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SCUTTLEBUTT 1455 - November 11, 2003Powered 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. CURMUDGEON'S CARIBBEAN COMMENTARY Virgin Gorda, BVI - The pages of Scuttlebutt have frequently contained thoughts and ideas about growing our sport. And now as I pack my bags for the long trip back to California, I can't help but think that 'happenings' like the Dry Creek Vineyard's Pro-Am Regatta at the Bitter End YC have exactly the proper mix of ingredients to help get that job done. This annual Caribbean event has truly turned into a 'summer camp for adults' - a place where sailors renew acquaintances with old friends - but more importantly - meet and enjoy many new friends with similar interests. Where else can you race on warm water as a crew for sailing celebrities like Russell Coutts, Dawn Riley, Ed Baird, Lowell North or Rod Johnstone? And when the BEYC guests weren't sailing with the rock stars, they were having breakfast, lunch and dinner with them, attending numerous hosted parties with them and competing against them in small boats in the Musto-sponsored Scuttlebutt Sailing Club Championship Regatta that has become a part of this weeklong adventure. It's an environment where the losers always applaud the winners, and the judges and umpires are totally under-utilized. I have to believe that low-key fun events like the Pro-Am are doing great things for growing our sport in a very healthy direction. - The Curmudgeon MODERN SINGLEHANDED RACING (Here are a few excerpts from an article by John Rousmaniere on the SailNet website, where he interviews American Brad Van Liew, the 35-year-old Southern Californian who easily won the Open 50 division in the 2002-03 Around Alone singlehanded race by 1,000 miles, along the way setting a 50-foot monohull 24-hour record of 345 miles.) * In every other sport-including typical sailboat racing-the other guy is considered the enemy (at least for the time being). Not so in solo racing. "We as competitors are each other's own life support system," he told me in October. "It's like going to war against someone and ditto with someone-and it's the same person. You become so intensely tight. It's really a special bond." After he lost his rig during his first Around Alone, his competitors chipped in to help him replace it. This time around, when he replaced his rigging he donated his old gear to a competitor in his class. * Exhaustion is constant around and in the massive dinghies that are today's singlehanded racers. Sometimes called "monomarans" because they can often keep up with multihulls on a long reach, these are whopping big, complicated, temperamental boats. Simply jibing them takes 40 minutes, what with all the shifting of sails, redistributing of water ballast, and the canting of the keel so the boat doesn't capsize on the other tack. So one of the singlehander's most intractable problems, as Van Liew said, is "sleep management," which is a euphemism for getting by on almost no sleep at all. * Still, when Van Liew talks about the demands of these races, he lingers less over rough weather than the business demands of satisfying his sponsor and managing his boat and his large support team. The expectations of the sponsor and a schedule of perpetual public relations is why a different type of personality has emerged at the top of solo racing. Where singlehanders used to get away with being shy-in fact, that was part of their appeal-now the business favors gregarious people. Extroverts are better able to make the pitch to and close the deal with a sponsor ("You have to be able to walk into a room and they'll want to back you"), and they are prepared psychologically to maintain the relationship through relentless public exposure. Before satellite phones and e-mail came on board, solo sailors could look forward to a getaway once the dock lines were cast off. Now they are in the public relations business 24/7. - John Rousmaniere, SailNet, full story: http://tinyurl.com/uhe3 AMERICA'S CUP * If Prada indeed declines to enter for 2007, Francesco de Angelis reportedly will try to form a new Italian challenger. Sources told CupInfo that de Angelis is actively assembling a new Italian team with support from Patrizio Bertelli that extends to the Prada physical assets, including their yachts, plus Bertelli's financial support for the first year of operation. - full story: http://www.cupinfo.com/#Prada * AC Management, the event authority for the 32nd America's Cup, and ISAF, the International Sailing Federation, have signed a sanctioning agreement for the 32nd America's Cup competition. The agreement is similar to sanctioning agreements that ISAF has had with previous America's Cup event authorities. The agreement governs all competition in the 32nd America's Cup plus all supplementary events organised for the America's Cup Class by AC Management up to the end of the last race of the 32nd America's Cup Match. The sanctioning agreement provides the 32nd America's Cup organisers the right to use the ISAF Racing Rules and Match Racing Rules, along with the right to engage ISAF qualified umpires and judges and all other services ISAF can provide. AC Management CEO Michel Bonnefous commented: " The work done by the ISAF umpires during the America's Cup competitions is extremely important for the rest of the sport of sailing, and the whole of