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SCUTTLEBUTT No. 580 - May 30, 2000WORLD MATCH RACING CHAMPIONSHIPSSPLIT, CROATIA - Australian skipper Peter Gilmour has taken over the top spot on the scoreboard as the ACI Cup and World Match Racing Championships moves into the semi-finals stage. This third event on the Swedish Match Tour is heading towards a suitable finale, with the three top teams on the Tour scoreboard all in the semi-finals. Gilmour's Pizza-La team displace Team New Zealand's Dean Barker, who has held the lead at the end of the first five days of the series, being sailed off the historic city of Split, on Croatia's Dalmatian coast. This port has been described as "the St Tropez of the Adriatic, only with more history and personality." The important thing about winning the round robin part of the regatta is that Gilmour chooses his opponent for the semi-finals, while Barker is left to face the other qualifier. However, this will not be an easy decision for Gilmour, as there are no easy options at this stage of the game. Third on the scoreboard is Denmark's Sten Mohr, the only non-America's Cup skipper to make the cut, with Frenchman Bertrand Pace and his Le Defi Francais team fourth. The Dane is currently sailing very consistently, while Bertrand is often erratic, but knows how to rise to the occasion. After a week of predominantly light conditions, the wind gods finally smiled on this regatta on Monday, with a 12 to 15 knot westerly breeze, filling in at lunch time. Conditions had been light and fickle in the morning, and it looked as if the round robins might not be completed. "Once the breeze got up, I must say I felt a lot more confident," admitted Gilmour, "and sure about how we were going to go, because we've got good team work, and we do sail well once the breeze is up. When it's that light and fickle stuff I feel very nervous about it, because your opposition can go the other way and anything can happen." It is hoped that both a best of five race semi-finals, and best of five race finals can be sailed on Tuesday, which is Croatia's national day, celebrating gaining their independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. When the breeze filled in on Monday, it showed just what a spectacular venue this is for a match racing event, with the pre-start manoeuvres taking place right under the cliff, with those dining and drinking on the terrace above getting a sensational view of the action. - John Roberson ROUND ROBIN RESULTS:
Event website: http://www.matchrace.net./press_centre.html 2001 ADMIRAL'S CUP LONDON-There is to be a major change of class, and with it policy, for the next Admiral's Cup. The Management Committee of the event announced that the IMS 50-foot class had been dropped in favor of the Corel 45 class, thereby removing all handicap racing from the event and eventually making a totally one-design regatta. The change had been expected for some time and with the numbers of 50 footers built to the IMS dwindling rather than increasing in popularity, the announcement comes as a relief to nations without suitable boats planning a challenge. The Admiral's Cup, which is planned for July, 12 to 28, 2001, will now be held in Sydney 40s, Farr 40s and Corel 45s. Each national team will have to enter with one of each of these boats. The countries that have expressed interest to the RORC include Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, and New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the United States. Several others are expected to make further inquiries now that the Corel 45 has been introduced. Bob Fisher, Grand Priz Sailor Complete story: http://www.sailingworld.com/gps/2000/0525/ CURMUDGEON'S COMMENT: This announcement seems to make an eloquent statement about the health of measurement handicap racing. COLLEGIATE SAILING St. Mary's College of Maryland - Blustery winds 5-20 knots with rain much of the day made for challenging sailing conditions for the ICYRA Women's North Americans. Standings after two days: 1. Dartmouth, (87 points) 2. Boston University (109) 3. Tufts (119) 4. St. Mary's College (152) 5. Brown University (159) 6. Old Dominion (159). Through June 7, the CollegeSailing.org website will present live coverage of the 2000 ICYRA North American Championships. Daily coverage will feature up to the minute race results, live photos of the action, current rumors and comments from the participants. Representatives of the ICYRA Website Committee will be on-site to report all of the action as it happens at St. Mary's, MD and King's Point, NY. A special 2000 Championships area has