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SCUTTLEBUTT 2575 – April 15 2008Scuttlebutt is a digest of major sailing news, commentary, opinions,features and dock talk . . . with a North American focus. Scuttlebutt is published each weekday with the support of its sponsors. CELEBRATING INSTANT JUSTICE The seeds of on-the-water umpiring were planted in the 1986-87 America’s Cup at Fremantle where the dusk-to-dawn protest hearings marked Australia’s defense as an extreme example of taking the fun out of the game. But it was the only protest system match racing knew. From there, the frustration and foresight of certain people who knew there must be a better way took the bold steps to make it happen. Tom Ehman, now head of external affairs for the BMW Oracle Racing America’s Cup team, was instrumental. As a racing judge and rules advisor for the New York Yacht Club’s America II team at Fremantle, he knew the dysfunction firsthand. "We figured that if juries were right 75 per cent of the time [in settling protest hearings], if umpires could do that well it would be great,” Ehman said recently. “It turned out to be better than that. It has led to instant decisions and made television practical, which in turn brought in sponsorship." After Dennis Conner won the America’s Cup back for the San Diego Yacht Club in ’87, Ehman rounded up enough support later that year to try the scheme in the match racing finals of the Maxi Worlds fleet racing regatta hosted by Sail Newport. It worked. The next major full-on match racing event was the ’88 Congressional Cup. Ehman later wrote in the UK’s Seahorse magazine that he agreed to serve as jury chairman on one condition: “That you let me do the umpiring thing.” He recalled, “The whole thing was risky at best, having never been tried in a high-level match racing event---and Congressional Cup is the granddaddy of them all.” -- Complete report: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/0413/ * The 44th Congressional Cup presented by Acura on April 29-May 3, 2008 marks the 20th anniversary as the first major match racing event in the world to feature on-the-water umpiring. NEW FORMAT The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Coed Dinghy National Championship will be held in Newport, RI on June 2-4, 2008, and this season is initiating a new format to determine which schools will qualify for the event. To earn one of the 18 available slots, the previous format awarded each of the seven Districts with a set number of slots for the Nationals based on the size of their membership, with these slots then being awarded to the top finishing teams at each of the seven District Championship events. The new format will have two Semi-Final events, where the top nine schools from each event would then go to the Nationals. The number of schools from each District attending the Semi-Finals will still be based on the size of the District, but it will be less restrictive than the current allotment for the Nationals, providing for a field of 18 schools at each Semi-Finals. As in the past, schools will need to qualify for the available Semi-Final slots through their District Championship. The result of the new format should heighten the competitiveness of the Coed Dinghy Nationals. Where some Districts are traditionally less competitive than others, they have still had representation at the Nationals. This will likely change, as each District is now only assured a trip to the Semi-Finals. From there, it will be the top nine teams in each Semi-Finals - regardless of their District affiliation - that will qualify for one of the 18 available slots at the Nationals. Here are the teams that will be attending the Semi-Finals: Eastern ICSA National Semi-Final Coed Dinghies Geneva, NY (Hobart/WmSmith), April 26-27, 420s MAISA: St. Mary's, Hobart/WmSmith, U/Penn, Washington College *MCSA: Wisconsin, Michigan NEISA: Boston Coll, Connecticut Coll, Vermont, Harvard, Tufts NWICSA: U/Washington PCCSC: Stanford, UC/San Diego SAISA: Eckerd, Florida, Florida Atlantic SEISA: South Alabama *Subject to RP confirmation Western ICSA National Semi-Final Coed Dinghies Long Beach, CA (USC), April 26-27, FJs MAISA: Georgetown, NY Maritime, Kings Point, Old Dominion *MCSA: Minnesota, Notre Dame, Northwestern NEISA: Brown, Yale, MIT, Roger Williams NWICSA: Western Washington PCCSC: USC, Hawaii SAISA: Charleston, South Florida SEISA: Texas A&M Galveston, Texas *Subject to RP confirmation ICSA website: http://www.collegesailing.org * Sailing World's College Rankings as of April 11, 2008 find St. Mary’s still atop both the Coed and Women's rankings. -- Complete ranking: http://tinyurl.com/42yfzo THERMOMOLDED + TAFFETA CORE = NORTH 3Dtc SAILS North Sails is proud to introduce 3Dtc, a breakthrough sail construction that makes 3DL and 3Dr sails more durable and versatile than ever. With an additional internal core of tough, lightweight woven taffeta, 3Dtc sails stand up to furling, flaking, folding and flogging. North’s new 3Dtc is the only sail available that combines the durability of taffeta with the unmatched strength and shapeholding of 3DL