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SCUTTLEBUTT 1516 - February 11, 2004Powered by SAIC (www.saic.com), an employee-owned company. Scuttlebutt is adigest of major yacht racing news, commentary, opinions, features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Corrections, contributions, press releases, constructive criticism and contrasting viewpoints are always welcome, but save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. SAILING'S "WORLD SERIES" ISAF, the Olympic Classes and the Organizers of the multi-Olympic Class Grade 1 Olympic Class Events met in Bern, Switzerland on Sunday to discuss the introduction of an Olympic Classes "World Series" tour. As yet to have a final title, the "World Series" will be created to introduce a more consistent and professional circuit for Olympic sailors, and provide the mechanism to achieve greater exposure and visibility for sailing. Representatives from the Olympic Classes and multi-Olympic Class Grade 1 Events, including Sail Melbourne, Semaine Olympique Francaise (Hyeres), SPA in Holland and Kiel Week in Germany, urged ISAF to take the lead and provide the vision by which the "World Series" could be formulated, and all present affirmed their desire as stakeholders in the sport to move forwards in the best interests of the future of sailing to create a more dynamic event program, which would maximize the sport and create a global circuit. It was agreed that there should be a clear route of "World Series" tour events around the world. ISAF will further encourage the creation of a Continental Series in the country/ region of the "World Series" events, which in turn could be preceded by a National Series, thus creating a clear path of participation, which would also support the development of sailing in that region. It is the intention to utilize the existing multi-Olympic Class Graded events within the "World Series", and to encourage new events particularly in Asia, Australasia and the America's to be part of the "World Series" tour. It was emphasized that the "World Series" would not be a closed box and events will be encouraged to become included on the tour. Events within the "World Series" will be consistent in all aspects, from format issues to technical matters, and will be easily recognizable by the media as the premier tour for the Olympic sailors. In scheduling the series to synchronize with other Graded Olympic Class events, not only will a more cohesive event calendar be created, but the costs to the sailors in traveling and shipping equipment will be reduced. Moving forwards, it was agreed that ISAF, the Olympic Classes and multi-Olympic Class Graded Event Organizers will prepare proposals, and consider the overriding principles and philosophy for the "World Series", focusing on the four key areas of: Sailors, Sport, Media and Event Quality. It was agreed that the "World Series" proposals would be put to Council at the ISAF Mid-Year Meeting in June 2004, for final approval at the ISAF Annual Conference in November 2004. It was accepted that there will be proposals for the "World Series" on which some event organizers or classes will disagree, but that the success of the tour should not be compromised, and that they will ultimately support ISAF in enforcing the criteria of the "World Series". Moving forwards, it was agreed that ISAF, the Olympic Classes and multi-Olympic Class Graded Event Organizers will prepare proposals, and consider the overriding principles and philosophy for the "World Series," focusing on the four key areas of: Sailors, Sport, Media and Event Quality. It was agreed that the "World Series" proposals would be put to Council at the ISAF Mid-Year Meeting in June 2004, for final approval at the ISAF Annual Conference in November 2004. http://www.sailing.org/Article_content.asp?ArticleID=6386 GROWING THE SPORT IN THE CARIBBEAN An order for 20 Optimists placed last week by the Sailing Foundation of Curacao in the Netherlands Antilles (AHO) marks the latest step in the program to get Optimist fleets established in all the six countries of the southern Caribbean. These are Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Trinidad and now AHO. Local enthusiasm is the key to this success and the latest development in AHO is driven by former Sunfish world champion and Laser Olympian Cor van Aanholt. Five years ago the International Optimist Association (IODA) started to talk to local enthusiasts. Most islands had a few rather battered boats of various types to teach a few kids to sail but there was little incentive for them to progress further. IODA identified three essentials: Optimists, coach-training and local regattas. Starting with St. Lucia in 1999 IODA began to offer subsidies to islands that were prepared to buy batches of Optimists, with the guideline of one free boat for every five bought. Some eighty boats have been subsidized in this way to date, always with the proviso that they must be freely accessible. Builders on three continents were keen to