been set up to provide all the special information on this event. Background info as well as instant news updates are available: http://www.collegesailing.org/2000championships CAL RACE WEEK MARINA DEL REY, Calif. - As a heavy fog settled over the course during the last race of Cal Race Week Sunday, Kimo Worthington, tactician on the Farr 40 Shadow, raised his arms in an appeal to counterpart Robbie Haines on rival Crocodile Rock and yelled, "Where are we?" Such was the second and final day for 78 boats on the second stop of the Volvo Inshore Championships series, the Triple Crown of Southern California sailing that will conclude with Boatscape.com/North sails Race Week at Long Beach June 23-25. Crocodile Rock, owned by Alexandra Geremia of Santa Barbara Yacht Club, won a first-day protest against David Thomson's Peregrine and held on with a third and a fourth Sunday to win the Farr 40 class by two points, setting itself up for a sweep of VIC 2000 following its win in San Diego's Yachting Cup three weeks earlier. The day was as frustrating for the California YC's race committee as it was for the sailors. The maddeningly shifty wind of 5-6 knots was even lighter than Saturday, when it momentarily peaked at 10 knots, but another problem was the fog. A patchy gray curtain fell late in the morning, limiting clear visibility to 50 yards or less and causing delays on the three courses from an hour to an hour and a half until the committee boats were able to see the pin ends of their lines. Finally, the fog drifted past onto the beach for a race in brilliant sunshine - and then another bank descended for a curtain call as the RC tried to start the last go-rounds. That's when the GPS games started. Chris Busch tactician on the 1D35 Wild Thing, said, " we loaded the weather mark into our little hand-held GPS - 245 and one mile away - and went right while the other guys went left, and the wind shifted 10 degrees for us. We didn't have a clue how anybody was doing until we were a minute from the weather mark" - which was, as Crocodile Rock found, right where it was supposed to be. - Rich Roberts CLASS WINNERS: ULDB 70 (3 boats) - Evolution, Brack Duker, FARR 40 (10) - Crocodile Rock, Alexandra Geremia; 1D35 (6) - Wild Thing, Kara Zylstra, SCHOCK 35 (13) - Wings, Dennis Case, SDYC, STAR (11) - Incentive, Mike George, VOLVO CLASS 1 (8) - Pendragon IV, John MacLaurin, VOLVO CLASS 2 (7) - Impact, Ken Kieding/Ron Melville, PHRF 3 (3) - Muddy Waters, Rick Johnson/Artie Means, Oceanside/San Diego YC, PHRF 4 (5) - Chimera, Tom O'Conor/Marilyn Hoenemeyer, CYC, PHRF 5a (6) - James Earl, Dale Frye, PHRF 5b (4) - Thunderbox, Ron and Ian Trotter, Chula Vista YC. Complete results: http://www.calyachtclub.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (leweck@earthlink.net) Letters selected to be printed are routinely edited for clarity, space (250 words max) and to exclude unfounded speculation or personal attacks. This is not a chat room. You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if people disagree. -- From Bram Kochx, Netherlands - Finally the RORC have managed to kill the Admiral's Cup. It took them some years but after taking out the only development class left and replace it by another one design class there is nothing more for potential owners to out-design or out-build other countries. Although the proposed one design are tremendous boats, the Unofficial Offshore World Championship (read Admiral's Cup) is more than sailing alone. Rumours are that the current holders of the cup, Netherlands, will not challenge in the existing format. For all of those IMS owners the only place to be now is Spain with the excellent Copa del Rey, I hope the Spanish will realise this and soon introduce a competition for country-teams to become the real Offshore World Championship. As for the venue, they are already on 1-0 -- From Brian Raney - Art's numbers may not include what I think of as the "shadow" of USSA - it's plethora of regional organizations and committees. Here on western LIS, not only does one need to join USSA to participate in the championships and sail PHRF, but also the local organization YRALIS. For the champs there's only a small tribute to pay, but for the handicappers, it gets much bigger. Of course, paying another 50% (minimum!) of your membership fee to a "shadow" authority just to sail in your organization's champs doesn't make sense either! Art framed the discussion as OD vs. handicap. I believe this is off-base. USSA evolved from these regional organizations, then created its own committees. This is quite a ponderous organizational structure. The