and 3Dr. Get tough...contact your nearest North Sails representative today. http://na.northsails.com IT WAS SUPPOSED TO ARRIVE ON APRIL 15TH by Tess Bogar, Librarian, New York Yacht Club It was on this day in 1912 that the R.M.S. Titanic departed Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic. It was supposed to arrive in New York City on April 15th. It was the biggest passenger ship ever built at the time at 882 feet long and 92 feet wide. Its hull had a capacity of more than four and a half million cubic feet. The Titanic is generally remembered as a luxury liner, but only 325 of the 2,224 people on board were traveling in first class. Many of the passengers were European immigrants hoping to start new lives in America. On the fifth night of the ship's voyage, the weather was clear and windless. There was no moon. It had been an especially warm winter and many icebergs had broken off from glaciers farther north, so the lookout men had been told to keep an eye out for them. At about 11:40 (on April 14th), one of the lookouts, Frederick Fleet, saw a huge dark object floating in the water in front of the ship. He yelled, "Iceberg right ahead," and rang an alarm bell. Many of the passengers awake that night later said that they felt a slight bump. The sinking of the Titanic was one of the worst maritime disasters in history, and it has been a great inspiration to artists of all kinds. More than 500 songs were written about the disaster, most famously "It Was Sad When That Great Ship Went Down" by Pop Stoneman, with the lines, "Oh they threw the lifeboats out o'er the dark and stormy sea / The band struck up with 'Nearer My God to Thee' / Children wept and cried as the water rushed through the side / It was sad when that great ship went down." The disaster has also been the subject of more than a hundred books and at least a dozen movies. * For the American ‘buttheads, April 15th is also the deadline for submitting their 2007 tax returns. Further, it was on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson put on his first Brooklyn Dodgers uniform (number 42) and broke the Major League Baseball "color line". ALINGHI REVERSES COURSE, FILES APPEAL POINT: The Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) has today (April 14, 2008) announced that it proposes to file an immediate appeal with the New York Appellate Court in order to accelerate the current legal process to return the America's Cup to the water with a competitive race. The intransigency of Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) since the day they filed their law suit has forced SNG to move the case to the next level in the New York legal system. In an attempt to obtain a swift resolution to the current uncertainty, an expedited process is being requested together with a motion to stay the case, this in order to suspend the implementation of Justice Cahn’s previous order until the Appellate Court rules. -- Read on: http://www.alinghi.com/en/news/news/index.php?idIndex=200&idContent=15437 COUNTERPOINT: The Golden Gate Yacht Club (GGYC) said today (April 14, 2008) that further legal attempts by the defender to delay the next America’s Cup Deed of Gift match are regrettable and the club will be doing everything it can to ensure the event remains on track. “Buried within the legal language of this press release it appears clear that the defender is unsatisfied with Justice Cahn’s decisions and now intends to file an appeal,” Tom Ehman, the club’s spokesman said today responding to a press statement issued by the defender who have filed further papers with the New York State Supreme Court. -- Read on: http://www.ggyc.com/20080414_DefenderPlanToAppealIsRegrettable.pdf * Curmudgeon’s Comments: While Alinghi not appealing would truly be a means to “accelerate the current legal process”, there is some method to their madness, and our America’s Cup legal consultant Cory Friedman will share the details in Scuttlebutt 2576. MISCOMMUNICATION CONTRIBUTED TO OIL SPILL San Francisco, CA -- Minutes after a freighter sideswiped the Bay Bridge in dense fog the morning of Nov. 7, a distraught harbor pilot told the captain he had misunderstood the chart. Sailing in a soupy fog and struggling to understand the images on the radar screen before him, the pilot of the Cosco Busan asked the ship's captain to point out the "center" of the Bay Bridge. What Capt. John Cota, the pilot, wanted to locate on the radar screen, according to newly released transcripts, was the center point between the bridge's towers. The captain, a Chinese national, showed him the center of the span, which was also the location of one of the towers. That miscommunication led Cota to guide the 900-foot cargo ship into the bridge, causing a spill of more than 50,000 gallons of bunker fuel, the worst oil spill in San Francisco Bay in decades. It fouled beaches from Marin to Contra Costa to San Mateo counties and killed more than 2,000 birds. -- Tri-Valley Herald, read on: http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/ci_8861444 HARKEN IS HIRING - GLOBAL HR DIRECTOR Looking for an opportunity to lead