barron had to sign a distribution deal in New York he had no corporate jet to fly...it was the corporate 'yacht' that carried the business team overseas. So the Cup was born from commerce and boat speed, the crews were international professionals. The current billionaires funding the defense & challenge in the Americas Cup today are no different. The boats have changed simply because of boat speed and cats and tri's are faster. They also hold all the speed records for long distance sailing...just like back in the day. Larry Ellison is a can-do guy, and he gets it. In addition, he's surrounded by the best of breed in every discipline including sailing! Watch him guide his team to make the America's Cup in San Francisco a spectacular event in every way: design, engineering, sailing skill, speed, sponsorship, media, race fans and momentum that will reignite a huge A-Cup passion and prestige. Check it out, and if you continue to disagree, get a life and become a baseball fan. CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATION Anything we said six months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after seven days. Special thanks to APS and Lewmar. Preferred supplier list: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