actual individual member has gotten lost. USSA needs to focus on the individual members across the entire organization, whether they are OD, handicap, or pleasure sailors. I do sail OD almost exclusively. As such, I find that the majority of support offered by USSA is channeled through the regions and committees to a delivery point of clubs and CSPs. This may have been efficient in the past, but in today's age, it misses the target - the individual sailor. I think it's time to move into the internet age, where one-to-one relationships are common between organizations and millions of individuals. Time to cut out the "middleman" and deliver services directly to the membership. This will instantly focus USSA on the needs of the sailors - OD or handicap or pleasure. -- From Greg Anders - On the water coaching at races is more than just a symptom of the increasing professionalism that plagues sailing. It is cheating! If you want to hire a coach to help you train and practice, good for you. Just don't bring him along to do the work you should be doing before and during races. Sailboat racing is you and your boat using the wind to work your way around a course. Part of the game is figuring out what the wind and water are going to do. You don't see baseball teams posting a base coach at second base to steal the catcher's signs and relay them to the batter. Traditionally, a baseball player that does that receives a hard fastball high and inside his next time at bat. Don't tell me our guys have to do it to compete against professionals from Europe. It does not make it right just because others are doing it. A coach's relaying course conditions immediately before a race is bad form. -- From Giles Anderson - Why is everybody getting upset about the NZ AC saga? It's no different than Gretzky going from the Oilers to the Kings or a hundred other examples in pro sports. The difference is the way that we, as amateur sailors, think of ourselves. Amateur sailors love to view themselves as only a step away from the AC, Olympic, or Whitbread caliber of sailor. I think it is one of the reasons that the Farr 40 has done so well - mix mostly amateurs with some or the world's best. It's a great feeling being an amateur and being on the same boat or racecourse as a Coutts or another rock star. It's like playing a pick-up game with Jordan. We used to think that we weren't that different from the Coutts of the world. We participate in the same sport and earn about the same amount of money. Not any more. Now amateur sailors have about as much in common with the pros as a game of shinny (that's pick-up hockey for you Southerners) does with Gretzky. In a world where baseball players are signing US$100 million contracts sailing stood out because amateurs felt an association with the pros. With AC trimmers now getting reported offers of US$500k and the brain trust getting multi-million dollar offers it explodes that myth. Well wake up guys, there is a big difference between you and me and the rock stars. Get used to it because the gap is only going to widen. -- From Christian Fevrier - Tom Priest's question about where the Swiss would defend the Cup is not so stupid. We all remember the Heart America challenge from 1987, skippered by Buddy Melges. Their Yacht Club (Chicago) was quite far from the open sea too... -- From Stephen Orosz - The answer to Tom Priest's query about where a victorious Swiss team might host a cup race is simple -- Lake Geneva. Flat water. Might be a nice change from the Hauraki Gulf. EUROPE 1 NEW MAN STAR The EUROPE 1 NEW MAN STAR race fleet has been descending on Plymouth over the past weekend. In spite of storm force winds in the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel most boats made it to the Royal Western Yacht Club's base in Queen Anne's Battery before the Sunday night deadline. The Race Committee set this deadline so that all boats are present for the week before the start allowing the stringent safety checks to be carried out on the fleet. Several boats, however, have not respected the deadline and will now have to await the outcome of the Race Committee's deliberations on whether fines will be set. Several boats arrived with ripped sails, damaged spars and foils. One boat, having battled through the wild weather made it in time but in a severely damaged state and only with the assistance of the UK rescue services. Having sailed his boat Spirit of Belgium up the English Channel to Plymouth in winds exceeding 55 knots at a time, Patrick de Radigues, just miles short of Queen Anne's Battery, accidentally ran up on the Plymouth Breakwater