the America's Cup community welcomes this agreement." - Marcus Hutchinson, AC Management, full story: http://www.americascup.com/news/news7_en.php * Team New Zealand cannot guarantee an America's Cup bid yet - but prospects are improving by the day. Managing director Grant Dalton says he is gradually managing to steady the syndicate. He says they have got the right personnel and sponsorship relationships are building enough to make him think a viable challenge is taking shape. Dalton says he will not make a final decision either way on the bid until March 31 next year. - NZCity, full story: http://home.nzcity.co.nz/news/default.asp?id=36925&c=w THE KEY TO FUN SAILING Hiking for many hours on the rail is tiring on your legs, which affects your performance. Check out the Camet website for new ideas. The Camet Padded Pants are as comfortable and practical as the shorts, and have the reinforced Cordura® seat pad for the foam pads. The Camet line of Neoprene Hiking pants have new reinforced pads and battens; combine these with the Bubble Top which creates and maintains a comfortable microclimate close to your skin surface. CoolMax® Shirts, etc. Coming very soon: the Maxitex Polo shirt. All these make all the difference for your sailing comfort. http://www.camet.com 2004 US OLYMPIC TEAM TRIALS 470 / LASER (Houston, TX): Light air forced the postponement of racing on Monday. Racing resumes on Tuesday. Current standings: 470-Men (9 boats; 3 races) 1. Foerster/ Burnham (Rockwall, TX/ Miami, FL) 3 pts 2. Anderson-Mitterling/ Biehl (Coronado, CA/ San Diego, CA) 6 3. Dabney/ Schmidt (Mandeville, LA) 12 470-Women (7 boats; 3 races) 1. McDowell/ Kinsolving (Barrington, RI/ New York, NY) 3 pts 2. Clark/ Mergenthaler (Shelter Island, NY/ Matawan, NJ) 7 3. Maxwell/ Morgan (Stonington, CT/ Shoreline, WI) 11 Laser (32 boats; 3 races) 1. Mark Mendelblatt, (St. Petersburg, FL) 10 pts 2. Brad Funk, (Largo, FL) 16 3. Kyle Kovacs, (Pennington, NJ) 18 MISTRAL (Jensen Beach, FL): Two races completed on Monday. Racing resumes on Tuesday. Current standings: Mistral-Men (10 boards; 6 races - 1 drop) 1. Peter Wells (Newport Beach, CA) 8 pts 2. Ben Barger (St. Petersburg, FL) 13 3. Kevin Jewett (Deephaven, MN) 12 Mistral-Women (7 boards; 6 races - 1 drop) 1. Lanee Beashel (Dana Point, CA) 5 pts 2. Taylor Duch (Savannah, GA) 13 3. Beth Winkler (Cocoa Beach, FL) 14 For complete results, US Sailing, http://www.ussailing.org/Olympics/OlympicTrials/2004 2004 US PARALYMPIC TEAM TRIALS SONAR / 2.4 Meter (St Petersburg, FL): No races scheduled on Monday. Racing resumes Tuesday and continues through Friday, November 14th. Current standings: Sonar (5 boats; 4 races) 1. Callahan/ Burhans/ Cleworth (Bourne, MA) 7 pts 2. Ross-Duggan/ Creignou/ Johnson (Newport Beach, CA) 8 3. Doerr/ Angle/ Hughes/ Mitchell (Clifton, NJ) 9 2.4 Meter (5 boats; 4 races) 1. Tom Brown (Notheast Harbor, ME) 5 pts 2. John Ruf (Pewaukee, IL) 8 3. Thomas Franklin (Miami, FL) 11 For complete results, US Sailing, http://www.ussailing.org/Olympics/OlympicTrials/2004 SCUTTLEBUTT PHOTO CONTEST (provided by Kaenon Polarized) This is your final week for submitting your epic images to our 1st Annual Photo Contest. Last week the Scuttlebutt website got slammed by visitors viewing the current contest entries of what is becoming a pretty amazing tribute to the sport of sailing. Deadline for submitting photos is this Friday, November 14, 2003. Judges screen all entries and post those pictures in the contest gallery that they feel are special . All photographers will be credited, and the best will be rewarded (read: Kaenon Polarized eyewear). Entry information at: http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/photos/03/contest/gallery NEWS BRIEFS * Registration is now open for the Acura Southern Ocean Racing Conference (SORC), which will be raced off Miami Beach, FL, February 25-29, 2004. Racing will be on ocean courses with all shore side activities headquartered at the Miami Beach Marina. A secure on-line form is available on the event website, as well a form that can be downloaded and returned. Through a random draw, all competitors who register by January 10, 2004, have the opportunity to win a free entry into the 2004 event. - Event website, http://www.acurasorc.com/competitors/entryform.php * The wreck of the largest wooden sailing vessel built to carry cargo has been found off the coast of Cape Cod (Massachusetts). The Wyoming went down in a gale in 1924 in 65-70 feet of water. The ship could hold over 6,000 tons of cargo and was nearly 330 feet long. It was so big, iron straps were wrapped around its outside to reinforce the hull. The ship was shattered amidships, supporting a theory that it sank after striking bottom in a trough between huge storm waves. - Boston Herald, http://tinyurl.com/ugrt * The first three dates for the 2004 Sailing World NOOD Regatta series (St Petersburg, San Diego and Annapolis) are now up on the Sailing World website. - http://www.sailingworld.com/sw_article.php?articleID=2070 * Sunday evening the Spanish Coast Guard helicopter airlifted Didier Ragot off the maxi trimaran Geronimo. After consultation of the doctors ashore, Ragot, watch leader on Geronimo was deemed to be showing all the symptoms of meningitis. Because of the height of Geronimo's mast Ragot could not be evacated directly from the trimaran and so had to be bundled into a liferaft which was