tap this new market and low prices were further helped by the willingness of most governments to waive import and sales taxes. Coach-training was initially centered in Trinidad but as numbers grew it made more sense for the instructor to travel round the islands. In early 2003 IODA sponsored Peruvian coach Fernando Alegre, aptly nicknamed "Happy", to spend five weeks touring the region. He is now based in Trinidad and IODA has been helping other islands, most recently Grenada last month, to hire him to raise the standard of coaching. The third element is local regattas to provide incentives for the young sailors. The existing Schoelcher Week in Martinique was the first chosen, again with small IODA grants to help with travel. Last Christmas Trinidad hosted its first "Caribbean Invitational" with 34 entries and in 2005 Tobago will host the IODA North American Championship, so young sailors from all over the islands have a big incentive ahead. Barbados has even succeeded in getting sailing recognized as an official school sport. EXTENDED AIRYS MASTHEAD SENSOR AT A GREAT PRICE The "gold standard" in masthead wind sensors continues to be a tall vertical carbon fiber wand. Keeping the cups and vane as far from the sailplan as possible provides markedly improved wind information, and carbon fiber keeps the weight aloft to the absolute minimum: great performance at an admittedly steep price. What if you could get most of the performance benefit in a strong aluminum vertical wand at about the same price as a stubby, forward-pointing sensor? Wow! For information, contact Tom Davis in North America at tom@ockam.com or Campbell Field in Europe at cmf@ockameurope.com JULES VERNE TROPHY Olivier de Kersauson's trimaran Geronimo which is a day and a half behind (Cheyenne), stormed along averaging nearly 20 knots in the first 24 hours, putting her ahead of Orange's record first day position. Cheyenne, meanwhile, is some 300 miles behind the record breaker's position but has picked up speed and was, at the last report, averaging 17 knots as she heads for the Trades and was close to Madeira. - Andrew Bray/Yachting World, www.yachting-world.com/yw/home.htm *Skipper Steve Fossett and crew aboard the 125' maxicat Cheyenne made an excellent 1/2 day's run through daylight Tuesday, racking up over 250 miles as they took advantage of a fair easterly breeze and a good wind angle to come South towards the Canary Islands. That 21 kt average speed will drop later this evening as they head West away from the islands in lighter air (10-12 kts), anticipating increasing N/NE winds later Wednesday and good Trades Wednesday night for the run South. - www.fossettchallenge.com/ * On her first full day of racing (coincidentally, Jules Verne's birthday), Olivier de Kersauson's Cap Gemini and Schneider Electric trimaran has progressed better than expected. Having covered 461.24 nautical miles in 24 hours, she is slightly ahead of the time set by current record holder, the maxi-catamaran Orange. Given that the first hours of this attempt have been calm to say the least, this performance is encouraging in terms both of men and machine. Geronimo is averaging over 18 knots in around 15 knots of south-easterly wind, a long way west of Lisbon. www.trimaran-geronimo.com TWENTY STATES There are now sailing instruction jobs listed on the Scuttlebutt website from twenty states in the U.S. (plus one listing from Hong Kong). Is your Yacht Club on this list? If you are a job shopper, take a look to see what's available at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/classifieds NEWS BRIEFS *Jud Smith, Henry Frazer and Mike Craig dominated the fifty-nine boat Alpine Jaguar Etchells Mid-Winters, the final event of the Alpine Jaguar series, graciously hosted by the Biscayne Bay Y.C. Feb 4th - 7th. Smith scored two firsts and four seconds to win the event by eighteen points from reigning World Champion, Ken Read who was consistently placed in the top ten for a safe second overall. 1998 World Champion Dirk Knuelman prevailed in a tight battle for third over Robert Bell (fourth) and Steve Girling (fifth). - Full results: www.etchellsfleet20.org * Barclays will become a yacht sponsor for the upcoming Global Challenge round-the-world yacht race. Roger Davis, chief executive of UK Banking for Barclays said: "The ethos of the Challenge Race, about allowing ordinary people to test themselves in exceptional circumstances, really appealed to us when deciding to take on the sponsorship. Building on this we would very much like to get our own employees involved as much as possible." - www.challengebusiness.com/global * New Zealand Marine (Marex) announced that the fourth Yacht Vision Design Symposium will take place in Auckland on 9th - 13th March 2005. Yacht Vision 2005 will continue the success and popularity of the previous symposia, once more playing host to the world's leading naval architects, interior designers and marine journalists. In addition there will be presentations from owners, builders and project