the HR team of a growing multinational business? Our greatest asset is our employees. Harken empowers and trains team members to lead, manage, make decisions, be efficient, and serve the sailing marketplace with integrity. Based in either Pewaukee, WI USA or Lurago Marinone, Italy, the Global HR Director will report to the Chief Executive Officer. Mandatory experience in successfully blending national or international corporate cultures, substantial sales/manufacturing background, fluent English and Italian. French and Polish a plus. http://www.harken.com/company/jobs.php SIXTEEN YEAR-OLD TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE Laurence and Marianne Sunderland of Marina del Rey report that their 16-year-old son Zac, who has 15,000 ocean miles to his credit, will set off in May from Southern California in an attempt to become the youngest person to circumnavigate singlehanded. According to Sunderlands, the Guiness Book of World Records says that the current record is held by David Dicks, who completed his circumnavigation in '96 at the age of 18 years and 41 days, thereby beating the record set by Brian Caldwell of Honolulu with his Contessa 26 Mai Vavau. Caldwell was 20 when he finished. Alas, the Guinness folks are a little behind the times, as Aussie Jesse Martin completed a circumnavigation at age 18 with the S&S 34 Lionheart. For what it's worth, he did it non-stop. -- Latitude 38, read on: http://tinyurl.com/4oc798 SAILING SHORTS * (April 14, 2008) The World Sailing Speed Record (WSSR) Council announced the ratification of the new outright world record from San Francisco to Yokohama, Japan by Lionel Lemonchois (FRA) and a crew of 10 onboard "Gitana 13". The team covered the 4501 nm route on March 29 to April 9, 2008 at a time of 11 days 12 minutes and 54 seconds (17.04 kt average). Also ratified were the following national records, all set at the Southend on Sea, GBR: John Kenny (Ireland), Windsurfer, 40.44 kts on January 31, 2008; Dirk Doppenberg (Holland), Windsurfer, 44.49 kts on March 10, 2008; Philip Adamidis (Greece), Windsurfer, 42.74 kts on March 12, 2008. -- http://www.sailspeedrecords.com * South Korea in recent years has been obsessed with a shopping spree of international sporting events. The latest sport to drop in the cart is competitive sailing. The inaugural Korea Match Cup, third of the 10 World Match Racing Tour events scheduled for 2008, will be hosted in the port of Jeongok, Hwaseong City, from June 11-15. The event will be staged in conjunction with a boat show, predictably titled ``Korea International Boat Show 2008," all part of a $282 million government initiative to expand and promote the country's leisure boating industry. -- Korea Times, complete story: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/04/136_22493.html * New York state has decided to reject Broadwater Energy's proposal to moor a liquefied natural gas plant in the middle of Long Island Sound, Connecticut officials said last week. The long-awaited decision sets the stage for an almost certain federal court battle. Broadwater officials faulted New York's assessment of the project, but opponents on both sides of the Sound cheered the decision. The plan was to hitch the 1,200-foot-long, 200-foot-wide vessel to a mooring 9 miles off Long Island and about 10.5 miles off Branford for tankers to use for delivering overseas supplies of liquefied natural gas. -- Complete story: http://tinyurl.com/545bqd * When the sacred flame began its journey last weekend at the seventh stop in the Olympic torch relay outside of mainland China, Buenos Aires, it was windsurfing champion Carlos Espinola that was the first torchbearer. The athletic 36-year-old has been awarded Olympic medals in each of the past three Olympic Games, earning two silvers and a bronze in the 1996, 2000, and 2004 Olympics, respectively. His eyes are fixed on the gold in August. -- http://tinyurl.com/3psomq SAIL1DESIGN’S JOB OPENINGS, CLINICS, USED BOATS & GEAR Sail1Design is sailing’s classified source, from boats to jobs. Today’s S1D spotlights: Full-time coaching position, Cayman Islands; 3 Harbor 20’s for sale; Youth Team Racing Clinic @ Navy; 6 c420’s for sale in MA; Full-Time Sailing Director position in Long Beach, CA. Check these out and lots more. http://www.Sail1Design.com LETTERS TO THE CURMUDGEON Letters selected for publication must include the writer's name, and may be edited for clarity or simplicity (letters shall be no longer than 250 words). You only get one letter per subject, so give it your best shot, don't whine if others disagree, and save your bashing and personal attacks for elsewhere. As an alternative, a more open environment for discussion is available on the Scuttlebutt Forum. -- Scuttlebutt Letters: editor@sailingscuttlebutt.com -- Scuttlebutt Forum: http://sailingscuttlebutt.com/forum * From Carol Stephens (Olin Stephens daughter in law): I was sent to Scuttlebutt on behalf of Olin Stephens who celebrated his 100th birthday yesterday near his home in Hanover, NH. This celebration was one of many planned during the coming month, and it was a very warm and