towed behind the boat. Geronimo left Brest on Saturday and was bound for Cadiz where they will go on stand by for the Route of Discovery record currently held by Steve Fossett. - The Daily Sail, full report: http://tinyurl.com/uh4n KEEP TRACK OF YOUR 2004 SAILING EVENTS Order your 2004 Ultimate Sailing calendar now! 24 images of the best of competitive sailing as captured by Sharon Green. $15.95 each. Special offer: buy 2 or more for $13.95 each. Look for these and other sailing gifts at http://www.ultimatesailing.com 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 Eric Wallischeck: I found the "comment" from Craig Fletcher to Gail Turluck troubling if not downright offensive. Frankly, I don't know what it is that Gail needs to "understand". Like other Scuttlebutt contributors, she has an opinion and stated it. She'd like to see the cost of competitiveness come down. Hey, who wouldn't! Maybe for Mr. Fletcher, sailing is a rich man's sport and always will be. I don't know him, and can't speak for his perspective. Maybe he's really saying, "To Win In Sailboat Racing, Money Helps." I'd agree with that. It's true in college (my background), in the Olympics, in high school sailing, in the Farr 40, in the Ranger 26, in the 210. Sailboats are more expensive than track shoes. However, it steams my clams when I hear a fellow sailor characterize our sport so that it appears unapproachable from the start. There are plenty of people -- rich and poor, public servants and educators, businessmen and volunteers -- who are working to make sailing available to a broader economic audience. Maybe those newcomers will not go on to win an Olympic medal or the Whitbread, but if they become a lifelong sailor...rich or poor...our sport will be the better for it! * From Chris Ericksen: Wow! I really have to react to Craig Fletcher's comment in 'Butt 1454 that, "Sailing is a rich man's sport." I can't but be aghast at this comment. Thousands of folks race Sunfish, Lido 14's, Sabots and dozens of other one-design classes whose rules struggle to contain costs, either through controlling design, builders, sail allocations or other factors that lead to the "arm's races" we've seen in the big one-design classes or offshore racers. For these latter sailors, this is a rich man's sport--and, frankly, the level of the sport with which Craig is presumably most familiar. * From Bob Longpre: I have been traveling the Baja Peninsula by boat, truck, plane and RV for the last 40 years and think the cactus huggers (ex-tree huggers) are all wet on trying to stop the planned development of the Escalera Nautica. The eco-nuts want to keep Baja for themselves by claiming "environmental concerns." Intelligent growth is possible and desirable. The gray whales they are worried about are doing fine and are making a come back. These whales do just fine traveling up and down the West coast of the US twice a year without any problems. If they can prosper with all the California, Oregon, Washington traffic the increase of traffic to Baja will not cause them any harm. The lagoons they breed in are either National Parks or protected areas. If you don't think there is demand for more Baja marinas just try to get a slip in Cabo San Lucas. Premium US prices prevail when and if they are available. Most of Baja is still remote and barren and the marinas will provide much needed quality jobs for the people who live there. For those of us who love Baja, being able to travel around the peninsula in a series of day long jaunts would be fantastic. * From Pete Balash: Now if there were one thing worth sending troops in for, it would be to save the Baja Peninsula. * From Craig Fletcher: I am writing you from the marina in Cabo San Lucas, after sailing south in the Baja Ha Ha. The coast of Baja is an untouched treasure and should be left that way. The plan to develop marinas by the Mexican government will an environmental and financial disaster! The Mexican government needs only to look at the half full marinas in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Bara, plus the toilet Cabo has become, to understand this will be a failure. Then again, won't it be great to have a chain of cheap trinket and blanket salespeople along the coast. Not! * From Mike Ingham: (Re: 2004 Us Paralympic Team Trials) What a disservice to the Paralympic competitors that only the Skipper is listed in the (Sonar) results. I thought this was a team sport. Curmudgeon's Comment: We are also confused why the event website would not list the entire team. After some digging, we found crew names for the top three skippers and have now included them in this issue. However as of our press time, the event website continues to make this omission. Anybody listening? * From Adam Kline: Having sailed on a Schock 40 for three years now I am in agreement with Jim Pugh that the AC Class needs to be updated with CTBF technology. After all, the AC Class is the Formula 1 class of sailing and to deny that fixed keels are as fast as CTBF is a fallacy. If you want to see exciting sailing wait till the new breed of Turbo Sleds equiped with CTBF hit the water in an around the bouys race. The biggest problem that our crew on the 40 predict is that these new boats will have trouble slowing down to make the turn at the leeward mark. CURMUDGEON'S DICTIONARY Office: A place where you can relax after your strenuous home life. |