managers exploring the delicate relationships in the unique boat building process. The program promises to combine distinguished speakers, lively debate on a range of issues facing the marine industry world-wide, and fun social events, www.yachtvision.co.nz * Dehler North America, Ltd. has opened a new 'National Showspace' in a new marina facility in downtown Chicago. Patterned after similar Dehler factory showrooms in Freienohl, Germany, and Monnikendam, The Netherlands, the facility will showcase examples of various Dehler models, their construction methods, as well as handle all marketing, dealer- and client-support functions. Currently, the showroom houses the Dehler 47, Dehler 39 and Dehler 34. www.dehler.us * In a recent meeting of ISAF Windsurfing class chairmen and elected representatives at the London Boat Show, Peter Krimbacher (AUT) was elected to fulfill the rotating role of President of the International Windsurfing Association for 2004. Krimbacher is also chairman of Windsurfing Austria. www.internationalwindsurfing.com/Default.asp?newsid=568 * The first sailing pictures of the new Owen Clarke 65' cruising sloop built by Marten Yachts can now be seen on the Owen Clarke and Outside Images websites. With her lifting and canting keel system, plus a sailing displacement of less than twenty tonnes, her stability, comfort and sailing performance are unlike any 'normal' blue water cruiser. Designed to sail downwind as a normal fast cruiser with keel centred, on the reach and upwind the boat powers up with the keel swung to windward and where necessary a single gybing daggerboard is lowered. - http://www.outsideimages.co.nz / www.owenclarkedesign.com * Jean Luc van den Heede's 84-foot aluminum cutter Adrien is plugging along nicely on his bid to lower the 'westabout' singlehanded global record presently held by Philippe Monnet. VDH is now just 5,711 miles from the finish, having covered 229 miles in the last 24 hours. He is now 26 days and 9 hours ahead of Monnet's record - http://www.vdh.fr/gb/ OFF WATCH (The following is a report from Brian Thompson aboard Steve Fossett's 'Cheyenne' on their attempt for the Jules Verne Trophy.) At present we have the standby team working with our sailmaker Paul van Dyke (Whirley) on the head of the blast reacher sail, the head having broke just a foot down from the top. He is putting on a lot more webbing reinforcement to take the massive loads on this heavily loaded sail. There is a lot of punching of holes in the material followed by hand-sewing. Whirley estimated that it could take 3 standby watches to fix, 12 hours. We are going to work non stop on it. Fortunately its not a sail that we need right now and it should be stronger than ever when we are done. A SWEETHEART OF A DEAL....FROM ZERO TO HERO IN ONE CALL Life moves pretty fast these days...Spring begins in less than 40 days, SORC is two weeks away, and in case you've been living under a rock, Valentines Day is three days from now! Are you ready for any of it? We are and it's still not too late to go from "Zero to Hero" in one toll-free call. Dubarry footwear, Gill & Musto technical gear, Dryshirts , Camet clothing, Ronstan, Mustang-Survival, Virtual Skipper software, Steiner Binoculars and more. Order today and the 2-Day Air freight is free (lower 48 states only)! Now that's a sweetheart of a deal! 1-800-354-7245, http://www.sailingproshop.com/specials.htm LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON (editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com) Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name and may be edited for clarity or space - 250 words max. This is not a chat room nor a bulletin board - you only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot and don't whine if others disagree.) * From Marc Fountain: The way to re-invigorate the Corinthian spirit is to return to racing rules (1990?) that contain a clear burden of proof or onus in the right-of-way rules. One boat, the 'burdened' boat must feel that the facts are so much in her favor that she will overcome the burden of proof in the protest room. If the facts are not in the burdened boats' favor, then the burdened boat should not (and in practice will not) press the issue. The burdened boat will likely either alter course to avoid the interaction or if committed to a course of action that results in a possible foul, take an alternative penalty at the earliest opportunity. The burdened boats' choices are rightfully determined by the odds of winning the protest and few skippers would repeatedly go to the room with a weak case and continue to be thrown out of races. The current system of having a 50/50 chance (in practice) of being thrown out whether one is on the right or wrong side of a rule regardless of the facts is ill-conceived, ill-applied and not helpful for building the sport. The rules should be re-written or rolled back so that the odds of winning in any situation are unequal. That will encourage sailors to learn and follow the rules. It's possible