in a rising tide and with a 2-3 metre swell rolling in behind him. His trimaran was badly holed in all three hulls and was eventually towed off by the Plymouth Lifeboat. De Radigues entered this year's EUROPE 1 NEW MAN STAR with the intention of winning Class III (40-45 foot). Now, however, de Radigues has a big battle ahead to repair his red-hulled trimaran before Sunday's start. - Marcus Hutchinson Official website: http://www.europe1newmanstar.com FIRST TIME EVER NORFOLK, Va - Newport Harbor High's sailing team clinched the double crown of high school sailing last weekend in Norfolk, VA, by winning the Baker Trophy for the national championship in team racing. It became the first team in the 30-year history of high school sailing to capture both the fleet racing and team racing national championships in the same year. During the previous weekend in Long Beach, Newport won the Mallory Trophy, the national championship for double-handed fleet racing. Harbor's championship team racing team was made up of three skippers: seniors Tyler Haskell and Scott Hogan, and sophomore Cary Grimes; three crews: senior Paige Thompson, junior Amy Halvorsen and sophomore Meredith Potter; along with two crew alternates: sophomore Kelsey Cochran and freshman Ryan Marshall. They were coached by Billy Uniack, former Boston University sailing team standout. Newport Harbor has dominated high school team racing nationally since 1993, winning five times and placing second twice. Seniors Hogan, Haskell and Thompson have participated in a national victory en each of their four years at Newport Harbor (1997: Mallory first, Baker second; 1998: Mallory second, Baker first; 1999: Mallory third, Baker first; 2000: Mallory first, Baker first). No other team in the history of the sport has captured both titles in the same year. The seniors will move on to sail for some of the country's most prestigious colleges. All were recruited by and have committed to attend Dartmouth (Hogan), Georgetown (Haskell) and UC Santa Barbara (Thompson). Fellow senior Jennifer Porter, who contributed to the team's success over the past four years but did not attend this year's championship regattas, will sail next year at Stanford. - Daily Pilot Regatta results: http://www.highschoolsailingusa.org/ COMPAQ CASCADIA CUP VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA - The skies offered up clouds, rain at times and some sunshine. The winds were fair other than a two and a half hour delay on the second day for lack of wind. Wind speeds were a steady 12 to 14 knots throughout the first day on Saturday and, after the delay on Sunday rose to 12 knots but were shifty for day two. - John Abel Final Results: 1st Place - John Cutler; 2nd Place - Peter Holmberg; 3rd Place - Chris Larson; 4th Place - Alex Fox; 5th Place - Erik Koppernaes; 6th Place - Jeff Eckard; 7th Place - Scott Dickson; 8th Place - Karen Johnson; 9th Place - Andy Cumming. THE RACE The maxi-catamaran Club Med confirmed this week the first good impressions felt by the crew and the designers on her first sail at sea on May 19th last. This week the boat has been able to test her entire sail plan checking the geometry of each of the sails, and has sailed on all points of the wind. On the dock, Club Med has also been through a whole series of resistance checks of the main elements that support high loads, namely the longitudinal compression beam on which a traction of 10 tonnes was exerted. What is important now is seeing how she behaves in high winds and a seaway. That1s the programme awaiting the boat in the next few days to come. Club Med will have her first taste of the high seas starting next week. Indeed, the maxi-catamaran is scheduled to leave her training base in La Trinite-sur-Mer, heading for Cadiz (Spain), the starting port for the East/West Atlantic crossing record, the famous 3Discovery Route2 first opened by Christopher Columbus in 1492. This first attempt at the Atlantic Record, between Cadiz and San Salvador (Bahamas), will also be the occasion for Club Med to qualify for The Race. For this, the crew must realise a time of less than or equal to 125% of the reference time which is 12 days 12h 25m 26s. This time belongs to the catamaran Jet Services V since 1988, skippered by Frenchman Serge Madec. To qualify, Club Med, skippered for the occasion by New Zealander Grant Dalton and Frenchman Bruno Peyron, must complete the course in a maximum of 15 days 15h 31m 47s. The race website: http://www.therace.org/english/actualite/index.htm THE CURMUDGEON'S OBSERVATIONS The careful application of terror is also a form of communication. |