delightful family gathering. He is well, enjoyed the party very much, and is off doing his weekly grocery shopping today. He is also looking forward to other parties that are coming along, including a big one (100 days of Olin Stephens) at Mystic Seaport in May. His energy and enthusiasm for life is alive and well. I know that Olin would be most happy to see and hear from all his friends out there in Scuttlebutt land. So, if people would like to contact him and send their cards and wishes to him, he can be contacted at his home in Hanover NH: Olin J. Stephens II Kendal at Hanover 80 Lyme Road Hanover, NH 03755 * From George McCroskey: It was with great sadness that I read the announcement in Butt 2574 from Don Wood about the passing of John Thompson. I had the honor of serving on the Mills Race Committee with John for the last few years. John's attention to detail and his hard work (not to mention his skill at getting that big bus used by the race committee over to South Bass Island) made all the elements of the race come smoothly together. John was an expert at race management. No detail was too little or too big for him to handle. John did it all. Registering yachts, working on handicaps, recording finish times, and driving that big ass bus! Whether it was making sure that the finish line tent was set up; or that the finish line buoys were set properly between Middle and South Bass; or that the committee members had the taxi cab company's phone number, John attended to it all. He was a true gentleman and he will be missed. Sail on John. * From John Potter: (re, Olympic poll results) I forget who said it, but it went, "The Olympics need the Star boat more than the Star boat needs the Olympics." * From Peter Ingram: Paul Henderson wrote an interesting and passionate letter giving his personal preferences in Scuttlebutt 2570 about the boat choice. In his letter, he mentioned that the Finn MUST remain in order to provide a boat for big men - what about big women? * From Paul Fuchs: While the Video of the Week is interesting (in #2572), I think that this photo shows that it is not a new idea. This book did not have a date on it, but a copy of it was donated to the Harvard Library in 1938. In the 60's, I saw people doing this on skates on the ice on Lake St. Clair. I made one of wood with cotton sails which caused me many a tremendous crash at fairly high speed. -- Photo: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/08/0410.pdf => Curmudgeon’s Comment: The book, “Self Culture for Young People” by Andrew Sloan Draper and Charles Welsh, was published in 1907. * From Tom Hulme: Let's see if I have this right – the Olympic committee decides to include the keelboat and exclude the multihull from the 2012 Olympics, and the multihull sailors raise hell and outrage in Scuttlebutt. After months of letting this thread about the purported injustice continue, Scuttlebutt has a poll. What happens – the concerned multihull sailors vote for the multihull over the keelboat. Meanwhile the keelboat sailors who are happy about the decision go about their business. They are not paying attention and do not develop any response. Guess which boat loses in the poll? * From Gregory Scott: One thing I love about reading ‘Butt is when someone pisses in the cornflakes of a dinghy class (Star, Finn, etc.), the point-counterpoint is often just this side of Aykroyd vs Jane Curtain on SNL ... all very funny and worth while reading. => Curmudgeon’s Comment: This certainly was the case with the Finn last week, and we have collected all the letters, both published and unpublished, and posted them on a special website page. As for the thread status, we will halt it for now in the newsletter. Here are the letters: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/finn * From Dulaney Collins: In response to your article, please encourage all Buttheads to write their Senators and Congressman regarding appropriating funding for training budding Naval officers. It is outrageous what the Dept. of Defense spends - this is a legitimate military training activity and needs to be funded through the D o D. Currently, my younger brother, a Lt. Commander with 23 years in the US Navy, is serving in Iraq in the green zone. Apparently the Army is all tapped out so D o D has started pulling Navy folks into deployment. All I know is he's spending a helluva lot of US taxpayer dollars purchasing phone lines, cell phone towers, and other logistical equipment to rebuild that country. Meanwhile a dozen Iraqi citizens, who've been working in the green zone for the U.S. gov't, just got 10 year work visas to come to the U.S. Go Figure! => Curmudgeon’s Comment: Time to stop this thread too, but all the letters, both published and unpublished, can be found here: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/news/08/navy CURMUDGEON’S OBSERVATION I've learned that there is a fine line between genius and insanity. Special thanks to North Sails, Harken Yacht Equipment, and Sail1Design. A complete list of preferred suppliers is at http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/ssc/suppliers |