that the current rules are workable for regattas with on-the-water judging but not in most regattas where competitors are expected to police themselves. * From Fiona Brown: If an owner wishes to race outside the Melges 24 Class structure he must obviously comply with the safety and handicap requirements laid down by the relevant organizing authority, as will any other class of boat. The International Melges 24 Class cannot be responsible for safety requirements of yachts competing in anything other than its own regattas; however, the Class fully supports organizers of other regattas in setting the requirements they deem appropriate for their events. No class association, particularly an international one, can make allowance for all the permutations of safety requirements issued by regatta organizers around the World. * From Damian Craig - I think the point most are missing here is that white boats are practical not just tactical. Anyone who races in a one design fleet know that boats get dinged, scratched and dented. When it comes time to fix a ding on a boat try and color match 3 year old green. Just talk to a boat like Flash Gordon who uses Porsche Silver or any custom color on a boat and has to completely repaint the boat once a year to get all the little repairs to match. Colored boats are pretty but as an owner why when it costs more to maintain, it makes you more visible on the line , makes you more visible to your competitors on the race course and you can't even see it anyway. * From Peter Harken (edited to our 250-word limit): Regards the "kafuffle" (love that word, perfect) about Vanguards Laser "White boat Ad". First advice if you're going to race in that hot class: Get one! You'd be committing suicide if you ordered a Red laser or some noticeable "pretty color"! This has nothing to do about cheating, that's a non-issue! In any competitive fleet start with 30 boats and over, unless you're on either pin end, and even then you won't see the opposite pin, you really have no idea exactly where you are regards the line. I said competitive fleet folks, where you are gunnel to gunnel, nose to nose, a couple of feet from what you perceive is the line, luffing, inching forward at 1/100th of a knot and still 45 seconds to go, an eternity, and then before you think you should sheet in, your mind say's "too early dammit," you hear the mad ratcheting of multitudes of mainsheet blocks and sheets whistling in, and you of pure thought says "too early, let them go, I'm righteous, see the pretty transoms, but I'll have clean start"! Ya sure and pigs fly! Like Peter Commette said, "they go and you go!" No ifs ands or buts or you will be sucking transoms all around the course no matter how many recalls! Driving a bright nosed boat? OCS guaranteed! Red boats and red cars, I've had both. One got me OCS's and the other got me lots of expensive tickets and several rounds of mandatory Driver's Ed school. * From Robbie Doyle: (re Black Flags): Dave Brennan and his Biscayne YC race committee team just completed their fourth series of an average of 50 Etchells per series, and peaking at 65 for the final series. The Etchells fleet, like most fleets with top level sailors is known for aggressive starting and thus many general recalls and ultimately black flags. Dave completed these four series without any general recalls! At times he and his team called half the boats over early! Were their calls perfect, I doubt it, but it sent a message. And the calls were as accurate as could be made. And just like in any sport, one learns how to read how the official is calling it, however, imperfect. Thus, as the series went on the better sailors and starters got more and more conservative at the starting line. Regatta winner Jud Smith commented that calling the boats as Dave was is still a better solution then general recall after general recall until the committee eventually just lets them go. * From Bruce Thompson: I would suggest to Tom Ehman ("Butt 1513) that the solution to the OCS problem at the Olympics is right at hand, judicious use of AP plus the black flag. It is a sorry state of affairs that strict compliance with Rule 28.1 is seen as being inversely proportional to one's ranking in the world. But the PRO can implement the corrective actions. Start the regatta as normal, but at the first instance of OCS general recall the fleet. This is their one warning. Then run all subsequent races under the black flag. If anyone is OCS, general recall again and cull the offender from the fleet. That way, every start that counts is guaranteed to be a clean start that was fair to those who complied with the rules. Only the guilty get punished. By avoiding individual recalls, the VHF question becomes moot. This program is in strict accordance with the rules and requires no modifications. And it removes the judges from the process. The people wiggling the tillers have total control of their fate. CURMUDGEON'S CONUNDRUM Why is it that most nudists are people you don't want to see naked? |
